Mongolia 360, first impressions

I arrived in Mongolia about two weeks ago but it seems like ages already. For a Westerner like me it has been quite a culture shock. First of all the language is so complex, with many clicks and sounds that resemble more Inuit than anything i have ever heard. Most Mongolians are hesitant to even tell you there name because they know you will make a dog’s breakfast out of it! The artists who arrived early like myself stayed in a Ger (yurt) camp outside of the capital of Ulaanbataar. the Gers are very beautiful but i was not well …

Mongolia 360 invitation

You are invited to join us in Ulaanbaatar for the 1st Land Art Biennial- Mongolia 360˚ Symposium August 16 – 19 Opening Reception Thursday, August 19, 5 p.m. at the  MONGOLIAN NATIONAL MODERN ART GALLERY Sukhbaatar square-3 / Central Cultural Palace “B” / Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia visit the Land Art Blog for more info on the installations in the Gobi Desert and the Symposium

HOPE PROJECT

The HOPE Project is comprised to 2 separate installations that relate to the glass half full/ glass half empty concept. The first installation is a “Grass Burn” of the word HOPE. Letters were place on the grass for a couple of weeks and then removed to reveal the dead grass underneath. It will take several weeks for the grass to grow back and the process will be photographed daily to become a time lapse video. This represents the HOPE-full part of the project. The HOPE-less segment will be done with ice, similar to my  past projects- See Justify. This project …

Denis Feser, Organic

This is pretty “heady” stuff but you have to love a man who wraps himself in lettuce! Watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgr7gcwRrXE&feature=player_embedded Organic shows the artist participating in various actions, in which he “dresses” himself partially or completely in different plants or types of food. The Performancevideo “organic” (2007), and a fourteen-part image and text series, “colonial/desire” (2007), updates the drama about the simultaneous limitation and transcendence of the body, turning it into a strategy of colonial desire, in which the individual primarily seems to be the“function of an ethnological view.”. He transforms himself into a hybrid creature, alluding equally to Oswald de …

Anselm Keifer, Palmsonntag

I went to see the latest exhibition of Anselm Keifer, Palmsonntag at the AGO in Toronto recently and I was very moved by his work. The first thing one notices upon entering the room is an enormous life size Palm Tree crossing the length of the room. The fact that it is resting on its side and being propped up makes it resemble an artifact from a long gone era. Having been brought up a Christian, I was familiar with the “exotic” nature of Palm Sunday. The palm tree is surrounded by mix media wall pieces that are rich in texture …

Anni Rapinoja

This is the work of an incredible artist from Finland named Anni Rapinoja. She is a woman after my own heart as she creates garments with natural materials. She has a background in botany and geography and this informs her work in relation to nature. “The growth of forests, swamps and shores speak to the artist, who refers to willow, moose and reed as her workmates.” Coat of Mother Earth 2006 (Common Reed) Arte Sella, Borgo Valsugana, Italia 2007Warmshoes (Tea Leaved Willow)New York 2008 http://www.rapinoja.com/

JUSTIFY

[flickr video=4584953554 show_info=true w=400 h=265] Off site installation for my exhibition Signs of Change with the Grunt Gallery in Vancouver. This show takes a look at the ice text projects i have created in the past five years: the gallery exhibit displayed photos of large ice text projects such as View, Resource and Legacy plus new diptychs for Silence, Flux and Reason. The off-site component of the show included 4 small ice text installations: LOGIC, in Stanley Park, DENIAL at Scotia Street, CONSUME overlooking Coal Harbour and JUSTIFY at Piazza Italia.  These 4 words relate to: Through our use of …

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I am working on a redesign of my web site, where the blog will be linked. By this summer I hope to send out my first newsletter. If you have been on my email list you will now have the opportunity to either subscribe to my newsletter and blog or unsubscribe.