tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87601557295769014202024-03-05T14:49:42.803-08:00Todd JanesTJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-20761041717913624342011-05-09T10:24:00.001-07:002011-05-10T07:34:58.157-07:00Day Three - aussi<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaU-2TJ9UA7jK5YSxPkf6mjQ1ar8Gr2SqtGKbR1uOH12fUlssoKxUCpbddNsCIfXHecZiyye-0hfzK6Qo-Dp-0KHCi-UcxWMO5HUaga_WqWe0Ro9YTUdzI1o2j6JgSqsQlMAZ3-U4ipvo/s1600/IMG_0069.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaU-2TJ9UA7jK5YSxPkf6mjQ1ar8Gr2SqtGKbR1uOH12fUlssoKxUCpbddNsCIfXHecZiyye-0hfzK6Qo-Dp-0KHCi-UcxWMO5HUaga_WqWe0Ro9YTUdzI1o2j6JgSqsQlMAZ3-U4ipvo/s400/IMG_0069.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605090526089996738" /></a><br />Today I spent some time walking Montreal.<br /><br />I took some time around the old canal - the Canal de Lachine, which was the old canal through which goods were shipped out of the Ports of Montreal to other parts of Canada and North America. I am struck by how the socio-political terrain of a city can change vastly. Montreal is still an affordable city - well in terms of property, provided you choose wisely, the metro is fairly connected throughout the city and the Bixi system (a interconnected system of rental bicycles), and depending if you would prefer dense housing or a yard and greater space between you and your neighbours will often decide where you might live. Oh, and your $$ as well. The area that I am staying in is very working class and was even more so in the past - it included the factory workers and the dock workers who off loaded the ships and placed crates and good onto the barges and then floated them down in land and onto trains and trucks. This area of Sainte Henri, like all of Montreal is being gentrified - maybe this area more slowly, but it is happening. However traditional structures and homes are maintained and the past enthocultural threads remain of working class French and Irish. <br /><br />It is only while walking up the hill from Sainte Henri to Westmount when I am struck with the significant change in architecture and roadways. This must have been where the bosses of the factories and ship yards have lived over looking the activities of their workers and at the same time the workers peering through their commoners' eyes would have been looking upon the noses of their bosses. Indeed the class superiors perhaps both physically and symbolically looked down on the workers. <br /><br />As I am walking and thinking about Montreal and the psydo-psycho walking tour I think about my family. My Mother's Father was a fisherman and while he and his family lived on the eastern coast of Newfoundland after being forced to re-located from the islands that his family considered home for over 100 years; he worked in Boston, Montreal and in the Atlantic areas with the fisheries and in some factories. I think of him and what his early twenties and late teens must have been like and what he did and where he went to find work and money for his family and to make a better life I wonder if he spent time in places like Sainte Henri and if he marveled at the big houses up in Westmount? <br /><br />At the end of my evening with Karen, Jack, Nathan and Gabe I walk down the tunnel separating Westmount and Sainte Henri and I sit down on the lush grass (rather quite lush for so early in the Spring) and I lay down and look up into the sky and think of a time about 100 years ago and just let my working class body create a deep imprint into the lawn. Tonight it is my act of rebellion and homage to my ancestors.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-67283177533520106352011-05-09T07:07:00.001-07:002011-05-10T07:51:43.843-07:00Day Three<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFkWK5Fl0Sy2B3QjBizeTj2wIxsAoyj_xQx13hVUkIOnntH4PW3vE3rs5FhpxiaKXh8-h-fe-7kAwZY3kFW4bbl4-dY1iuVahmNjUUw5lYKqgfjiEbNR__G2EYQCIPq0TOF_JueWXKczY/s1600/IMG_0074.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFkWK5Fl0Sy2B3QjBizeTj2wIxsAoyj_xQx13hVUkIOnntH4PW3vE3rs5FhpxiaKXh8-h-fe-7kAwZY3kFW4bbl4-dY1iuVahmNjUUw5lYKqgfjiEbNR__G2EYQCIPq0TOF_JueWXKczY/s400/IMG_0074.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605098184616009330" /></a><br />It is Saturday and I want to go to Optica today and take in a performance by artist Cecila Brass who is performing as part of a group exhibition at Optica, curated by Lori Blondeau, presents a selection of archival documents (videos and photographs) relating the history of TRIBE, A Centre for Evolving Aboriginal Media, Visual and Performing Arts. Since its inception, the artist collective has publicly raised highly relevant questions of identity, territory, and politics regarding the status of native peoples and First Nations’ place in our history. <br /><br />Before heading to Optica at the Belgo Building on Ste. Catherine I grab the Metro at Sainte Henri station and begin some furtive actions on the Metro. Today I am trying two activities:<br />Again smiling at people as it is my furtive action of infecting Montrealers with a sense of kindness - a passing opportunity of risky, no-strings attached flirting, warmth, and intimacy.<br />The second opportunity of to see if they will engage with me.<br /><br />Usually I am sitting as the Metro is not as busy today and I have tried to take a car at either the back of the train or the front - most people seem to grab a middle car and they become crowed fast. It seems that the best possibilities for a smile exchange happen when I am seated (I think I look shorter and less intimidating then) and often the other person is standing. This time a woman sits down directly across from me. She sighs loudly and in an expatriated way. I look over at her - we make eye contact and I just smile (an innocent and friendly one), she takes a double take and then smiles teh largest smile back at me. Today will be a good day. The stop is announced, the doors open and I leave this car for the one in front of it.