Exhibitions: Recently I saw a lot of art: at the AGO - Jack Chambers (blech, I got no feeling or connection from the work at all) Ian Baxter& ‘Works 1958-2011 (I liked the Rothko in plastic ok, and all those plastic molds. Those painted tvs are classik. But the taxidermy animals were so bad). Then drank in the group of 7 paintings and Haida argillite carvings next to Jack Chambers. Bee-u-tiful with a CAPITAL B. Then ‘Sovereign Acts’ curated by Wanda Nanibush at Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, which I really recommend seeing as it considers issues in the complexity of representation, cliché and reclaiming that representation as Aboriginal artists. General Hardware Contemporary for Celia Neubauer: Exit Enter (nice colours) The Mercer Union for TACTICAL USES OF A BELIEF IN THE UNSEEN: Deborah Stratman. I liked the giant speaker sound installation, you should go feel the vibration. Then I even got on the Artbus to see my friend Keren Cytter’s exhibition at Oakville Galleries (a fabulous show as I know her work already, but there wasn’t time to really watch much, with the opening and the tight bus schedule) and to the Art Gallery of Hamilton to see Mark Lewis and William Kurelek (wasn’t crazy about either unfortunately). Best thing was Keren’s play, part of the Images festival at Al Green Theatre, ‘I Eat Pickles At Your Funeral’. So good. Based on the premise of failing/cheating relationships, it felt like the most vulnerable thing she has written somehow. The humour wasn’t just the beautifully nerdy, witty badass armour that she is known for, but more the entrance way to the meat and potatoes of her thought process. And it was so nice that Andrew Kerton was one of the four actors, he is a performance artist from London, and so we got to catchup over ginandtonics and dumplings. Keren, Andrew and I attended De Ateliers in Amsterdam, which is how we know each other. The international cult where reunions are lovely, especially in my hometown, because that never happens.
Photo by Lisa Marie Becker
