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Smoke Rings, 2005 - 2010
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These Smoke Rings bodily represent the poetic nature of TAZ; the ability to find spaces, use them, and then change with them as the spaces change, your process dictated by external circumstances of chance, politics, community, change being the inextricable medium of transportation. Smoke Rings can be stacked according to desire, mood, and chance, making homes, tunnels, passageway, piles, etc. As Kristina Lee Podesva said, "they look like guts, or something disgusting, but they are white, and cuddly and they make you want to spill your guts" as in, confide in, hide in and get intimate with.
Smoke Rings were started in 2005 as an artist project experiment in the blurry lines between sculpture, installation, performance, environment, and theory. In 2008 Kristina Lee Podesva invited me to do a residency at colourschool, an investigation around the greater dialogue about the colours and implications behind the colours: red, black, yellow, brown, and white. In 2010 Aja Rose Bond and Gabriel Saloman invited me to participate in The STAG - a microgallery in their home investigating alternative economics, spaces, and artistic production. The Smoke Rings are now complete, as a set of 16 Ring Sculptures, varying in looped size from 10' long to 3' long, with a diameter in ring size of 2'.
Smoke Rings will be presented at The Stag, along with a video/performative component, and an Exhibition Reader featuring Heidi Nagtegaal, GS, Kristina Lee Podesva, Aja Rose Bond. and others. Closing Party: October 6, 2010; A Think Tank will be held on October 13th, 2010 at 8pm to discuss all issues surrounding the work.
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I Want You To Think About, 2010 - present
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I want you to think about very specific things. I Want You To Think About directs you to specific points of interest, tailored for every event that it exists within. Made within the format of Tyvek Wristbands normally used for larger events, as admission passes, I Want You To Think About is both practical, poetic, as well as an artistic present for every participant.
For Signal & Noise, I responded personally to the theme of each night's curatorial programming, and themes, making tiny poems on each band. In the Incredible Pie Championships, I made an inspiring, whimsical rap about the event, each line written on each band, containing a gem to ponder on. For the Word on the Street Festival, I went through 20 years of Front Magazine archives to create a bibliography of artist histories.
Performances include: Word on the Street Festival, August 19, 2010, Front Magazine, Vancouver, BC, Canada // Incredible Pie Championships, August 1, 2010, Association of Very Good Ideas, Vancouver, BC, Canada // Signal & Noise, May 27 - 30, 2010, VIVO / Video In Video Out, Vancouver BC, Canada
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Duties, 2010 - present
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Heidi Nagtegaal (Vancouver) and Neal Rockwell (Montreal) present a new body of work. A text written by Rockwell will be jointly presented, involving a live reading by Nagtegaal and a pre-recorded digital video projection by Rockwell, with audio. Our voices slip in and out of each other, and an opening into the semiotics of the spaces between the written and spoken word open up, becoming a poetic notion in and of itself.
Performances include: Duties, 38 minutes
Upcoming: The Pin, 10 minutes
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Redirecting Traffic, 2010
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On Sunday, February 21, 2010, Redirecting Traffic was performed on Hastings, between Heatley and Hawks. During a space of 10 minutes, I redirected a handful of buses, an Olympiad Van, an Ambulance (no sirens), and heavy traffic, until undercover cops came.
All this was performed with the help of 4 Pylons I made myself, crocheted out of Flagging Tape, and a Flaggers Uniform I bought at Army and Navy.
Redirecting Traffic, 2010 is an Artist Project by Heidi Nagtegaal.
Balcone sponsored Redirecing Traffic for their Olympic 2010 Programming. Balcone is a Vancouver-based organization that supports artists with their projects, and promotes their work. Redirecting Traffic has show in Finland (akkiagalleria), Berlin (10/2/10), London (Tate Modern), and in Vancouver (VIVO, with Evening News, as a part of Safe Assembly programming, 2010).
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Bad Santa, 2009
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Bad Santa is a performance piece requested by Access Artist Run Centre for their Annual Christmas Fundraiser, in which I don a makeshift Santa Uniform with enough visual cues to signify Santa, without properly representing one either.
Components include previous art works, the red Body Suit (2005), don a Santa worthy facial hair specimen (Facial Hair Study, 2009), my gifted maroon winter jacket (Thank you Leah Benetti), and second hand winter boots (Thank you, Rad Summer, PDX).
Photo Credit: Matthew Robertson
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Facial Hair Study, 2006 - 2009
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Facial Hair Study: A series started in 2006, investigating identity politics of facial hair.
