- Louise Bourgeois, 1911-2010
After spending most of the last two days in my new studio on James North, there is something truly bittersweet and sad about coming back home tonight to learn that Louise Bourgeois, that veritable grand dame of contemporary art, has passed away today at the age of 98 in Manhattan.
Robert Mapplethorpe, Louise Bourgeois, 1982 (pictured […]
- ‘Between the Click of the Light and the Start of the Dream’ - Part 3
When I first stepped foot in MKG127 to view Dave Dyment’s Between the Click of the Light and the Start of the Dream, what truly caught my first spark of interest was not the many more valid issues I’ve already discussed so far but rather the creepily familiar image imprinted on a borderline kitsch dinner […]
- Link: Picasso as Porn Star
I’ve often maintained that it takes a certain colloquialism - not to mention a willingness to ease off some of the sexier phrases one learns at art school - to get the general public engaged in critical art dialogues. There’s merit to be had in bringing art down to a universal level, and clearly Howard […]
- ‘Between the Click of the Light and the Start of the Dream’ - Part 2
In my last post introducing Dave Dyment’s Between the Click of the Light and the Start of the Dream at MKG127, I briefly mentioned the sparse economy of the exhibition’s composite parts - this is not a show of grand gestures but is rather made up of carefully selected gems that, to belabour the metaphor, […]
- ‘Between the Click of the Light and the Start of the Dream’ - Part One
I was first drawn to Dave Dyment’s practice around Christmas of 2008 when I learned about his Glenfiddich Residency and A Drink To Us (When We’re Both Dead), his 100-year-buried cask of single malt whisky. It’s the sort of conceptual work that immediately appealed to me on several levels - as a temporal work and […]
- James North Art Crawl: May
It could be the emergence of some truly decent weather the night of the Crawl, but the street was especially lively this month in particular. A greater part of that would also be owed to the higher concentration of buskers up and down James North - no doubt a lingering demonstration in the wake of […]
- And (art) chicks for free, no doubt
My traditional James North Art Crawl post is still in the works (who knew that cannelloni was such a time-consuming labour?) but as a consolation prize, I’d like to direct you to a real eye-opener of a post at Artworld Salon.
Jamie Oliver’s Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni.
In ‘Money for Nothing,’ London-based writer Ossian Ward reports on […]
- Tivoli Theatre - a treasure worth preserving
My customary report on the most recent James North Art Crawl will be pending in the next day or two, but while I’m sorting through my myriad photos and notes (it was a busy one), I’d like to give a bit of extra attention to one of the unexpected highlights of the night.
Near the end […]
- The Archive and Everyday Life: A Visual Arts Guide
This weekend, McMaster University’s Department of English & Cultural Studies is hosting The Archive and Everyday Life, a conference that promises to bring high humanities studies down to earth for a close look at the commonplace. This merging of disciplines means that there will be several related openings and events at McMaster and on James […]
- Lessons from Proust and a cyborg-crab
“Do you know what Proust said about conversation?”
Mahnmut resisted another sigh. “What?”
“He said… ‘When we chat, it is no longer we who speak… we are fashioning ourselves then in the likeness of other people, and not of a self that differs from them.’”
“So when I talk to you,” Mahnmut said on their private frequency, “I’m […]
