Author: artoronto

July 4 –  15, 2012
Opening: Thursday, July 5, 7 – 10 p.m.
PROPELLER CENTRE FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
984 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6J 1H1
T: 416-504-7142
E: gallery@propellerctr.com
Hours: Wed/Sat: 12-6 pm, Sun: 12-5 pm

On TV, at the water-cooler, in the theatre and the cinema, at the dining table, in the playground, between countries and between the sheets, from the pulpit or throne or the soapbox, in dark corners, in a casual remark or a stoney silence stare – political acts are committed every day.

“Political Acts – It’s not about the art.“, is a group exhibition that explores the motivating story behind the artist’s work.  A broad theme designed to be inclusive “Political Acts – It’s not about the art” explores both the artist’s work and the story behind it. Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts members and invited guests will show their work July 4th – 15th.

Please join us at the opening reception Thursday July 5th 7 – 10 pm

Propeller Members

David Griffin
Ian Amell
Frances Patella
Ross Winter
John Hoyt
Allen Matrosov
Peter Barelkowski
Shahla E. Jamal
Robin Hesse
DNA Dodds
Heather Gentleman
Tai Kim
Gary MacLeod
Philip Hare
Jim Bourke
Joseph Muscat
Anthony F. Saad

Guest Artists

Regina McKenzie
Shirin Divanbeigi

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
July 6, 7 & 8, 2012
NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE
Hours: Friday & Saturday 10:30am-7:30, Sunday 10:30am-6:30pm
Free Admission

My visit to  Canada s biggest outdoor art show started in the early hours of the first day of the show, July 6, at  11 am. It was set to be a record breaker for the temperature in Toronto. You could feel the heat from the pavement at the City Hall . Artists came prepared with hats, plenty of water and sun glasses. Paramedics stood ready and the staff and volunteers were sorting out last minute problems.

The show receives over 100,000 visitors and it was early when I got there but people were coming out looking at the work of several hundred artists. This is the 51 first  year for the outdoor show  which has had its share of hurdles such as rain and garbage strikes.

Photo: Imre Hajagos

Visitors with Derek Stefanuk’s painting in the middle. Photo: Imre Hajagos

Visitors with Steven White’s works in the middle.  Photo: Imre Hajagos

This years exhibition seemed to have plenty of strong works. Artists were ready to deal with the heat expected to reach 43 degrees with the humidity.

 Artist Annie Veitch. Photo: Phil Anderson

Artist Christopher Banfalvi. Photo: Phil Anderson

Artist in residence, Jesse Bromm’s works. Photo: Nicholas Liang

Artist Sarah Munro. Photo: Phil Anderson

This exhibit provides buyers and collectors with a unique opportunity to talk with the artist and make a purchase directly from them. For gallery owners it is a good opportunity to scout for new artists or their roster.

Artist Mikael Surget. Photo: Phil Anderson

Artist Grace Eunmi Lim. Photo: Nicholas Liang

Artist Eric Cator. Photo: Phil Anderson

Artist Sean Galbraithin. Photo: Phil Anderson

Artist Richard Ahert. Photo: Phil Anderson

Jewelry artist Annie Tung’s tent.  Photo: Imre Hajagos

Encaustic artist, David Brown had a slightly shaded spot and was happy to have a little shade for his art works made from beeswax.

Artist David Brown. Photo: Phil Anderson

For everyone it is a good chance to see what artists in Toronto and other cities are working on and to appreciate the cultural activity that keeps the city vibrant and alive.

Cityscapes in the city.  Photo: Imre Hajagos

The little artists’ tent. Photo: Imre Hajagos

Photo: Imre Hajagos

 Text: Phil Anderson

Sara Cwynar / Pink / Chromogenic print on dibond / 24″ x 18″ / 2012

July 12 – August 18, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 12, 6 -9 pm
COOPER COLE GALLERY
1161 Dundas Street West,
Toronto ON, M6J1X3
T: 647 – 347 – 3316
E-mail: info@coopercolegallery.com
www.coopercolegallery.com
Hours: Wed–Sat 1–7, Sun 1–6 p.m.

COOPER COLE is pleased to present a new body of work by Canadian photographer Sara Cwynar.

Sara Cwynar (born 1985) is a Canadian photographer and a graduate from York University. Cwynar has exhibited her photos and installations internationally in The Magenta Flash Forward Festival, at Butcher Gallery, Ed Varie, Printed Matter, Paul Petro Special Projects, the Royal College of Art, and COOPER COLE.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, 01 Magazine, and Bad Day Magazine.

