Germaine Koh is a Canadian visual artist based in Vancouver. Her conceptually-generated work is concerned with the significance of everyday actions, familiar objects and common places. Koh was a recipient of the 2010 VIVA Award, and a finalist for the 2004 Sobey Art Award. Formerly an Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada, she is also an independent curator and partner in the independent record label weewerk.

 

Home Made Home: Core (2016)

Core is a concept for a versatile suite of large cabinets which contain essential living services. Built in multiples of a standard dimension, the units can be placed in various configurations. Each unit is built on casters for ease of shipping and deployment.The protoype is constructed of oiled plywood. The bed unit contains a fold-down bed, lighting, and a closet. A countertop unit may be customized as a kitchen or office. A WC shell may be customized and plumbed into existing on-site services. Integrated lighting plugs into existing electrical outlets

Gleaning (2014)

Gleaning is an interactive map of current and historic sources of food. It is a resource for information on public food sources, food production and circulation, historic points of interest related to agriculture and the food industry, community stories about food, and notes about the natural environment.
The project is largely built through images and text by neighourhood residents and users. In its first stage, Gleaning focuses on the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver, a now-residential area that was once farmland, and before that important within First Nations trade.

The map sorts this information into layers that may be turned on and off:
•    Public Food:  food trees and edible plantings in public spaces, berry patches, fishing spots, etc.
•    Community:  shared food-based resources, such as community gardens, soup kitchens, food-related neighbourhood services, and water sources.
•    History:  historical information about agriculture, trade, hunting, and gathering.
•    Environment:  information about the natural environment, geography and geology of the area.

 

GroundWaterSeaLevel (2014)

Five industrial metal pipes, sized like tree trunks or utility poles, rise from a planted area bordering a traffic circle. Each is perforated by a grid of hundreds of silicone-encased LEDs. The lit LEDs suggest two separate bands of light, one blue and one green, that extend across the five poles, at the same elevation on each pole. At times, the two colored bands appear to overlap to create a light blue band.
The lights, slowly but constantly changing over time, represent actual climactic conditions in the immediate area. The green band represents the level of moisture in the soil at the foot of the poles, while the blue band represents the flooding and ebbing tide level in the adjacent Burrard Inlet. Both levels correspond to the actual conditions as measured by physical sensors installed in these locations. Continually changing, the piece’s slow modulation will remind us of, and return us to, the pace of natural processes.

Fallow (2005, 2009)

Instead of displaying a crop of new work, for one exhibition period the space lies fallow. The floor space of the gallery is completely covered with soil and plant matter from nearby vacant land. Plants and seeds in the soil continue to grow over the course of the show, during which time the trade practices and commercial goals usually associated with an exhibition are slowed to processes of waiting and watching. Still, within this environment there may be a multitude of quiet and sensuous details to be observed, as well as wide-ranging opportunities for reflection — for example, upon the functions of productivity, or about the value and relatively endangered nature of open space. The temporary situation might give pause to consider that, like crop rotation, enforced downtime — time outs — may be an important part of a sustainable production cycle. Although withdrawn from “constructive” use, the exhibition space is far from empty, but rather full of richly non-productive time and process.

Sourced from Germaine Koh’s Website

Katie Paterson has become known for her multidisciplinary and conceptually-driven work with an emphasis on nature, ecology, geology and cosmology.  Many of her poetic installations have been the result of intensive research and collaboration with specialists as diverse as astronomers, geneticists, nanotechnologists, jewelers and firework manufacturers.

Source

Earth-Moon-Earth, 2007

 

All the Dead Stars, 2009

A map documenting the locations of just under 27,000 dead stars – all that have been recorded and observed by humankind.

Timepieces, 2014

A series of nine clocks that tell the time on all the planets in our solar system, including Earth’s Moon. The durations of the day range from planet to planet, from the shortest on Jupiter to the longest on Mercury. Each clock is calibrated to tell the time in relation to the other planets and to the time on Earth.

Mercury 4223 hours
Venus 2802 hours
Earth 24 hours
Moon 708 hours
Mars 24 hours 40minutes
Jupiter 9 hours 56 minutes
Saturn 10 hours 39 minutes
Uranus 17 hours 14 minutes
Neptune 16 hours 6 minutes

 

Totality, 2016

Totality is a mirrorball made with images of nearly every solar eclipse documented by humankind. Totaling over 10,000 unique images, these eclipses come together to reflect the progression of an eclipse across the room – from total through to quarter and half eclipses – mirroring the sequence of the Sun eclipsed by the Moon.

Hollow, 2016

Spanning millions of years, ‘Hollow’ is a miniature forest of all the world’s forests, telling the history of the planet through the immensity of tree specimens in microcosm. The sculpture brings together over 10,000 unique tree species, from petrified wood fossils of the earliest forests that emerged 390 million years ago to the most recent emergent species. The samples of wood span time and space and have been sourced from across the globe, from Yakushima, Japan to the White Mountains of California. From the oldest tree in the world to some of the youngest and near-extinct species, the tree samples contain within them stories of the planet’s history and evolution through time.

Sourced from Katie Paterson’s Website

Lee Walton is an artist with an expanded practice that includes drawing, performance and social practice. Walton experiential art works employ system of rule, chance and open collaboration. Lee works with museums, institutions, universities and cities from around the world to develops participatory public events, lead workshops, exhibit and educate.

