conceptual art – annetteandquebec

October 18, 2025

ERROAR!

The Center for Culture & Technolgy

Lee Sedol is a South Korean former professional Go Player. Nearly ten years ago he ranked 2nd in international Go titles. (Lee Chang-ho, the Stone Buddha, ranked first.)

In 2016 Lee Sedol played a series of matches against AlphaGo, a computer Go program developed by DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google. Go is a complex board game, requiring strategic nuance and creativity.

Out of five games, Lee Sedol won only one. A few years later, he retired.

…losing to AI, in a sense, meant my entire world was collapsing…I could no longer enjoy the game. So I retired.”- Lee Sedol

Go is considered to require player strategy far more complicated than chess.

The artist Xuan Ye, designates this match between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol as an inspiration for their piece ‘The Insider,” included in the Erroar! exhibition at the Center for Culture and Technology.

In Xuan Ye’s artwork, large textile prints replicate the AI’s infrastructure, the 1920 CPUs and 280 GPUs, from those fateful matches between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo.

There is a slightly nauseating green light cast throughout the exhibition and an incessant one-note hum, which is revealed to be the amplified drone of server fans. (I’ve noticed this particular sound is frequently part of many current media art installations.)

Installation view of “The Insider” by Xuan Ye

Augmented reality reveals enigmatic floating texts from Thomas Metzinger‘s “The Ego Tunnel.” (Thomas Metzinger, a German philosopher, has stated that consciousness is “a low-dimensional projection of the inconceivably richer physical reality surrounding and sustaining us…”)

“The Insider” links AI’s self modelling and the blind spots of human self-awareness, namely, the recursive gap where the subject can never fully grasp itself. – quote from the Erroar! handout

Maybe this artwork is about Lee Sedol’s failure in his faceoff with the more self aware, supremely intelligent, opponent. (I know this feeling: the sense of sinking deeply into defeat! I was recently hacked on Meta and tried to contact that supremely opaque entity. )

In any case, the augmented reality component of the installation was pleasantly glitchy and consequently barely legible.

Another piece in the show, called “Garrulous Guts” is supposed to simulate a “pulsing gastrointestinal system, as it vibrates chemical filled capsules.”

“Garrulous Guts” video by Xuan Ye

The installation made an irritating racket and I could tell the gallery employee couldn’t wait for me to leave the exhibition so he could flip the switch and silence the damn thing.

I really like the way Xuan Ye references so many interesting thinkers in her texts, which are available in a pamphlet at the show’s venue. “Garrulous Guts” owes something to the thinking of Oswald de Andrade’s 1928 Cannibalist Manifesto, we are told.

Oswald de Andrade was a Brazilian poet and playwright and a revolutionary social agitator. After hanging around in Europe, and becoming familiar with the avant garde trends in Paris and elsewhere, he returned to Brazil and called for a rejection of dependence on European cultural imports. He founded the Anthropophagists and suggested that Brazilians could devour culture from Europe and mix it with local reality, slyly eluding to the fact that certain Amazonian tribes practised literal cannibalism.

Below is a poem by Oswald de Andrade.

The discovery

We followed our course on that long sea
Until the eighth day of Easter
Sailing alongside birds
We sighted land
the savages
We showed them a chicken
Almost frightening them
They didn’t want to touch it
Then they took it, stupefied
it was fun
After a dance
Diogo Dias
Did a somersault
the young whores
Three or four girls really fit very nice
With long jet-black hair
And shameless tits so high so shapely
We all had a good look at them
We were not in the least ashamed.

The show by Xuan Ye is a response to the theme for 2025–2026 programming at the Center for Culture and Technology. That theme is “Artificial Stupidity.” So refreshing!! Nice to have a break from the drumbeat of media about AI. (Will it kill us all? Is it destroying the minds of youngsters? What are the biases built into these systems? What will all the unemployed people do? Who is going to become very, very rich? …and so on…)

Another piece in the show is called “The Oral Logic.”

Installation view of “The Oral Logic” by Xuan Ye

It features a stylished skull of a saber toothed tiger, gripping a uncoiling poetic text. Sadly, this installation did not seem to be functional during my visit. The blank video screen and static roll of poetic gibberish were baffling in their stillness, and yet, they worked somehow, to amplify the theme of what the artist calls “algorithmic dysfluency.”

Leaving the exhibition I wandered through the shimmering October light along Philosopher’s Walk on the U of T campus. Xuan Ye’s fascinating essay “Smaller, Slower, Sloppier” made perfect reading to conclude that beautiful fall afternoon.

June 11, 2025

Report from New York

Jack Whitten: The Messenger

The towering 53rd Street Atrium of the Museum of Modern Art seemed less crowded than during prior visits. The galleries less packed with frantic visitors. In fact, the streets themselves seemed less grid-locked and less raucous. Maybe it’s the “congestion pricing” impact? Or maybe it’s the policies of the current Administration?

Whatever the reason for the relative tranquillity, it was truly uplifting to wander through the show called Jack Whitten: The Messenger without feeling jostled, and to appreciate the achievements of this artist and more broadly, the achievements of so many American artists, caught now — like the rest of us –in this period of fear and dismay.

“Black Monolith II (Homage to Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man),” by Jack Whitten

“Acryclic, onion, eggshell, molasses, copper, salt, herbs, rust, coal, ash, chocolate and razor blade.” These are a list of the substances Jack Whitten used to create the painting “Black Monolith II (Homage to Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man”), shown above. The painting, and many others of this period, is composed of hundreds of tiles, cut from sheets of dried acryclic embedded with varied ingredients and assembled into a painting. Jack Whitten called this invented technique “acrylic tesserae.” “Each tesserae is a piece of light,” he said, “The message is coded into the process.”

A lush jazz soundtrack (John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk and others) plays throughout the show’s galleries, referencing Jack Whitten‘s love of jazz.

Installation view “Jack Whitten: The Messenger” at the Museum of Modern Art

Many of the tributes and dedications he attached to his work honor the black musicians, writers and artists that impacted him during his six decades of living in New York City and making art, which he invariably viewed as experimental.

