Bacteria Buttons

For my artist buttons, I wanted to create something fun and mischievous, so I found colourful photos of petri dish bacteria for my button collection. The petri dish helped play with the round shape of the button and anyone wearing one can have their own colony of germs attached to them. This was a really fun project to create and share buttons with everyone in class, and a great way to end the year!

My Favorite Jewelry

For my final project, I wanted to create a visual representation of myself and many others by creating a self-portrait through jewellery. Each photo tells you about the individual, like if they are old or young, rich or poor, feminine or masculine. the jewelry we wear is something important to each person, so through this project, I was able to display a meaningful expression of an individual without letting the viewer see their faces.

Recreated Sounds

For this audio project, I wanted to set a task for myself of recreating the noises I hear in my house solely with my own voice. I had friends create a random list of sounds I could record, and I attempted to imitate them. This was far harder a task than I first thought as the noises we hear can sound simple but there impossible to recreate with your own voice. I ended up sounding quite ridiculous, in my attempt to complete this task and realized that I had used words that suggested the sound more so than the actual sound itself.

Cartwheels

Staring Contest

Thumb Wars

Drawing A Kilometre

For this project, I wanted to physically bring something to class that would be a kilometre, so I drew one out using a marker and ruler, each line is 28cm meaning I had to draw 3,571 full lines plus 12cm extra on the last page to get to a full kilometre. In doing this project I realized how long a kilometre is for a tiny marker, as I spaned 34 and a half pages to get to completion.

😉 🙂 🙂 🙂

1 Kilometer of Garbage

At first I really struggled to come up with an idea for my conceptual kilometer and I ended up spending most of my time for the project brainstorming what I actually wanted to do. I really wanted to incorporate an idea that would mean something to me, rather than just making a kilometer for the sake of making a kilometer. In a sudden spark of inspiration I thought about picking up one kilometer of garbage and as soon as I landed on this idea I knew I had to do it. Even if it sounds a little cliché, the environment and being able to maintain it is something very important to me. I have a theory of sorts, that if every person just took 10 minutes to go for a walk and clean up all the garbage they see every day, every other day or even just every week, the world would be a much cleaner place. I know 10 minutes might not sound like a lot of time to actually get much done, but within the first 10 minutes of my “1 Kilometer of Garbage”, I had collected almost a full 45 liter bag of garbage. I ended up taking 31 minutes and 41 seconds to walk a kilometer and pick up all of the garbage I saw along the path. Additionally, I ended up collecting 2 (very full) 45 liter bags of garbage.

I think that the hardest part of this project was actually the kilometer walk back to my house after picking up the garbage. I say this because by the time I was walking back, I noticed that there was already more new garbage that had been thrown on the ground since I had done my kilometer.

My main reason for creating “1 Kilometer of Garbage” was to give a physical and visual approximation of what a kilometer of garbage actually looks like. Most people can walk through the streets and see a piece of garbage on the floor every few steps and not think very much of it. However, I wanted to know what all of these pieces of garbage looked like together and how much of it is there actually on the ground within one kilometer.

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Testing A Paper’s Strength

For this video performance me and my partner assigned ourselves the simple task of throwing different objects at a piece of paper until it breaks. For this particular video I was personally inspired by one of the artists that we viewed in class, Kelly Mark. Specifically, I took inspiration from one of her video performances titled “Sniff”, in which she gives different objects to her cat for it to sniff them. I really enjoyed the scientific and experimental nature of this performance and the concept of testing one thing against a series of objects. For our three videos, me and my partner wanted to focus on using paper in each of the videos, which is ultimately what lead us to the idea of testing the strength of paper against various thrown objects.

For the more technical considerations of this video, we decided to shoot the entire video in a close-up shot because we felt that the only necessary information for this video revolves around the piece of paper and what is being thrown at it. We felt that if this video was shot with both me and my partner in frame it would take away from the purpose, simplicity and scientific nature of the video. In addition we also decided to keep the audio in the video, as the sound of the objects hitting the paper gives more context to how each object effects the paper. We also decided to record a voiceover for the video as it is quite difficult to actually tell what is being thrown at the paper and we found that text on the screen was too distracting from the video. We also felt that this video was best displayed as a one-shot since there is really no need to cut the video at any point since the pace of the objects being thrown is quite quick and consistent. If this video were to be shown in a gallery however, I would mostly likely display it as a video that runs on a continuous loop. In addition, I would also like to re-film the video and incorporate a longer list of objects that are thrown at the paper, ultimately making the video itself longer.