She was listed as one of Print Magazine’s 20 Under 30 New Visual Artists in 2011.

Cwynar currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

OK STEVE!, 2010, mixed media on paper, 22 x 30 inches

July 11 – 22, 2012
Opening: Thursday, July 12, 7-9 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 Process Gallery
1313 Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON, M6K 1L8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.g1313.org
Hours: Wed – Sun 1 – 6 p.m.

OK STEVE!: Images from High and Low Culture, Drawings by Colin Thomson: 2005-2010

Iconic imagery from high and low culture, fused with mundane elements from advertising, print and the electronic media, are at the core of drawings that comment on the often important but sometimes-banal issues related to economics, politics, science, religion and celebrity. Many of the drawings, such as OK Steve!, are both based on memories of favorite childhood television programs and subtle and not so subtle references to today’s newsmakers. Others explore deeper political and social issues. The reclining figure in Five suns with blue background is from a photograph of a beggar published in a Chinese government pamphlet about Tibet, as is Dialogue: co-dependant victims. The figures in Western producer were appropriated from the cover of an issue of a popular American news magazine about civil war in Africa, combined with a photograph of a kitchen counter. The drawing juxtaposes text, based on the title of an important Canadian agricultural journal, with the visual elements of the image, commenting on the policies and perceptions of wealthy nations towards developing countries, countries that often seem only to be of interest as a source of entertainment and moral condescension.

Initial sketches and drawings made in small sketchbooks are photocopied, and then transferred to paper, a process that can sometimes subtly alter the drawings, other times distorting them radically, or simply leaving just a trace of the original work. Some are in pencil, watercolour or oil paint, while others use less traditional materials such as food labels, children’s stickers or even food or cooking oil. The work often starts out as a process of investigation, exploring questions of composition, colour and content.

Many of the drawings have evolved over months and sometimes years, left for long periods of time, completed after much reflection and sometimes head scratching, an evolution that often makes the work strikingly different than what was originally intended. Because the work is on paper, a material less ‘precious’ than other mediums, it is easier to have a more aggressive and sometimes visceral working approach, creating images more raw and immediate than what is produced on canvas or with more expensive materials.

The immediacy of the process of production means that pieces that started out with a specific conceptual direction can quickly become more about composition, colour, and technique or simply about emotion. Others that begin with less intellectual ‘rigor’ evolve toward the more profound, influenced by print and electronic media, from casual encounters with people, places or objects, or even from memory and personal experience.

Sabina Zeba Haque,  War Game Series #7

 

July 11 – 22, 2012
Reception: Wednesday, July 11, 7-9 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 Main Gallery
1313 Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON, M6K 1L8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.g1313.org
Hours: Wed – Sun 1 – 6 p.m.

SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) presents Methodical Mergers: A Juried Members’ Exhibition

Opening Reception Wednesday , July 11th, 7-9 PM

Featuring works by Huma Durrani, Smriti Mehra, Tharmila Rajasingam, Sabina Zeba Haque & Asma Sultana

SAVAC’s annual juried members’ exhibition provides the opportunity for the presentation of new works created by the SAVAC membership. Through a juried process, SAVAC surveys new ideas, techniques and dialogues being explored by South Asian artists. Many of the artists discovered through past juried exhibitions have gone on to contribute to the SAVAC community by engaging younger artists, serving on the programming committee, and by continuing to show their work in exhibitions. SAVAC works without its own gallery space, always in collaboration with other artist run centres, galleries or museums. We have found our model engages a broader dialogue for the works we present, and discovers new audiences each time, while still maintaining past connections. For this year’s annual juried members’ exhibition we are delighted to present the selected works of our members at Gallery 1313, in the heart of a vibrant art community. We hope that this partnership will lead to many points of interaction for our membership, and will ultimately result in fruitful partnerships with artists, curators and audiences in the future.

The narratives in this year’s exhibition, aptly title Methodical Mergers explore a negotiation of the contemporary growth of South Asian economic and cultural capital on a global scale. They highlight political, social, historical and financial exchanges through creative and methodical art processes. Sabina Zeba Haque’s War Game Series explores the cultural divide experienced by the artist, through the use of Indo-Persian miniature painting, aerial photography of topographic maps of Northern Pakistan, and pop art produced in North America. Asma Sultana’s mixed media work My Baby is Growing Outside of my Body uses her body to create markers for an ever-changing identity. Sultana’s finger-painted scrolls, and a quilt made from her own hair speak to the inseparable nature of her physical self from her history.

