1. LOVED & LOATHED:

VoCA LOVES creative installations like this one of Marcel Van Eeden’s work at Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto.

Marcel Van Eeden at Clint Roenisch Gallery

Marcel Van Eeden at Clint Roenisch Gallery

The exhibition runs to October 28th, 2007.

Born in 1965, Marcel van Eeden’s magnum opus is to make a drawing a day based on sources that precede the year of his birth. Using imagery culled from an array of historical material - illustrations from old books, topographical atlases, films, art history, newspaper clippings, photo archives, magazines such as Life, Paris Match and others - van Eeden has set himself the task of drawing a vast visual diary of a world he never knew.

More info HERE

VoCA LOATHES unimaginative installations of overly familar large format colour photography.

Carlos and Jason Sanchez at Parisian Laundry

Carlos and Jason Sanchez at Parisian Laundry

The Sanchez brothers at Parisian Laundry, Montreal runs to October 21, 2007.

Taking a cinematic approach to their process, Carlos and Jason Sanchez create photographs that invite us to speculate on the psychological state of the subjects within the narrative. Just like cinematographers, the brothers sift through prop houses, scout for locations, build sets, and cast just the right characters to populate their eerie habitats.

2. Britart bad boy Damien Hirst defends his animals-in-formaldehyde works, several of which have begun to leak.

Damien Hirst, Mother and Child, Divided, 1993. Image: tate.org.uk

Speaking in today’s Guardian of having to repair and replace parts, he uses the following example:

“It brings to mind the story of My Grandfather’s Axe. If you haven’t heard it, it goes like this: “If my grandfather gave my father an axe, and my father replaced the handle and gave it to me, and I replaced the head, is it still my grandfather’s axe?” Of course, the answer is yes, but then it’s also no, and the problem of conservation in art is highlighted in that story and plain to see. We have to ask ourselves: what are we trying to preserve here? The original object?…Or are we trying to preserve the artist’s original idea? That’s more my idea of how it should work, but it’s not up to me and the jury’s out on this debate, and has been for a very long time - and probably still will be when our little planet collides with the sun, which is what the scientists are telling us the future holds, if we don’t get hit by a mega-asteroid in the meantime.

All this talk makes me think of a truly wonderful and inspired piece of art by the late artist Piero Manzoni…Titled Artist’s Breath (1960), it’s a balloon filled with the artist’s breath; he simply blew up a balloon and fastened it to a wooden base and signed it and called it Artist’s Breath - genius.

Piero Manzoni, Artist’s Breath, 1960. Image: home.sprynet.com

Today, the piece is little more than a piece of dried snot on a piece of wood, but it still exists, can still be exhibited , is worth a lot of money and can still, with a little imagination and maybe a photograph or two, elicit the same kind of amusement, wonder and excitement it did when it was first exhibited.I don’t think issues of whether art lasts are relevant really; we all know art lasts for as long as it lasts, as long as people want it to.”

Piero Manzoni, Artist’s Breath, 1960. Image: tate.org.uk

Read the full article HERE