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Different Ways To Share A Piece Of Paper

In this video performance piece, me and my partner assigned ourselves the task of exploring a range of silent gestures and positions all involving sharing a piece of paper between ourselves. This video performance was inspired mostly by two videos which we saw in class, one being “Device” by John Wood and Paul Harrison, and the other was a previous students work which involved crushing a lemon between two different peoples hands. Both of these video performances interested me because of their exploration of actions and body positions that are completely unnecessary for daily life. An example of this is the student’s video of two people struggling to crush a lemon between each of their hands when one could easily crush the lemon themselves with their own hands. This was also seen in the Wood and Harrison video as they experiment with “devices” that have no real purpose or use. This concept of exploring pointless gestures or movements really stuck with me and I knew I wanted to incorporate it somehow in one of the videos. This video, “Different Ways To Share A Piece of Paper”, works with this concept and also includes the reoccurring object that me and my partner wanted to keep throughout each of our three videos, paper. We also wanted to do this piece as a duet because we felt that there would be a larger and more interesting range of gestures to explore.

We decided to film this video in the same long-shot as it would give an entire view of both me and my partners bodies while performing the gestures with each other. We also decided to leave out any sound in this video as it places a greater focus and meaning on the physical gestures. If I were to adapt this video for a gallery I might want to try and explore using microphones to record breathing and heartrate while performing the gestures, however this is just an idea. Me and my partner decided to make this performance the cut video as we felt that it made most sense to leave out our process of thinking between each of the gestures. We felt that this ultimately places more focus again on the actual gestures themselves and nothing else. However, if I were to put this video performance in a gallery I would like to, as with the previous video, explore making a longer video with more gestures.

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Art Is Hard

For this video performance, me and my partner assigned ourselves the task of filling and entire blank sheet of paper with a repeated phase or pattern. We weren’t able to come up with an idea for the repeated phrase/ pattern however until we saw a particular phrase that was written and left up on the chalk board in our classroom, “Art Is Hard”. This phrase really resonated with me and my partner, and my personal reasoning for using it within this video is as a reminder to myself as an artist and to any viewers that whenever you are struggling and working very hard on a piece of art, just remember that art isn’t supposed to be easy. I also thought that it worked well in a comedic sort of way when being paired with the extremally boring and somewhat tiring task of writing the same thing over and over. This is also why me and my partner decided that this video would be our loop, as it exaggerates the repetitiveness, excessiveness and boring nature of the task. We also found a great opportunity for a loop while performing this task: when the full sheet of paper is taken off of the table an replaced with a blank sheet. In addition we decided to shoot the video in a close-up shot of the hands, pencil and piece of paper, as it keeps the focus of the video centered solely on the task being performed.

The inspiration for this performance piece ultimately came from John Baldessari’s piece, “I will not make anymore boring art”. In this piece Baldassari performs a similar task in which he fills out lines on a page with the phrase “I will not make anymore boring art”. This particular performance feels similar to the task of writing lines for a teacher or parent when you misbehave as a child. To me, this is because of the phrase that was chosen to be repeated within the performance, as it is an instruction about what to do differently in the future. When compared to the phrase that we chose for our video, the performance we completed was much more meditative and similar to repeating a mantra to yourself. This was because we chose a phrase which was more like a statement that you are trying to come to terms with as you continue to write it over and over again.

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Field Trip

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The Power Plant

I really enjoyed the scale/ length of this piece and the material, which was the recognizable format of a scroll. I also really liked the sketchy and almost fantastical, imaginary and dream-like nature of the drawings that were drawn onto this long scroll. This nature of the drawings made this piece feel almost as if it had been drawn on by a child and brings about feeling of nostalgia of some of my own drawing I had done as a kid, as well as characters in older children’s cartoons.

This collection by Amartey Golding was particularly striking to me, especially for its extremally dramatic and moody ambience and pieces. Firstly, I was very captivated by the scale of the video that was playing in the room and the loud but intriguing musical composition that went along with it. I am personally very interested in art works, particularly video art works, that are cinematic or narrative driven and I was very excited to see a piece like this in an exhibition. Everything from the costumes to the music to the locations (a museum and an intimate house setting), were very dramatic but it worked in the best way for this extremely impactful and striking piece. I was also very excited to see just raw photography (on a canvas on the wall) because I absolutely love photography and its nice to see how it can be used in a very conceptual and experimental way. I was also very impressed by the photography for its extremely moody nature and themes that complimented the videos playing and the costumes that were shown in the videos. I really enjoyed the consideration and use of lighting and depth of field techniques, especially in the shallow depth of field in the photograph of chains on a face, or the use of a lighter to create an interesting light source or the use of flash in the outdoor photos of the “creature” from the Bring Me To Heal videos. I also liked that the costumes from the videos were present in the gallery, as it really helped to get a feeling for the extremely dramatic size and stylization of them. Lastly, I was very intrigued by the bright red walls in the gallery. Red is a color that is commonly associated with strong and dramatic feelings like anger or passion and to me this added more charged emotion and mood to the videos and other pieces in the the exhibition.