<br /><br />In the next car I try the same thing. This time I am bolder and after I smile at the person I sit next to them and we travel together for another stop, I wait and neither of us leave. I then turn him to him and ask if he would trade me something for this quarter. He smiles and then laughs and ask what I want? I tell him that I want to trade him something for the quarter. He laughs again and produces a cigarette. I thank him and get off at the next stop - Square Victoria. I get back on and it takes about four attempts until I feel ready to trade again. Over the day I trade for a half pack of spearmint gum, a used nail file, almost used chap stick, a condom, a loonie, and validated transit ticket, and a kiss (on my cheek). It has been a great day, but the best part was when I had a person who said they had noting to trade and then I asked them to hold my hands...TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-51867208425098700072011-05-08T21:27:00.000-07:002011-05-08T21:32:16.069-07:00Trees<a href="http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/local/article/669978--5-minutes-with-todd-janes">http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/local/article/669978--5-minutes-with-todd-janes</a>TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-43786513628035185142011-05-08T09:35:00.000-07:002011-05-09T07:07:05.666-07:00Day Twofur·tive<br /><br />adjective /ˈfərtiv/ <br /><br /> Attempting to avoid notice or attention, typically because of guilt or a belief that discovery would lead to trouble; secretive<br /> - they spent a furtive day together<br /> - he stole a furtive glance at her<br /><br /> Suggestive of guilty nervousness<br /> - the look in his eyes became furtive<br /><br />So here is a definition that we will use as a base point, a starting point and as a point whence we might return in case I get arrested or considered mentally unstable for the courts. <br /><br />Over the past few days and for the majority of this creative research residence I will be referring to this definition. And while a large portion of my artistic practice in the past has embraced this concept, I am uncertain if my work might really be categorized as furtive; but rather under-documented. For me I feel that documentation is somewhat of a necessary evil in terms of funding agencies and in terms of providing a trace or ephemeral stain of what has occurred. I would put forth the supposition that at its core performance art is about story telling and this story telling; either through movement, audio, and visual cues and attributes; focus upon the sharing of ideas, thoughts, feelings and often (though, not always linear) narratives. I find that direct documentation changes the reading of a performance and that bystanders (potential co-participants, or maybe, less active participants)often then read the performance differently - as video work, as something theatrical, and not just documentation. It might seem odd but I am less bothered by strangers video recording me on their phones and pdas then I am by direct documentations. <br /><br />So if my practice is truly furtive, perhaps I should not be writing about it? <br /><br />The definition above alludes to a romantic encounter and since the majority of my work over the last three years has dealt with intimacy, I find it funny and, well perfect as a discussion point. Since Friday, I have been spending time reading the Metro - Montreal's underground interconnected transit system. There are four interconnected lines, the orange, the blue, the purple and the yellow. <br /><br />Broad sweeping generalization One: People in Montreal seem to walk less. <br /><br />When I stop to ask for directions (this is a furtive act?) people often say rather quickly - "oh, that is far away, you could take the metro" Often the distance is not far and it is interesting to me that the response is such to utilize the metro.<br /><br />Perhaps it is because Montreal has that critical mass, perhaps it is because there are three major universities and many students and also many individuals without cars... however it is, there are a significant number of Montrealers that utilize the Metro daily and often multiple times during the day. Just like the romantic large city - read NYC, Tokyo, London, etc. where people drone unto the metro and look pass others and do not connect, and like almost every public transit vehicle, people avoid eye contact with others, pretending to talk on their phone, or talk mindlessly to someone on the other end of their cell phone, or deep into their book/reader, or listening intently to their iPod - avoiding others' i's. <br /><br />The first time on the Metro with Karen (elaine spencer) I notice the physical set up of the cars and where seats are and how oddly juxtaposed they are - as in that the seats are placed so that people are facing sideways with each other. Also the aisles are very narrow so that you might be able to stand however walking in the aisle is both awkward and uncomfortable for both those who sit and those who are standing. How you navigate a stroller, or a wheelchair I wonder? It's Friday afternoon - around 3 p.m. and rush hour has started. I hop onto the Metro and there are seats even though I am in one of the cars in the middle if the almost 20 car train. The doors close and we are off and at the next stop a woman sits down and I smile this big smile at her. She looks at me a bit shocked at first. She then smiles back and I think Yes, contact. There are different types of smiles - those parched stingy smiles, those polite smiles, and more; but her smile was real and honest - I feel that I am radiating. So I continue this subtle - maybe furtive action - where I establish eye contact with passengers, one at a time, and then smile at them and wait for a reply. A smile can be interpreted in various ways: a opening for a unstable person to take your precious alone time away from you; an opening for someone you fancy; or simple hello fellow human it's great we are here and sharing this moment.<br /><br />So I continue this action in various cars, on various metro lines and with many different people. My success rate was good and it makes me think is a smile like a yawn - can you catch it? Does it cause you to infect others?TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-53565008614812701252011-05-06T21:57:00.000-07:002011-05-08T09:35:08.548-07:00day one<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTf0bmv76V-bemlRyYE8MDEAEBJmbpyW3Cqrjr55Lca8OS5z82udkAusDhD0KP5If0HhvGqjejwopQczfrwqKTk2bN4r6YuG_tbH8_0tctA13csH0B8awygNxxL8wRkhzlk7-zfEE_Fw/s1600/IMG_0062.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTf0bmv76V-bemlRyYE8MDEAEBJmbpyW3Cqrjr55Lca8OS5z82udkAusDhD0KP5If0HhvGqjejwopQczfrwqKTk2bN4r6YuG_tbH8_0tctA13csH0B8awygNxxL8wRkhzlk7-zfEE_Fw/s400/IMG_0062.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604384572142472914" /></a><br />Today started early as Doug came by and lit a fire early and started to prepare for some castings - he is using bee's wax that has been part of previous art projects and now using it to cast hollow models of garbage - a broken paint brush, a plastic coke bottle, and other treasures that he will leave behind as he picks up actual garbage during an upcoming project. We chatted then ate breakfast - yummy cereal.<br /><br />Today I will be mapping out some perspective locales and maybe some chance encounters. It is really weird because I seem to have solid plans - or at least the potential for solid plans of what I want to do and hopefully, each day will be both different and enriching in terms of my practice and what comes out of it.