“Homecoming for Miles Davis” by Jack Whitten

Closer detail of “Homecoming for Miles Davis” by Jack Whitten

Shown above, “Homecoming for Miles Davis” was also made of hardened acrylic tiles, which in this case he spattered with white paint, a la Jackson Pollock, and put together into this dazzling painting, described by the artist as a “cosmic net attempting to capture Miles’ soul.”

“Atopolis: for Eduourd Glissant” by Jack Whitten

Detail of “Atopolis: for Édouard Glissant” by Jack Whitten

The tiles in the painting shown above, named for Édouard Glissant, the French writer, poet, philosopher, and literary critic from Martinique, were infused with metallic, phosporescent and organic materials from aluminum to anthracite.

Repeatedly, this artist states he is interested in innovation. He wants to make abstract art that changes the course of painting.

Trained as a cabinet maker, Jack Whitten, made specialized tools to apply paint. He painted standing up for decades, smoothing paint in layers with a rake-like tool which is on display at the Museum.

Jack Whitten at work in Studio in the 1970s, using “The Developer”

He called the rake-like tool “The Developer.” He added layer upon layer of paint, raking and merging the color until he had the effect he wanted, which was “sheets of light.”

The photograph above doesn’t convey the startling, glowing, gem-like quality that some of Jack Whitten’s paintings hold. He “combed” the layers of paint to create colours found nowhere else and experimented like an alchemist, adding recycled glass, pulverized mylar, gold dust and numerous other substances to the paint to get the effect he was after.

In some paintings, the artist would bury items into the gallons of paint he poured onto wood panels. These items — bits of wire or wood, staples, insects, floor sweepings — he called “Disruptors,” since through the raking process they disrupted the smoothed surface to reveal transformations below.

Installation view of “Siberian Salt Grinder” by Jack Whitten

Detail of “Siberian Salt Grinder” by Jack Whitten

I couldn’t help thinking about the giant squeegee paintings by Gerhard Richter. Like Jack Whitten, Gerhard Richter explored the relationship between painting and ph0tography in his earlier works. Later, the element of unpredictability was major in both of these artist’s big beautiful paintings of sweeping horizontals.

“Abstract Painting (726)” by Gerhard Richter

Political turmoil was a factor in the creative development of both men. Gerhard Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden, Germany, into the mayhem of WWII and its aftermath. Jack Whitten was born in 1939 in Bessemer, Alabama, at the height of Jim Crow. He grew up in Civil Rights movement and the era of political assasinations in the USA and, of course, the Vietnam War.

“Black Table Setting (Homage to Duke Ellington)” by Jack Whitten

I particularly liked looking at Jack Whitten’s paintings of screens, or screen-like images.

The painting above is part of his Greek Alphabet Series. It has a mysterious quality of movement, as remote images seem to shift and rearrange themselves from within, like poor reception in an analog TV screen.

Jack Whitten said every colour carries ” a lot of psychological meaning” and he sought to avoid the “story telling” that automatically occured by using colour. His black and white paintings from the Greek Alphabet series of paintings, resemble a flickering screen, dissolving into abstraction.

I say to people, “Take everything you have ever felt, everything you have ever smelled, every sound you have ever heard, every sensation you have ever had that you have felt through your fingertips. Take all of that and compress it.” You would get an understanding of abstraction. – quote from Jack Whitten in the MOMA exhibition notes.

His sculptural work, on the other hand, tells a lot of stories:

…stories about the African diaspora, the history of art in the Mediterranean, trash and found junk, labour and work and many other topics.

Some of his paintings too, are depictions of fragments of a changing world. His painting shown below, which suggests apps on a screen, was made in honour of Obama’s election.

The showstopper, however, for many of the New Yorkers on that relatively quiet day at the Museum of Modern Art, has to be the painting titled “9.11.01.” Jack Whitten witnessed the World Trade Center’s destruction and produced an enormous painting in honour of the victim’s of that event.

I spent some very somber moments in front of this painting, recalling not just the appalling catastrophe of that moment, but the following days and months, when the country, and indeed much of the world, was so unified in the shared shock and horror at that violent act. It seems like a long time ago.

March 19, 2025

Yann Pocreau “The Lapse in Between” at Division Gallery

Yann Pocreau is a photographer who is not really into taking pictures. In his show at the Blouin Division Gallery, he seems so over it: the pointing and clicking to capture a moment in time. In fact, you get the feeling, looking at much of the work of Yann Pocreau, that he has decided there are more than enough photographs in this world.

Yann Pocreau often uses found imagery — maybe he rummages through boxes of old snaps and negatives at vintage purveyors — and then he adjusts. He crops what he finds, blows it up, prints on reactive surfaces, floods with zones of subtle colour, double exposes, amplifies flaws and creases.

Detail of “les décalages 01-06” by Yann Pocreau

The result is a tension between form and content that hovers insistently in an appealing and unresolved push and pull. The absence of context creates a new kind of object, simultaneously empty and full of meaning. The piece shown above, for example: What is it all about? Are the family members triumphant survivors of Europe in ruins? Or, are they contented boaters on Lake Simcoe, heading to a summer of cottage renovations? Are the embedded brass diagonals defining the creases of a treasured snapshot — carried for years by someone — honoring a single happy moment prior to disaster? Or, are we shown the brass lines to emphasis the powerful, pictorial composition?

Installation view of “les décalages 01-06” by Yann Pocreau

The title of the artworks above is “les décalages.” The word “décalage” means shift. (“Découpage” is something else entirely. Don’t mix it up.) Lacking context, meaning shifts, gaze shifts and attention shifts.

“The found landscapes (stained views” by Yann Pocreau

The “found landscapes” above are washed lightly with a pale sepia. Otherwise, they are basically unaltered. There is a certain nostalgia inspired by these pictures, and an innocence around imagery. They make me think about family rituals of my childhood, where film was developed, following an outing or vacation, and the snapshots — all of them, no matter how banal — were carefully mounted and labeled in a oversized photo album with a thickly padded cover.