I really enjoyed how this artist lets the viewers make their own connections with her work and interpret them each in their own way based on their own nostalgic or personal moments.

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SCREAM

For my audio assignment piece I decided to take inspiration partly from a piece we listened to during class and from the kind of music I like to listen to. I knew from the start that I wanted to work with music in some way for this audio assignment and work with how it is significant to me. Music helps me relax in stressful situations, as I tend to get anxious quite a bit and putting in ear buds has always helped me to calm down. However, if you have already listened to my piece, than you might be wondering right now, “how the heck does this kind of music help you to relax”. In these songs, the screaming is typically the most emotional part and it is also the part of the song that I lose myself in the most. A scream can mean anger and rage, but it can also mean a range of other emotions, like sadness or even happiness and excitement. I wanted to show a range of these screams in my piece and I also wanted to highlight how meaningful screaming is in music and how different each scream can be.

I also took inspiration from the piece we listened to in class titled “Love 100”, in which the artist Carmen Mattear compiled songs from the top 10 on radios from 1919-2019. In this piece, Mattear took the word “love” out from each song and played this compilation of the word “love” one after the other. I liked the way in which the audio cuts between songs, where sometimes there is a stark contrast between the two songs that are played next to one another, and sometimes the two songs flow right into each other. Once I heard this piece I knew that I wanted to create a similar effect with my own piece “The Scream”.

My audio piece for this assignment is a 1 minute and 4 second compilation of screaming from some of my favorite songs, however I also created a Spotify playlist with the songs I used in my project. I would encourage anyone to give them a listen, because it is better to experience screaming in music with the accompaniment of the rest of the song. If I were to present this piece in a gallery I would most likely create a list of the songs I used in my project and place it directly on the wall in front of a set of headphones to listen to the piece. I realized that this piece might not be best suited to play out loud in a gallery after watching my roommate flinching while listening to it (ha ha). Aside from this, I also feel that the experience of listening to this music through headphones is also very similar to my own personal experience of listening to music to relax.

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Conceptual Portrait of Canada

The original idea for this piece was actually inspired by a book that I had and read as a child titled “M is for Maple: A Canadian Alphabet” written by Mike Ulmer and illustrated by Melanie Rose. Growing up outside of Canada my parents always tried their best to “raise me like a Canadian”, with Canadian values and some knowledge about the country. The book, “M is for Maple”, was a list of typically Canadian things that my parents would often read to me and try to explain what each thing on the list was and why it was important to Canada. However, I never truly got a sense of what Canada was like until I moved to Ontario for University. Now, since I mostly grew up in Europe, I can only really see Canada for how it differs from what living in small European country was like. For this project I decided to compile a similar alphabetical list as the “M is for Maple” book, however I would make a list of things that came as a culture shock to me and things that stand out as “different”. I also asked both of my sisters (who similarly grew up away from Canada) and some of my expat friends to add a few things to the list. I decided to present this list through a series images and audio, as it forces the viewers to experience the list in a paced manner. What I mean by this is that the video doesn’t allow much time for the viewer to dwell on certain things in this list and are rather tossed around between upsetting, somewhat insignificant and bizarre things. For example, in the list “residential school graves” and “ridiculously flavored foods” appear next to each other and the viewer is forced to contemplate a serious and upsetting issue and then right after view something that seems so insignificant. I really enjoyed playing with this contrast between the concepts within my list and I think that the alphabetical nature of my project solidifies this by making the order of important vs insignificant things more random.

