gruntarchives.org : Activating the Archives
un projet grunt gallery
La galerie grunt est heureuse d’annoncer le lancement de INDIANacts, premier site web d’une série qui prendra part au projet “Activating The Archives”.
Durant ces dernières années, la galerie grunt a réévalué son fond d’archives dans l’idée de les rendre disponibles en ligne. Les artistes, chercheurs, et educateurs pourront ainsi accéder dès cette année à des photographies, des vidéos et d’autres documents numérisés et re-masterisés. INDIANacts constitue la première partie de ce projet qui va se poursuivre pendant tout ce printemps.
http://indianacts.gruntarchives.org/
“Ce site est un “Indian Act” en soi. C’est une opportunité de prolonger le voyage de l’âme qu’était le geste Indien à l’origine, incarnée par la conférence “Aboriginal Performance Art” (grunt gallery 2002), en l’apportant à ceux qui n’auraient pas pu y assister. Il va sans dire que ceux-ci sentiront sa chaleur, plus vive que jamais, au contact de ces documents inédits.”
Commissaires d’exposition : Tania Willard et Dana Claxton
Stagiaire : Joi Arcand
Conception site web : Archer Pechawis
Organisateur : Malcolm Levy
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Sur “Activating the archives”
Depuis la création de grunt en 1984, nous nous sommes attachés a produire un fond d’archives capable de rendre compte de l’étendue de notre programmation, ainsi que du support que nous avons apporté aux artistes.
En travaillant avec des commissaires d’exposition, des écrivains et des designers, grunt développe actuellement une série de sites web destinés à la diffusion de ces archives. Ce projet implique la création de six sites web thématiques, tous munis d’une base de donnée interactive pour une recherche plus efficace. Ces archives seront progressivement dévoilées tout au long de ce printemps.
Cliquez ici pour en savoir plus
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Grunt est une société à but non lucratif (The Visible Arts Society) dirigé par un comité d’artistes en activité. Notre mission principale consiste à assurer le bon fonctionnement d’un espace accessible aux artistes et aux publics. Si nous nous attachons à montrer des oeuvres qui ne seraient pas vu à Vancouver autrement, notre programmation n’en reste pas moins ouverte aux artistes émergents ou non, du Canada ou d’ailleurs.
Poem by Robert Filliou and Georges Brecht
Set to music by Steve Lacy
Vocals: Guadalupe Martinez
Piano: Hank Bull
Video: François Roux
Performance to be streamed live on Art’s (1,000,049th) Birthday January 17, 2012.
One of the rare Speed Show in Canada stood yesterday night in Vancouver.
Curator Aureliano Segundo invited a great selection of Canadian artists in an internet cafe. All of them involved in what we call “Net Art”. (click here for the artist list)
Some of those artists are already engaged in the “official art world”, some of them not at all. However, those guys are all into a real art practice, trying to play with the limits of a medium : Internet.
Although these ways of making art aren’t yet correctly represented by the institutions, they form a kind of subculture in which we can easily see something of the future !
If you missed that show, take a look at Aureliano’s blog and follow the linkshere.
Also read this interview of him and Aaron Chan here.
While I was doing a series of photographs called Van Colours, Vancouver artist Hank Bull was doing an important paintings series about pretty much the same subject : How do you see Vancouver ?
His series is composed of paintings with different sizes and different montages of colours. Pay special attention to what colour goes with another. 
In this simplified process, we could imagine Hank making monochromes. He didn’t though. Instead, he juxtaposed two colours keeping the idea of landscape and allowing a third colour to emerge from the two he chose. This third colour could be the colour of Vancouver is in his mind. 
Reducing the idea of landscape to two bands of colours, Hank kept only his essential perception of the place. 
I noticed that Hank Bull used more mid-tone colours than I did. This is probably a subtle way of seeing you gradually develop when you’ve known Vancouver since your early days… 
Hank talking about his work :
These are a few pictures I took in Surrey BC.
I couldn’t shoot much more because I felt I wasn’t really welcome. A quite atmosphere hung in the few blocks I visited, though occasionally broken by a dog’s bark. I noticed some people looking at me from their window while I was walking. They knew I wasn’t ‟from da hood”.
The rows of houses alternated between mobile-home and basic constructions but nothing fancy over there. Either the yards were abandoned or full of stuffs and the roads with no sidewalk were damaged.
Yes, we are far from the ideal suburb; unified house styles for middle class families. Here, each house has it’s own personality.
The current exhibition at grunt gallery shows some Colette Urban’s recent works.
Installing her work was interesting because we had to deal both with shadow and light, with objects and space, with materials and pixels. In the 30 square metter grunt exhibition space, we had to find out how 13 photographs, 1 video, 1 sculpture, 2 costumes and 1 calendar could fit . Besides, there had to be some space left for a performance. The photographs could be seen only if some light come hit their surfaces as well as the objects. The video produces its own light and needs a dark space. The performance needs enough space for the artist and the audience.
