( 11.20.05)
A short visit to Ed Pien's studio:

- Ed pien is an artist I've wanted to work with for a long while, I find his work vibrant, playful and energetic each and every time I see it. So, when I was granted the opportunity to curate a show for the Thames Art Gallery, Ed was one of the first people I thought about calling up. Dehuman, the title of the project I put together, opens in January 2006.

- One of the things that I'm quite happy (and that makes this project somewhat unique as a group show) is the fact that as well as showing individual works, I've convinced the four participants (all heavy-producers) to "collaborate" on collective drawings via the mail (and I've also joined the process as a fifth wheel, blurring the division between curator and artist).

- Ed is currently in preparation for a number of shows, the most pressing of which is his pending Toronto exhibition at Birch Libralato, opening in just a few days (it is a combined show with Cathy Daley).

- There is a ton of new work in his studio, most of it unframed, and he's happy to talk about it all. One of the more interesting discoveries I make while conversing with Ed about his process is an explanation of the use of smudging and blotting in his practice. He shows me a transfer sheet with a drawing beginning to form from within the mess. Intuition, a word often demonized in today's concept-driven art world, obviously plays a large part in Pien's working process. It allows him to move fast (we look at an amazing set of '5 minute drawings' that are all exceptional) and to cultivate mistakes, turning them into texture and revealing an historical trace of process.

- I lend Pien my copy of Clive Barker, Illustrator a book of ink sketches and full-color paintings by British author Clive Barker (published 1990 Arcane/Eclipse Books), whose work I think he would otherwise never come across. Barker functions more in the realm of pop culture and horror and only dabbles with the gallery system (he doesn't have to), but there are definite links that bind these two artists in my opinion. For instance, both share interests/origins in 17th century Manga; this word, though mainly used today to reference Japanese comics, was coined by a famous woodblock print artist, Hokusai; it is the combination of two Chinese characters, the first meaning "in spite of oneself" and the second meaning "picture". •

( 11.24.05)
Prefix 12: Impossible Landscapes Launch

- I am in the new issue of Prefix, which launches tonight. I have not been provided with a PDF proof (which is something many mags now offer their contributors) so I'm anxious to see the results. In the end, no worries: this team is exceptionally competent at what they do, and the reproductions look fabulous! Their choice to break traditional form and place my 5-page project at the absolute front-end of the mag is a brilliant design decision; no wonder they win awards. I am, however, disenheartened by the fact that while authors (including lowly book reviewers) are paid for their work, artists are not. I find it unfair of them to market my project as a "commissioned work" but to not pay a small fee for its use. That being said, I am glad to find such a nice-looking home for this project; I look forward to seeing new artist commissions in upcoming issues.

- Book/magazine launches, as they go, are usually pretty boring creatures if no entertainment has been programmed into the pacing of the evening, and this one is no exception. Once you flip through the new issue and chat up a few of the other contributors, there's not much else to do.

- I pass the time by visiting what I've dubbed the Prefix "sound-closet", a gem of a room in the Toronto arts scene for the simple fact that this listening space* focuses its audience away from visual thinking, and allows for a cinema of the ears to play out... a rare and timely gesture in an increasingly sound-friendly culture. Unfortunately, the space has a number of built-in limitations that make it less exciting than it might otherwise be: it is, for example, limited to offering frontal, stereo (2-channel) representations of sound; no way for an artist to play with spacial configurations or dynamic sound movement in here. Still, a lot can be done with two speakers, and most traditional sound recordings do fall comfortably into the stereo field... so this is by no means a tragic fault. The worst feature in the space is actually its harsh lighting, which, to my knowledge, is not a control factor in its design: it's just always ON. What about a simple user-controlled dimmer option? For those of us seeking a true listening experience, this gesture might make it easier to momentarily drown out our hungry eyes. •

* Interested in other permanent sound spaces? My favourite is Diapson in NYC!

( 11.25.05)
A short visit to Montreal...

- I travel to Montreal today by train, the start of a weekend of enjoyable tasks which will include conducting a much-needed studio visit with an artist I'm curating into my latest project (a show about drawing and the dehumanized/cartoon body), and a day at Montreal's infamous zine fair, Expozine. I am staying at Alacoque Bed & Breakfast, which I discovered a number of years back while in town for one of the early Mutek fest editions (2nd year of the festival, I believe)... Montreal is always an exciting place!

- This blurred photo is snapped while standing in front of the blinds in my room, just after settling in for the afternoon. Pointing my digital camera at myself is difficult, and usually results in a harshly boring shot that ends up being deleted as quick as it was captured... but this one is a keeper.

- At around 5pm, I head out for a late-in-the-game visit to Montreal outsider-artist/math teacher Daniel Erban's cavernous studio space; this underground bunker is extremely large but somehow still seems cluttered. Daniel has a huge personal collection of books and CD's, a lithography press and over thirty years of artwork stored in this space... plenty of personal history in here.