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PLAYBOY Buttons

For this project I was really drawn to creating buttons that were each one of a kind and couldn’t be replicated multiple times, so from the start I wasn’t very interested in creating a graphic design for my buttons. I was also very interested in using a source of media to cut-out and create my buttons, so a magazine or newspaper seemed like the best options. I already had this 1971 February edition Playboy magazine that I had bought from an antique shop and it seemed like a very interesting material to use in order to explore aspects of femininity, empowerment, feminism and the absurdity of some of the aspects of Playboy magazines. I also really liked how the cut-outs of the magazine worked together as a collection, as each of the pieces work together to hint that these buttons are in-fact from a Playboy magazine. For example, just seeing a single button that is an explicit graphic or a naked woman doesn’t really speak to much, however as a collective the buttons make sense because you have a mix of explicit graphics, naked women, bunny iconography and erotic images viewers can gather that these are Playboy buttons. The buttons can also be quite nice as stand alone pieces (maybe pinned to a jacket or bag), however they can be quite controversial depending on the identity of the wearer. I really enjoyed the particular way that I decided to model the buttons, for example the nipple pins are quite entertaining and attention grabbing to wear over your actual nipples, especially since they are life sized. In addition, I think that my thrifted playboy jeans serve as a perfect canvas to display the buttons, the only thing that might be better would be a jean jacket version of the pants.

“Crocheted Kilometre”

To Do List:

For this experimental 1 minute sound project, I decided to record my roommates listing some of the things they need to get done in the upcoming week. It was interesting to listen to the varying items on their lists and the repetition of certain things between them. I also thought it was funny because I actually had to beg my roommates to record this because they are so busy with the things they have to do. I really enjoy this piece not only for the satisfaction of hearing all the things they have to do but also because it acts as a reflection of our household during the first week of March 2023. I love that this piece works when confined to a minute and also love that this piece feels like it could go on forever with a variety of subjects.

A Synesthete’s Alphabet

For this self portrait, I decided to document the way I see the alphabet through crochet. Since I have synesthesia, I see the alphabet (and many other things like numbers and music) in very specific ways. I decided to display how I see the alphabet through crochet because I see letters in a very spatial way and see them hooking onto each other. By using crochet, I could create a malleable alphabet the same way that I conceive it in my head. In the future, I would love to continue this project and add numbers, songs and other things I see differently than the typical person.

Bug Pins

For this project I decided to create pins with all different bugs on them. This idea interested me because everyday I wear a bug necklace and have a character that I draw that represents myself called “Bug Girl”. After creating the pins, I put all of them on my backpack and wore them like that for a couple days. I enjoyed seeing people’s reactions to me wearing them all and even catching one person taking a picture while I was on the bus. In a way, it reminds me of the self portrait project because I feel I am wearing a documentation of myself. I also enjoy wearing them all at once because it seems so absurd to have that many bug pins on at once. I also liked people’s different reactions because some people love bugs while others hate them. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and look forward to wearing the pins in a variety of ways.

1KM Submission; A simulation of my heart walking 1km

For my 1KM submission I decided to make a visual simulation of my heart beat walking 1km around campus. The full simulation is 11 minutes 17 seconds which is the exact amount of time that it took me to walk the 1KM distance. Through the whole simulation the “heart” beats a total of 1336.61 times at a rate of 118 beats per minute. To determine this I tracked my heart rate on my smart watch and created the simulation based on the results. The main idea when creating this was one day when I was walking and noticed my heart rate was higher than normal, but on the outside I look as if everything was normal. This had me thinking about the interesting contrast between what we see on the outside, versus what is really happening on the inside; so I created this simulation of exactly what my heart looks like on the inside as I walk around for 1KM.

Video Project: Loop

Video Project: One Take

Video Project: Edited Video

For my video project submissions I decided to focus on the simple task of “focus”. In saying this, I wanted to look at the objective of this “performance” piece from a different lens, instead of performing the simple task myself, I decided to give the simple task of “focus” to the camera. The intention for this project was for the camera to perform the act of “focus”. Additionally, to further demonstrate the act of focus performed by the camera I had decided to include the Lumetri Scopes of each video to show what is happening internally within the camera when focusing/un-focusing on a subject. The first looped video is a short clip that starts off with the camera un-focused, when a subject walks in you see the camera perform the act of focusing, and then you see the camera perform the act of un-focusing as the subject walks away to allow for a perfect looping video when repeated. Secondly, the one take video submission is a minute long video of a still subject focusing intensely on the camera while the camera itself performs the act of focusing / un-focusing on the subject; demonstrated by the Lumetri Scopes. Lastly, the edited video plays on the concept derived from the state of “focus”. When I was working with this concept I often found myself going in and out of a “dream-like” reality as the focus changes. In saying this, I wanted this edited video to play on the concept of the focus changing in and out of a dream state, as demonstrated by the faux reflection in the mirror showing the lack of reality caused by the current state of focus / un-focus as performed by the camera.