Retracing geometric patterns ingrained in memory, Huma Durrani’s work Mughal Jalee Series employs Mughal architecture, and translates it onto brightly coloured Japanese paper. Smriti Mehra brings us PushpaPatha: The Flower Trail, a video from her native city of Bangalore tracing the anonymous task force behind the flower industry, from the fields, to the wholesale market and then to a graveyard.

Finally, Tharmilla Rajasingam’s durational performance, One After the Other after Another lends itself to the exploration of tradition and ritual. The remnants from the performance are left behind in the gallery and are repurposed as sculptural objects, allowing the viewers to recreate and re-interpret the performance for themselves.

Quotes

“Participating on the jury for SAVAC’s annual members’ show gave me a vivid snapshot of contemporary South Asian visual and media arts practices today, both in Toronto and further afield, across Canada, North America and the world. It was a great pleasure to be exposed to new artists and their practices and to see meaningful juxtapositions and conversations emerge between the artworks over the course of the jurying process. The exhibition will be full of formally adventurous, politically sophisticated and witty work.” – Jon Davies, Jury Member

“As an emerging artist, I am honoured to exhibit with SAVAC to kick start my professional artistic career. SAVAC has given me the opportunity to grow as a contemporary emerging artist in Toronto. I am excited to grow my artistic career as a member of SAVAC, and seize the opportunity to show in incredible venues.” – Tharmila Rajasingam, Artist

Artist Biographies

Smriti Mehra is a video artist who lives and works in Bangalore, India. She has earned her MFA in Media Art from NSCAD University at Halifax, Canada with a scholarship from the AAUW Educational Foundation. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the Centre for Experimental Media Art and she also teaches at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology where she studied as an undergraduate. Her video works have played at many festivals including ‘Voices from the Waters’, the third international film festival on water in Bangalore, ‘The Images Festival’ in Toronto, the ‘Made in Video’ festival in Denmark, ‘Monitor7’ & ‘Monitor 3’ in Toronto, ‘Photophobia 8’ in Hamilton and ‘Images De l Inde’ at the Centre Pompidou in France.

Tharmila Rajasingam, born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka is a Toronto-based installation artist working with performative and sculptural elements. Her practice examines the shifting nature of identity. Her work often includes cultural practices and religious rituals as a form of self-expression. Rajasingam incorporates time and memories in her work as a dialogue between the self and the other. The idea of the “everyday” and repetition are key elements when discussing rituals in her artistic practice. She has participated in many exhibitions in Toronto, such as Gallery 1265, Labspace Studio, AWOL Gallery and The {decommissioned} Shaw Street School.

Asma Sultana is a Bangladeshi born, British freelance visual artist, currently living and working in Canada. She holds a BFA in Drawing and Paintings from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and recently completed a Fine Art Diploma Program from the Toronto School of Art. She has had 4 solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions in Canada, England, India and Bangladesh.

Sabina Zeba Haque was born in Columbus, Ohio and raised in Karachi, Pakistan by an American mother and a Pakistani father. Her artwork combines photography, collage and painting, to synthesize her complex relationship to her diverse Christian and Muslim heritage. Haque received her MFA in Painting from Boston University. Her work has been exhibited at the Bowery Gallery in NYC, Boston Contemporary Art Center, Los Angeles Arts and Cultural Center and The Lincoln Arts Center to name a few. Her artworks are in numerous private and public collections including the City of Portland’s Public Art collection. Haque’s upcoming solo exhibit will be held at Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan in 2013.

Huma Durrani was born and raised in the Toronto area. She studied Mathematics, Visual Arts and Art History at the University of Waterloo. Her fascination with Islamic art was developed through Architecture courses at University, as well by traveling to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Spain, France and Turkey, which house sites of Islamic architecture. After working for the provincial government for 7 years, Durrani is now studying and working on her art full time.

For more information on Methodical Mergers: A Juried Members’ Exhibition please contact Sharlene Bamboat, Programming Coordinator at info@savac.net or call 416-542-1661.

SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) 450-401 Richmond St. West, Toronto, ON M5V 3A8 info@savac.net / 416-542-1661

Please join us for the opening reception of Methodical Mergers: A Juried Members’ Exhibition on July 11th, 7 PM – 9 PM at Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen Street West, Toronto. Featuring a durational performance by Tharmila Rajasingam and artists talks by Asma Sultana & Huma Durrani.

