Andrea Ling, The Girl in the Wood Frock, 2006.
1/16" Black cherry veneer, stainless steel hardware,
copper cable, acrylic plastic.
Image courtesy of Artist.

Fashion No-no

Joanna Berzowska
Linda Imai
Andrea Ling
Annie Thompson
Dorkenwald — Spitzer
Hilly Yeung

Curated by Paola Poletto

Fashion No-no is not necessarily about clothing, but innovative and experimental objects using art, craft/design, technology and their relationship to the body within the process.

Curator Paolo Poletto is a mixed media artist and works in cultural programming. She has been involved in Canadian and International design and new media projects and exhibitions since 1993. Poletto will present the lecture Fashion No-no: prototyping and processing on Saturday, January 24 as part of the Innovators + Ideas (I²) Contemporary Craft lecture series.

About Fashion No-no

Fashion No-no offers six diverse views about identity and performance and the complex relationships between material, display and author. In all these works, the act of presentation moves away from the body as the frame or skeletal structure, toward the material characteristic of the crafted object: the environment, the photograph, the purse, the shoe, the dress.

None of the works selected for Fashion No-no are about fashion. Yet, this is how the exhibition with its eclectic selection of artists and craftspersons has come about. It mashes art and craft in an attempt to put into dialogue work by and about women.

Dorkenwald and Spitzer, Pinfurniture.
Image courtesy of Artist.

With Pinfurniture, Dorkenwald — Spitzer erase the body/habitat scale by flattening and miniaturizing interior designs into tent like structures to carry and affix in a variety of configurations.

Icing Handbag, Linda Imai.
Courtesy of Artist.

Linda Imai crafts wildly creative purses with non-traditional and recycled materials. They blend traditional techniques with untraditional materials to form sculpted vessels that conflict with their utilitarian context.

Hilly Yeung, Givenchy. Paper.
Image courtesy of Artist.

Hilly Yeung replicates designer shoes into paper sculpture, heightening the delicate torture of the woman's high-heeled shoe, and referencing the common ritual of replicating material possessions as offerings to burn and take into the afterlife.

Annie Thompson

Freed from the dressmaker's mannequin, Annie Thompson's fabric manipulations are like mysterious cocoons of life-sized dolls: they are also vulnerable, tortured, fallen ghosts.

Joanna Berzowska, The Leech Dress, 2007.
Image courtesy of Artist.

Joanna Berzowska's impressive research explores the parasitic relationship of wearable technologies to the body. In this work, the warm glow of the leeches, for example, is opposed to the utilitarian-like uniform of the clothing and the fabric. It favors a disparate parasitic dynamic and aesthetic between the dress and augmented technologies.

Andrea Ling combines architectural visualization with furniture design techniques, and a folktale with a photographic narrative, to fabricate a wooden dress that appears impossible to get in to. It is an unlikely story of a wooden dress proven, in a sense, to be possible.

The works are so different from one another because each of the participants also has a different practice, bringing their perspective to the mix, offering opportunity for discussion, and potentially a clashing of ideas about what art and craft are. They invite us to reexamine the female body within a fashion context.

— Paola Poletto

Innovators + Ideas (I²) 2009

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09

It's a Beastly World after all

Felieke van der Leest

The exhibition is a survey of van der Leest's most recent work where imagery is drawn from the animal kingdom. She will also present a lecture, The ZOO of Life on Saturday, January 24 as part of the Innovators + Ideas (I²) Contemporary Craft lecture series.

Felieke van der Leest | It's a Beastly World after all

Innovators + Ideas (I²) 2009

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09

Felieke van der Leest,
Pregnant Polar Bearmaid (object/brooch), 2005.
textile (angora/wool, polyester/polyamide, felt, cotton),
plastic animal, gold-filled silver beads, crocheting,
knitting, 5 ¾” x 5” x 2” inch.
Photographed by Eddo Hartmann.
Image courtesy of Artist.

Rob Southcott, United We Stand, 2007.
Birch and brass hardware.
Image courtesy of Artist.

