Though watching Ryan Trecartin’s films aren’t entirely a waste of time, it sure feels that way at the time. The hyper-intense mix of screeching voices, messily-costumed performers and banal scenarios come across like a reality tv show of drag queens on crack.

Ryan Trecartin, Still from A Family Finds Entertainment, 2004. Image: kera.org

Watch one of Trecartin’s videos on Youtube, HERE.

The videos on view at Toronto’s Power Plant (until May 24, 2010 – click HERE) reminded me of the at-first-hideous-but-in-hindsight-kind-of-brilliant film Idiocracy, “about the demise of North American civilization. America, 500 years into the future, has become a place where advertising, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism run rampant resulting in a uniformly stupid human society.” (Thanks, Wikipedia – and Jennifer)

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Here’s Bravo’s glimpse behind the scenes of Canadian Art magazine and the Canadian Art Foundation where I work part time.

Click the image to make it larger, or click the link below to watch the program. Image: VoCA

The clip of the program Arts & Minds gives a good look at the people and ideas behind the magazine and some of the Foundation programs.

Click HERE to view the clip.

There’s a brou-ha-ha brewing in Vancouver over the Vancouver Art Gallery’s proposed move. Some Vancouverites have suggested that the VAG should not move, but instead remain – with an expansion – in its downtown location.

The VAG. Image: bcheritage.ca

Earlier this month, the Vancouver Sun posted an article written by the late Abraham Rogatnick, a professor at the school of architecture at UBC and interim director of the VAG in 1971-72, when he advised on the move from its old quarters on Georgia Street to the refurbished courthouse. He wrote it last summer, shortly before he passed away.

Read a synopsis of the debate in THIS Globe and Mail article.

In reply to some of these naysayers, Vancouver artist Roy Arden has circulated his thoughts, which he sent to the Sun as a letter to the editor, only to see them rudely edited down. He has asked for his thoughts to be republished in full, so VoCA has obliged.

Here is the gist:

“When the VAG moved from its former site to the courthouse, it signalled a new era and was a huge boost for the role of visual arts in Vancouver.

Vancouver is ready for, and needs a stand-alone, purpose-built facility.

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DESIGN IS THE NEW ART.

Art used to be able to change the way we see the world, but aside from the terrifying German artist Gregor Schneider, we can’t really think of any that does today. Design, on the other hand, has been proven to house displaced people, heal the terribly ill, rescue the desperately poor, possibly even save the environment.

David Rokeby, Quaver, (2002-2010), interactive video installation, still. Image: parinadimigallery.com

Canadian artists like David Rokeby (whose show at Pari Nadimi Gallery just opened in Toronto) designs computer interfaces for his artworks that have been used for medical purposes. Amazing.

Ever since Bruce Mau brought his overly wordy, curatorially-challenged but conceptually brilliant exhibition, Massive Change to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2008, we have known that Design Can Change the World. Add Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity, who gave a riveting talk at OCAD earlier that same year, and the message is clear.

We can no longer sustain design for design’s sake. It’s an outdated idea. Design must be used to solve problems, and educational institutions should be the ones preaching this to students.

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WE LEFT THE WARM STABLE AND ENTERED THE LATEX VOID (WLTWSAETLV) is an artist residency, lecture series and project space located in François Lemieux’s Montréal apartment.

Michael Pohl, This Will Get Better, 2008. Image: michaelpohl.de

We love the format – it’s somewhat like VoCA, except for the ‘last only 20 months’ bit.

• It is run collaboratively by exhibiting artists.
• It presents talks, interviews and workshops.
• It has no program.
• It has no board of directors.
• It has no government funding.
• It lasts for only 20 months.
• Its activities question current conditions of visual arts production and presentation in Québec.

Click HERE for more (somewhat cryptic) information on current and upcoming artists, including the German artist Michael Pohl, who, like Lemieux, operates an independent exhibition space, CLUB69, from his apartment in Munster, Germany.

If you’re in Montreal this Saturday, you can swing by to hear more at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery this Saturday. While you’re there, definitely check out Magnetic Norths, a project by artist Charles Stankievech.

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The pavilion, which will sit on the lawn of London’s Serpentine Gallery from 5 July – 20 October 2010, is to be designed by world-renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. The pavilion will bright red!

Jean Nouvel and his work. Image: defpoints.com

The building consists of bold geometric forms, large retractable awnings and a freestanding wall that climbs 12m above the lawn, sloping at a gravity defying angle. It experiments with the idea of play in its incorporation of the French tradition of outdoor table-tennis. Striking glass, polycarbonate and fabric structures create a versatile system of interior and exterior spaces. The flexible auditoria will accommodate the Serpentine Gallery Park Nights and Marathon and the changing summer weather.

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So last week, we accepted an invitation to the “Cast and Crew” screening of artist Daniel Cockburn’s debut feature film, You Are Here at the Royal cinema in Toronto.

All images stills from You Are Here. All courtesy Daniel Cockburn.

Cockburn has, since about 2000, been at the top of VoCA’s list of ‘Most Promising Young Artists.’ He works in video, with an occasional – excellent – foray into performance. In 2007, he also made a conceptual book work, Visible Vocals. Find it HERE.

In 2003, his excellent video Metronome, was featured in a screening I curated in London UK, where it was well received.

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Well, we’re pleased to see that critical debate is alive and well across the pond.

Witness the Guardian’s art critic, Jonathan Jones, who says that “The truth is that overanalysing art, as opposed to intuitively rating it, carries its own dangers. You can convince yourself of anything by study and sympathy.”

Jones’ article in the Guardian. Image: VoCA

The article and particularly the many, many comments, are pretty interesting. Click HERE to read it.

Often, the spotlight eludes excellent artists who aren’t showing with the right galleries, or for that matter, any gallery. So…here’s an off-the-radar artist who is doing lovely, sensitive work about place and memory.

All photos courtesy Sandra Hawkins.

We met Ottawa-based artist Sandra Hawkins M.E.S., B.F.A., C.F.A., B.A. soc. through Facebook, and have been interested in her work for some time.

Now she will be showing an installation and series of prints @Reference, on Queen Street West in Toronto next door to the Drake Hotel, for three days from Tuesday, March 30 until Thursday April 1.

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In recent years, among Torontonians, there seems to have been increased interest and passion for the city.

I heart Toronto. Image: igougo.com

Spacing magazine, Yonge Street, Blog TO, Torontoist, Murmur, the ROM and the AGO, Waterfront Toronto‘s plans for the city (heavily covered by the Globe and Mail’s Lisa Rochon), they all speak to wanting to better our urban environment.

A recent article in the Toronto Star says:

“For decades, there has been talk of an actual, physical museum, where Torontonians could learn about the history of this piece of land from the post-ice age era through our ongoing waves of immigration.

As recently as 2007, the museum project was (to be) built inside the old Canada Malting silos on Queens Quay. But then came the recession,…and the funding and political will fell through (again).”

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