Untitled 3 (limited edition of 5), 2010, inkjet print on Epson lustre, 38″ x 30″

July 5 – 31, 2012
Opening: Saturday, July 14, 6 – 9 p.m.
BEZPALA BROWN GALLERY
17 Church Street (Front and Church)
Toronto, ON, M5E 1M2
T: 416.907.6875
E: info@bezpalabrown.com
www.bezpalabrown.com
Hours: Tues–Wed 11–6, Thurs–Sat 11–8, Sun 11–6 p.m.

Alice Zilberberg  has created a stunning collection of mixed media imaging works, the exhibition of which is entitled “Who is Alice?”. Alice’s work looks at the portrayal of women characters in folklore, mythology and art history. She explores themes of femininity and the natural environment through image manipulation. Using image composites, she is able to bring fantasy and a dreamlike quality to her work.

Alice Zilberberg was born in Estonia, raised in Israel and now residensing Toronto. She has exhibited in a number of galleries in Canada and Tokio, Japan. Her work has been featured in a wide range of print and online publications. In 2010, Alice was selected as one of the top emerging photographers as a part of Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward.

July 5 – September 9, 2012
Opening: Thursday, July 5, 6 – 9 p.m.
JULIE M. GALLERY
15 Mill Street Building 37, Suite 103
Toronto ON M5A 3R6
T: 416 603 2626
E: info@juliemgallery.com
www.juliemgallery.com
Featuring work by Jiri Ladocha & Mats Nordstrom, Deganit Berest, Anat Betzer, Atsmon Ganor, Itamar Jobani, Shai Kremer

Join artists Jiri Ladocha & Mats Nordstrom at the opening of their inaugural show at the Julie M. Gallery. We are excited to branch out from Israeli contemporary art to include the Czech-born sculptor Ladocha & his life-long friend and sometimes collaborator Mats Nordstrom (originally from Sweden) to our roster of artists.

Through the Looking Glass is a group show that offers a glimpse into the future.  It previews works by late-career artists who have just joined the gallery roster, Jiri Ladocha and Mats Nordstrom.  Both are masters of their disciplines, slated for solo exhibitions at the Julie M. Gallery. Through the Looking Glass turns a critical lens on the boundaries of medium.  Today, an artist can rarely be categorized as a painter, sculpture, or photographer.  Instead, it is more common to work at points of intersection between the categories that traditionally organized art history.  Czech-Canadian artist Jiri Ladocha toes the line between sculpture and experimental painting.  Mats Nordstrom, originally from Sweden, transgresses the purist inclinations of photography.

 Jiri Ladocha, Untitled (diptych), 2012, bent plywood and aluminum leaf

JIRI LADOCHA

Born in former Czechoslovakia, Jiri Ladocha creates sculptures and three-dimensional wall pieces that betray a tense dialectic between the rigid austerity of Minimalism and the romance of flowing organic lines.  Crisp, sure-handed, and post-minimal, his creations reflect meticulous labor and decades of experience.  Wood, glass, aluminum, fine metal leaf, plaster, graphite, and pigment are samples of the materials given new life through honed aesthetic sensibility, and reborn in Ladocha’s expert hands.  Jiri Ladocha’s work is found in collections and museums throughout Europe and North America.

 Mats Nordstrm, Untitled, Remnants series, 2011-2012, c-print

 

MATS NORDSTROM

Photographs by Mats Nordstrom are the product of an intuitive exploration of his emotional landscape—often they encapsulate moments from the artist’s past.  Informed by a childhood in Sweden, Nordstrom’s recent work on view in Through the Looking Glass includes a series of high-contrast black and white photographs titled Remnants.  Remnants explores the transformative effect of light and shadow on outmoded household utensils, shot against a marred aluminum sheet.  Strong side-lighting throws crisp shadows, which lend these allegories of a simpler time three-dimensionality and a sharp graphic presence.  Nordstrom’s artistic career was preceded by a background in mathematics and biochemical engineering, commercial photography in New York, and catalyzed by working on the Interview Magazine team with Andy Warhol.  His work can be found in permanent collections including the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and the London Museum of Fine Art.

Church – Edition of 15, chromogenic print , 40 X 50 in. 

July 7 – 21, 2012
Opening: Saturday, July 7, 2–4 p.m.
BAU-XI PHOTO
324 Dundas St. West
Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1G5
T: 416.977.0400
E: toronto@bau-xi.com
www.bau-xiphoto.com
Hours: Mon-Sat 10–5:30, Sun 11–5:30

Lori Nix meticulously constructs three-dimensional miniature dioramas by hand, and captures her images using a large-format film camera. These scenes of an imagined post-apocalyptic world are infused with dark humour and irony.

