Bombs Half Full
Bombs have really been getting such bad press lately, I think it’s time to look at the positives. My stepson Thom was renovating his basement and found a stash of Toronto Stars from the summer of 1955, which he gave to me. Do you realize how much bigger newspapers used to be? At least twice […]
Robin’s Excellent Plan for Funding All Toronto Transit
Subways, light rail transit, bike lanes – you name it, I’ve got the answer! Our estimable mayor, Rob Ford, has threatened to publish and distribute the pictures of any councillor who votes to increase taxes, as an election ploy in 2014. Not to worry Rob, and not to worry councillors, Robin’s plan involves no tolls, […]
Notes Towards an Androgynous Theatre
Notes Towards an Androgynous Theatre (This was one of my very first publications. I came across it going through some trunks in the basement, and I thought, it actually still stands up!) First published in Fireweed, A Feminist Quarterly Summer, 1980 So far, all political theatre has made one of two appeals to its […]
On First Looking Into NourbeSe’s “Zong!”
On First Looking into NourbeSe’s Zong! Published in paperplates, Volume 7, Number 3: http://www.paperplates.org/ Zong!, the book length poem, according to its author, M. NourbeSe Philip, is the story that must be told, that can’t be told, that can only be told in its untelling. Zong, the slave ship, is to the history of […]
Eye Magazine Article
Eye Candy David Balzer Eye Magazine, January 4, 2007. On Saturday, Jan. 6, conceptual artist Robin Pacific carries out what might be described as Walter Benjamin’s worst nightmare: she is giving away her entire archive of 1,670 books, which took her 30 years to collect. That’s right: hundreds of books are free for the taking—books […]
Toronto Star Article
Sharing her psyche, one book at a time Peter Goddard Toronto Star Jan 06 2007 Carried along in the orgy of denial that comes with each New Year, I’ve met with one close friend determined to give away her silverware. Others are committed to kick all the usual fun habits or to go on all […]
National Post Article
An Artistic Giveaway Artist’s entire library up for grabs in new installation Brianna Goldberg, National Post January 5, 2007. Robin Pacific is giving away all 1,670 pieces of her psyche. The stanzas of Gwendolyn MacEwan, the pages of Jung, snippets of all the books that made Pacific who she is, are now part of an […]
Globe and Mail Article
A Collection for the Taking An artist eager to sever links to the past prepares to give away her treasured books Alexandra Shimo Globe and Mail January 6, 2007 Artist Robin Pacific is about to give away what she has spent the past 30 years collecting. Her books – all 1,670 of them—will be available […]
Artist’s Statement 1917
Artist’s Statement 1917 Zaum Zaum “The pessimism of the intellect, the optimism of the will…” Romain Rolland “History’s betrayal is so profound that it cannot be forgiven simply by tacking on a “post’-era to it (post-modernism, post-Marxism). There is real tragedy in the shattering of the dreams of utopia—of social utopia, historical progress, and material […]
Troughs
Troughs In Hans Holbein the Younger’s great panel of 1522, “The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb,” which most likely formed part of an altarpiece, the dead Christ is depicted full length, stretched out on a roughly sheeted plinth. His hair and beard are scraggly, his mouth is agape, his empty, stricken eyes […]
Two Rivers: Paintings by Robin Pacific
Two Rivers: Paintings by Robin Pacific When the Greek sage Heraclitus wrote that it is impossible to step into the same river twice, he meant that both human life and the identity of the world are ephemeral, irreducibly wedded to the swift contingencies of time. Fundamental cosmic element, source of spiritual purity, the flowing water […]
LAMENT
LAMENT Catalogue essay for an exhibition by Linda Duval at Artspace, Peterborough Ontario April, 2005 Linda Duvall’s Lament asks us to consider a number of complex questions. How does an artist translate trauma into art? Where is the boundary between private and public? What is the function of sharing, through public lament, the grief of […]