<br /><br />So I journeyed to SKOL to see the current exhibition and to connect with Anne Bertrand. We caught up on things - talked shop, talked about each other and the challenges of working on the job at artist-run central. We also talked about the projects of the other furtive artist and what various projects that they have done, or are continuing to do. Being geographically removed form the groups has created this dis-connect that may just be. I also feel that because we all have very busy lives that these things happen. I am hopeful to be able to connect with almost all of the artist while in town. Anne talked about the magical powers of art and artistic creation and how, especially for her, it is vital that we are afforded the opportunities created by the freedom of this project to not have to create anything that makes this activity fascinating that special moments are created and that by not setting parameters towards the outcomes of this project that significant steps can be achieved with the artists and their practices. It is great that artist-run centres create these spaces when funding structures are not as often able to move beyond their antiquated structures.<br /><br />Not having to create anything.<br /><br />I think about the Banff Centre for the Arts and their creative residencies; their mandate is inspiring creativity and the Director of the. Walter Phillips Gallery - Kitty Scott - has often said that at Banff there are no expectations for products to be created. Inspiring yes; daunting - definitely. Karen Spencer said to me that she hopes that all my plans get derailed and that I may not do what I wanted, but something completely different. I know that she meant this in the best possible way, but I have no real plans - just an outline of setting time aside each day to research and to begin creating -- or creative practices. In many ways the exciting contemporary art centres are not the ones that are animating and exhibiting the next best artist, but centres that are engaged in discourses that provide multiple points of entry into this dialogue and by diverse voices that are exploring new and different ways of thinking. <br /><br />I am now off to furtive.<br /><br />Note to Self: need to get bagels.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-49874775563387381222011-05-06T07:13:00.000-07:002011-05-06T22:13:57.695-07:00day zero / jour zéro<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTRQBYUHrZ2gCP89tRVOtnFxPlCjrBEKh9dqNl_NXf4mIm6QfHKkqLOkpwO9AipU8eP3L5H1hyphenhyphenwETV6HeO-j48vs__IaZ8TcgrAyPnGfukIo5hL1D0OOtJQEZHPnob1O_fCbwCm2aMDpc/s1600/IMG_0057.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTRQBYUHrZ2gCP89tRVOtnFxPlCjrBEKh9dqNl_NXf4mIm6QfHKkqLOkpwO9AipU8eP3L5H1hyphenhyphenwETV6HeO-j48vs__IaZ8TcgrAyPnGfukIo5hL1D0OOtJQEZHPnob1O_fCbwCm2aMDpc/s400/IMG_0057.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603620534764579634" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJOk6awy6fyhGY0m0nPH80DTUagxXs7aYCiTjiW4MT_IelwZBYQks1dU_qg5-93y_flnEvVl0SdH_PnT9sJgfkxzLirU_PceqbmKWW2SqgF2lM2eXY6q96o3S6X4b1-oHM9xzgN5spsI/s1600/IMG_0055.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJOk6awy6fyhGY0m0nPH80DTUagxXs7aYCiTjiW4MT_IelwZBYQks1dU_qg5-93y_flnEvVl0SdH_PnT9sJgfkxzLirU_PceqbmKWW2SqgF2lM2eXY6q96o3S6X4b1-oHM9xzgN5spsI/s400/IMG_0055.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603619433423893906" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeV5MzOw-3N95i_XssN49JBVqqpVEllUz-WKICffIJsJTfjS5jc-VGpDsKkzw6BXVl8QnfvJ3HhXgY0g8Q6Js8rnsN5M7QWP6t5Ld8yRQIWTzOdWzthhslH-pnbRqNAoMOR_9o_QzYQ5g/s1600/IMG_0054.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeV5MzOw-3N95i_XssN49JBVqqpVEllUz-WKICffIJsJTfjS5jc-VGpDsKkzw6BXVl8QnfvJ3HhXgY0g8Q6Js8rnsN5M7QWP6t5Ld8yRQIWTzOdWzthhslH-pnbRqNAoMOR_9o_QzYQ5g/s400/IMG_0054.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603617986051644114" border="0" /></a><br />Hello, I'm Todd and I am an artist / bonjour je m'appelle Todd et je suis un artiste.<br /><br />So maybe that will not work, but the positive parts of this is that Montreal is truly a Canadian city and fully aware of its duality of Languages, well at least its duex langues officielles anyway. And my work has been constantly moving away from speaking at all anyway, or at least speaking with out words. I arrived in Montreal after a little more than an hour of turbulence and it is more than slightly raining here - it is wet and pouring. Anne Bertrand meets me at the bus stop at Lionel-Groulx and we run to her car and go to my new home (for the next week) on Ste. Marguerite in the neighbourhood of Saint Henri. I will be residing at the CRUM residency - The Centre de recherche urbaine de Montreal (CRUM) is a symbiotic (parasitic) research group with no exhibition space of its own. It uses the pre-existing exhibition network to present diverse projects. The CRUM is an artists collective dedicated to exploring links between art and urban space. Once there we are greeted by Karen Elaine Spencer and Douglas Scholes; Doug is the Guardian of CRUM and a collective founder and also a great artist exploring aspects of urban wilderness and detritus (my words, not his).<br /><br />We sit around and chat I try to collect my bearings and share that I have not really slept since I was traveling at six - had to be checking in by five and should leave home by four… why bother. After about an hour or so we depart and Anne drops Karen and off at a Metro station and we head downtown / Centre Ville where Karen and I grab some food and catch up. Karen is one of the most sensitive and perceptive artist I know and we chat about a spectrum of things and at one point she ask me about how I think my artistic career might have went if certain in my life had not happened?<br /><br /><br />I think I am probably rather dogmatic and maybe romantically practical (not practical in romance, but romantic about how practical I am) and respond that everything that has happened to me makes me who I am - both great and not so great -- we are all products of our environments and responding to those. I try really hard to take ownership of things that I mess up and to respond in the moment, to offer praise, to be honest with myself and those around me... we talk more and she opens her pack-sack and shows me a loaf of white bread and a spool of twine, not thread. We talk more about what she has planned and then she asks me about me - my least favourite topic - about loss and grief and about my changing body. We talk a bit about this and she ask to place the bread on a part of my body that is deficient (my words) or changed. As we are also talking about dance and dancing I immediately think about my feet - missing toe and all and since my feet have been such - pardon the pun - sore points for me I discredit that in my mind - I think of my legs - but lately my calves and think have grown larger and more firm so I think not. We talk about a project that I have shared with Karen about having my hands bound for 72 hours and I think no to this as well. More and more I am drawn to my face and mouth, my eyes. However, in the end I pick my neck. I think of dancers and the symmetry of bodies and the definition and definite lines of muscle and sinew. She slowly layers about six or seven piece of white bread on my neck and secures it by wrapping it with the thread. The bread smells of yeast of and carbs. I re-dress and we enter into the crowds at Place des Arts.