Audio Project: The war that never warmed

” Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small.

We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation’s security to constitute maximum peril.

Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift, that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace.

Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful nation, which leads a worldwide alliance.

We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics. But now further action is required–and it is under way; and these actions may only be the beginning.

We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth–but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced. “

16 Reference Track – Kendrick Lamar

” My Mama mad at me, I know I fucked up big.

My Grandma mad at me, I know I fucked up big.

Boss love, I guess I never understand.

Every-time I say that I’m sorry, I do that shit again.

Chill, Chill, Chill

I made a promise.

That I would never leave you stressed.

I made a promise.

That I would never send that text.

I made a promise.

And if I ever felt this way.

I would be honest.

Shawty bought me nooses and a rolls, I live that fast life.

Got all my nooses in a row, yea they tied tight.

Big fat thoughts, bumping my head like my dad right.

Popping these bars on the road, we got the tabs right.

And when you say, say.

Hide my drugs, smoke — “

Button Project Submission

For my button project submission I decided to continue with my experimentation of how new forms of technology can be used within art. For this project specifically, I created 15 buttons that all feature unique QR codes. The QR codes are used as a gateway to an audio file from Old Man by Neil Young that I deconstructed into 4 unique parts; Vocals, Bass, Drums, Instrumentals. Each QR code takes you to one of these unique audio files with the goal that when enough people participate in this work, that the full song will be uncovered with each persons phone playing a unique part of the song that then comes together in this shared space in which the buttons are displayed. I chose the song Old Man by Neil Young specifically because over this semester I tasked myself with experimenting with technology within my art, I realized that there is always a large disconnect within the generation differences of the art world and the viewpoint placed on “technological art”, the song speaks a lot about the disconnect of two generations and how these wavering viewpoints are actually more similar when you look closer at it. In the future I would love to continue experimenting with this concept, and I would love to experiment with displaying this work with a full orchestra of instruments, with each button laid out in it’s proper section of the orchestra, which would link each unique instrument to its own QR code. The goal would be to have viewers scan these QR codes, and being left with a fully put together symphony being played from each unique phone.

Before you judge a person, walk a kilometer in their shoes.

When I was thinking about how to recreate a kilometer, I kept thinking about the classic idiom. I decided it would be fun to explore a literal approach to the concept of; can I learn about someone and become more empathetic towards them by actually walking in their shoes? I decided to set up this piece as a report, which shows my observations of every step in the kilometer. It was a fun experiment, taking my time during the walk to pay more attention to how I felt, and how the subject must feel while walking in the same shoes. It inspires me to continue this project, and I want to walk in other people’s shoes and see where it leads me. I think it would be fun to have a collection of shared experiences with random people, and it might be a unique way to make more intentional connections.

For this sequence piece, Quinn and I brainstormed as many different ways that we could execute the action of drawing a circle. We chose the circle because it has the reputation of being a difficult shape to create. We wanted to see how the shape would differ when trying out different ways to perform this action. This video highlights the variety of ways in which someone could draw a circle, if they felt up to the challenge. We decided to have a slight narrative throughout the piece, checking in on the nested hierarchy circles as they continue to grow throughout the video, while the other techniques jump into view to try and keep the audience engaged. We decided not to have transitions because we wanted to contrast between the scenes to be sudden.

For this one-shot piece, we wanted to challenge ourselves by drawing out the circle as slowly as possible. Our aim was to create anticipation for the viewer, as they stand to watch Quinn draw this circle. Bit by bit, the shape comes into form… only for the video to end abruptly without the circle ever being fully completed. We made this choice because we wanted to create a sense of frustration in our audience. This replicates how I personally feel whenever I try to draw the perfect circle, that is, I can never quite get it ‘right’. But, who is to say that an uncompleted circle is not a circle?

For this loop piece, Quinn and I thought it would be a cool idea to play around with something that could go on forever. The nice thing about circles is that they are infinite. So we decided to create a shot where we drew and erased the circle at the same time, requiring a repeated action for infinity.

After the critique, we edited the video to be more smooth between the loops, slightly fading between the end to the start again.