No amount of Photoshop editing or Instagram filters could manufacture this pair of images so rich in narrative potential, and embodying the brief summer of adolescence.

Other works are printed on surface so gleaming, slick and metallic that the original image is impossible to discern (as above.)

One of the pieces, titled “Serendipity,” above, is composed of six brass plates under plexiglass. Who knew that brass could be so dense and luxurious?

When brass corrodes, it can undergo dezincification, a process in which zinc is lost and copper is left behind. Mild dezincification may simply cause a cosmetic change, namely, the colour of the surface turning from yellow to pink, but severe dezincification can lead to the weakening of brass and even its perforation.

— Preventing and Treating the Dezincification of Brass – Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) Notes 9/13

A slight, shifting glimpse of fushia, emanating from the painted backs of the copper plates, is caught in the plexi. Maybe we are being reminded of the potential for dezincification?

Detail of “fantasme colores – tropicalia” by Yann Pocreau

In a small room at the far end of the gallery were some examples of earlier work by Yann Pocreau. In this tropical dreamscape (above) the image content is a set up for the depiction of light and colour, and the evolution of the work of this artist.

Yann Pocreau “Toward the Light” at The Image Center (Toronto Metropolitan University)

In his show at The Image Center Yann Pocreau moves even further away from what we think of as photography and slips into a kind of reverie on light itself. Subjects disappear entirely and only light is captured and admired.

“Entre le bleu la nuit: Cyanotypes exposed with lunar and solar light (9.5 hours and 45 minutes)” by Yann Pocreau

In this composition in shades of blue, Yann Pocreau uses an early percursor to photography: the cyanotype, in which various iron compounds are exposed to light and fixed with water. (Cyanotypes were used to create industrial blueprints up until very recently.)

“Les Plates Aveugle” (The Blind Plates) by Yann Pocreau

“The Blind Plates” is described as an “inkjet print with applied gold leaf.” In this case it seems irrelevant to use photography at all. It could be a minimalist painting. Why not?

Detail of “Reconciliations (Spectrums)” by Yann Pocreau

The image above was printed on silk. It shimmered very slightly when a passing viewer created a nearly imperceptible breeze.

Installation view of “*Lumière 01*” by Yann Pocreau

The gallery is dark and the sound of an old fashioned slide projector adds an ASMR element to the show. The slides are simply layers of light and go to the heart of this dreamlike exhibition. I really wished there was somewhere to take a nap in the deserted space.

Detail of “Les Impermanents” by Yann Pocreau

A installation of “pierced cabinet cards” arrayed on an extended light table is another large piece at The Image Center exhibition.

According to Wikipedia “The cabinet card was a style of photograph that was widely used for photographic portraiture after 1870.”

These fascinating cards — pictures of individuals who lived over a hundred years ago, posed with grave formality — have been pierced to display images of stellar constellations, shining through the paper in the darkened gallery. Poetic and empathetic, this piece connects on many levels.

Yann Pocreau explains it best:

My journey over the last few years has been punctuated by exhibitions whose driving force is cosmic vertigo, this new relationship to the world and its phenomena, from the Universe to the center of the Earth. Between a simple dialogue with science, with a certain existentialism, I think and produce projects that attempt to address the macro and micro links that shape and design our environment, our way of understanding it.

— Yann Pocreau

February 21, 2025

The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, at the AGO

It is definitely fun to wander through the AGO’s big, bold show about Hip Hop. The organizers illuminate multiple forms of expression, trying to get at some central defining aspect of what is described as a “musical and pop cultural movement.”

Clearly, that central something is Black culture, and the overturning of Eurocentric ideas of what can be culturally significant.

Hip Hop, in all its manifestations, may now be global, digital and corporate (absorbed and marketed so heavily, it is, like the show’s title, The culture) and yet, some unique vitality, dynamically expressed by Black, Latine, and Afro-Caribbean youth, in 1970s Bronx, endures to this day. Hip Hop continues to transform, explode and multiply, even against the backdrop of today’s bizarre political denial.

The Culture is organized around six themes: Language, Brand,
Adornment, Tribute, Pose, and Ascension.

Language

Hip-hop is intrinsically an art-form about language: the visual
language of graffiti, a musical language that includes scratching
and sampling, and, of course, the written and spoken word.

— Extracts from exhibition text

Language, in this show, starts with the spoken word. “Call and-response chants, followed by rap rhymes and lyrics overlaid on tracks, are the foundations of hip-hop music.” (Quote from the exhibition text.)

Music is playing at a decent volume throughout the AGO’s fifth floor.

You can check out the AGO playlist below:

“The Culture” Playlist is available on Spotify

The shows is sprawling, and some of the objects are traditional museum fare.

The painting by Adam Pendleton (above) has an old school graffiti feel, as per language inscribed on the street. Weirdly, there is no mention of graffiti on the Pace website showcasing the work of Adam Pendleton. His visual art is included in prestigous collections around the world and often described as relating to “process and abstraction.”

“Six Bardos: Transmigration” by Julie Mehretu

More paintings in the show, like that of Julie Mehretu (above) don’t actually contain legible language, but here too, the debt to graffiti is clear. Julie Mehretu’s dealer is the Mariam Goodman Gallery and on the Mariam Goodman website we read about the artist’s “visual articulation of contemporary experience.”

I like the way this show schools us in how to look at certain art, particularly a contemporary painting like those above, i.e they are connected to graffiti.

The Brand, Adornment and Pose sections of the exhibition get a bit intertwined, in my view. They are all about how an individual uses technological communication to define themselves in the public sphere.

Hip Hop has been around for a long time! Snoop Dog was once the personification of the cool, west coast version of the genre. He went on to host a cooking show with Martha Stewart, and recently performed at Donald Trump’s inauguration.

It’s hard to even remember a time when baggy sweatpants and sneakers were not worn everywhere, by everyone.