<br /><br />Later in the evening Karen notes that I look graceful and handsome and that people notice me - it probably has to do with the slices of bread wrapped around my neck - however I do notice that people notice me and stare. at the end of the evening the bread is dry and starting to crumble and I ask Karen to cut it off of me and we leave it to go back to the earth or at least to the pigeons.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-37770482996516726202011-05-04T20:47:00.000-07:002011-05-04T21:02:14.674-07:00Leaving on a Jet Plane<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTteC2gQYXWTLqOA3qK9JR0zC2AIzNcPYziieTBMT4gnIsEiRxxlpEcPMLjTwnXDAJ_NidHVZF-G7wJSVBP10BuxjJv8sNlPxVDwXdb4Wiqg-0tCFMB6WN4sNp7GGCWTzeOn_AldV3BEQ/s1600/Photo+14.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTteC2gQYXWTLqOA3qK9JR0zC2AIzNcPYziieTBMT4gnIsEiRxxlpEcPMLjTwnXDAJ_NidHVZF-G7wJSVBP10BuxjJv8sNlPxVDwXdb4Wiqg-0tCFMB6WN4sNp7GGCWTzeOn_AldV3BEQ/s400/Photo+14.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603076508134108226" /></a><br />Hello?<br /><br />Maybe you remember me? <br />It's me Todd.<br /><br />I know, it seems like so long since we have chatted, since I paid attention to you…<br /><br />Well tomorrow morning - early, I depart Edmonton and fly to Montreal for a exciting week of research creation.<br /><br />I was invited many months ago by the amazing Karen Spencer and Anne Bertrand for a project at Skol. They have called it <span style="font-weight:bold;">teasing the furtive</span> or <span style="font-weight:bold;">gosser le furtif</span> which is an on-going curatorial project curated by Karen Elaine Spencer. Read more about this and the great furtives (that what I call them) at http://teasingthefurtive.wordpress.com<a href="http://teasingthefurtive.wordpress.com"></a><br /><br />Karen is awesome and I fell into love with her work by just reading about it many years ago and I have had the pleasure of curating her and working with her. While this will not do the work justice it often threads social justice and is often situated by the voices of disenfranchised people - often manifesting as one voice that is a collective of many. We are very similar in many ways in terms of our practice and our activities - but she is constant, focused, driven and prolific. Please read her at <br />http://likewritingwithwater.wordpress.com<br /><br />Okay, I have to go pack - eight days - me being an artist - no work - limited emails - lots of talking, drinking, watching, and I hope be being ... silent.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-53477579412585989372010-07-02T22:37:00.000-07:002010-07-02T23:02:34.278-07:00Pre Monument postSo I have been invited by co-curators Kristen Hutchinson and Jennifer Rae Forsyth to be part of their three-day, interventionist piece for the Works Visual Arts Festival. The Works is a ten day festival that runs the full gambit of visual culture from crafts to performance to art and design to all level of creation and skills. I should also let you know this year is the 25th year of the festival and it is situated primarily in downtown Edmonton and mainly concentrated on Sir Winston Churchill Square - Edmonton's offering of a civic square - directly smack dab in the "Arts District" surrounded by the new shiny Art Gallery of Alberta, the Winspear (Symphony and Opera), the Citadel Theatre, the main branch of the Edmonton Public Library, and City Hall. It is mainly populated by festivals throughout the summer and combined with under-housed youth and office workers - I am certain you can perhaps find every type of person in the Square.<br /><br />The project begins on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. when the co-curators start adhering poster copies of the visual artist's (involved in the project) images - they each get two - one for the inside of the make shift structure and one for the outside. We performance artists are suppose to respond to the images and works of the artists as well as responding - or not responding to the works through performance. Did I mention that the curators are installing the images beginning at 9 a.m. and my performance begins at noon? While I am not new to improvised performance and am fairly seasoned at this I feel that in some ways this raises the stakes for me in terms of my performance work. I am outside, they will probably be lots of people and I am going in fairly blind as both the first performer and first into the space.<br /><br />Over the past few years my work has taken some significant shifts and is fairly strongly ensconced into relational performances - my interactions with one or a very few people at a time. My work has also shifted very much away from cabaret environments to that of work on the streets and perhaps most significantly into work that is deeply centered around intimacy - intimacy with strangers, intimacy with spaces - both physical and psychological.<br /><br />Deep breath.<br /><br />…<br /><br />This is truly my first public performance since my long hospitalization and I am nervous - perhaps a wee bit scared. I recently went to a doctors appointment at the hospital and they read my file as still MRSA positive and quickly isolated me - cap, gloves, gowns, and mask interactions only. I am again out on the street, touching, smelling, interacting with people - I still feel both leper and victim at the same time…<br /><br />Thinking about the piece and the project and my own work; the theme of the festival this year centers around earth. I have some ideas to explore.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-16054121618363697642010-07-02T22:35:00.000-07:002010-07-02T22:37:16.737-07:00Monument @ The Works Festval, Edmonton, Alberta, Canadafast & dirty presents: Monument<br />Sun. July 4 to Wed. July 7<br />102A Avenue, Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton, AB<br /><br />fast & dirty presents: Monument is an intersection of public spaces and private places, a memorial to temporality, and an exploration of how we inhabit urban landscapes. On the first morning of the exhibition (Sun. July 4, 9:30 am-12:00 pm), seven Edmonton visual artists will cover the installation structure with posters created from their artworks. The installation will be left to the elements and thus may deteriorate over the course of the exhibition. Visual Artists: Matthew Arrigo, Adrien Cho, Jennifer Rae Forsyth, Kristen Hutchinson, Adriean Koleric, Elaine Wannechko, Ryan Wolters<br /><br />Local performance artists and contemporary dancers will create pieces that respond directly to the