Lori Nix was born in Norton, Kansas. She earned her MFA in Photography from Ohio University and her BFA in Photography and Ceramics from Truman State University. Her work has been shown  and collected internationally with exhibitions by Clamp Art Gallery, New York, NY, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY, the George Eastman House, G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle, WA, Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA, the California Museum of Photography, and Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. She has been awarded grants by the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. Lori lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

  Watery Oasis, 2012, mixed media on panel with resin , 48 x 36 in.

July 7 – 21, 2012
Opening: Saturday, July 7, 2–4 p.m.
BAU-XI GALLERY
340 Dundas St. West
Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1G5
T: 416.977.0600
E: toronto@bau-xi.com
www.bau-xiphoto.com
Hours: Mon-Sat 10–5:30, Sun 11–5:30

Steven Nederveen is a well-known Canadian artist, whose work is featured internationally in galleries, art fairs, magazines, and many private collections.

Nederveen’s work deals with the passage of time, a theme stemming from his own practice of meditation. These moments of peaceful clarity lead the artist to draw connections between our natural environment and aspects of spirituality through his artistic process of combining painting and photography. By blurring the lines between photograph and painting, Nederveen develops a magical realism that inspires us to see the world with new eyes. By distressing and aging the work he creates the sense of past and present; of struggle and transformation. A glass-like layer of resin coats each piece, enhancing the clarity of the image and reflecting the viewer into the work.

Steven Nederveen studied fine art at Medicine Hat College and went on to receive a Bachelor of Design from the University of Alberta in 1995. His studio is currently based out of Toronto.

 

O’BORN CONTEMPORARY
131 Ossington Avenue,
Toronto, On
T: 416. 413. 9555
E:info@oborncontemporary.com
www.oborncontemporary.com

Call for submissions – Emerging artists exhibition at O’Born Contemporary

O’Born Contemporary is pleased present its second annual exhibition of emerging artists in January 2013. Works in all mediums will be accepted. Selected works will be exhibited at O’Born Contemporary with a prize awarded for best-in-show.

Eligibility

• Original work in any medium is eligible.
• Submitting artists should be emergent, meaning not commercially represented.
• Submitting artists must be 18 years of age, recommended 18 – 35.
• Submitting artists must reside in the greater Toronto area (GTA).
• Students may submit.
• There is no fee for submission.

Deadline

Submissions must be delivered by email to submit@oborncontemporary.com by July 31, 2012, 6pm.

Conditions

• Work must have been produced after January 2011.
• Works must be available for purchase. O’Born Contemporary will collect a thirty-five percent (35%) commission on sales.
• While only digital submissions will be accepted, selected works must be exhibition-ready (framed, mounted where necessary – no loose prints or paper).
• Inclusion in the exhibition is contingent upon accurate reproduction of the original work. Work will be turned down, where too great a variance exists.

Guidelines for Submission

• Only digital submissions will be accepted.
• Each artist may submit up to five (5) works.
• Technical Requirements:
o JPG files, 1-4mb in size.
o Filenames must be formatted as follows: artistlastname_imagetitle.jpg.
o Image title of JPG must match image title in image list.
• Submissions must be accompanied by an image list including:
o Title of work
o Medium
o Year of creation
o Dimensions
o Edition (if applicable)
• Submission must include an artist bio and/or CV along with an artist statement referencing the submitted works or general artist practice.
• Submissions missing any requested information will be discarded without notification. Only one email per artist submission will be accepted.

Calendar

• Notification of acceptance will be emailed out on or before October 15, 2012.
• Accepted artists will be responsible for delivery, in person to O’Born Contemporary, 131 Ossington Avenue, Toronto by December 20, 2012.
• The exhibition will open Friday, January 4, 2013. Artists are encouraged to attend.

Disclaimer

• O’Born Contemporary may reproduce and photograph selected works for purposes related to promotion, and education.
• By submitting to this call, artists guarantee they have copyright to submitted works.
• ONLY ACCEPTED ARTISTS WILL BE NOTIFIED.

Direct all inquiries to submit@oborncontemporary.com.

Phil Anderson (PA) interviewed  Dave Dyment (DD) about his coming up show  Is It What It Is and Other Questions, opening June 29th at the Power Plant.

PA: This project seems to be a rare opportunity to go into the archives of the Power Plant and explore ideas to work with. Was there anything that surprised you when you started your research?