In fact, you could walk through any shopping mall in North America and find an endless assortment of gear attributable to some Hip Hop connection. How about that hoodie I got on sale at Old Navy?

Cardi B, the reigning Queen of Rap, is the recipient of a vast number of accolades, awards, firsts, and mosts. In this photograph by Hassan Hajjaj she confronts the camera with supreme confidence, portrayed as the “international blend of music, fashion and consumer culture” that she is.

I liked the way the show approaches the matter of pose in the hip hop, particularly as it applies to the women in this arena. Endorsements are power for women, just like for their male counterparts.

And who can forget the iconic red jacket from Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video? Apparently, the inclusion of this so-called Maya Jacket, by Moncler, in the famous video, locked in the brand’s connection to hip hop culture.

I think I prefer the more unexpected, even daring items in the show, as opposed to the merely manufactured. The piece (below) by Lauren Halsey is a good example.

Composed of layers of synthetic hair, in brilliant shades, it has an intensity and power that strikes me as so of the moment and at the same time so reminiscent of some ancient adornment.

I found one piece in the adornment section shocking.

two men seated in room — “Nation” by Deana Lawson

man with dental decoration — Detail of “Nation” by Deana Lawson

This photograph by Deama Lawson contains an inset of George Washington’s false teeth, which were made from the teeth of enslaved Black people. The cheek retractor looks like a kind of torture object me, as repellant as the set of teeth. But that’s not how Deana Lawson sees it.

There is a nobility and majesty of a lot of gold that’s worn, and how it’s appropriated in hip-hop, and how I think hip-hop actually channels ancient kingdoms.

— Deana Lawson, exhibition notes

Ascension

And, of course, you can’t talk about Hip Hop without mentioning the deathiness that hovers on the sidelines and occasionally takes center stage.

“Street Shrine 1: A Notorious Story (Biggie)” by Robert Lugo

This funerary urn featuring a graphic depiction of the Rapper Notorious BIG captures the glamourization of violent death that has haunted the world of hip hop.

Biggie Smalls was murdered in 1997 at the age of 24. According to Wikipedia, Wallace’s funeral was held at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan on March 18. There were more than 350 mourners at the funeral, including Lil’ Cease, Queen Latifah, Flavor Flav, Mary J. Blige, Lil’ Kim, Run-D.M.C., DJ Kool Herc, Busta Rhymes, Salt-N-Pepa, DJ Spinderella, Foxy Brown, and Sister Souljah. David Dinkins and Clive Davis also attended the funeral. After the funeral, his body was cremated at the Fresh Pond Crematory in Fresh Pond, Queens, and the ashes were given to his family.

October 26, 2024

Art Toronto – Canada’s Art Fair

This year’s Art Toronto — the 25th Anniversary event — exuded confidence, sophistication and depth. It was great to wander the vast expanse of the Metro Toronto Convention Center and get lost in the labyrinths and eddies of unfettered display.

There were more than 100 exhibitors. Galleries from across the country were represented. I also noticed some European and South American galleries, as well as a number from our friends in the USA.

There were many people-watching opportunities!

This vivacious, well-dressed group attended last year’s Art Toronto and were expected to return again this year, although, sadly, I did not spot them.

This exhibition has the feeling of an exciting shopping mall. What follows is a tiny and utterly subjective view of the tumult of art and commerce that is Art Toronto.

I was definitely happy to see work by favourite artists, from Toronto and elsewhere.

Carol Wainio, in her signature faded, dreamy palette, continued her exploration of haunting folklore from the distant past.

“Direction Home” by Carol Wainio was presented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art

Detail of “Direction Home” by Carol Wainio

There was some Witch Queer Volcanology on display in the form of one of the spectacular Fastwurms textile pieces.

“Sundoro” by Fastwurms was presented at Paul Petro Contemporary Art

I liked looking at the mysterious weapon, lifting off into the mist, by Wanda Koop.

“Seeway – Green with Lights” by Wanda Koop presented by Blouin Division

There were many artist’s works I had not encountered previously. I had questions.

I was trying to figure out what drew the artist, Nicholas Crombach, to this particular shade of red flocking, in his wildly complex sculptural piece. Maybe its a particular representation of vitality? Or maybe he’s referencing the way precious items are sometimes tucked away in red velvet?

I enjoyed the desolate emptiness created by the painter Ulf Puder, in this large work hovering between geometry and realism.

“Sand” by Ulf Puder, shown by Bonne Choice Gallery

The photo piece below, by Kris Munsya, has a cinematic feel of futuristic mutation occuring in a lush, tropical site. I want to know more!

“Airplane Mode – Genetic Bomb” by Kris Munsya exhibited by Galerie Robertson Ares

I was in awe of this extra large lino cut print, produced on hand-made gampy paper. The giant print, by Alex Kumiko Hatanak, was part of an installation at the McMichael Gallery booth.

“Faultines and Loneliness” by Alex Kumiko Hatanaka

Detail of “Faultines and Loneliness” by Alex Kumiko Hatanaka

This photo of a house was fascinating. It looked a lot like a green monopoly piece. I learned it was part of something called the Lenora Drive Project, in which a Willowdale developer allowed artists to get creative with a half dozen condemmed bungalows.

“Title Deed” by An Te Liu presented by Bonne Choice

It took me a while to figure out that An Te Liu, the artist responsible for “Title Deed,” is the same artist who makes the very appealing sculptures, shown at Blouin Division last year.

“Broken Window” by Anahita Norouzi shown by Nicholas Roberts Gallery

Anahita Norouzi‘s photo piece made me want to know more about this barren landscape and the spectacular explosion implanted there.

Detail of “Broken Window” by Anahita Norouzi

There were some special shows put together by individual curators, including a “Focus Exhibition” titled ‘the place to which we return.’ It was described as engaging viewers with ideas of “home” and what that notion means to them.

The painting above, by Marigold Santos, was part of the “Focus Exhibition.” It was quite stunning to stand before this painting and bask in the field of yellow. The painting of a corpse dissolving into a landscape, although fascinating and intricate, is almost incidental to this powerful sweep of colour.