- Over the next couple of hours, we look through many possibilities for the upcoming Dehuman group exhibition I've programmed him in to. My position as a curator is to offer a varied view of Erban's project: I don't want to limit his work to a strictly psycho-sexual reading; I do want to capture the chaos and the diversity of his drawing style.

- We chat a lot while looking over the work. I am pleased to see that this artist has an expressed interest in comics (I spot L'Association's enormous Comix2000 book on his shelf) and zines; this diversity and openness is admirable in a man of Erban's age.

- Erban seems to have a way with words that tends to get him in trouble occasionally; he loves to talk Canadian art-scene politics, and he has some pretty strong opinions about all the problems in our cultural scene. I'm pretty tolerant of his viewpoints, but I also keep wondering if his work would be better received if it didn't always come with a good dose of personal politics. Is the artwork separable from the man? It occurs that it all might be more mysterious if the artist would just keep silent... let the work be the only thing that speaks.

- This image is a sneak peek at a series of vertical-emphasis gestural works that will be shown in the Dehuman project, scheduled to open in mid-January and then tour around a bit in 2007; this represents only a portion of what we'll be including in the show. I've worked with Daniel before, and he's got a good sense of how to install his artwork, usually positioned in tight groupings. I think that there is a strength in presenting these drawings in framed clusters; each image reverberates off the last, and it kind of calms down the overall aggression of the singular pieces. It's a wise move, and I'm sure we will take this approach in January. •

- The fair is extremely well-attended, hundreds show up in steady waves throughout the day. Sales on Carousel issues are great, and I go home with just a few remaining copies. People love the Popnoir 1" Artist Series buttons too... and someone offers to wholesale to the area (so stay tuned while I try to find the time to follow that up).

- There are a number of real talents in this local scene, which is more connected to the alternative music world than Toronto's photocopy-ziners tend to be. Most notable, the extreme talents of the Seripop crew are evident, and at the fair I watch them selling their posters to a hungry crowd of buyers throughout the day.

(It should be noted that I contacted them a bit back about doing a work for the upcoming Carousel 'artist-poster' series... and I hope we can make it happen some time in mid-2006).

- Daniel Erban shows up, curious about the output of this youth-dominated crowd, most of which match the age of his children. Despite a demographic gap, he buys like a real fan, though I'm quite sure it's mainly because he's interested in supporting as many vendors as possible. It's good to see that kind of gesture once in a while. •

- The readings for the evening pass quickly by, and everything is competent enough, though mostly uneventful: quote-unquote "experimental" on paper comes off as pretty traditional in the flesh, though I suspect the 3-min. limit that the editors forced upon their talent has a lot to do with the way things play out on stage. I must admit that I'm the kind of person that likes a little bit of theatre with my text... and we get a touch of that in the guitar accompanied sound-poetry reading from Gregg Betts.

- The real joy of this evening is the aftermath, when all the conversations begin... in this instance, Coach House Press founder Stan Bevington plays camera-shy to a Polaroid image snapped by auteur gustave morin. I had an interesting conversation with the man about author/artist Martin Vaughn-James, whose work I like quite a bit. I'm a fan of the duotones in The Projector (printed in an edition of 1000 copies in October 1971 by CHP), and Bevington recalls printing those pages himself to avoid paying extra production costs... those were the days! Can't see too many publishers today getting their hands dirty to make a book look extra-special.

- Another conversation of note occurs when Mercury's Beverley Daurio tells me she finds my sweater visually violent (it was made in Copenhagen, and I bought it in Montreal last week); I thank her for the compliment. In turn, I tell her that I find some of the graphics in the new book visually muddy, badly scanned. It's a friendier conversation than it seems.

- The evening doesn't end when we leave Supermarket. A cluster of devotees to the enjoyment of the gathering, we end up moving through Kensington Market in the cold night, and eventually head off for a very good meal at a late-night place in Chinatown: hot & sour soup, bok choi, and beef. Just right.

- For prosperity's sake, the grouping in this photo features (L-R): John Barlow, gustave morin, Rob Read, and Sergio Forest; with Kemeny Babineau and Laurie Dunn caught off camera (and, I, quite obviously, am aiming the eye).

(BTW, all of these people belong to a micro-community centred around a love of concrete and small/micro press lit called Mailsnail, which has turned out to be a fairly active Yahoo Group to be on; it currently features around 40 members, and I subscribe to 'digest' to avoid the dozens of emails that shoot out like tentacles grabbing for attention each day). •

( 12.04.05)
- Gladstone Hotel Artist Rooms Launch

- very briefly, this open house presents a wonderful opportunity to see what is being offered by the newly renovated Gladstone Hotel, which is located just down the street from where I live. The artists involved have created some wonderful and exotic rooms, and I can see the novelty of it all being really attractive to consumers: if you've got to stay somewhere when traveling, it may as well be somewhere interesting! It's a compelling strategy for a hotel, and I'm sure this model can be seen popping up in all the major tourist cities.

You can see a range of these unique room designs here. •