The exhibition Hinterlands takes as its focus the works of five contemporary Canadian artists (Fastwürms are two) who mine the potential of distant and “unseen” places as zones of myth-making that encourage psychological disclosure. Each of the four projects represented in the exhibition is predicated on the notion of a place partially understood to be “out there” that betrays a readiness to be encountered as strangely familiar. Through painting (Glabush), photography (Fastwürms, Thorneycroft), and video and performance-installation (Urban), the artists of Hinterlands bring the periphery to the centre, maintaining a fascination for the particular and the psychologically charged qualities of places that are just beyond the reach of everyday experience. The artists of Hinterlands propose our re-consideration of the potential of “lost” zones to be engaged for the purposes of play, psychological speculation, and cultural and environmental criticism.

– Patrick Mahon

Patrick Mahon's work as a writer and curator focuses on issues relating to the post-colonialism in Canada, print culture and aesthetics. Mahon's work as an artist includes print-based and sculptural projects, and involves responding to gallery and museum collections through artistic practice. Mahon is a professor at the University of Western Ontario where he is currently Chair of Visual Arts. The SSHRC Research/Creation collaboration, Art and Cold Cash, a three-year project involving artists in Baker Lake, Nunavut, and in southern Canada, was launched at MOCCA in Toronto and at the Toronto Pearson International Airport in 2006-07. A book focusing on Art and Cold Cash by YYZ Publishing will be released in Fall 2009. Mahon's new project, Baker Lake House, premiers at the Leo Kamen Gallery in January 2010.

Acknowledgements:
The curator wishes to thank the artists for their commitment to the exhibition: Patrick Macaulay and Visual Arts at Harbourfront Centre, Roman Tkaczyk for design work, The Department of Visual Arts at The University of Western Ontario, and the McIntosh Gallery at Western including acting director Judith Rodger.

FASTWÜRMS was formed in 1979 by Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse, and is the trademark and joint authorship of the Toronto/Creemore-based multidisciplinary artists whose artwork melds high and popular cultures, bent identity politics, social exchange and a witch-positive DIY cinematic sensibility. FASTWÜRMS has exhibited and created public commissions and installations, performance, video and film projects across Canada and in the United States, Europe, Korea and Japan.

Recent exhibitions include AnacowdaM – happy to feed the world, for Rococo Tattoo at the Power Plant, Superstition at Gallery TPW, Red of Tooth and Kaw at the Mendel Art Gallery, Toronto, and BLOOD & SWASH 3 at Parlour Projects, Brooklyn, N.Y., 27th Bienale de Sao Paulo, and Donky@Ninja@Witch at the Art Gallery of York University, North York, the Contemporary Art Galley, Vancouver, and Plug In ICI, Winnipeg, and Krummi Krunkar: Tarot + Tattoo in October 2008, SEQUENCES Festival, Reykjavik.

On October 3, they performed Skry-Pod at Nuit Blanche, Toronto.

FASTWÜRMS' cultural politics are complex and strategically subversive, their critical aesthetics relational and inclusive with a bent towards working class, craft collaborations and queer alliance.

Fastwürms, Getaway Cars, Safe Houses, Lookouts, 1999-2000.
Analogue photographs w/ magic marker text, Dimensions Variable
Images courtesy of the artists.

Sky Glabush, Blue House, 2008. Oil on canvas, 7' x 10'
Image courtesy of the artist.

Sky Glabush was born in Alert Bay, British Columbia and grew up alternating between the west coast and the prairies. He moved to the Netherlands in 2000, where he was artist-in-residence at Haagweg 4 in Leiden for six months. Soon after he established a studio in Amsterdam and began to exhibit with Suzanne Biederberg. Glabush returned to Canada in 2003 and has recently accepted a faculty position in Studio Art at the University of Western Ontario. Glabush has had numerous exhibitions including shows in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Amsterdam and Melbourne. He has had solo shows at the Mackenzie Art Gallery, the Mendel Art Gallery and Arch 2 Gallery (University of Manitoba). His work is in many public collections; among them the Canada Council Art Bank, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Mendel Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan, University of Alberta and the Bank of Montreal. Glabush is also an essayist and critic who regularly contributes to publications such as Border Crossings and Canadian Art, and has published a number of monographs on contemporary Canadian artists. He is represented by MKG127 in Toronto.