exhibition concept, to the artworks on the walls, and to the space of Winston Churchill Square. Over the four-day run of the exhibition, there will be one performance every day of varying durations. Performance Artists: <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Todd Janes: Sun. July 4, 12:00-4:00 pm</span><br />Good Women Dance Society: Mon. July 5, 2:30 pm<br />Jennifer Mesch & Kevin Jesuino: Tues. July 6, 5:30-6:30 pm<br />Julianna Barabas: Wed. July 7, 5:30-8:30 pm<br /><br />The exhibition is organized by fast & dirty, a rotating collective of artists/curators, founded and led by curatorial team Jennifer Rae Forsyth and Kristen Hutchinson, which creates exhibitions and art events for a short duration in unusual environments. <br /><br />Monument seeks to undermine divisions between artistic mediums and to question assumptions about what is considered high art and low art. The exhibition asks viewers to consider how they occupy urban space, and how the images that accumulate around us inform how we live in our city. <br /><br />For more about fast & dirty presents: Monument (including the artworks in the exhibition, artist statements, and information about the performers):<br /><br />http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128463553853298&index=1<br /><br />fast & dirty presents: Monument is part of The Works Art & Design Festival: <br />www.theworks.ab.ca/TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-37917431276064290332010-05-01T22:20:00.001-07:002010-05-01T22:46:56.346-07:00newish project<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNpt6N06ljeWa8PgE1h8spIauaYklLmyjv0Sn0DVDmrqiKFXfkdjnGd0jlqHae69_4vn0D-p3LkhE-zYHderatxw2YFk4y-MutbGbUpD3-rtOVJ7qcCkql27r3iMRDHCofgyJ0pkYNT0/s1600/IMG_0029.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNpt6N06ljeWa8PgE1h8spIauaYklLmyjv0Sn0DVDmrqiKFXfkdjnGd0jlqHae69_4vn0D-p3LkhE-zYHderatxw2YFk4y-MutbGbUpD3-rtOVJ7qcCkql27r3iMRDHCofgyJ0pkYNT0/s400/IMG_0029.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466544631299865890" /></a><br />So it has been awhile since I posted.<br /><br />I have been working on a newish project - newish in terms it is more about documenting and research than an actual performance. My friend Jennifer Mesch emailed me that she read my blog - I was a little surprised anyone found it and moreso that she read it.<br /><br />So this new research project involves me photographing myself in vulnerable positions situations. Never truly being totally at ease with my body - and even more since my injury and attack over two years ago where my collar bone was broken and - well it never seemed to heal 100 per-cent and now I am slightly deformed with a lovely large bump where my clavicle fused back together.I guess that now I have something in common with my oldest brother Brian as he broke his clavicle as well - I think from hockey and not by being jumped and attacked by a strung out street person. My range of motion has been limited ever since and I cannot sleep in my favourite position and cannot do some of teh things I used to do - so I adapt. Right?<br /><br />The project involves the idea of me placing myself in vulnerable positions, poses, or other constructs - physical and emotional to break down fears and attitudes and situate myself in ways that creates intimate positions/situations that hopefully connect with others in intimate or disarming ways.<br /><br />Here is an example of one of the images and it is currently my facebook picture. And since Facebook is so much about portraiture and positioning yourself as image identity a la Krzysztof Wodiczko's <span style="font-style:italic;">Alien Staff</span>.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-55568377010430900142009-10-03T12:11:00.001-07:002009-10-03T12:14:26.531-07:00Live! in Vancouver with IronManHello:<br /><br />So here is another link to the IronMan project where I performed as part of Live! Performance Art Biennale in Vancouver, Canada, in October 2007.<br /><br />http://livebiennale.blogspot.com/2007/10/todd-janes-edmonton-canada-friday-oct.html<br /><br />enjoy!<br /><br />ToddTJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-62783853094453515392009-10-03T12:07:00.000-07:002009-10-03T12:10:01.183-07:00CBC radio's Socket and the angelic Angela AntleHello:<br /><br />I though it would be great to present an audio link to an interview with Angela Antle. Angela I first met while in St. John's a few years ago and fell smitten.<br /><br />I hope you enjoy it.<br /><br />http://castroller.com/podcasts/CbcEditorsChoice/1144255<br /><br /><br />ToddTJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-6748638967154761822009-07-18T23:29:00.000-07:002009-07-18T23:54:56.831-07:00Lesson One and Then SomeSo it has been over a week since I "got to come home'; and after 71 days in hospital I am really enjoying this place - there is this hunger to be everywhere and be a lot of things, but oddly I want nothing more than to stay at home and not have to answer questions by well-meaning people that look at me with concern and, maybe pity, or at least that is what I have transferred onto them...<br /><br />I feel there have been lessons learned while I was "healing" - who am I kidding, I am still healing - hopefully by October I might be able to ride my bike - just once before it snows. Just once.<br /><br />Lesson One<br />Gilbert was a deep friend, I miss him terribly - I now realize that we would often chat on-line and over the phone and have intimate conversations about our lives and always say let's get together… let's go to a movie… Suzette, Ray and I should have you over for dinner and then life just got in the way.<br /><br />I think that I have grieved about Gilbert - long before they found his body a month after he went missing and there are still moments when I am pissed off at him because he took his life; times when I am angry at myself for when he said he was sad - or I would ask how he was (knowing that he was down) - but more than anything I miss him and am so sad that he is no longer here and that he was at a place where he thought that this was his only option. Gilbert wanted more than anything to be liked - be popular - to be liked and did so while sacrificing some of himself - but Gilbert's generosity and passion was infectious and I an certain that he reaped so much more. Gilbert and I were friends for 18 years - he was one of my first friends in teh big city of Edmonton and we clicked very early - I will miss him. So my lesson is to tell people who I love more often that I love them and to let them know how important they are in my life.