Facial Hair Study started as an index of all types of beards, formally presented within the confines of a traditional color wheel, according to 7 various subsections, or series: Florescent (3), Full Spectrum (46), Iridescent (6), Metallic (6), Neutral (19), Pearl (7), and Radiant (8). Totalling 95 facial hair pieces, resulting in 71' 4" of Facial Hair when displayed side to side in gentle gradiations of color.
Each facial hair piece was made according to a figure, public or personal, to the dimensions of my face. Along with colour, each piece was catalogued according to type of facial hair, dimensions, person, and date. This list is available when you zoom on the images.
After the spectrums were made, I applied the individual politic to the mass, creating Facial Hair Maps, of imagined countries. Each country it seemed had their own personality that informed a patriotic union, some icon or characteristic to hold on to. In a land of shifting people, this type of identity seemed just as absurd as forming a personal fixed identity, or national history. An example that came to my mind, was confederations, assemblies, and pacts formed centuries ago that no longer address the needs of the current state, or grouping of individuals. Mirroring the subtle changes in color via the spectrum, and the gradual hair growth (or removal) changing a 3 point goatee into a 5 point goatee (or vice versa), the Facial Hair Spectrum signaled to me an importance on emergence, versus sedimented thought, as everything is in a continual motion, entropy, metamorphisis, and decay symbolizing imminent transformation, to get fixated on borders, types, and places, seemed antitheoretical.
Facial Hair Study was shown at the Richmond Art Gallery, in a two-person exhibition called Guise, with Kristi Malakoff, in 2009. The Metallic Series was auctioned off at Centre A's Auction, 2009.
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Tree Fence, 2008
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I purchased a Betula "Jacquemont" Birch Tree from Home Depot, and made a Tree Fence for it in for Centre A's showroom. I was enamored with the fact that with all the construction, we went out of way to protect nature while cutting down nature to build showrooms, condos and other forms of urban development. It was interesting situation.
By crotcheting flourescent orange flagging tape, I was able to sucessfully mimic a Tree Fence. After the exhibit, I planted the tree in a nearby park, where I watered and pruned it until it was removed, a month later.
Tree Fence was shown at Centre A in 2008, and is now reassembled in Bernadette Phan's home studio, to accompany her Pylon (1/4), which is in her private collection, and was my first official art sale, outside of art auctions!
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Pylon, 2008
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Pylon is a lifesized traffic cone, crotcheted out of flourescent orange flagging tape. Made specifically for Showroom, Pylon engages in a critical discourse about real estate, growth, gentrification, housing, and the glass palace of Vancouver's down town area. My thoughts linger on ideas around progress, and the myth of progress.
I wanted to highlight the labour behind this execution. Make the invisible seen. There is a hidden cost behind this development. We see the builders during construction, but afterwards it is a beautiful shrine to the latest condominium site. We see the falling apart low income building before it gets torn down, but afterwards, it is only a memory, replaced by the Shagri La (condo). Where did those workers go? Where did those people who used to live in that old building go?
There are hidden costs. At first glance, Pylon looks like a real life pylon. Many people did not even realize it was an art piece. It holds itself up on it's own weight, it could fool traffic during rush hour, and does.
Pylon has been exhibited in Centre A (2008), and became a set of 4, to facilitate the piece Redirecting Traffic, that I performed in resistance to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Pylon 1/4 is in the collection of Bernadette Phan, Vancouver BC, 2/4 was sold at the Western Front Dinner and Auction Gala in 2009.
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Needles, 2008
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I crotcheted 93 covers for 3 oz syringes in attempt to breach the awkwardness commonly associated with Needles. Needles are used to treat a variety of conditions, from illness to addiction. Often times, these things are uncomfortable, we don't want to talk about them, we just want them to go away.
Personally, I had to take a lot of needles as a child, and I hated them. I squirmed so much I got massive bruising on my arms; I insisted on praying before injection. At 16 my sister Laura was diagnosed with Leukemia; more needles. My Aunt has diabetes. Countless people struggle with addiction. Statistically, the public knows that Safe Infection Sites are a good thing for society, but no one wants them in their neighbourhood.
From the personal to the political, Needles is a conversation opener to a hard subject. Needles is now in a private collection, in Abbotsford, BC, Canada.
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Masks for Disappearing, 2006 - present
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Designed after Balaclavas, these Masks investigate the art of disappearing. Balaclavas are often used by theives to rob physical items from grocery stores, etc. Masks for Disappearing proposes a different form of theft: one of visibility.
Everyone has moments when they want to disappear, become ghosts and merely haunt in the background of a gallery, house party or grocery store. The irony of this project, is that if these Masks for Disappearing were to be used in earnest, the wearer would become more visible.