United We Stand

Rob Southcott

This new installation of United We Stand is an expanded version of the original four-chair piece created in 2007. The larger installation will communicate a stronger visual and mental connection to the initial intent of the work.

Rob Southcott | United We Stand

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09

Monument

Erika Jacobs

Toronto-based photographer's current body of work documents a photo album constructed in the late 1940's.

Erika Jacobs | Monument

"It is the specificity of a moment in time that concerns the amateur ("this photo is of my son at age seven"), not the universality of the moment or subject. The aim of the snapshot is to etch in time (and thus in memory) the uniqueness of the individual or documented event."

— Robert E. Jackson

I am fascinated by the traces people leave to mark their existence. An individual constructs a photo album as proof of a life — a creation to chronicle oneself and one's experiences. But time passes, faces disappear as emulsion rots away, and captions index empty spaces. My current body of work documents a photo album constructed in the late 1940's. The images in Monument move from page to page, following the narrative created by the book's compiler.

The opportunity for this project presented itself when a flood-damaged album found its way into my possession. While looking through the fragile pages, I was struck by both the unique value of the album as a historical object, and the sadness that came with the realization that the book and the photographs in it would eventually disappear completely. Thus the object becomes a wonderful metaphor for transience.

In his poem, Sailing to Byzantium, W.B. Yeats says that the way to create meaning is to look back on our experiences. To aid in this, we study "monuments of (our) own magnificence." It is frequently said that a photograph has the ability to 'capture', implying that one must photograph to possess, but by studying the details of these ruined pages, one is made aware of the inability of photography to grant immortality or protect against loss — even monuments erode. Age and decay are universal, and the temporality of photography itself can serve as a reminder of the inevitable disintegration of human memory.

— Erika Jacobs

Erika Jacobs lives in Toronto, where she received her BFA in Photography with honours from Ryerson University. She has exhibited at a number of venues, including Niagara Gallery, Ryerson University, and Gallery 44 Center for Contemporary Photography, and her photographs have been recently published in McClung's Magazine and the Globe and Mail.

Supported by

erikajacobsphotography.com

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09

Erika Jacobs, Untitled,
from the series Monument, 2007.
Image courtesy of Artist.

Einav Mekori,
Cases of Vanity – XL pocket watch, 2008.
Glass, brass frame & chain, 20 (h) x 20 (w) x 8.5 (d) cm.
Photo: Nick Chase

Beautifying the Hunt

Annie Tung
Einav Mekori

A collaboration between current artist-in-residents.

Annie Tung and Einav Mekori

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09

You can't get there from here

Anna Lindsay MacDonald
Gwen MacGregor
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
Flavio Trevisan

Curated by Joy Walker

This is an exhibition of works in which 4 artists, have adapted map iconography to express their ideas and experience of time and place.

About You can't get there from here

Anna Lindsay MacDonald | Lace Fan

Gwen MacGregor | Seamus and Me

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay | Untitled

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09

Flavio Trevisan, Culmination, 2008.
Image courtesy of Artist.

Explore New Horizons - Ford Explorer 1998
Digital Photo by: Margaret Whidden

Mountain Man

Elinor Whidden

A multi-media installation which presents all facets of the Mountain Man project.

Elinor Whidden | Mountain Man

Under every stretch of highway lies the memory of a landscape.

My artistic practice is an investigation of the notion of progress. Harkening back to Henry Ford’s utopian desire to have a "car in every driveway", I use the automobile as a metaphor for progress. My current studio practice consists of dismembering and reconfiguring cars into sculptural assemblages that I can carry on my back. By inverting the relationship of human to automobile, I am questioning this notion of progress.

My sculptural assemblages reference modes of transportation used during the opening of the Western Frontier: canoes, dogsleds, knapsacks, walking sticks, and snowshoes. These objects are then portaged, dragged, or carried along early fur trade routes. During these car-carrying performances, the waterways and trade routes of this historic period stand in as the forefathers to our current system of highways, freeways and over-passes.

