Dream/Structure
Dream/Structure
woodcut & collagraph 51.5 x 66 cm. (20″ x 26″)
Edited January 13th, 2013 to show larger image.
by Marja-Leena
by Marja-Leena The Museum Called Canada
Imagine this – an interesting website with a virtual tour about a book The Museum Called Canada. The “tour guides” are “a renowned academic and author with a documented love for unconventional histories” Charlotte Gray and “museum curator” is the publisher of Toronto’s Otherwise Edition’s Sara Angel.
The story behind this unusual book and virtual tour is on The Globe & Mail. Here’s an excerpt:
“Published by Random House Canada, The Museum Called Canada is certainly one of the best-looking books produced in the country’s publishing history. […] The cover is mocked up to be an archive box from a museum, some front pages showing the entranceway to a museum, a coat-check room and the elevator. The 25 “rooms” (that is, chapters) are organized thematically, not chronologically, and cover everything from Canada’s ice age to its position in the modern global village.”
by Marja-Leena Canadian Thanksgiving
This is a three-day long weekend in which many families get together for a big dinner centered usually around a big roast turkey, traditionally as a thanks for the harvest, right? Well, I decided to search some of the history behind this North American tradition, which is a much bigger occasion in the USA near the end of November.
The Canadian Encyclopedia gives a short and dry report, while Wikipedia is more interesting with their usual abundance of links to explore.
Then Mirabilis led me to an article in the Globe and Mail “Giving thanks with chilies and basmati”. It is about today’s multicultural Canadians adapting Thanksgiving to their own cultures’ special foods, but still with an emphasis on family and often giving thanks for their blessings in a “new world”. It has made me recall my own childhood as a new immigrant, my mother adapting her Finnish cooking by adopting the turkey or sometimes a wild goose brought home by an uncle from a hunting trip. We had a large extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins together in tiny homes, sharing and thankful for the abundant food that had not been so plentiful right after the “war” in the “old country”.
I was surprised to learn that our present date of the second Monday in October was only set in 1957, after many different ones had been tried over centuries, since that very first North American Thanksgiving celebrated by Martin Frobisher in Newfoundland in 1578. So, Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!
by Marja-Leena Biliana Velkova’s exhibition
Another exhibition coming up is the recent work of Biliana Velkova, a recent member of the Art Institute, Printmaking at Capilano College. Here is her show statement:
“Paris Hilton wearing a stretch cotton pantsuit by Dolce and Gabana, Kirsten Dunst wearing a Cloe emerald silk dress, Natalia Vodianova in Dior holding a pink flamingo, these are some of the inspirations behind this collection of drawings. I am interested in appropriating these images into obvious knock offs, which in their own way become original works of art.
The ads themselves portray a fantasy setting or a certain mood, which I am interested in further exploring by omitting the brand itself. The models look out of place, oddly familiar but still misplaced. Similarly, the labels, which are so easily recognizable, feel empty when taken out of contest. Still, the logo is familiar enough and one can easily make their own associations with it. This warholian approach to branding carries my fascination with popular culture and its social applications. What do labels mean in western society, how do they shape our cultural references and where do these high class brands fit into art are some of the questions I try to raise with Knock Offs.”
That’s at the Capilano College Gallery, Studio Art Building 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, Oct 18-30, 2004, Opening October 18 at 7pm.
UPDATE Jan.07.05 Biliana has a website now: Biliana Velkova
by Marja-Leena Wayne Eastcott exhibition
Wayne Eastcott: Generation #3 1983 silkscreen
As I wrote earlier, October is a busy month for art shows here!
The Lookout Gallery, Regent College is presenting “Wayne Eastcott: Selected Works” – a survey of his printworks from 1965 to 2002.
Eastcott uses diverse mediums including riveted aluminum, silkscreening, etching and lithograph to invoke feelings of both calm and chaos as he exemplifies the dialogue between nature, humankind and technology. “I have always been intrigued by the various systems that make up the created universe as well as the relationship between chance, order, structure and randomness”, says Eastcott as he discusses his work. This exhibit covers 40 years of Eastcott’s work in printmaking and provides powerful, innovative examples of why he is recognized as one of Canada’s foremost printmakers.
This exhibition has been travelling for two years, beginning at Seymour Art Gallery, North Vancouver, and touring southern BC galleries, and has now returned to Vancouver. Selections from 50 pieces were made by the curators at each gallery to fit their space, such as at Grand Forks Art Gallery and Kootenay Gallery of Art.