Detail of “Regrounding” by Marigold Santos

Artwork by Renee Condo presented by Blouin Division

Another piece in the Focus Exhibit is this one by Renee Condo. I’d seen the big, beautiful beadwork pieces by Renee Condo before, at the Blouin Division space. They have a joyful, high-octane buzz and effectively pull beadwork into a contemporary space.

“There Are No Footprints Where I go” by Meryl McMaster

In many indigenous cultures crows are valued for their intelligence and spiritual significance. They are seen as messengers from the spirit world, holders of universal wisdom, and protectors against evil forces.

This piece by Meryl McMaster, also part of the Focus Exhibition, has a quiet power and mystery.

Detail of “There Are No Footprints Where I go” by Meryl McMaster

See more about crows here.

August 14, 2024

Portraits as Portals: Psychic Mediums Read Unknown Artists

A Project by Jennifer Fisher and Jim Drobnick at Art Windsor-Essex

I have learned that we are all psychic to some degree. Call it premonition, gut feeling, hunch, sixth sense, intuition — we all have it. A medium, however, is a psychic person who has special abilities, in particular, the ability to communicate with beings on the other side of life, i.e. they function as a door or portal to those residing in the spirit world.

Jennifer Fisher and Jim Drobnick, also known as the collaborative entity DisplayCult, go deep into the world of the psychic medium to explore the etheric energy that resides in an artwork. Rummaging through their own collection as well as distant corners of the basement of Art Windsor-Essex (AWE) the artists selected seven portraits by unknown artists and presented them to psychic mediums for a “reading.”

What ensues is a sort of Russian doll series of portraits.

Portrait by Unknown Artist from the Art Windsor-Essex collection. This was one of the portraits used in the exhibition Portraits as Portals. This portrait, in particular, had a disturbing impact on more than one of the psychic mediums.

First, we have the actual portraits. These pictures are at various levels of skill and sophistication. They are mostly oil paintings on canvas or board. There is at least one embroidery, shown below.

Portrait by Unknown Artist from the Art Windsor-Essex collection. This was one of the portraits used in the exhibition Portraits as Portals.

All the portraits share a certain charm, as well as poignancy. Perhaps it’s because of their status as abandoned, forgotten works. Like all art, they hold a power, a tightly coiled energy, as they encapsulate a physical remnant of an individual’s creative journey, no matter how distant in time.

The second set of portraits is provided through the psychic medium’s descriptions of the artists, the creators of these unknown items.

Installation view of Portraits as Portals exhibition, shows a psychic medium and the portrait she is reading.

We might learn what the artist looked like, what they were wearing, their state of mind, their reasons for doing this particular work, where they were physically, and, where they were in terms of their place in society. We might learn about their feelings and various problems, like depression or debt, or any combination of the preceding.

How a psychic medium acquires or develops these skills is baffling to me.

Excerpt of video of psychic medium, from Portraits as Portals exhibition

The psychic medium gazes at a portrait, with intensity, and soon enough, a message, or a vision, is received. We learn, for example, “…he may have used alcohol to avoid his feelings coming up..,” or, “…he actually didn’t want to do this…”

Show above is one of the psychic mediums from the Portraits as Portals exhibition. “This individual had a very strong political stance,” she notes.

Concurrently, the viewer is looking at the video portraits of the psychic mediums themselves.

I suppose the group of psychic mediums depicted here, is fairly average, in terms of looks, dress and demeanour. My sense is, this could be any random twelve people on the Dufferin bus, at rush hour.

Show above is one of the psychic mediums from the Portraits as Portals exhibition. This woman was distraught because various dark feelings she picked up from one of the portraits.

The videos are definitely a spectacular element of this exhibition. Giant, ultra high resolution, flat screen monitors are placed vertically, snug against the gallery walls, each displaying a mesmerizing, nearly life-size, image of a psychic medium against a dark background. The psychic medium’s voice emerges from directional speakers placed in the ceiling, so that the viewer, seated on a low bench, is enveloped by sound and image.

Installation view “Portals as Portraits: Psychic Mediums Read Unknown Artists”

And finally, we have the largest Russian doll, the fourth portrait, the meta portrait, which suggests a society in transition and upheaval, one recoiling from the spectacle of war, fearful of looming climate change, technological transformation, and one where an interest in psychics, and all manner of paranormal gifts, is on the rise. This interest in psychic phenomenon was particularly strong during the pandemic and continues today.

I was very excited to get to this absorbing exhibition and to think about the lasting power of objects. The Arts Windsor-Essex, new to me, is a true contemporary art venue. On another floor was an exhibition called Love Languages with works by Erika de Frietas and David Bobier among others and I was fortunate to take that in too.

Installation view of Love Languages, detail of piece by Erika deFreitas

Just across the river, of course, lies the Detroit Institute for the Arts, and the stunning Diego Rivera murals, room upon room filled with Picassos, Cezannes and Van Goghs, a sprawling current show of work by Tiff Massey. And just a few blocks away is the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD,) which currently has a show by the US-based, Botswana-born artist and educator Meloko Megosi.

*Space of Subjection: Black Painting V*, 2022 by Meloko Megosi

It’s a four hour drive.

May 5, 2024

DECADE: 10 Years of Creation at Youngplace

Beleaguered, in decline, challenged, crumbling, struggling…. These are some of the words used in the local press and social media to describe the current state of the Toronto art scene. There are many reasons: the pandemic screwed everything up, capricious corporations pulled funding, everything is turned into a condo tower, money just keeps flowing upwards, and a glass of wine costs twenty dollars. But is there something more fundamental going on, could it be the nature of Late Stage Capitalism!?

Painting by Ruth Adler — Assemblage by Ruth Adler from “DECADE” at Koffler Centre for the Arts

In this context, seeing the exhibition at Koffler Center for the Arts was not just fun, uplifting and hopeful, but also illustrative of the importance of artist’s spaces in this city. The Koffler Center is housed in the Youngplace building, which opened as a cultural center in 2014 and is currently one of the Artscape facilities in Receivership. All the artists in the show are, or were, until recently, part of the Youngplace community.