Portage: FORD TAURUS turns an entire 1995 Ford Taurus into the elements of a canoe trip: canoes, knapsacks, rucksacks, paddles, and a dogsled. These sculptural assemblages were portaged around Niagara Falls during the summer of 2006 following the original eight mile portage path of explorer Robert René de la Salle and Father Louis Hennepin. Their epic voyage opened the Western Frontier to trade, travel, and an expanding notion of progress. Implicit in this work is my desire to use the act of walking as an act of change.

Elinor Whidden, Steel Belted Snowshoes, 2007.
Steel, shredded tires scavenged from the
side of the road, snowshoe harnesses.
Image courtesy of Artist.

Steel Belted Snowshoes, begun during the Walking and Art Residency at the Banff Centre, continues my quest to find a way to survive and adapt in a world increasingly threatened by contemporary car culture. While driving out to Alberta, I scavenged shredded tires from the side of the road. Then, lacing snowshoes from the steel belting in these tires, I trekked through the Rocky Mountains posing as an intrepid Mountain Man in an area that encapsulates our image of "The Western Frontier."

In addition to these Steel Belted Snowshoes, I used a Rearview Walking Stick (a rearview mirror attached to a stick) to strike various imperialistic poses in this epic landscape. As I struggled through the wilderness with these absurd objects, my movements articulate the flawed relationship between car and human.

My work depicts a nostalgic attitude towards the wilderness, and a romantic belief in the dream of the Western Frontier. I believe that these colonial attitudes remain with us today, underpinning our desire for the freedom and romance of the open road.

— Elinor Whidden

Elinor Whidden is a multi-disciplinary artist whose art practice has become a quest to find a way to survive and adapt in a world increasingly threatened by contemporary car culture.

Whidden received a BA in Canadian/Environmental Studies from Trent University, a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a MFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She has exhibited throughout North America, recently showing work in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta and Buffalo NY. In 2004 she was featured as an emerging artist on CBC's Zed TV. Whidden is also the recipient of numerous grants and awards most notably the Nova Scotia Talent Trust Award and most recently a creation grant from Nova Scotia Culture, Tourism & Heritage.

Whidden’s Portage: Ford Taurus is currently at an international sculpture exhibition at the Omi International Arts Center near Albany, NY.

Whidden has recently returned from the Walking and Art residency at the Banff Centre and is excited to be in her new studio.

Supported by

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09

The Old Guard is Dead!

Daryl Vocat

Vocat presents two billboards on top of York Quay Centre in connection with his new series of screenprints that will be on view at the Fleck Dance Theatre.

Daryl Vocat | The Old Guard is Dead!

INT. Gallery space – The Old Guard is Dead! - Daryl Vocat

ONE and TWO shuffle casually through a gallery looking at
the walls. The conversation is already part way through.
ONE
Does this make any sense to you?

TWO
Well, sort of. I think it’s some kind of gay thing.
But I don’t really know.

ONE
That seems about right, there’s the one with
the kids playing spin the bottle.

TWO
Oh right, and the one where they are holding hands.
It’s totally a gay thing.

ONE checks cell phone.

ONE
I think all he really did was cut up some
pictures and put it together like this.

TWO
It’s like how things change when you get older,
like how something that used to seem really scary
is just kind of ...

ONE
Boring?

TWO
Yah, like sharing a lollipop.
It’s kind of ... whatever.

ONE
Do you even like lollipops? I remember
getting them at Halloween, they were always
my most hated candy.

TWO
Totally. Like when you think you are getting
green apple and it’s that pukey mint thing.

ONE
These are silkscreens right?

TWO
I think so, that’s what they do on t-shirts.

ONE
Mostly they just look like some kind of print out.

TWO
(Making air quotes)
Mostly don’t "get" art.

ONE
I think it’s made by people that are a bit slow, and
are trying to relive their childhoods, or something
they’ve seen somewhere else.

TWO
Like if I just take a picture from somewhere and
restage it and then restage it again, right? like those
kids in The Shining. That’s them again, only not.

ONE
Oh! I never saw that until you said it,
but that’s totally it.