The exhibition opening is on Wed. Oct.13, 2004 4:30-7:30 and runs to November 6th, 2004. The Lookout Gallery in Regent College is on the UBC campus at 5800 University Blvd., Vancouver, B.C. Hours: Monday – Friday: 8:30 am – 5:00 pm Saturday: 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm. Everyone welcome!
In case you missed it, please see my recent article about Wayne’s collaboration with a visiting artist, with some more links to visit.
by Marja-Leena Totally Manipulated
X Faces by Robert Jackson
Another exhibition happening this month, and one in which I am also participating in is:
TOTALLY MANIPULATED: Digital Art Today
at CityScape Community Art Space,
335 Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver, BC.
Opening reception is on Thursday Oct.14, 7-9 pm.
Runs from October 15th to November 6th, 2004.
Gallery hours are 12-5, Wed-Sat., 1-4 Sunday.
This exhibition showcases sixteen accomplished and emerging artists pushing the boundaries of what we call art: Pierre Coupey, Wayne Eastcott, Carl Fletcher, Peter Frey, Grace Gordon-Collins, Robert Jackson, Bonnie Jordan, Mohsen Khalili, Maria Lobo, Irwin Oostindie, Sabrina Ovesen, Marja-Leena Rathje, Nicole Rigets, Michiko Suzuki, Joe Tompai and Biliana Velkova.
If you are in the Vancouver area, please come visit! This attractive gallery is run by the North Vancouver Community Arts Council. Also visit the North Vancouver Arts & Culture Commission pages and read ARTS ALIVE (.pdf) magazine.
Interestingly, eleven of the exhibiting artists are, or have been, associated in some way with the Art Institute at Capilano College**. Many thanks to Robert Jackson, a new member, for organizing this exhibition!
** Since this post was written, it has become Capilano University.
by Marja-Leena Dream Passage Two
Dream Passage Two
collagraph, woodcut, etching, drawing
Diptych total: 113 x 152 cm. (44.5″ x 60″)
Edited January 13th, 2013 to show larger image.
by Marja-Leena Michiko Suzuki’s exhibition
Michiko sent this link about her newly opened exhibition in Tokyo’s Gallery 219. Have a look at her series of archival inkjet prints. You may remember Michiko from my article about her collaboration with Wayne Eastcott.
by Marja-Leena Pressure Points exhibition
As a printmaker, I’m always interested in seeing other artists’ prints and in promoting printmaking. I think it’s a wonderful, though still under-utilized, service when museums and galleries offer good online exhibitions for those of us unable to attend the real thing.
Today via Art Daily, I learned that Indiana University Art Museum in Bloomington, Indiana, USA presents Pressure Points, an exhibition featuring fifty-four contemporary prints from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his family foundation. The exhibition surveys major trends in contemporary printmaking and includes new works all produced within the last six years by twenty-three nationally and internationally recognized artists, such as Chuck Close, Jeff Koons, Robert Longo, Kiki Smith, and Kara Walker. A wide range of contemporary issues, or pressure points, are explored in the exhibition, including memory, identity, racial stereotypes, consumer culture, and AIDS.
So here’s the best news: some of the artists’ works can be seen on the museum’s site via a Flash interactive module. My personal favourites are Judy Pfaff’s woodcut and photogravure triptych, Judy Hill’s Watermelon Bride, and the well-known Chuck Close portrait, and very intriguing are Robert Longo’s lithographs and John Buck’s woodcuts. Enjoy!
by Marja-Leena Lord of the Rings musical
Helsingin Sanomat* has a story that really tickles my Finnish funnybone as it makes the intriguing connection between Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Finland.
The makers of London’s West End musical Lord of the Rings (Flash webpage) have gone to Finland for inspiration. Finnish culture is going to be present in the musical on several levels, particularly the music of folk group Värttinä, and inspiration even from old Finnish jewelry and handicrafts.
But the producers had a surprise in store – Tolkien had got here first, by at least half a century. ‘It was not until we had decided to invite Värttinä into the project that we discovered that the Finnish language had been a source of inspiration for Tolkien himself. It felt then as though we had instinctively come to the right place’, says co-producer Kevin Wallace enthusiastically. Read about this connection in an earlier post.
Don’t miss the many links at the bottom of the HS article, about the production and about some Finnish cultural sites.
And, here’s a fun post about Tolkien’s Elvish language.
* Updated 27.08.2015 – expired links removed