Diana Thorneycroft is a Winnipeg artist who has exhibited various bodies of work across Canada, the United States and Europe, as well as in Moscow, Tokyo and Sydney. She is the recipient of numerous awards including Assistance to Visual Arts Long-term Grant from the Canada Council, several Senior Arts Grants from the Manitoba Arts Council and a Fleck Fellowship from the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Thorneycroft's latest series of photographic works Group of Seven Awkward Moments is featured in the exhibition Diana Thorneycroft: Canada, Myth and History which was shown at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection from July 18 – Novermber 29, 2009. The work will also be exhibited at Carleton University Art Gallery in the summer of 2010. Canadian Art magazine selected Thorneycroft's Group of Seven Awkward Moments as one of "The Top 10 Exhibitions of 2008".

Thorneycroft has been teaching at the University of Manitoba as a sessional instructor since 1984. She lives in Winnipeg with her husband, artist Michael Boss and their two cats Doug and Larry.

Group of Seven Awkward Moments (Lake and Mountains with Double-double), 2008.
C print, 30"x24"

Colette Urban was born in Denver, Colorado. After relocating to Canada, she received a BFA degree in Visual Arts from Nova Scotia College of Art and design, and an MFA degree from the University of Victoria.

Urban has performed her works at the following venues: Duende, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Mount Saint Vincent Art Gallery, Halifax; Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga; Presentation House, Vancouver; Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor; Mercer Union, Toronto; Eastern Edge, St. John's; La Centrale, Montreal; Norwich School of Art and Design, Norwich, England; Sala Uno, Rome, Itay; Sir Wilfred Grenfell Art Gallery, Corner Brook; MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon; Alberta College of Art Gallery, Calgary; Niagara Artist’s Company, St Catherines; Open Space, Victoria; Western Front, Vancouver.

In 2006, Urban established Full Tilt Creative Centre in McIvers, Newfoundland as an art residency facility to attract contemporary art makers to the west coast of Newfoundland.

Colette Urban, BARE, 2008 Performance

Scott Griffin was born in 1970 in Oshawa, Canada. He grew up on a farm in rural Ontario and was raised within a multi-generational family bushplane business. Griffin left the flying world behind and in 1993 began exhibiting his drawings and paintings throughout North America. His work is connected with folk and outsider art as he paints from his life and is inspired by the found materials he salvages from the streets and back alleyways of Toronto where he now lives. Griffin's work can be found in many US and Canadian collections and museums.

Some may think they have bigger and better treasures, some may inaccurately claim that their treasures are superior, but let it be assured to you: this is the biggest unsurpassed treasure our nation has to offer and any other thoughts are false. Not only would you line up to view this, you would pay top dollar if you had too. From Hoseheads to the Head of state, all will want to examine this wonder, thank you.

– Seth Scriver

Seth Scriver, born and raised in Toronto, attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and received an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts. He is currently living and working in Toronto. Most of Scriver's art making is based on personal experience and stories told to him. His visual aesthetics push toward a type of fantasy world created through a stream of consciousness drawing style. The drawings present a believable view of a chaotic world in which unknown entities play out small dramas. He is currently represented by Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto.

peanutbreath.com

Winter clutches our world like no other season. It strips warmth and vegetation, leaving a starkly simplified landscape. In its icy grasp a frigid beauty emerges with a medley of smooth and jagged textures. Winter's Edge is a series of sculptural and functional objects crafted with this diverse beauty in mind.

Benjamin Kikkert is a graduate of the Sheridan College Craft & Design Program. Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, he has worked extensively throughout the mountains, plains and coastlines of western Canada. He is currently beginning his second year as an artist in resident at Harbourfront Centre.