TWO
I always wanted to ride my bike with my eyes
closed, but I was too scared I’d get hurt.

Scene cuts before conversation finishes.

Daryl Vocat, born in Regina, Saskatchewan, is a visual artist living and working in Toronto. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, and his Master of Fine Arts degree at York University in Toronto. His main focus is printmaking, specifically screen printing. He works out of Toronto's Open Studio.

He has had solo exhibitions at Toronto's Thrush Holmes Empire, Open Studio and Harbourfront Centre. He has also had solo exhibitions and has participated in several group exhibitions both in Canada and beyond, including an internationally touring exhibition entitled Further, Artists From Printmaking at the Edge.

His work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery permanent collection, The Saskatchewan Arts Board permanent collection, and the City of Toronto Fine Art collection. His artwork has been published in YYZine from YYZ Gallery in Toronto, Briarpatch magazine from Regina, and Printmaking at the Edge by Richard Noyce, published in Great Britain.

darylvocat.com

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09

Daryl Vocat,
screenprint from the series The Old Guard is Dead!, 2008.
Image courtesy of Artist.

Virginia Mak, C-print, 2008.
Image courtesy of Artist.

And sunlight thronged the glass

Virginia Mak

Photography is about light. This new work is about light, its intensity as well as its softness.

Virginia Mak | And sunlight thronged the glass

Runs Saturday 24 January 09 through Sunday 8 March 09 at the Service Canada Pavilion, 235 Queens Quay West

Visual Arts at York Quay Centre

Visual Arts at York Quay Centre is made up of 10 exhibition spaces which are both traditional and unique. These venues are located within and outside York Quay Centre proper and range in size from an exhibition gallery that is 1400 feet square to individual vitrines which are 9 feet square.

York Quay Centre exhibits the works of contemporary artists creating new works in fine art, craft, new media, design, architecture and photography. The exhibition schedule changes six times a year in all of the venues except the site specific spaces.

For school group programming including tours & workshops for kindergarten through grade 12, contact us at registrar@harbourfrontcentre.com or by phone at 416.973.4091.

All other inquiries, contact the Main Gallery, York Quay Centre at 416.973.5379.

Visual Arts at York Quay Centre

Winter 2009 | YQC09-1

Fashion No-no

It's a Beastly World after all

United We Stand

Monument

Beautifying the Hunt

You can't get there from here

Mountain Man

The Old Guard is Dead!

Service Canada: And sunlight thronged the glass

Architecture: Building on History

Fashion No-no

Joanna Berzowska
Linda Imai
Andrea Ling
Annie Thompson
Dorkenwald — Spitzer
Hilly Yeung

It's a Beastly World after all

Felieke van der Leest

United We Stand

Rob Southcott

Monument

Erika Jacobs

Beautifying the Hunt

Annie Tung
Einav Mekori

You can't get there from here

Anna Lindsay MacDonald
Gwen MacGregor
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
Flavio Trevisan

Mountain Man

Elinor Whidden

The Old Guard is Dead!

Daryl Vocat

And sunlight thronged the glass

Virginia Mak

Visual Arts at York Quay Centre

Visual Arts at York Quay Centre

Winter 2009 | YQC09-1

Fashion No-no

Joanna Berzowska Linda Imai Andrea Ling Annie Thompson Dorkenwald — Spitzer Hilly Yeung

It's a Beastly World after all

Felieke van der Leest

United We Stand

Rob Southcott

Monument

Erika Jacobs

Beautifying the Hunt

Annie Tung Einav Mekori

You can't get there from here

Anna Lindsay MacDonald Gwen MacGregor Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay Flavio Trevisan

Mountain Man

Elinor Whidden

The Old Guard is Dead!

Daryl Vocat

And sunlight thronged the glass

Virginia Mak

Visual Arts at York Quay Centre

Joanna Berzowska
Linda Imai
Andrea Ling
Annie Thompson
Dorkenwald — Spitzer
Hilly Yeung

Annie Tung
Einav Mekori

Anna Lindsay MacDonald
Gwen MacGregor
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
Flavio Trevisan