THE POLITICAL ECONOMY…OR IS THAT THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY?…OF HOPE
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY…OR IS THAT THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY?…OF HOPE (Published in the 25th Anniversary Issue of Fuse Magazine, November, 2002) The pessimism of the intellect, the optimism of the will…Romain Rolland Who wants to look back? We drag the last century around like a rusty chain we’re pretending isn’t there. Given the facts, isn’t denial the […]
A Wheel within a Wheel A-turning, Way in the Middle of the Air
A Wheel within a Wheel A-turning, Way in the Middle of the Air (Published in The Wheel Project, catalogue for the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, 2002.) The Wheel Project emerges from a rich matrix of themes and debates swirling around current art-world discourses: the culture of display, the history of museumology, contemporary museum practices, […]
All Souls Day
All Souls Day A Day of the Dead in Mexico – Experiencing Cultural Community Art (Published in ArtsOn, A Publication of Community Arts Ontario, Winter 2002.) In the days and weeks leading up to All Souls Day, November 1, all of Mexico is awash in skeletons. You see them everywhere, in homes, hotels, restaurants, galleries, […]
You Say you want to Fund the Revolution? Oh Yeah…
You Say you want to Fund the Revolution? Oh Yeah… (Published in Fuse Magazine, June 2001.) Mother may I go for a swim? Yes my darling daughter, Hang your clothes upon a limb, But don’t go near the water! In a right wing climate, the labour movement feeding on its own entrails, the left having […]
Initiatives in Cultural Democracy
Initiatives in Cultural Democracy (Published in Money Value Art, Ed. Sally McKay and Andrew J. Paterson, YYZ Books, 2001.) Introduction In March of 1999, I was asked by the Laidlaw Foundation(1) [Toronto-based Laidlaw Foundation supports work in the areas of the environment, child development and the arts. Annual grants to performing arts projects total $1 […]
The Red Tree Murals
The Red Tree Murals (Published in No Frame Around It: Process and Outcome of the A Space Community Art Biennale, 2001.) “Run between the raindrops!” urges the teacher to the last, straggling student jogging across the field of the Scarborough Foreign Mission. It’s a grey spring morning at the end of a long, grey winter […]
The Neutron Hazer and the Mystic Gulf: Remembering Remembrance Day
The Neutron Hazer and the Mystic Gulf: Remembering Remembrance Day Performance by Johanna Householder with Carmen Householder-Pedari (Published in Fuse Magazine, February, 2001.) Several years ago, teaching at York University, I asked the students to observe a minute of silence on Remembrance Day. They went along with it, but seemed bemused, indifferent. Many thought WWII […]
“No Such Thing as Away”
“No Such Thing as Away” The Politics of Public Space (Cover Story, LOLA Magazine, Winter, 2000-2001.) Is it art–or is it the “defacement of city property”? Who owns city property? What’s garbage, and where does it go when you throw it away? Who has the right to put their images in public space? Artists? Garbage […]
A Prism, a Urinal, a Wall and a Boat: Some Thoughts on Community Art
A Prism, a Urinal, a Wall and a Boat: Some Thoughts on Community Art (Published in Surface and Symbol, November, 1999.) Community art is coming up roses. Until very recently viewed contemptuously by the dominant institutions of the art world as not much more than face painting for children, it’s getting a face lift itself, […]
THE BANFF INDEX
THE BANFF INDEX (Published in Mix Magazine, Spring, 1999.) The Long March: Trot, Trot, Mao, Meow The Media and Visual Arts department of the Banff Centre for the Arts offers two annual juried residencies. The theme of the fall 1998 session was socially engaged art practices re-defined for the 90s. The Banff Index Length, in […]
THIS IS NOT A BENETTON AD: THE THEORY OF COMMUNITY ART
THIS IS NOT A BENETTON AD: THE THEORY OF COMMUNITY ART (Pulbished in the Winter, 1998 issue of Mix Magazine, an expanded and revised version of a talk given at Vital Links, the Ontario Art Council’s conference on community art, Sept. 26, 1997.) “The bourgeois class poses itself as an organism in continuous movement, capable […]