There have been 15 Masks for Disappearing made currently. Two Masks were sold in the 2008 Centre A Auction, and sold to Christina Ritchie (1/15), and Bruce Carscadden & Karen Coflin (2/15). Masks for Disappearing has shown in Vancouver BC (CSA space, 2007), Toronto (Gallery YPW, 2009), and has appeared in Room Magazine (2008). Exhibition essay, by Neal Rockwell (2007).
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Hammock Residency, 2006 - present
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The Hammock Residency is a Residency Program that I developed to support the local arts community. I want you to read all the books you've been meaning to read, all the writing you've been putting off. It is a community hub, happenstance event space, and a good space to let things happen.
Applicants from all creative backgrounds are welcomed; see website for complete details.
http://www.hammockresidency.com
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The Ball, 2006
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This piece was made specifically for Slits 2 performance show at Western Front Artist Run Centre, in which we were asked to investigate pain, to which I decided to investigate emotional pain, and the pain of obsessive thinking and worrying.
In order to visualize and make physical the emotional state of OCD, I fingerknitted for 3 months straight: while eating breakfast, during work breaks, on the bus, at art shows, at home, everywhere. During this time, the bones in my left finger permanently grew further into my palm, making the bones longer.
The Ball weighed 18 pounds upon completion.
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CounterPublics, 2004 - 2006
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CounterPublics acted a horizontally structured collective, investigating the intersection of Art, Politics and Activism through potlucks, discussion groups, performance, art, music and installation.
When the collective was not using the space, other local organizations would, such as MAWO, NA and Neighbourhood Tango classes.
Peter Conlin, Kirstin Forkert, Sarah White, Mark Dahl, Nick Lakowski, Nathan Matthews, Eric Simons, Heidi Nagtegaal and others were involved.
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Body Suit: WalMart Portrait Studio, 2005
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After making my suit, and hugging people on Robson Street, I decided to get my picture taken at WalMart and see what would happen. I made the appointment with the Manager to ensure that everything was okay before coming in with my suit.
Upon my arrival, one of the two Portrait Studio Assistants hid in the curtains, while the other gleefully chose my backgrounds and poses. The package kit that was chosen was based on her suggestion.
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Body Suit: Hugging, 2005
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The art object and the artist can become so infused that they are hard to separate. As the artist, you make the object, and then that object reflects you, and becomes this odd sort of branding mechanism.
At the same time I was thinking these thoughts, the heat in my apartment was shut off, and I was freezing cold, so I decided to make myself a Body Cozy. When my Body Cozy was finished, I put it on, and loved it. It was so warm and cozy. But it made me feel and look like a mascot.
I decided if I looked like a mascot, I would act like one, and go to the corner of Robson and Thurlow, where there are 2 Starbucks kitty corner to one another, deep in the heart of Vancouver's expensive shopping district. It was the first sunny afternoon since September, and people were everywhere. Since I had no face and I was not selling anyone, people were a bit confused, but I hugged them anyways.
I went up to the nearest person and said "I am going to hug you" at the same time as I hugged them. It was a real experiment in boundaries. As a mascot in Disneyland, people would rush up to some stranger in a Mickey Mouse costume and hug them, without thinking about who was inside the costume. In my costume I didn't look like a character, but it was obvious that I was a human, with no clear identity, but a human, and I was hugging people.
I had my picture taken, was interviewed on TV, jumped back away from in fright, cringed at, pushed away and surprised.
12 minute DVD
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Headbands and Bracelets, 2004 - present
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Heidi Nagtegaal has been Headbanding and Braceleting people since 2004.
The artist writes: "The mandate is simple: I make them myself and give them out at parties, gatherings, events, weddings, funerals, art openings, music shows (etc). Everyone must have the opportunity to have one (but they don't have to take one); and they can wear, decorate, collect, throw away or cherish their object, however they please" (2009).
In response, participants have worn their Headbands or Bracelets for years, changed their wardrobe style, gotten large chest tattoos with Headbands in them, and, in certain instances, started handing them out on their own.
HBAB was a part of the Contemporary Art Gallery Auction, Let's Keep Dancing, in 2009, where Heather Dahl, bought a performance for Vancouver City Hall. In her own words, "I am still trying to convince the councillors that they will look good in macrame" (Heather Dahl, May 2010).
Running total:
January 2010: 6,000 HBAB
May 2010: 8,500 HBAB
July 2010: 10,000 HBAB
All totals are estimates!
http://www.headbandsandbracelets.com
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