United We Stand is an installation of chairs inspired by the consciousness that we do not stand alone in our daily lives. The sculptural piece is constructed from a series of uniquely individual elongated seats. Alone each chair is top heavy and less stable. When woven together each chair becomes structured with the support of their neighboring seats. The piece is constructed from birch plywood and fastened together with a delicate and decorative brass hardware detail. The overall goal of the work is to leave the viewer with the awareness that we can all use a little support from our neighbor.

This installation will be made up of between 6 to 8 chairs which 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

Southcott is a Toronto based designer that strives to create unique objects that enhance our everyday environments while fulfilling the practical needs of modern life. Items that encourage us too see the world with a fresh perspective and that appeal to our inner emotions. Believing that a strong emotional connection to the objects that surround us leads to a more enjoyable standard of living.

Mekori and Tung are current artist-in-residents in the Craft Studio at Harbourfront Centre; Mekori in the glass studio and Tung in the metal studio. While they have their own independent practices, they recently discovered that their work shared similar inspirations and sentiments. What unites them for a collaborative project is their quest to dominate and tame what is unknown to them, combined with their curiosity for the overlooked.

Annie Tung, Standing Still, 2008.
Clock with 12 cameo pins, 2 spoon handles, steel,
10.5” diameter.
Photo: Lisa Kannakoof

Objects associated with hunting (weapons, trophies, etc.) will act as a starting point. At first glance, their works will appear simply as decorative objects. But upon closer inspection, the viewer will discover that they may have been deceived by their beauty.

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.

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I often find myself gazing at light passing through a window or doorway, daydreaming into the distance; letting visual images come to me.

This photographic series, intentionally or inadvertently, records moments of grace — where light and its passage through objects create abstract shapes of subtle colours. In this body of work, I want to depict the act of looking, seeing magnified details and fresh truths, wondering what is not there, or asking what it is that we are seeing.

Photography and abstraction seem at first contradictory. Photography draws on reality. Abstraction is a disengagement from the familiar, usually by removing certain elements or by making the image less defined.

In the 21^st Century, more than ever, we are aware that there is absolutely no certainty in what we see. The truth in photography — as in paintings and sculptures — no longer relies on what looks realistic. Rather, art that does not resemble the physical world (as our naked eye sees it) often illuminates a larger truth in meaning. I want to abstract what the camera sees and bring forth visual ideas that are more fully blown. Through this work, I want to arrive at the essence of things and to connect with the viewer somewhere beyond what we usually regard as physical reality.

— Virginia Mak

Virginia Mak was born in Hong Kong and now makes her home in Toronto. She has exhibited her photographic works internationally and is represented by Drabinsky Gallery in Toronto and Newzones in Calgary.

virginiamak.com

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