The stated goal of the exhibition is to shine a light on Youngplace: “this iconic arts hub.”

Lining the wall of the entrance to DECADE are fabric and paint assemblages by Ruth Adler. This artwork strikes me as generous, open and approachable. It’s all about surface and shape, colour, pattern and movement. It feels light-hearted and celebratory, and I really like the way this artist repurposes materials.

Ruth Adler has had a studio at Youngplace for 10 years. This fact reminded me of the documentary about Brian Eno I saw this week, at the annual Hot Docs Film Festival. (Actually it was more of a film experience, created using generative technology.) Toward the conclusion of this event Brian Eno talked a lot about the importance of creative ecologies, as opposed to the myth of the solitary genius. I assume this idea of creative community applies to all the artists in this show.

Although she works with many different kinds of materials, Ruth Adler thinks of herself as a painter. Matthew Schofield is another painter in the show. Whenever I see paintings by this artist it feels like he’s tapping into my own memory banks. That’s because he delves into the arena of quirky personal snapshots, family pictures, keepsakes, memorials that are entirely personal, and yet, universal.

Paintings by Matthew Schofield — Painting and detail by Matthew Schofield

These beautiful paintings are tiny, some just 4″x 4.” They are identical in size to the original snapshots. They have a glittering, gemlike quality which is quite mesmerizing. I want to get closer and closer to them, and peer into the captured moments.

It was very exciting to see the work of Midi Onodera. This artist has some interesting relationships with machines.

Excerpt from Soliliquy bny Midi Onodera

The excerpt above is a hilarious interaction between the artist and a chatbot named Faux Midi.

There is a lot of literature on line these days about how chatbots and GPT entities are prone to all kinds of malfeasance. They are liars, people pleasers who will say anything just to keep talking. They are prone to hallucinations. They can easily be hypnotised to spout misinformation. In other words, these things can’t be trusted! Some of the exchanges between Midi Onodera and Faux Midi make this fact abundantly clear.

The other piece by Midi Onodera was produced especially for the exhibition and weaves together colorized, moving mages of the corridors and stairways of the Youngplace site at 180 Shaw Street. It was wonderful to look at until I started feeling seasick.

Excerpt of 2397 by Midi Onodera

Speaking of weaving, textiles played a big role in the DECADE show.

I was obliged to read the catalogue to know what I was looking at when I viewed the elegant, attenuated weavings by Shabnam K. Ghazi. In fact, these wall hangings are composed of shredded paper which has been woven into a fragile, delicate fabric. The recombined paper contains screenprinted depictions of the artist’s writings, describing her earliest memories.

Wall hangings — Artwork by Shabnam K. Ghazi

In this convoluted, painstaking process the artist has found a way to physically manifest her language and her earliest recollections.

Two pieces by Barbara Astman are in the show. One is a lovely tapestry in muted tones. It takes a while to recognize the fragments of contemporary glamour, fashion and advertising imagery in this piece. The form of tapestry, a traditionally female pursuit, originated in Ancient Egypt. Tapestry weave pieces, using linen, were found in the tombs of both Thutmose IV (d. 1391 or 1388 BC) and Tutankhamen (c. 1323 BC.)

The other piece by this artist is a collage using news feed type imagery. I really like the way Barbara Astman uses the pictures we are relentlessly bombarded with everyday and repurposes them for her own amusement.

Detail of “Daily Collage” by Barbara Astman

Massive quilts by Carolyn Murphy are on display. They take quilting, another so-called feminine art, into the realm of spare and airy abstraction. These quilts have a Russian Constructivist vibe. The very appealling texture is created by the dense stitching which ambles every which way in curving patterns. It was a good move by the Koffler gallery to place a large sign nearby, stating the obvious: Do Not Touch.

Among my favourite artworks in this show were the paintings by Gillian Iles. She has created a sprawling installation composed of about eight separate paintings, produced on Tyvek and other materials, tied and stretched haphazardly. The installation resembles a temporary dwelling or encampment, ramshackle, derelict and unsafe.

Within this structure, Gillian Iles has strewn intense images: Light blasts a tiny, vulnerable tent under the arch of a heavy black night sky; a wrecked, abandoned vehicle is overgrown with random vegetation; a fire nearly out of control towers over onlookers; and — is it dawn or more flames? — something is blazing fiercely through a hidden path in the woods.

Detail of “All and Nothing” by Gillian Iles

David Liss, the esteemed director/curator of MOCCA, curated the exhibition. In a video loop playing in the gallery he talks about how interacting with art — not on line but in real life — is essential to the human experience. He invites visitors to the show to celebrate Artscape Youngplace and the decade since it was founded, and to “consider and imagine what the next decade will look like.”

February 28, 2024

Judy Chicago: HERSTORY at the New Museum, NYC

In one of the pieces from her massive retrospective at the New Museum — covering sixty years of art making — Judy Chicago invites us to consider a simple question: What if Women Ruled the World? The responses are compiled in a sprawl of hopeful texts, manifest in needlework, that most feminine of forms.

“There would be no wars.” “The Earth would be saved by humanity instead of being destroyed by it.” “The first step would be to abolish gender norms and deconstruct the entire hetero-patriarchal, racist and classist system that surrounds us.” “Not one mass shooter in the US was female.” “There is no need for violence when we use our hearts.”

In anyone else’s hands this piece might come off as naive or reductive, but there is something about Judy Chicago’s method — what she refers to as “call and response” collaboration — through which she is able to harnass an outpouring of honesty from many participants. The result is that the artwork has a powerful impact. It is urgent and exciting.

Installation view of “What If Women Ruled the World” by Judy Chicago

Detail of “What if Women Ruled the World” by Judy Chicago

This is a big show, going all the way back to painted car hoods Judy Chicago produced in the mid sixties.

Installation view of Herstory by Judy Chicago

And then there were the wonderful smoke performances from the seventies.

But these early artworks are not the reason for Judy Chicago’s giant retrospective at the New Museum.

“Herstory” will showcase Chicago’s tremendous impact on American art and highlight her critical role as a cultural historian claiming space for women artists previously omitted from the canon.
New Museum description of Judy Chicago: Herstory

It is this role as a cultural historian which Judy Chicago fully inhabits in her artwork called “City of Ladies.” The piece is a show-within-a-show in which nearly ninety artworks by notable women from history are on display.

Installation view “The City of Ladies” by Judy Chicago

Hilma af Klint, *Group IX/UW, The dove, no.2* (1915) from “The City of Ladies”

Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein), *Portrait of Miss E.M. Craig* (1920) from “The City of Ladies”

In an interview about “The City of Ladies” Judy Chicago often mentions a certain “Christine.” It took me a while to figure out she meant Christine de Pizan, who wrote “The Book of the City of Ladies” in 1404. Christine de Pizan lived from 1365 to 1430 and is thought to be the author of some of the very first feminist pieces of literature.

From compendium of Christine de Pizan’s works.
Shows the author lecturing to a group of men. Created in her scriptorium in Paris in 1413.

A brochure provided by the New Museum is a compendium of the women included in the show, and contains a short but detailed biography of each: Hilma af Klint, Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Elizabeth Catlett, Emily Dickinson, Artemisia Gentieschi, Zora Neale Hurston…among many others.

Wounded Deer, by Frida Kahlo (1946) from “The City of Ladies”

As Judy Chicago says: “If you bring Judy Chicago into the museum, you bring women’s history into the museum.”

“The International Honor Quilt,” another “call and response” project, is composed of 539 individual triangular quilts, produced by women from around the world. Each triangle celebrates a woman, a women’s group or a feminist issue, and together they create a joyful depiction of global female solidarity.

Installation view “The International Honor Quilt” by Judy Chicago

Detail of “The International Quilt of Honor” by Judy Chicago

Mostly global icons, like Queen Elizabeth II, are represented, but there are also lots of obscure women’s groups and a few mythological, religious, fictional women make the cut, for example: Deborah, Demeter, Eve, Isis, Nancy Drew, Persephone, Virgin Mary and, weirdly, the Loch Ness Monster.

Parts of the show seem too binary. Are all women good because they can give birth and all men are evil warmongers? That part of the show — despite the beauty of the massive collaborative tapestries — struck me as an illustration of the limits of second wave feminism.

I prefered looking at her most recent work, where she meditates on death and the climate crisis.

But wait, the big thing, the thing I heard about for decades, the thing that defines Judy Chicago — “The Dinner Party” — was not there. It was a ghostly presence throughout, constantly referenced, but absent.

I was obliged to journey to Brooklyn, change to the 2/3 at Hoyt, past Grand Army Plaza and The Botanic Gardens, onward, to Eastern Parkway and the stately Brooklyn Museum, where Judy Chicago’s famous work is permanently lodged.

Entrance to “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago at the Brookly Museum

Detail of “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago

It was a long trip, but it was worth it.

October 19, 2023

Inter/Access:

Remember Tomorrow – A Telidon Story

There was a warm, fuzzy feeling at Inter/Access on the evening of October 19, 2023. The organization was celebrating 40 years as a center dedicated to expanding the cultural significance of art and technology.

Before that evening I did not know that Inter/Access was originally named Toronto Community Videotex or TCV, and that it was first set up as a non-profit, artist run corporation to provide tools for artists using Telidon.

Yes, Telidon. The Telidon program, a television-based information-sharing system that allowed users to browse computer databases, was developed by the long gone Canadian government department called the CRC (Communications Research Center.) The program began officially on August 15, 1978 and ended on March 31, 1985.

“Transmitting Information over Telephone Lines,” diagram from Inter/Access website.

Wandering around the show I got the feeling the Telidon developers were so close to something, groping around in the virtual landscape — blindly, unable to quite make it happen — but knowing, absolutely, they were there, at the beginning of something.

Telidon was a proto-type for the Internet. It was a 24/7 source for information. All you needed, as a user, was a Telidon terminal and a keypad. It was interactive! I think it was the interactivity part that really got the original Telidon artists hooked.

Detail of “She Seemed to be in Transit” by Johanne Daoust, produced using Telidon

The concept of simultaneity was another idea that was intoxicating to artists. Toronto gallerist Paul Petro, one of the original founders of TCV and an artist using Telidon, spoke during the evening about the excitement of hosting an art opening in three different cities, at the same time!

An early “selfie” created with Telidon by Paul Petro

The images created with Telidon have a blythe, cheerful, pop art look. They are rendered in time as layers load and intersect in a satisfying, somewhat hypnotic, display.

Installation view of “Remember Tomorrow – A Telidon Story” at Inter/Access

This exhibition explores the allure of Eighties hardware and, well, I guess you could call it lifestyle. Big television sets that look like credenzas, potted palms and wow, orange shag have been lovingly installed in the Inter/Access gallery.

Lots of obsolete hardware is on display. By lifting a telephone receiver and pressing “rewind” and then “play” on a tape deck the gallery visitor can listen to interviews with participating artists. (Unfortunately several of the taped interviews had been inadvertently erased during the exhibition because users were unaware of the lost art of “removing the tab” from a cassette tape to prevent just this type of mishap.)

The exhibition catalog, put together by curator Shauna Jean Doherty, contains the most endearing story about the Telidon artworks selected for the Venice Biennale of 1986. Created on a series of floppy disks and “playable only using specialized hardware” the artworks were indeed shipped to Italy for the big show, but because of technical difficulties they were never put on view, and instead sat in a cardboard box for four decades.

The whole show has a sort of elegiac feel to it. Maybe it’s about mourning the loss of innocence in regard to technology.

The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is or has been is but the twilight of the dawn…”
Douglas Parkhill, one of the father’s of Telidon, quoting HG Wells in a report chronicling Telidon’s history, from the exhibition catalogue.

The developers definitely did have a romantic view of that brief, Telidon moment. There were some catchy words and phrases that picked up the “beginning of the beginning” vibe and quickly rose and fell: Whatever happened to “informatics,” “Instant World,” “Telematic Culture” or the “Information Paradigm?”

Detail of Installation view, “Tomorrow Remembered – A Telidon Story” at Inter/Access

But it hasn’t all disappeared. Thanks to John Durno, head of Library Systems at the University of Victoria, an operational Telidon decoder does exist and numerous Telidon artworks have been restored and are ready to be returned to Venice for a conference this year.

“Telidon Commercial,” Telidon image by Don Lindsay

1983..1983…1983…? To be honest, I can’t recall anything specific about that fateful year. Fortunately we now have the Internet to fill in the blanks:

In 1983:
The metric system of weights and measures was officially adopted by the Canadian federal government.
25 Red Brigades were sentenced to life for kidnapping and murdering Italian Christian Democrat politician Aldo Moro in 1978.
Singer and drummer of The Carpenters, Karen Carpenter, died from complications caused by eating disorder anorexia nervosa, age 32.
Though already available in Japan and Europe, Sony and Philips released their CD players in the US and Canada. Though a compact disc player costs over $1000, they prove to be extremely popular.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller went to number 1 in the US 200 Billboard album charts for 37 weeks, setting a world record for the amount of time an album stays at number 1.
Astronauts Peterson and Musgrave perform the first spacewalk of the shuttle program during NASA’s STS-6 mission. The spacewalk lasts over four hours.
Israel and Lebanon sign an agreement to take a step towards peace.
The Internet took a step towards its creation as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was moved to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol).
Arcade game Mario Bros. was released in Japan. The arcade game, produced by Nintendo paved the way for future Mario games to become one of Nintendo’s greatest creations.

September 23, 2023

Erika DeFreitas at Doris McCarthy Gallery: “It’s because of the shimmer, the verge, and the yet.”

In her short remarks at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, Erika DeFreitas explained the title of her current exhibition. She mentioned that “the shimmer” refers to the spiritual; by “the verge” she means the beginning, and “the yet” for her, is the future.

I really like the idea of “the shimmer” in particular. It’s so vague and yet so evocative of something delicate, fleeting and gorgeous, and as I wandered through the show I found the “shimmer” discernable in many of the works on display. Erika DeFreitas explores what could be called the paranormal, with a light, but sure, touch.

For one thing, she communicates with the dead. In particular, she gets in touch with deceased female artists. During the pandemic lockdowns, Erika DeFreitas describes herself as “conversing” with Agnes Martin, by re-creating a series of approximations of Agnes Martin’s quintessential line drawings.

Picture of line drawing — Detail of art piece by Erika deFreitas titled “the responsibility of the response (in conversation with Agnes Martin)

Another long deceased presence in the show is that of Gertrude Stein, who died in 1946. Erika DeFreitas considers her ongoing series of sculptural works titled “(if you look closely she moves)” as a kind of response to the 1922 play by Gertrude Stein called Objects Lie on a Table.

…DeFreitas asked a psychic medium to request Stein’s permission to collaborate. The medium informed DeFreitas that Stein has been working with her all along.
List of works from the exhibition: description of (if you look closely she moves)

Assemblage by Erika DeFreitas titled *(if you closely she moves)*

Death is a recurrent subject for this artist.

I really liked looking at the piece she did using individual obituaries clipped from newspapers and preserved using beeswax.

Detail of art work by Erika DeFreitas titled *“In Lieu of”*

The tiny stacks, obsessively ordered, have a tombstone like quality. The viewer is compelled to read the text and gaze at the photos of long dead strangers, sort of like wandering through the Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Erika DeFreitas is a little more playful when she collaborates with her mother, Cita, or channels her deceased grandmother, Angela.

Picture of series of photographs showing decorated faces — Photo series by Erika DeFreitas titled *“The Impossible Speech Act”*

decorated face — Detail of “The Impossible Speech Act” by Erika DeFreitas

In the photo series above, Erika DeFreitas and her mother have created “death masks” using cake decorating techniques passed down from Angela. The icing sugar hardens but gradually melts against warm (living) flesh.

Apparently Erika DeFreitas’ grandmother, a Trinidadian, would adorn statues of Black Madonnas with jewelry and gorgeous fabrics. Her granddaughter has continued this practice with a contemporary twist.

Detail from *“The Black Madonna of Great Echoes”* by Erika DeFreitas

Another long deceased artist that interests Erika deFreitas is Jeanne Duval. (It’s a long story.) There’s a big, complicated piece in the show, featuring many large photographs, and its all about a painting by Gustave Courbet. The full title of this painting is: The Painter’s Studio: A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life. It was painted in 1855 and currently is located in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France.

Courbet was a leader of the Realist movement and a rebel against the prevailing cliched Romanticism of the day. Apparently, he was always in political trouble in France and ultimately had to disappear to Switzerland, where he died at the age of 58.

Erika deFreitas focuses on a portrait that is missing from this very famous and massive picture. (It was more than 19 feet wide.) She has done some careful research and found that Jeanne Duval was erased from the picture. Jeanne Duval was Baudelaire’s girlfriend. When they had a fight, the poet — Courbet’s champion — demanded her likeness be removed.

Detail of art work by Erika DeFreitas titled *“arriver savant moi, devant moi”*

Photographs of paintings and hands — Detail of art work by Erika DeFreitas titled *“arriver savant moi, devant moi”*

Erika DeFreitas gets deeply into this erasure. It holds a lot of meaning for her. The piece is like a detective’s notes revealing how the artist gets closer and closer to something. To me, although I liked looking at the images and thinking about how things were, this does strike me as art world gossip from about 170 years ago.

photo of Baudelaire and Jeanne Duval — Baudelaire and Jeanne Duval

It’s kind of great, however, that the painting, shown below, is still stirring people up, all these years later.