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-37910471862961487272009-03-01T00:06:00.000-08:002009-03-01T00:13:42.946-08:00it has been awhileHello:<br /><br />So it has been some time since my last blog and being as I am that has caused me to procrastinate about posting something new because I have been feeling bad about that and … well, enough about that. It has been some time because I have been not feeling well and for almost a month I was in pain and felt like doing anything besides getting through the day was just too much. While I am still feeling not super excellent I though at 1 a.m. is just as good a time as any other to begin the process of starting to blog again. I think part of it was that I received an email today from Linda Rae Dornan asking about Visualeyez and also sharing a smidgen about her new work. It was great hearing/reading from her and it got me to thinking about the need to blog again as a method of creating an arvhive about my process and about teh work taht I do that I do not doccument. This came to light even moreso since I dropped my laptop and lost so much information and files and writing.<br /><br />So here I am again making a committment to at least myself to begin writing again.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-19760495712723699262008-11-22T17:10:00.000-08:002008-11-22T17:38:05.014-08:00Illuminated ramblesSo I have been thinking a bit more about my actual practice over the past few days - actually for about a few weeks now and I think that I have been piqued by a few things: My very good friend (that I never see anymore) Cindy Baker has quit her job as program coordinator at AKA - an artist-run centre in Saskatoon, SK and committed to be a full-time artist; and since I started this blog it has occurred to me that my practice is a bit more complicated than perhaps even I realized. Okay that it NOT True, but it has illuminated things for me. I think that the work of <em>Linda <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Montano</span> </em>has influenced me more than I realized. It is not that I am about to tie myself to another artist for a full year - yet! However, a great deal of how I see the world and interact with it is perhaps through the lens of an artist. While it seems trite - for me it is becoming important that I position myself there - as a cultural worker, as a curator, as an individual - because it also positions myself in terms of other artists and to others - audiences, institutions, etc. I wonder how others around me see this - how does my Board see me? or rather do they see me in those terms?<br /><br />I started this blog as a structure for me to begin to be more … well, structured and "serious" about my art making and about the desire to begin writing again - I believe that this creates parameters, but also creates risk - opportunities for me to hopefully fail and succeed. I think it is also about creating balance for my artistic outputs and to (hopefully) re-energize me. Perhaps over time I will become more open about this platform - this blog - and begin to share it with others - beyond a smaller circle.<br /><br />Today during Wayne <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Yung's</span> artist talk at Latitude 53 for his exhibition 100 Flowers he talked about the importance of community and the need to have conversations with his peers - his tribe - especially two other Queer, Asian artists - to be able to put out thoughts and ideas and to begin conversations. Perhaps this blog might begin to serve that purpose for me. It might enable me to begin - pause - resume - rewind conversations with myself and by keystroking this it might focus and provide a different clarity to myself. While walking with Allison today she mentioned that her and Carmen mentioned that they were both enjoying reading the blog as it offered a different opportunity to enter into my process and into the work - this made me feel good because this is/was what I wanted. However, I hope that over time the discourse might become more than me smacking the keyboard and that dialogue might begin. I wonder where my community is, where my peers are? Edmonton is great and I feel that it is a rich community in some ways, however I also wonder where my peers are and when friends ask me why, Why I still live in Edmonton - I am finding this more difficult to answer. Yet, at the same time there is a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">responsibility</span> that I have to build my peers and to build my community - my tribe and to help cultivate this for others. I have found <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">the</span> work with Exposure both frustrating at times, but, overall rewarding because while I am <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">giving</span> I am also receiving… and that truly feels good.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-60131252794416805542008-11-19T15:45:00.000-08:002008-11-19T16:29:28.767-08:00bath House part 2So bath house was yesterday and I would write that it went very well. There were almost 400 people over four hours and there was a diversity of artists from visual artists, to video and a few performance artists - Julianna Barabas, Antonio Bavaro, Kristine Nutting, Karen Campos, and myself. Personally, I found this work the most interesting.<br /><br />So to elaborate a bit on my performance called Tea Room, to the project description I added this line, in bold: Anything is possible, but you need to negotiate with me before initiating the action. I also placed a sign up sheet on the door to my room to have people sign up. To be honest, I tried to set the bar really low and had the expectation that I would just be able to lay on the bed in the room for four hours and then leave. This was not the case and I ended up performing with/for about 40 people in four hours! I placed this as a kind of guidepost and also a structure to myself and audiences so that i had a way out and - to be honest - so did they. I had a few potentials participants express their displeasure that I was behind schedule - I reassured them that i would perform for everyone who signed up, but that the time line was somewhat fluid and it this was not within their night, that would be okay as well, smiled, and called the next name on the list.<br /><br />Perhaps I should also tell you a bit about the room. Like many in the Bath house it was sparse: a built in bed and a plastic (maybe twin) mattress, a white fitted sheet, white pillow and pillow case, and a full length locker. In my room there was also a window complete with a blind and a light-switch with a dimmer dial to raise or lower the light level. There was also a glory hole directly across from the window. The glory hole (GH) had a wooden disc that you could cover the hole with.<br /><br />when a participant entered the room I closed the door and asked if I could take their coat. I then invited them to sit on the bed (usually facing the window). I then told them the ground rules:<br />1. They could do or say whatever they wanted, but for actions they would have to ask first.<br />2. Everything that happened in this room was to stay in this room.