DD: I was given complete access, which I guess surprised me a little. There were no limitations on what I could see or present. Not that I was looking to stir shit up, but it’s always nice to know you have the option.

PA: What draws you to your research based art projects? Do you have an idea of where the fascination of the search comes from? 

DD: Well, my work is often described as “research based” (or, my favourite: “weird rigour”, which is how Jan Peacock recently characterized it) but I personally see it as more akin to collecting. This likely stems from being a collector of books and records, which is something I’ve done for most of my life. Gathering information is probably an offshoot of this. And this was certainly the method taken for the Power Plant: rifle through dozens of boxes until an approach presented itself, and then fine-tune the hunt.

PA: How do you take the results of your research and turn into your own project?  How do you process the research materials?

DD: Well, it varies each time. It might involve straight reportage or direct engagement, or an intervention. For this I imposed some limitations early on, including the fact that I wasn’t going to add anything, despite that approach often yielding great results (like Sophie Calle’s brilliant bucket in the museum display of chamber pots).  I wanted the content to arise from the sifting and reshuffling.

PA: When do you know to stop researching and use the material you have gathered?

DD: Sometimes there’s a built-in end point, other times an arbitrary cut-off is useful.

PA: There must a huge amount of material to go through. Is there any particular information that attracts you?

DD: Yeah, there are towers of banker’s boxes in the long and narrow room where the Power Plant store their archives, and they’re pretty thorough. If you ever need an owner’s manual to a late-eighties laser disk player, they’ve got several.

I like to work with vernacular photography, which I often find more compelling than deliberately composed shots. I like lists, alternate narratives, found poetry, origin stories, corrupted information (broken telephone), unofficial filters, etc. etc.

PA: What can the public expect to see as a result of your research?

DD: There are two elements in the show, and both are collections: a series of Polaroids and a litany of questions. The Polaroids are images taken by the crew, of artworks as they are being unpacked. They are fast snapshots for the purpose of condition reports and insurance claims, or to help re-crate the works after the exhibition is over. They were never intended to be seen again.

One of the presentations of these photographs is a boxed bookwork called Höfer Crate, which includes reproductions of about 80 Polaroids of Candida Höfer’s work arriving to the gallery, with many of her framed photographs badly damaged. For example, there is documentation of a shoeprint on a crate, crates stored flat in a truck bed, despite arrows indicating they should stand on their side, etc. etc. Höfer’s work tends to be about sociology of the museum environment, so it seemed fitting to use her shipment as a case study.

Is it What It Is and Other Questions is a list of the first thousand questions I found in correspondence, contracts, interviews, guestbook comments, questionnaires, inter-office communiqués, etc. etc. These range from the banal to the potentially profound.

It’s a variation on a bookwork and video that I made years ago, called Pop Quiz, which consists of every question from every song in my record collection. But the impetus here was different: I was thinking about the 1969 James Lee Byars project The World Question Center, where the artist hoped to bring together the world’s leading thinkers so that they could ask each other the questions that they had been asking themselves. It never happened, as apparently when he reached them by phone, the majority just hung up on him. But it’s a fascinating premise and here I think it’s a worthy pursuit to ask ourselves the same questions we might ask students (“What do you think the colour red means?”) or to ask questions of curators that they may ask of artists and vice-versa.

Isolated from their context, the queries become an almost Dadaesque questionnaire, alternately ridiculous and inadvertently illuminating. “Is the artworld ageist”, for example, is a worthwhile question to ponder, but it is only ever asked of the very young or the very old, with the answer all but predetermined.

Byars believed that the perfect thought is a question. I now find that I habitually scan the punctuation of a piece of writing for question marks.

PA: Have any other art institutions offered their archives to you?

DD: Ha ha … No, not yet, but I’d certainly be open to it. In the last few years my work has become increasingly about the ways in which culture is formed and shaped, so it’s a logical extension.

PA: What do you hope that the art going public will come away with from your work?

DD: I suppose my concerns were twofold – to provide an outsider’s perspective to the material, and to try to reactivate the existing archive exhibition, which is now in it’s second iteration.

[Curator] Melanie O’Brian’s group show on the ground floor, Tools for Conviviality is ostensibly about reconsidering social behaviour but many of the individual works in the show also address concerns around institutional critique, or institutional memory (a great piece by Swintak and Don Millar, for example), so there are some nice connections there, too, with the Polaroids.

And hopefully the questions exist as a series of worthwhile dilemmas.