I have always been told I am a loud chewer. For this piece, I was inspired by the artist Kelly Mark’s piece, HUM, who recorded an annoying tune to implant in people’s heads. I wanted to play with the idea of how a short audio clip can create emotions in people. I know that a lot of people in my life find the sound of someone chewing to be quite obnoxious, and I am very self-conscious whenever I eat crunchy items like a carrot. So this piece is a bit tongue-in-cheek with confronting the reality that I am a loud chewer, especially next to the microphone. May these sounds resonate loud for all to hear.

All of the windows I look through…

The house I live in has a lot of personality, I wanted to represent that for this contemporary portrait. The house and windows are very old, and I am sure they have witnessed a lot in their time. I like to look at the windows, and out through them. All of the fine cracks, designs and distortions make the view of the outside world much more interesting.

For my buttons, I had too many ideas, and I found it difficult to narrow them down to one for this project. For my first button collection attempt, I made a series of images depicting taxidermied gopher dioramas from the world Famous Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta. (https://worldfamousgopherholemuseum.ca/) I decided this might be a fun idea to play around with because buttons, just like taxidermy, it is a way of keeping something alive and having an image on display to the world. Also like buttons, one has to first gather a collection of the gophers to create a whole museum. It also might allude to a contemporary take on vanitas art. I also thought it would be fun to make a collection on this collection, and have it be a niche, ambiguous image and message that only people who have been to, or heard about the museum would really understand. I am curious to see how they will be interpreted in the real world. My favorite button from this collection was the two gophers sitting at the dinner table, saying “Oh boy am I ever stuffed”… because who doesn’t want a punny taxidermied gopher button right?!

For my second collection, I was wanting to play around with the materials that compose the buttons. I thought it would be an interesting idea to intentionally not use a plastic slip, and have the paper material eventually break down as it is worn in the world. I used phrases like “everything is temporary” and “nothing is forever” which too will disintegrate away, making the button self-aware of its own mortality. I also made a few “this is not original” buttons, which I thought might be thought-provoking to those who came across the message in the real world.

Kilometer Assignment

Ricky’s Journey

For my kilometer project I decided to show the effect of traveling one kilometer. I started by thinking of how we can travel a kilometer. We can walk it, run it, bike it, drive it, fly it, etc. Then I started to think of how small 1 single kilometer really is. In my eyes a kilometer isn’t very intimidating, but this is not the case for everyone. Others struggle a lot more with a kilometer and this is the idea I settled on for this project.

I painted a rock, and gave it a name to make it almost human. I then walked a kilometer around campus, kicking Ricky (the rock) in front of me. He had some rough patches; where he rolled into things such as sticks, pebbles, cracks in the pavement. He also had some easy patches in his journey; these were the snowy spots, where he simply kept rolling. When I painted him I put 2 different colored layers around him, one green, the other blue. Where we see green is where only one layer of paint was rubbed off. This is where he only had slight damage. Where we see stone however, is where his main impact points were during his journey.

The damage Ricky took was contingent on where I rolled him. If I had rolled him back and forth down my road (where it isn’t as plowed, and still has a layer of snow), he would have come out of this looking much better. However if I had done this before it snowed he wouldn’t have had the small breaks from pavement, and he would have looked worse in the end. 

I have included Ricky’s before and after pictures, as well as a before and after picture of my shoes. You’ll notice that Ricky has a lot more damage than my shoes. Even though both items traveled the same distance, they didn’t have the exact same journey. This kilometer was way harder on Ricky than it was on my shoes, because my shoes were more prepared. Since I painted the rock and gave it a name we suddenly feel how hard this kilometer was on poor Ricky.

Video Art

Partners with Renee

Art Is Hard (Loop)

Taking inspiration from John Baldessari’s “I will not make anymore boring art”. Our video calls out those who look at art as easy. We chose to fill a page with ‘Art is hard’, contradicting the overall simple feeling of the video itself. While filling up the page I found I zoned out completely. I was expecting for my hand to hurt about half way through and then be uncomfortable writing the second half. However this wasn’t the case. It was hard to get started with the writing, but once I was a few lines in I started to distract myself looking at the columns each word was creating. You can see I made a few mistakes, but we took them as they came. The mistakes demonstrated how even a simple task like this is difficult, adding to our overall idea of art being hard. Some words were written too close, or I wrote the wrong word and had to fix it. I also take a second to look back at the work I have done a few times. In the video we have enough time to take in all aspects of it. I found that I was immediately drawn to how I was holding my pencil, it looked so weird. Something like holding a pencil comes so naturally, it is second nature, so I had never thought about how I held my pencil until now. A small challenge we had while making this was how we would make the loop because we had to get our blank page back seamlessly. We decided to start with a blank table, then bring in our paper to begin the writing. In the end we take the filled page away so our loop can start again with us bringing in a new blank page, starting fresh.