<br /><br />I gave these ground rules to somewhat protect myself and to also give some structure to them. For me this piece was not something that I had done before and incorporated a element of risk - for me and for the participants. I felt that this was important because it is something that I am challenging myself to do and to move myself along, artistically. My work almost always involves visual images and movement and for the past year my work has involved me talking as little as possible and trying to communicate - to create connections with people through non-verbal possibilities - through sight, touch, hearing, taste and movement. This piece was very much about creating intimacy and tenderness between myself and the other participant(s), so it involved me attempting to create a space that cultivated risk, intimacy and empathy.<br /><br />Once seated I would offer the participant(s) tea (I used chamomile with mint - as it is suppose to be calming) and brown sugar, if desired. I would then ask the participant(s) what they would like to do. I also asked it they would like the blind open or shut? There were a wide array of interactions and I feel okay telling you about some of the interactions, but not ascribing them to individuals. I would also write that the majority of participants were strangers - and I think that it was easier with strangers because we could both be braver and in some ways more open. One participant took off all their clothing and masturbated for a bit and asked me to watch. Another participant and I hugged for almost the entire ten minutes; I cuddled for about eight minutes with another participant as they told me about their dinner with their ex and the ex's new boyfriend. Another person and I sat across from each other and held hands in silence -at one point the person started to cry, and then weep and then I also started to cry. I hope that it was as cathartic for that person as it was for me. I asked at one point if the participant wanted to talk about anything and they replied "no- this is so much more rich than talking". I felt so privileged to be there and to share this intimacy. Many people just talked with me and a few couples - I did ten couples and one three person group - my only orgy! In groups, people mainly wanted to talk and to ask questions and i tried very hard to talk less and listen more, nut this was difficult because I only had limited time to create this intimacy and to form a connection - a bond, with them. For me, there were a number of rich and tender moments. One included a strikingly handsome man about 27 who seemed articulate and eager. He sat for a bit and then asked if he could remove his shirt and then asked me if he was attractive? It was obvious that he had a concave chest, but so. I of course quickly though about my own issues of low self esteem and feelings of - well not being ugly, but being average. I believe that we are all much more self critical of ourselves then others are. And if fact I though him to be quite handsome and engaging to talk with and the remainder of our session included him shirtless. Another participant removed their shirt and I held the person in my arms for the time of our session, in silence - listening to our shared breathing and the noise outside of the room slowly melting into white noise. Other participants and I danced, removed clothing and talked lots.<br /><br />At the end of the night I was quite energized and it was only after I got home and was smothered by feline love did I realized how friggin' drained I was. But so much richer for the experience.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-23121590822383099642008-11-19T15:40:00.000-08:002008-11-19T15:45:29.173-08:00Bath HouseSo here is what I was trying to create or attempt for the performance at Bath House, which is a project coordinated by myself, Ted Kerr, Heather Zwicker and Marshall Watson for Exposure festival, which is Edmonton's Queer Arts and Culture festival.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Todd Janes</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tea Room</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Project Description</span><br /><br />The bathhouse is a mysterious site for many as it is a space associated with both shame and liberation; anonymity and sexuality; power and vulnerability.<br /><br />I would like to propose a durational performance art piece for Bath House. I envision this as a site-specific work that would play with constructs of intimacy and domesticity between strangers. I also feel that there are often desires and flirtations that do not include sex, but are sexual and very intimate and also that sometimes sex is just an act or a function to fulfill a need, want or desire.<br /><br />On May 30, 1981 in Edmonton, police raided the Pisces Spa, which resulted in sixty men being charged as keepers or found-ins in common bawdyhouse. The accused were questioned at a specially arranged 5 am courtroom session permitted under little-used section of Criminal Code. It is my desire to situate an action that is mundane and intimate within this space that is steeped in tradition. I propose to occupy one of the bathhouse rooms and invite other back to the room for some tea, conversations and snacks, over a fifteen-minute period. This meeting would be negotiated between myself and the other person, or two. I intend to perform all the time between 7 to 11 p.m. with two fifteen minute breaks during the evening.. <span style="font-weight: bold;">I did ten minute segments, some went longer and I had no break and went for the full four plus hours.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why Tearoom</span><br /><br />Restroom facilities were probably first used for sex in the days before indoor plumbing. In crowded urban areas, where families and neighbors lived in close quarters and privacy was nonexistent, sex could take place unobserved in outhouses.<br /><br />By the late 19th century, many cities were overcrowded and had poor sanitation. For public health purposes, public restrooms were built in parks and near transportation facilities. Called "comfort stations," these restrooms dotted the landscape in cities from New York to Seattle. However, some men quickly began to use them for a different kind of comfort. As early as 1896, the public facilities in Manhattan's Battery Park and City Hall Park were associated with homosexual activity. The public men's room beneath Seattle's Pioneer Square was a popular cruising area by the first decades of the 20th century. During the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) put the unemployed to work building hundreds of public restrooms in parks across the country, thus giving an inadvertent boost to tearoom activity.<br /><br />Though it's unclear when and where it originated, the slang term "tearoom" (that is, "t-room," which was short for "toilet-room") enabled men to discuss their public sexual encounters with each other in a coded way. Heterosexuals understood tearooms very differently, as genteel cafes where people enjoyed afternoon tea and pastries.