The first choices you make in the installation process seems to me the most fascinating. Living the well known ‟white page‟ complex, each choice you make is noticeable. Even though some actions are basically pragmatic, they create something new and sometimes you would like to say ‟stop‟ and invite people for the opening right now.
Wondering about those issues and remembering Geoffrey Farmer’s process (a kind of ‟always in progress‟ installation) makes me think that installation itself is something full of life. The white cube is the frame and you change both its content by your actions and change your actions by looking at it. Many things can happened in that circle and this is definitely an ‟art medium” rather than a display.
Two weeks after the exhibition opening, I had almost forgotten that there was also an exhibition, not only free wine. So I visited it yesterday night in a sober state of mind.
Actually there is a great exhibition currently at the VAG. On the first and second floor, you can see the Audain Collection, the third floor is occupied by the VAG’s collection and there is a group exhibition called ‟The Distance between You and Me” on the fourth.
The show begin with First Nations Art before the European conquest. Mostly ceremonial objects such as masks, trunks, blankets…The incredible power of those wood faces can easily slap yours if you look them straight into their eyes. They are drawn with beautiful shapes and the formal consistency they have can only come from a strong and tough civilization. This consistency is certainly not empty of any content, it seems full of spirituality and magic. I think that power tends to disappear in the more recent aboriginal art, at least for those who try to keep it safe.
Right after that, there is a great set of Canadian modernists painters including Lawren Harris, Frederick Horsman Varley, and of course Emily Carr. They represent the wild B.C landscape in their own way. I particularly enjoyed her late works. In the 40’s, she seems to integrate movements into her pictures. Even though she represents a landscape through a fixed image, you can feel the wind or any other ‟energy flow” playing in it. This is a fascinating quality which can get a photographer depressed, no doubt.
The idea of a depressed photographer might be a good transition to talk about the second floor of the exhibition. Many photographs over here. From Christos Diekeakos to Stan Douglas, this is the Vancouver School floor. Unfortunately, the Jeff Wall’s masterpieces are not there, nor are there the interesting Roy Arden’s. Although I never liked Stan Douglas’ work, there are some good pieces. We can also see a remarkable Rodney Graham which I couldn’t shoot because of an insistent attendant. This was an upside down tree with autumn leafs falling from it. The other great piece which stands there is a Tim Lee diptych. A very simple way to talk about photography, as they used to do in the 80’s, but with a funny angle.
On the same floor, you can see some recent aboriginal art works. As I said above, most of these work seems formally good, but without being filled by any life. This is certainly not the case of Brian Jungen’s work.
Brian Jungen made that out of Air Jordan shoes. Playing with that street culture symbol, he built a sculpture which reminds us the First Nations art. Probably the most beautyful object I saw in this exhibition.
The last floor is occupied by The Distance Between You and Me, a group exhibition including Isabelle Pauwels, Kerry Tribe and Gonzalo Lebrija. Although I wasn’t convinced by Isabelle Pauwells’ work and although I was totally bored by Kerry Tribe’s video, the wok of Gonzalo Lebrija was a relief. This Mexican artist made photographs and a 16 mm films series in which you can see him running into the image until he disappears. This idea of running into a fixed image is not only funny as it tells us the dramatic gesture of framing something or cutting into the landscape. I could probably write a lot of foolish thing about this idea but I would rather to show you the sample I stole in the gallery. It is not complete for the same reason I wrote above.
This is a video I shot yesterday night at Leeside Skatepark.
The soundtrack I used for the edit is Starman (end Titles) by Jack Nitzche.
Shout out to Dan “Freddy” Pon.
Here are some pictures I shot during the 2 months I have been here. You can see the full serie here.
Like Nathan Maddox was struck dead by lightning while he surveyed it from his Brooklyn roof, I was pretty staggered when I left to the last Gang Gang Dance performance at the Biltmore cabaret.
This New York “new hippies” band, as they call themselves, claim a mystic and psychedelic image, which can be dubious as it is so fashionable. Although I find the band’s graphic design quite conventionnal or cliché, their musical research has always been fascinating.
Between the band’s unquestionable musical talent, and perfect adherance to contemporary fashion, I was eager to see them on stage so I could feel the energy of their music and presence. I was certainly not disappointed. During the performance, the band shifted from album tracks to exclusive ones, playing some very long hypnotic transitions.
Influenced by diverse music types, ranging from contemporary pop to religious songs, Gang Gang Dance bring us to a fresh and amazing place. They play together and we can feel it. The image they present on stage is sometimes more like a studio rehearsal rather than a real live performance and this lack of mise-en-scene is welcome. We can feel a kind of huge freedom in what is moving between the band members. Lizzy Bougatsos sings quitely as much she gets absorbed by the tunes, while the bass player swallows some vodka gulps, alone in the dark. The guitar player doesn’t feel guilty about showing us his back during nearly the whole concert, and their soundman, dancer and guest friend tries to get Lizzy playing with shadows on the background. The informality and the simplicity the band spread into the crowd allowing us to easily reach the so called mystic trip.
To conclude, if Gang Gang Dance wants to sell you dreams, buy them !