A Paper’s Strength Against A… (One Shot Video)

We tested the limits of paper (with respect to our studio space), using the same repetitive feat over and over, only changing the object. We didn’t want to be in this video ourselves, taking away from the paper’s presence, so we decided to do a close up style. Only showing Renee’s arms, we angled the paper in a way that we could see the face of it, but also see the incoming objects. This lets the viewer only focus on the object’s impact on the paper. It was interesting to watch how some of the items (ex. The clip or the server card), were held by the paper for a brief moment on impact. It gave us a chance to look at how the paper supported the object before gravity took over. When Renee and I watched the video we knew what each object was, making it easier for us to take in the whole video. However, our audience wouldn’t be able to view it the same way we did. We could have left the video and objects as a mystery, but some went by so fast and were too hard to see, making the video less enjoyable. So we had to think of a way to inform the audience, without disrupting our video. We originally tried to add a small title in the corner, saying what was being thrown, but this made the video feel busy though. Our eyes were going from the corner, to the paper, to the corner, back to the paper. It was taken away from our video. So we used a voiceover in between the items hitting the paper. This kept our video easy to watch. It also gave the viewer context, so they could think of what was being thrown rather than just watching and taking in whatever they could. 

James Price and Lenka Clayton created a cut video of drums being played by different people, ages 1-100. This was a fun video to watch, you could visibly see the overall change everyone goes through in life. They kept drums as their constant. Renee and I kept our sheet of paper as our constant, while each object changed. We also tried to line everything up before we started the video. We wanted to have the objects with the least amount of impact go first, and we would slowly work up to the object we thought could break the paper.

Different Ways To Share Paper (Cut)

This piece was inspired by Kelly Mark’s ‘Hello Goodbye’. She shows the viewer simple, silent gestures for us to understand. In her work she wore all black with a black background. Her goal was to isolate her hand gestures and facial expressions, this is how we got the feeling of her video. Renee and I instead wore the same lighter neutral clothing so our body movements would be visible instead of just our hands. We then had to decide on our overall feeling: did we want to be having fun, smiling and looking at each other? Or did we want to stay calm and serious? Harrison and Wood made a similar video that I was very drawn to. I like the way their video was ‘quiet’, giving you one simple movement at a time to take in. Renee and I kept straight faces, making only one movement per clip, this keeps the video ‘quiet’, giving our viewers only our movements to consider. We also muted the sound on the video so there wouldn’t be anything small to distract you from our movements.

We originally had a lot more clips, but cut it down to our favourites. We experimented with many poses, some worked very well, others didn’t. We also had smaller issues, for example: When we lean back, supporting ourselves with the paper, the paper would occasionally rip. Or sometimes when we were trying different ways to hold the paper it would drop. We felt that the paper dropping did not fit the feeling we were going for, so those fails were cut out. 

Watching our video back I wish we had only made one moving gesture video. We could have the inserted clips of us holding a paper, still, in different positions in between. So it would have shown us progressing through the one video, with the different ways to hold a paper in between.

Field Trip to Toronto : Wednesday, February 15^th, 2023

The Power Plant

Our first stop of the day was at The Power Plant. There are many pieces there at the moment, however, I am only posting my two favorite exhibitions.

IN THE COMFORT OF EMBERS by Amartey Golding. The pieces were centered around fire and chainmail, looking back at the past compared to the present. There were 3 videos playing on loop in the room: Bring Me to Heal 1, Bring Me to Heal 2, and Chainmail 3. The suit (made of human hair) in the first two pictures was worn in the videos. The puffer jacket made of chainmail, stuffed with horse hair, was worn in the videos as well by his brother. It was used to portray his time in the army. This was a very interesting exhibit, I felt completely consumed by the work as I stood in the room.

Brenda Draney, my favorite of the two shown. This is her first solo exhibition at the Power Plant. Her work is formed around memories, all pieces appearing to be unfinished. This is done on purpose. She is painting her own specific memories, but does so in a way where we can all relate to the final piece. Picture 3 is named ‘Tent City’, and we all look at it different because we all have different relationships with a tent, it sparks a different memory within every viewer. For example, when looking at the bruised legs piece (pic 5), I immediately think of snowmobiling. While riding my knees and shins hit off the vents and foot pockets on my sled, resulting in a lot of bruises up my legs. She painted the piece from one of her own personal memories, but I as a viewer can still relate to it in my own way. The exhibit room itself is also a piece. Shown in the first picture, we can see a brown line painted around the top of the room, this represents a flood line. Her basement, where many of her treasured memories took place, was flooded.

