One more about Contact

I re-read my post and realized that I didn't mention what the work was that I passed often - the AGO commissioned piece by Barbara Kruger. It is a site-specific work on display of the front facade.  Kruger created it in response to the festival's theme 'pervasive influence'. Consisting of found images and statements that include "shove it", "love it", "kiss it", "believe it", and "shame it". This project aimed to explore 'how photography informs and transforms human behaviour, especially via the medium's connections to mass media, advertising, consumerism, and propaganda'.

Contact Photography Festival 2010

I can't believe that I never wrote about the exhibitions I saw at this year's Scotiabank (never forget the sponsor!) CONTACT Photography Festival.  Truthfully, I only attended two and passed by one often.  With a group called, Art Strollers , a group for caregivers and babies who attend workshops, tours, and other cultural events within the city, I went with my little guy to MOCCA to hear a talk about The Mechanical Bride.  The exhibition itself - amazing!  Curated by Bonnie Rubenstein, the exhibition featured the work of John Armstrong and Paul Collins, Dana Claxton, Kota Ezawa, Jacqueline Hassink, Ryan McGinley, Josephine Meckeper, Matt Siber, Alec Soth, Britta Thie and David LaChapelle (the David LaChapelle).

Needless to say, the talk enhanced the works selected by Rubenstein.  The exhibition title comes from Marshall McLuhan's The Mechanical Bride: The Folklore of Industrial Man (1951), which juxtaposed short critical texts with examples from print media.  It was meant to highlight and resist the power of advertising, using a strategy of mimicry.

The artists chosen, assert a critical voice by drawing upon and refashioning the rhetorical tactics of advertising (Marchessault, Contact Photography Festival catalogue, page 31). The photographs reflect on the process of persuasion.

As a bonus, LaChapelle also had a massive mural in the courtyard of MOCCA. The work, entitled The Rape of Africa simultaneously references the grand architectural paintings of the Renaissance and the supersized advertising billboards of the present. It is a take on Botticelli's Venus and Mars (c.1484).  LaChapelle's contemporary allegory evocatively comments on the effects of war, mining, and mass marketing on Africa.  He seamlessly references art history, current events and popular culture.  It was spectacular!

On my own (ok, with baby strapped to chest), I dashed over to Galerie Lausberg to catch James Robert Durant's exhibition Tropical Punch. I had rented James some workspace the prior year and had watched him develop his work, taking vintage and current photographs and assembling them into vivid, resin-rich canvases. This collection explores the idea of the purchase-able paradise.  I loved it.  I felt like I was in a tropical clime, the colours were so fresh and bright, the canvases, both large and small.  These fictional photographic landscapes blur the lines between truth, fantasy, and the passing of time.  It was a much-appreciated reprieve from the everyday.  Gorgeous!

The Projects: Port Credit closes tomorrow

Mississauga is a challenging place for hosting contemporary art.  With a handful of small commercial galleries, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Blackwood Gallery at UTM and Laidlaw Hall at the Living Arts Centre, the scene is limited.  In fact, dare I say, there really is no scene in Mississauga. Unfortunately.  Since I grew up in Mississauga, I've seen the city grow and grow and grow, but the cultural scene has remained virtually stagnant.  I'd be happy to engage in an argument about it, in fact!

Until now.

Christof Migone, Director/Curator of Blackwood Gallery conceived The Projects: PORT CREDIT as an off-site exhibition highlighting the construction and possibly even the cultural boom of Port Credit (in my opinion, the most picturesque and dynamic area in the City of Mississauga).  This year, 10 artists (including, Claudio Ghirardo, Cheryl Rondeau, Gwen MacGregor and Peter Flemming) were invited to  create their reflections of a changing city.  The artists explored public transit, bicycle routes, public sculpture, graffiti and the act of commemoration.

Set in a condo building's sales office, the exhibition itself on a whole could have been better executed.  Arriving at the office, I wasn't sure if I was in the right place as in fact, there were sales agents on site presenting plans to prospective buyers who also did not know about the intervention.   Perhaps this unobtrusive intervention and its subtlety is what makes the exhibition itself successful.

My favourite work by Mississauga resident, Sonja Hidas was titled Large Items.  Sonja was commenting on the fact that the City of Mississauga does not have a public art policy in place. By taking used appliances and using them as a canvas for text-based interventions that meditate on domestic life and essentially look at the issue of public art within the cultural development of Mississauga.  The items were place in a parking space on the private property of this condo office.  Sonja commented that it is often that we look at discarded items that are placed at the end of people's driveways.  These ARE the public sculptures of Mississauga.  Sonja quietly, but effectively comments on Mississauga's missing cultural link.

Bring it on!  As a cultural stakeholder of Mississauga, I welcome more and more contemporary art and installations within this city!

PS - I saw the exhibition on Sunday, June 27th.  On Tuesday, June 29th, Sonja Hidas' Large Items were reported missing and haven't been seen since.  I think this is Mississauga's first cultural crime!  Will these art thief's be caught?

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition - the dash tour!

We had a chance to check out this year's Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition on Saturday.  Mostly, I wanted to visit and say hello to my friends.  I also wanted to check out and hopefully buy something.  As if our little man was going to let us do that!  With baby and grandpa in tow, a casual stroll through the stalls it was not.  The heat did not help as well!

Smaller this year and frankly the same as year's past.  I want to go because I feel I'll miss out, but once I'm there, I feel a bit 'meh'!  I wish I could have checked out the programming that was on offer, that would have been terrific.  I never read or heard if that was successful or not.

All in all, it was a great social!  And, I managed to drink a delicious Americano from Starbucks!  I was so happy to have a quick catch up with my wonderfully talented friends: Nicole Kibath, Jenny Kuri, Tara Gilchrist, and Kal Mansur.

