We’re back in Toronto, and it feels great!

Currently we’re working with Dr. Stephanie Springgay at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto on Stephanie’s SSHRCC-funded research project entitled The Pedagogical Impulse.

“The Pedagogical Impulse is a platform for research-creation concerned with contemporary art’s paradigmatic re-orientation towards the educational. The project will orient itself around a series of artist residencies that will take place across a number of educational sites (K-12 classrooms, teacher education programs, graduate programs, and community spaces) in order to examine how artists are engaging with educational concepts as spaces for the development of new critical practices, and the potential transformative engagements that occur when such art practices are located in schools…”

We have been meeting with some really exciting schools (& teachers), and are looking forward to the coming months of our residency.

Also, our dear friend Hazel Meyer is working with us on this project. Check out her inspirational aesthetics (& athletics) here.

Hannah and I are thrilled to be working with Cinenova, the FAG, the AGYU & The Powerplant on this exciting project!

All Hands on the Archive

Cinenova is a non-profit womens’ film/video distributor based in London, UK. Cinenova is a source of very specific knowledge, a network and cultural community that engages directly with feminist film and video practice, and with the question of how to make this knowledge more publicly accessible. We are very pleased to present a series of events that access, activate and animate the Cinenova collection here in Toronto under the banner of Cinenova: All Hands on the Archive.

Join us twice every Saturday afternoon in February at the Feminist Art Gallery in Parkdale as local artists, activists, thinkers, and educators select work from the collection for small-group presentation, viewing and facilitated discussion. The enablers are: Michele Clarke, Hannah Jickling & Helen Reed, Chase Joynt, Natalie Kouri-Towe, Logan MacDonald & Hazel Meyer, Midi Onodera, Lisa Steele, and Syrus Marcus Ware, and the full schedule will be announced shortly.

Hannah & I were invited to plan a lunch for the Artist’s Soup Kitchen at the Raging Spoon Cafe.

We re-presented a project that we originally developed with our friend Jen Kovach called Mystic Pizza.

“Pizza crusts are often discarded, but these everyday castaways contain vast potential for magic. Mystic Pizza invites you to bring your concerns to the table – chew through your questions while eating a slab or two…”

We worked with 6 incredible diviners, astrologers, amateur magicians & tarot card readers to devise a method for reading the signs in pizza crust, crumbs & grease. These readers gave free 10-minute crust readings at the Mystic Pizza Artist Soup Kitchen.

The soup kitchen was a lot of fun, and running for the next 4 weeks, with some great artists hosting… details below:

FREE hot lunch for artists A different menu each week
Mondays from 12-3pm
January 9 – February 13
The Raging Spoon Cafe
761 Queen Street West, Toronto
Wheelchair accessible space

January 9 – February 13, 2012: For six Monday afternoons this winter, artists are invited to a FREE HOT LUNCH at the ARTISTS’ SOUP KITCHEN. Each week is hosted by different artists who will bring their creative practices to The ARTISTS’ SOUP KITCHEN. Lunches include a Dr. Seuss homage by artist Ulysses Castellanos offering green eggs and ham on January 9 and Mystic Pizza crust divination readings by Helen Reed and Hannah Jickling on January 16. Documentation from the ARTISTS’ SOUP KITCHEN will be used to create a printed catalogue/recipe book that includes recipes, images from participating artists and critical writing about the project. The ARTISTS’ SOUP KITCHEN is presented by the Starving Artists Collective: Catherine Clarke, Jess Dobkin and Stephanie Springgay.

Monday, January 9: Ulysses Castellanos
Monday, January 16: Helen Reed and Hannah Jickling
Monday, January 23: Tobaron Waxman
Monday, January 30: Naty Tremblay
Monday, February 6: Annie Onyi Cheung
Monday, February 13: Swintak

Hannah and I are dreaming of a project that encompasses queer architecture/queer naturalism. A monument to queer wildness. Where can we build our fagot shack?

The AC&oSS will be included in Reading. Writing., a group show curated by Lisa Radon. Reading.Writing. focuses on “the intersections between the practices of reading and writing and art making. It is the möbius strip where writing is a kind of reading is a kind of writing.

The exhibition includes work by 18 artists from Portland, San Francisco, Calgary, Belgrade, and Montreal working in video, print, paint, sculpture, embroidery, photography, and publication; it will be accompanied by a catalogue with an essay from Anne Marie Oliver and a poem by David Abel.

Opening reception on August 5; panel discussion, “Reading Art, Writing Art” on Saturday, August 13,  1pm; curator talk on Sunday, August 28 at noon (part of the regular Research Club Brunch) and a poetry reading with David Abel, Rodney Koeneke, James Yeary and Lisa Radon on September 1 at 7pm.

galleryHOMELAND, 2505 SE 11th Ave. #136
Portland, OR 97202, Friday – Monday 12pm-6pm

This little collection of fan fiction for art is almost finished..

Launch on Thursday, May 19, 7pm-9pm @ Monograph Bookwerks, with readings by Anna Gray & Ryan Wilson Paulsen, Sam Korman, Jen Delos Reyes & myself.

The erudite Annie Murphy has just published a truly incredible compilation of queer comics.

Featuring work by Edie Fake, Jackie Davis, Adee Roberson & many more!

Get your copy here.

Really honored to be included in this year’s Sobey Art Award longlist with some really exciting Canadian artists:

“The Sobey Art Award offers a wonderful opportunity for dialogue about the currents in Canadian contemporary Art. From the diversity of practice and place in this year’s longlist we can see how vibrant Canada’s arts community truly is. ”
—Sarah Fillmore, Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Curator, Sobey Art Award.

The 2011 Long List

Atlantic:

Zeke Moores
Kym Greeley
John Haney
Michael Flaherty
Becka Viau

Quebec:
Jérôme Havre
Chris Kline
Emmanuel Licha
Nadia Myre
Manon de Pauw

Ontario:
Aleesa Cohene
Christian Giroux and Daniel Young
Derek Sullivan
Gareth Long
Josh Thorpe

Prairies and the North:
Denton Fredrickson
Sarah Anne Johnson
Dave and Jenn
Wally Dion
Dominique Rey

West Coast:
Sonja Ahlers
James Nizam
Helen Reed
Charles Stankievech
Joseph Tisiga

The shortlist for the 2011 Sobey Art Award will be announced in May 2011.

Selected work by the shortlisted artists will be featured in an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, on view from September 17, 2011 to January 8, 2012. The winner will be announced during a Gala event at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on October 13, 2011.

The 2011 Sobey Art Award Curatorial Panel consists of:
Bruce Johnson, Curator at the Rooms Provincial Art Gallery
Gaëtane Verna, Director and Chief Curator, Musée d’art de Joliette
Marnie Fleming, Curator of Contemporary Art, Oakville Art Galleries
Ryan Doherty, Curator, Southern Alberta Art Gallery
Mary Bradshaw, Gallery Director, Yukon Arts Centr