Kensington Market

During our break in Kensington market Renee and I walked down the street to Graffiti Alley. This is a ‘street art gallery’, and we thought it fit the theme of the trip well.

TPW and Daniel Faria Gallery

The TWP gallery was my favorite place we stopped. We got to sit in a comfy, inviting room, and listen to 9 soundtracks on a loop. We didn’t get to listen to the whole loop, but we did hear two different tracks. I believe the full loop is about 9 hours long. It was extremely mesmerizing, and peaceful. The walls were covered in large speakers so you were only able to hear the soundtrack from all sides around you, the work consumed you completely.

Our next stop was at the Daniel Faria gallery, not even a minutes walk away. We got to look at his looped video pieces.

Conceptual Portrait

What’s she thinking?

Inspired by Kelly Marks cat video, my piece shows a ‘portrait’ of Paris through her reactions. When it comes to fight or flight horses are a flight animal. They can have big reactions to small things, then no reaction at all to something that you would expect to scare them. Using Paris for this idea works perfectly because she won’t be acting. If I were to have done this with one of my friends, wether they realize it or not, their reactions would be fake or exaggerated because they know I want a reaction from them. Whereas my horse doesn’t understand what is happening. If she is scared she will run, and if she doesn’t care about what I have to show her she will just stare at me or walk away. So by using her I am able to capture a genuine reaction every time. I am happy to say I have a very curious and brave horse, which is shown through the video. It is interesting how we can get a sense of her goofy personality through watching what she thinks of something like an umbrella, or a flag. While watching you can also get a sense of our relationship. I have owned Paris for three and a half years now, overtime gaining her trust and forming a bond. Her reactions are contingent on that trust.

*****No one was in danger during this video*****

Artist Multiple

Tastefully Hating These Thought Police

Each of my buttons show a song lyric on a black background. The simplicity of the design allows the viewer to only focus on what is being said. The lyrics are centred around the idea of power, and how blinded the public is. The single line is thought provoking. Government and religion shape the world as we know it, these buttons are statements/questions regarding this power dynamic. Much like buttons, music is a good way to subtly spread a message. Using lyrics allowed each button to be quick, poetic and to the point.

The buttons are intended to be worn as an individual rather than as a group. Their intention is for the one line to be thought of, rather than multiple. It could be worn on a bag so others can read it at ease. Spreading the message while waiting in line or walking down the street.

Where the lines came from:

• “I’ve got blood on my hands, no guilt on my conscience”- Brand New Numb by Motionless In White
• “It’s the false sense of authority that’ll tear us apart” – SO WHAT? by While She Sleeps
• “Imagine all the people, living life in peace”- Imagine by John Lennon
• “And now you do what they told ya (you’re under control)”- Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine
• “Didn’t you hear? The war’s over. Just don’t look behind that closed door”- Welcome to Paradise// Outro by Grandson
• “And now we get front row seats, watch the system fall, ’cause look who’s in control”- Rock Bottom by Grandson
• “I’m going blind but one thing’s clear. Death is the only salvation you’ll feel”- House of Wolves by Bring Me The Horizon
• “Social status won’t change the fact that we all share the same grave”- Same Graves by The Ghost Club
• “No thoughts, no prayers, will bring back what’s no longer there”- Thoughts and Prayers by Grandson
• “So how’d we get this stressed out? Paranoid? Everything is going dark”- Teardrops by Bring Me The Horizon
• “Lie about some greater good when you ship me off to war”- War by Grandson
• “Give me liberty or death, charge me more and pay me less”- Brand New Numb by Motionless In White
• “Tastefully hating these thought police”- Hate Me by DED
• “One nation controlled by the media”- American Idiot by Green Day
• “Your future dream is a shopping scheme”- Anarchy in the UK by Sex Pistols
• “Make a move and you pay for it, pick a lord and you pray to it”- Unsainted by Slipknot
• “They’re gonna propagate the killer, eliminate the youth”- Digital Silence by Peter McPoland
• “Do we feel safe?”- Go To War by NOTHING MORE
• “And on the day that I lie still, oh I’ll still have taxes and I’ll still have bills”- Bills by Grandson
• “Government leaving the youth on the shelf”- Ghost Town by The Specials
• “The revolution will not be televised”- The evolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron