I have never, in my entire life, been in a gallery more paranoid, imposing, and oppressive. It was horrendous.

There were no docents (although coloured circles on the ground, well, two of them in the whole gallery, indicated a time when one could listen to a specimen of these mythical beasts talk for ten minutes – I never saw any however. Unicorns they are, museum docents) – only security guards. And they were everywhere. I was never out of sight of at least two at any given moment in the entire gallery, I’d even hazard there were at least two guards for every display area. They were discomforting, intrusive, sometimes overtly rude, occasionally disgustingly fragrant, and generally a complete scar on the gallery itself and my experience as a patron.

If you took the paintings down from the wall, you’d think yourself in an overly spacious labyrinthine prison.

(on that note – there’s no need for locked doors and prison bars when the layout of your gallery is impossible to navigate, and the only outward-looking porthole-like windows view nothing but the same internal concrete and steel architecture. Landmarks are “out the window”, only, they aren’t, actually. Wordplay!)

As a representation of art in Canada, our official representation, our collection, the thing we hold up to the world – it was just plain horrible.

Photography wise it was pretty disappointing as well. Made in America 1900-1950 had its share of nice works, some quite iconic, but ultimately largely forgettable. There was a series of small landscapes photos by Minor White that was quite unique, because in the midst of the some sixteen images were two idealized photos of a male youth in the landscape – clearly an object of desire – and I’d have photos here of that to show if I wasn’t accosted by security the moment I lifted my camera.

I wondered why they wouldn’t even allow photos without the flash, and then realized the simple truth: if I take photos, I won’t buy their FIFTY FUCKING DOLLAR EXHIBITION CATALOG. FUCK. YOU.

Which brings up another ridiculous point – the bookstore. What a waste of space. It’s a glorified giftshop with overpriced art books you can find for a fraction of the cost in the bargain book area of Chapters or Indigo, alongside even more overpriced trinkets and bullshit tourist crap. There’s even an entire section filled with cookbooks. COOK BOOKS. IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY BOOKSTORE.

What a fucking waste of space.

You might gather I’m a little irritated, with all the swearing. You would be right. And no, diplomacy is out the window right now.

Amusingly, their website doesn’t have a page for the other exhibition of photography I saw, which had something to do with “land” in the title, and was largely landscape works. A few were quite excellent, but some was pretty shoddy and I really questioned why they were being displayed – I’m teaching students to take some critical rigour with their printing, to evaluate if an image can be printed as large as they want and retain detail, and I’m seeing shit in the National Gallery over-printed for no good reason and lacking any and all detail, it might as well be a cafeteria mural.

(and no, it wasn’t meant to be a reference to cafeteria murals. It was just bad art.)

Janet Cardiff’s work was fantastic, beautiful, well worth the drive to see. For some odd reason however they chose to display several examples of silver pots and dinnerwear in the chapel, which vibrated during the performance of the work and rang. That was strange.

Voice of Fire was underwhelming, glared by bad lighting, and displayed in a manner contrary to what the plaque accompanying the work claimed was how it was intended to be shown.

There was no bench or pew in front of their Rothko. Heresy!

And apart from some interesting polaroid works, no significant contemporary photography to speak of. You’d think they’d have a Jeff Wall or a Gregory Crewdson or I dunno, every major gallery has a Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opie right? Right? I guess not.

Despite my foray into art imprisonment, I managed to snag shots of David Altmedj’s Vessel of 2011. That was exciting. And here said photos be:

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/microsite/d800/index.htm

Sample images:

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d800/sample02.htm

… I’ll be getting the D800E. Perhaps I’ll ramble on the subject later. Thank you nikonrumors.com!

“Reopening of the South Fork Bridge after flood in Nov. 1940 / 1941” at the Bralorne-Pioneer Museum in British Columbia, Canada

This is a bit random, but How To Be A Retronaut is an easy way to be sucked into a web-blackhole for hours at a time. I came across the above image today, here’s the original post:

http://www.retronaut.co/2010/04/photograph-of-a-time-traveler/

He even seems to be holding a fairly modern camera. Amazing.

Yes, there’s a million other explanations, and photoshop works miracles these days, but the world needs more irrational flights of fantasy. Also, neutrinos seem to be getting a lot of speeding tickets these days.

Well – Charles contacted me, and he has a new website! So please check out http://www.sofabeast.com/ and all it’s photographic and design goodness, there’s some fantastic work there.

Thanks again Charles!

The Dismemberment of a Shoggoth (The Once and Future King)

I felt a bit like I was rushing this post, but it being Halloween, it seemed appropriate.

The Dismemberment of a Shoggoth is the first work I’ve executed in a larger series, at present titled The Once and Future King. I would have liked to have had the full artist-statement on the series completed when I posted this image, but it’s still in the works, but meanwhile, here’s a snippet:

Referencing T.H. White’s portrayal of Merlin as a being who experiences time backwards to normal reality, “The Once And Future King” serves as working-title for a large body of work documenting a series of strange, seemingly unconnected events whose causal mechanisms exist outside of normal time and space. While we are privileged to the ‘effects’ described by these events – the disappearance of a student from an abandoned Jeep, a garage where some monstrous Lovecraftian terror emerged and was summarily dispatched, a paradox of a time-travelling book – the ‘cause’ of these events seems entirely unknowable. The events themselves play across a fictional timeline, punctuated by a system of signifiers drawn from actual reality and historical reference.
Playing with the compression of time on a narrative scale, characters stand in the moment, posing, proud, as if in foreknowledge of the future-historical significance of their present context, a hypothetical “spark event” for a cataclysm yet to come.  The prophetic mode here references, inversely, the truism “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”; within these narratives, history has already predetermined a far-flung future disaster, and while the immediate causal mechanisms of these seemingly random events is unknowable, the certainty of their eventual impact becomes quite monstrous.

Ideally, when complete, the work will be printed around 60″x90″, and funds permitting, on big beautiful lightboxes. I have included some detail shots below to show the level of “readability” present when viewing the work in person, but I’m hesitant to post a full-resolution zoom.it version at present for a variety of reasons.

More props to the Propnomicon for being an essential resource in the creation of various bloods, goo and otherwise disgusting elements for the scene. Also thanks to my buddy Jer who made me a nice tub of gelatinous congealed grossness he whimsically referred to as “thickened water”. And, as always, my brother for posing for me, and my family for tolerating this level of insanity in their own garage.

Happy Halloween everyone!

River's Journal

River and the Doctor, both time travellers, encounter each other out of sequence – most typically, the Doctor’s future is River’s past. Eventually both keep a journal, and upon meeting, compare notes to figure out “where they are” in each other’s timeline.

This was the first journal I’ve made that I hard-bound, and it turned out fairly well I think, given the need to emulate the distressed quality of the original:

I’ve been using clearance sketchbooks as a source of cheap, good quality paper for these little journals. It seems a little odd buying a sketchbook, removing the spiral binding (thank god for my stack cutter), and then using the paper to sew and rebind new signatures, but I like the hand-binding process a great deal and I can’t seem to find reams of paper of the same quality for that kind of price. I might be insane.

The rest was matte board and quilting fabric and various odd papers and such, with some acrylic paint to finish.

A few of the resources from which I self-taught on the subject:

Hamish MacDonald’s “DIY Book” blog and podcast – covers the complete self-publishing process from novel-writing to bookbinding to distribution. I originally stumbled upon Hamish via his No Media Kings tutorial on a do-it-yourself-book-press.

MRX Designs – excellent resource for bookbinding and prop-making techniques, which I found via The Propnomicon

Ceropegia’s videos on bookbinding – they’re a little out of order (ok, a lot out of order), and the titles require a bit of knowledge of bookbinding language to decipher, but I learned a whole ton watching these vids.

The previously-mentioned-and-constructed work involving the killing room is almost complete, I’ll post something with a bit of an artist statement as soon as it’s finished-finished. The past nine weeks a litter of seven puppies has been destroying any and all time available for serious “work”.

The final piece has a fair bit of work left to it, so I don’t want to discuss it much until it’s complete, but I included a preview at the end. Also, there’s zoom.it links along the way if you’d like to see the full-resolution images in all their excessive detail.

Edit: I’ve now written this post six times over. Images keep vanishing or text starts inexplicably moving into the image ‘captions’. This is a bit frustrating, hopefully this will finally work.

http://zoom.it/RkRp

The door has a lot of history (and claw marks), and the sawhorses usually support the soft-top for the jeep; I used three cheap halogen worklamps for lighting (two 500w and one clip-on 250w), and an old trouble light, which worked quite well.

http://zoom.it/kpIx

Cheap lightweight painter’s plastic sheeting – not the heavyduty stuff, so it wasn’t exactly durable (or wind proof), but it was cheap and cheerful. Shockingly, duct tape doesn’t adhere very well to old, dusty wood, but it still functioned well as a liner for the plastic through which I drove many a nail. The arrangement was meant to be haphazard and minimal at best, but still afford for some easy cleanup (which it did, beautifully). This shoot was at night, I shot it all again to check the lighting during the day, and fix some focus issues the night shoot highlighted.

Apparently half the text of this post is now missing. Awesome. Here’s the above scene shot the next day, with day light:

http://zoom.it/7tE5

The light from the window and entrance (behind the camera) provides some nice fill light, and I fixed a few of the focus/framing/depth of field issues that occurred in the night shots. Finally, adding some of the props and objects that would be in the final shoot:

http://zoom.it/OLDR

Good clean fun. Here’s a preview of the not-so-clean-fun:

dismembering an eldritch horror

I have to credit The Propnomicon as an invaluable resource on all things fake-blood and goo related. I ended up using a simple recipe of green-coloured detergent mixed with india ink and charcoal powder for the majority of the ‘wet’ goo, the best part was it cleaned up real quick with just the hose and some occasional scrubbing. My buddy Jer provided some thicker, heavier material you can see on the axe head and elsewhere in the piece that he described as “basically thickened water” – I’ll see if I can coax the recipe out of him, but given he works at a specialty lab for custom rubbers and resins, I imagine the ingredients aren’t over-the-counter. It was delightfully thick and gross however.

The whole shebang cleaned up like a proper Dexter-style kill room too, in about ten minutes, and that was just peachy.

Hopefully the final work will be ready in a week or two, right now all the finer adjustments and brain surgery are on the agenda.

Garage interior, composite test shoot

I’ve dedicated this week to executing a piece I’ve been planning for some time now, and finally things have mostly fallen into place to get it done. It’s part of a larger series of images which I’ll discuss later, but this one is situated inside my garage, so some cleaning and test-shoots have been needed. Above is the third composite test-shoot of the area I’m going to set up the narrative scene in; there’s just over 30 frames making up the final composite. I’ve posted some details below the cut, but if you’d like to explore the image on your own, my friend Jason linked me to zoom.it as a means of posting these large images, so feel free to check out the full-res image via their site at http://zoom.it/tJ4o (couldn’t get it to embed here, any suggestions are most welcome). Again, this isn’t the final work, just a technical test shoot to iron out some problems.

Tentative schedule has the final bloody shoot finished on friday or saturday, hoping a rough cut can be posted early next week. Details below!

garage interior - detail 1

garage interior - detail 2

garage interior - detail 3

Vladimir Putin

Stephen Harper

Vladimir Putin is starting his election year by touring on a motorbike, with Russian motorcycle club The Night Wolves, who were instrumental in the rescue of children and families from war-torn areas during WWII. This man is the coolest dude in world politics, bar none.

And yes, I feel like I’ve polluted this blog by putting a photo of Harper here.

All that being said, the few photos that have emerged from Putin’s tour are pretty interesting from a somewhat analytical viewpoint. Most are at night, most of the vehicles are in black, and he really does look like a proud leader of a motorcycle gang parading across his conquered territory.

Flags and banners, a lack of visible security or bullet screens; there’s a brazenness to it that’s both intimidating and likely ‘inspiring’ of power, all of which softened by the idea that he’s travelling with WWII veterans who rescued children. Not to mention the delicious “pack” mentality that is no doubt infectious to those he’s riding with and visiting. There’s a fairly interesting adaptive form of nationalism at work here, signified by the flags, but masked by motorcycle culture and compassionate military history, and I’d say a little sense of rebellion. Probably more than I have time to write here about, but I’ll be keeping an eye on Mr. Putin. Clever and stylish!