<br /><br />One historian notes that, ironically, the use of public facilities for homosexual encounters gave men a measure of privacy. Sex in city parks was risky because it was out in the open. For many poor and working-class men, then, public restrooms doubled as private sexual space. The washrooms of New York's subway system were "(the) meeting place for everyone," as one man put it. A businessman on his way home to his wife and children in one of the outer boroughs could engage in quick sex at the end of the workday but still not identify as gay. With the growth of suburbs after World War II, tearoom activity shifted away from urban centers to rest stops on the highways that surrounded cities.<br /><br />From the very beginning, tearooms fell under police scrutiny. The first arrests in Manhattan occurred soon after the opening of public facilities in 1896. To circumvent arrest, one man would often remain outside the restroom as a lookout, warning those inside if a policeman was approaching. An arrest could ruin a man's life: When newspapers published the names and addresses of those arrested, men lost families, jobs, and housing.<br /><br />I feel that this is important to situate this title within this work as it still illustrates the need or desire to have spaces that are sites of intimacy for men who have sex with men (MSM) or for individuals that fit within the notorious categories of sexual outlaws.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-65367229653294243942008-11-16T09:52:00.000-08:002008-11-16T10:32:57.272-08:00AA Bronson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjfUwX0bViIMapWDQDddhiCLclUGURjlsfCW1hUoqyNLCvZTXd2X_9fEvrKKmnbO-DKcZyqy1cbOCOodQv5w_sJj3mfajYVdbTb1Hgu25HLgwgBFXFkqvn6A-SO9rCG-EfXCFAt_IxYbI/s1600-h/herrmann_cmyk.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 318px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjfUwX0bViIMapWDQDddhiCLclUGURjlsfCW1hUoqyNLCvZTXd2X_9fEvrKKmnbO-DKcZyqy1cbOCOodQv5w_sJj3mfajYVdbTb1Hgu25HLgwgBFXFkqvn6A-SO9rCG-EfXCFAt_IxYbI/s320/herrmann_cmyk.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269324774582008946" border="0" /></a><br />So yesterday I had the privilege of spending part of my day with AA Bronson - often referred as the only living member of Queer art collective General Idea. AA was brought to town as part of Exposure - Edmonton's Queer Arts and Cultural Festival (www.exposurefestival.ca). I raise this for a few reasons - part of which is because his art and life are so inextricably intertwined that there is no beginning or end between the two and, perhaps, in fact they are one. Perhaps it is analogous to General Idea in terms of collective authorship and art and life.<br /><br />I was uncertain how I would be able to relate with AA in terms of one on one, he is such an international figure within contemporary art and someone that I have always wanted to meet. He balances between art start status and a very genuine person - warn, kind, generous and so very thoughtful and unassuming that I was immediately struck by his deep sensitively and openness. As the day unfolded and I got to move from just talking with him (and hopefully not being too much school-boy like) to watching him interact with others to a truly great conversation back to the airport; I was struck by the amount that he was able and willing to give to others - and also the amount that others were willing to take. While I have been in similar situations I am unsure if I would be as giving. I guess that this is part of celebrity and what service a celebrity gives. He is, however, protective of things and certainly of himself to a degree and of Felix and Jorge.<br /><br />As we ate a small lunch at Zenari's ( he had mushroom quiche - with mostly mushrooms and I had spinach risotto) we talked about him more - and secretly I wondered if he got tired of talking about himself - so I began to ask him more about the AA of present . I asked him about how he chose the name AA Bronson and he told me that he did not choose it and it was fortuitous because it enabled him to create an identity that was brave and out there were as Michael Tims was the shy young man still trying to find himself. For me the exciting discussions were when AA talked about his current work and his work with younger, Queer artists. It is exciting for a number of reasons: it situates AA on his own as an artist, the work is exciting and there is risk. It is this aspect of risk within my own work that I find most exciting and sometimes only I know the risk - emotional, physical, and/or psychic. The work is also vital because I feel that it creates opportunities for mentorship and learning - for both the artists and AA.<br /><br />Much of the work that AA seems attracted to is about mourning, or about, as he might say honouring the community - and that communities are made up of the living and the dead. To me it seems to be also about a loving and thoughtful respect to both of those elements of the community and to honouring the spirit of General Idea and an empathetic desire to live as the complex constructed character of AA Bronson and of Michael Tims, hand in hand.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8760155729576901420.post-29195301204876750992008-11-15T20:15:00.000-08:002008-11-15T20:24:22.664-08:00Welcome to me<span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Hmmm</span>…</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">It has been some time since I have actually written about my own practice and further more about where I am going, at least artistically. So I am committing to begin this slow and hard process</span> of writing about my work and - to some degree myself in this process <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">because</span> I firmly believe that the art you create and your art practice cannot be separated.<br /><br />In closing I want to thank three special people: Margaret <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Dragu</span> - well first, for being who she is and being my artistic sister; to Allison <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Sivak</span> for always telling me - "you should write about this" and "I think that you should write about that"; and finally to Karen Elaine Spence for convincing me that it is important to being a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">documentation</span> of my work -- partly because much of the work that I do is so much about the intimate encounter between one and one - between the artist and the audience and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">the</span> blurring of them both.<br /><br />ToddTJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11908164746814767478noreply@blogger.com1