Once our sweet boy fell asleep for a brief nap, we could relax and in fact, were able to buy two small prints from Jacob Rolfe who won an honourable mention in Printmaking!  The water-based inks produced such rich colours!  I'm excited to have such a talented artist added to our small art collection.

Reworking this blog!

It's been far too long, but baby has been keeping me away from my precious laptop!  But, he hasn't kept me away from some fabulous art exhibitions that I've seen recently and will post about shortly!  The craziness of my life is being documented on another blog mamasdirtylittlesecrets.wordpress.com.  I find I can post snippets of my life very easily at that blog.  Taking the time to write reviews requires much more brain capacity that I can muster right about now!  And, that's why I've changed the blog title to Escape From Momcatraz!  This is my reprieve, albeit brief!

Doors Open Toronto

Desperately wanted to attend some of the sites listed on this year's Doors Open Toronto list.  Tried to find something local and accessible for the stroller.  There was only one building in the Junction!  So, I decided we should head down to the Sunnyside Pavilion, new on this year's Doors Open roster.

We walked through High Park (making sure to come back that way and see Colborne Lodge).

I've never been to Sunnyside Pavilion and it is magnificent.  On the link above, you'll find a write up on the history of this bathing pavilion.

At the same time, the Sunnyside Beach Juried Art Show and Sale was on.  I feel that the same artists attend these outdoor art shows, but in fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the caliber of artists represented.  I didn't have much chance to look around as I ran into friend, Judy Anderson of Kukucaju Paintings on Wood!  I haven't seen her for a year and had a great catch-up.  I even bought a couple of small pieces to hang in my son's room.

With a brief break of playing in the sand and dipping toes into Lake Ontario, baby was popped back into stroller for a snooze and off we went back up to Colborne Lodge.  Couldn't stay on the tour of the sweet little Regency style cottage as if the stroller is not constantly in motion, the boy-child will awake, not refreshed!

A beautiful day, a great walk, a little bit of Toronto's history (ended too soon, thanks Gardiner Expressway) and some art!

Where do you take baby for a dose of urabn life and culture?

In case I've intrigued you, but haven't given you enough information about events and reviews of the cultural vein, do let me know where you go with baby.  Let's start sharing!

Have joined the prolific ranks of outstanding mummy writers at The Yummy Mummy Club!

The Yummy Mummy Club

Published!  Feels good to be writing again.  Here's my article! But, now that I'm out there, I better start up my culture-vulturing!

Have encountered challenges with baby - teething, crawling attempts, rolling over, did I say teething?  Awesome by day, but dread the night!

I'll take advantage of the spring weather and get out there again.  Except for today.  Too winter-like for our taste!

cherry blossoms

Neither artsy, nor fartsy - the thing to do this past weekend was to check out the cherry blossoms in High Park.  It's part of the culture and rite of spring here in Toronto.  Bliss!

brief baby reprieve

A bit of an escape today.  I wasn't sure how I would feel about being away from the babe.  Truthfully, I haven't been away from the babe all that much since his arrival in September.  In all honesty, he travels quite well and is quite an urban baby - walking and transiting.

My baby reprieve today was in the form of a visit to the Design Exchange.  And....it felt quite good, in fact.  I panicked a bit when I heard a small child crying on the subway.  But then, out on the street, wearing high heels (sigh...foot happiness), feeling the swish of the hem of my dress against my legs, I felt really, really good.  And then, I got to talk about me! 

Bragging rights about my background in the arts, exhibition coordination, exhibition critique - oh bliss!!  Adult talk!  I raved about the Alexander Calder exhibition that was held at the AGO.  Then, I ranted about the King Tut exhibition and how terrible I thought it was.  We discussed the nature of blockbuster exhibitions and the Disney-fication of these types of exhibitions.  And, there was dialogue.  Oh, feedback. 

I love the little man, but he just doesn't give me his opinions!  He doesn't agree or disagree with me.  He smiles, gurgles, kicks his feet and than pinches my cheek. 

It was a gloriously free 2 hours today.  As I remember it fondly, I'm listening to his deep breaths on the baby monitor.  A great day!

who would have thought!

Never in my wildest dreams (and I am a dreamer) did I think I would end up becoming a Mum!  I never thought of it while I was younger (perhaps I just thought that getting married would lead to kids).  In the past few years, I thought I would be fine not to have a child.  I'd resolved that I was too selfish and had too many plans.  So....a little gamble and here I am with a 6.5 month old little man sound asleep (for now) as I write my first post for this blog.

This is the third attempt at a blog and I realize that theme-ing (that's not a word, but we'll go with it) a blog helps!  So, my first unthemed blog was merely an exploration into this world and was eventually tossed.  The second blog, sewcraftymummy.blogspot.com is on hold in fact because I found out that it is hard to be 'sew crafty' and be a new mummy.  However, scheduling the babe helps me find time.  I realize that with the babe, I do want to do more and more things (my lists run on and on and on and....).  Now, I want to share them with him.

So, that's why we're here with the third blog, Artsy Fartsy Mummy.  Simply a self designated title that I hope suggests that I am artsy (both a creator and lover) and a bit fartsy - simply to suggest that I am fun and full of whimsy.

The purpose for this blog was inspired by Erica Ehm's Yummy Mummy Club.  In my before baby life, I would troll galleries, buy art supplies and feed my stashes of fabric, yarns, etc.  I thought that I would have to put my city ventures on hold because of baby.  In fact, I don't.  I just have to strategically  and creatively schedule!  And be organized.  And have a stash of Baby Mum Mums on hand!

So, this blog is meant to show that one can be a Mummy and still connect culturally with her city - with baby and without (when I'm ready).