The Warhols - Dandy Gangs: A working-class love story

This past week I had the pleasure of serving as still photographer for Derek Liddington’s Dandy Gangs: A working-class love story .  Derek’s statement for the performance:

“The performance Dandy Gangs: a working-class love story looks at possible repetitions founded in dandy, hip hop, punk, rock n’ roll and gang aesthetics. Consistent with my interest in melding popular histories and autobiographical moments I have borrowed locations from hangouts I had as a youth growing up in Mississauga, including Mississauga’s Civic Centre and Kariya Park. At scheduled times knowing and unknowing audiences will watch as two groups of dancers and tenors interact through operatic song and dance choreography based on early Fluxus happenings, scenes from West Side Story and operatic interpretations of early 90’s hip hop music. Viewers will watch as opposing dandy-gangs entangle in scenarios of territorial misunderstanding, conflict, tension and resolution expressed through a Fluxus-dance-rock-opera. Gang members will be presented as caricatures melding fashions and attitudes borrowed from the flâneur, dandy and punk; likening the performers to the cultural phenomenon of flash-mobs.” (http://derekliddington.com/section/245097_Dandy_Gangs_A_Working_Class_Love_Story.html)

The two featured gangs were The Warhols (pictured above) and The Stallones, each with a distinctive uniform and their own gang leaders, all wearing masks of their respective namesakes. The outfits were meticulously constructed, with metal studs outlining the gang names on the backs of the clothing (I can’t imagine what all this cost to have made). Wigs were similarly used to distinguish the gangs, and in the same manner, the gang leaders, who had beautiful leather tail-coats.

The performance occurred in three parts: a chance meeting and confrontation between the two gangs during a picnic in a park, a progression of each gang through Square One mall, and a final, operatic-rock battle in Celebration Square, a giant recreation fountain.

Dandy Gangs - Battle at Celebration Square

Photographing the performance was definitely challenging but thoroughly enjoyable. Too often I’ve seen performance work essentially destroyed by a photographer literally pointing a camera a few feet from the performer’s faces; I used a relatively long lens and aimed to be as inconspicuous as possible, and I think I did pretty well. The resulting images were, in my opinion, extremely successful and I quite enjoyed “reliving” the whole performance as I processed the final photos.

Following the cut below I’ve included some of the ‘highlights’ and a few feature photos showing the principal players and outfits.

Dandy Gangs - The Stallones

The Stallones were definitely the more machismo of the gangs; note the gang-leader in leather at right.

Dandy Gangs - The Stallones vest

The vests worn by The Stallones, note the metal studs, leather and denim construction.

Dandy Gangs - The Warhols' outfit

The Warhol’s gang vest – again, metal studs and leather, this time with red cotton plaid.

Dandy Gangs - The Stallones in the park

Dandy Gangs - The Warhols at the park

Dandy Gangs - Confrontation at the Picnic

Dandy Gangs - Confrontation at the Picnic (2)

The park component of the performance ran about half an hour, and featured a well-choreographed encounter and confrontation at the Warhols’ picnic. Laying upon the blanket is the “monarch” of the Warhols, who wore a very distinctive dress:

Dandy Gangs - The Warhol Monarch

The performance then progressed to Square One, where the gangs, individually, walked through the mall, interacting with the environment and to some degree, amused spectators. (at the time of writing this I don’t have any of the mall shots handy). A short break followed, and at 7pm the final, epic, operatic gang battle occurred at Celebration Square.

Dandy Gangs - The Battle Begins

Dandy Gangs - Battle in the Fountain

The visual and musical ‘backdrop’ for the battle had three components, to one side, two singers performing an opera, mounted upon a purple, textured ladder.

Dandy Gangs - The Opera

Across the way, a leader of The Stallones attempts to continously ascend a paper-mache replica of the above ladder, destroying it in the process.

Dandy Gangs - The Ladder

And finally, another leader of The Stallones performs the guitar solo from Guns ‘n’ Roses’ November Rain, over and over (for unrelated reasons, I’d been thinking about this song quite a bit recently, and this part of the performance completely made my week, thanks again Jesse Lee Bellon!)

Dandy Gangs - November Rain

The final performance, overall, was wonderfully successful and I had a great time photographing everything, as much as myself, Derek and everyone involved were completely exhausted when all was said and done. Given the number of cel phone cameras and videos I saw throughout, I suspect a lot more documentation will pop up online over the next few weeks.  The accompanying exhibition continues at the Art Gallery of Mississauga until September 11th, so if you’re in the area, be sure to stop by.