Birthday Videos: For Friends I Don’t Really Know

Birthday Videos: For Friends I Don’t Really Know is an on-going series of intimate videos wishes for people I don’t really know. Personal information is culled from the recipients social media feeds and used to create the feeling that we are close friends. These videos are delivered to recipients on the day of their birthday.
These most recents Birthday Videos were created for the exhibition #awkward at Plug Projects. Special thanks to artist Jordyn Summers for her help.
Since 2002, I have been making these videos as a way to playfully examine the potential of one-to-one web-based experiences as opposed to the broadcasted one-to-many model. These videos also question privacy and how social media is changing the way we define and understand our relationships to one another.

Following “The Man of the Crowd

‘Following “The Man of the Crowd”‘ was a 24-hour walk in which Christina Ray and I, linked by text messaging, drifted separately through NYC in an alternating pattern according to the movements of strangers. Based loosely on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd” and inspired by Vito Acconci’s 1969  “Following Piece,” Christina and I developed a collaborative performance that involved following strangers over a 24-hour period.
While one of us were following a stranger, the other was stationary and experiencing their present location. When the stranger could no longer be followed, a text message was sent to activate the other. This person then followed the nearest ambulatory stranger at that moment.  This alternating cycle was enacted for 24-hours.
The video above is the unedited raw footage.  During this experience, I cut my finger opening a can.  See the 5.10 mark in the above video.

 

Glimpse

Central to these experiences is the public who comes to participate in an unknown spectacle and a pair of customized goggles worn by one participant. The goggles open and close mechanically, revealing a temporary moment, book-ended before and after by pure darkness. A guide remotely opens the shutter of the goggles for the person wearing them. Like an on and off switch, spontaneous moments are framed for all to see. Glimpse heightens our awareness of what can happen in a micro moment.

The Glimpse goggles were designed in collaboration with Derek Toomes.

Sourced from Lee Walton’s website

Christof Migone is an artist, curator and writer. His work and research delve into language, voice, bodies, performance, intimacy, complicity and endurance. He obtained an MFA from NSCAD in 1996 and a PhD from the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University in 2007. He has been the recipient of commissions from the Tate Modern, Dazibao, Kunstradio, Centre for Art Tapes, New Adventures in Sound Art, Radio Canada, New American Radio. He is a founding member of Avatar (Québec City).

CRACKERS PROJECT

Interval (2005 – ongoing)

Representatives of every age between 10 and 60 are asked to repeat their age at the rhythm they choose for the equivalent of their age in minutes (eg. a 38-year old person repeats 38 for 38 minutes). Sound.

Interval sounds the space between moments, times, spaces, lives. It poses oddly phrased questions: How many times old are you? How divided is your time? How old is your rhythm? How does your age rhythm space? Interval depicts the space in between us, as a rhythm, as a timeline, a pastime, a divided place.The numbers punctuate the space, they constantly reiterate the person’s presence in the here and now, a sort of counting in place. At a standstill, not 1,2,3, … but x, x, x, …. What interests me here is how each participant, given this mundane task, adopts a unique rhythm —some are constant, others erratic; some have a rapid-fire anxious delivery, others have a slow and relaxed output. Each person’s presence permeates the repetitive act, they temporarily become the number—hence the peculiar phrasing of the epigraph: “Every creature is a specific rhythm”. Augustine viewed the alternation of sound and silence in music as a manifestation of the alternation of nonbeing and coming into being.

Microfall (2006)

A microphone is dropped repeatedly from the ceiling until the microphone no longer works. Number of falls until destruction of microphone: 87.

Publick (2013)

Two old style phones without dials, installed side by side on a wall, left-right phones, stereophones. They ring intermittently, but the visitor can pick up either phone at any time. On one all you hear is the sound of licking, close and intimate, for salivaphiles. On the other you hear a voice telling you that the sound you hear on the other phone is the sound of the artist thoroughly licking the phone, it is left ambiguous as to which of the two phones has been licked (in fact, both have).

4 feet and 33 inches (2009)

John Cage has referred to his famed 1952 composition 4’33” as a work that could be pronounced either ‘four minutes, thirty-three seconds’ or ‘four feet, thirty-three inches’.

In this performance I attempt to pronounce 4’33” both ways simultaneously by sawing a piece of 4″x4″x8′ cedar into 4 feet and 33 inches where the sawing of one end marks the beginning of the count towards 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Once the time set by the composition has ended the sawing of the other end begins. The three movements within the piece (0’33”, 2’40”, 1’20”) are marked by nicks of the saw in the wood. For the Cage conference in Toronto, the fourth iteration of the piece, a solid piece of metal was used.

The video and still are from the first performance of the piece in Montreal. Towards the end of the performance you will notice my impromptu attempts to bypass my poor sawing skills and the fact that I had the wrong-sized saw.

Sourced from Christof Migone’s Website

Marla Hlady is a celebrated sound artist and kinetic sculptor. Her pieces deal with the nature of sound, often materializing it for viewers and reorienting their connection to everyday auditory experiences. Hlady received a BFA from the University of Victoria and an MFA from York University. She began showing in the early 1990s, eventually being included in several national and international group shows, such as 1996’s “Blink” at Toronto’s Power Plant. (In 2001, the same gallery hosted a solo show of her work.) Hlady’s practice developed in scope and ambition through the 2000s; 2008’s Playing Piano was a player piano from the 1920s intricately modified with contemporary machinery. In 2012, Hlady did a number of site-specific projects for her solo show at Hallwalls in Buffalo, New York, and for a residency in Norway. Hlady was nominated for the 2002 Sobey Art Award and her work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada.

Source

 

Playing Piano, 2008

(video at links)

Playing Piano is a partially deconstructed upright player piano prepared in the spirit of John Cage. This fully mechanized 1920’s player piano is animated by a motor and pneumatics (as opposed to being played by a person). A perforated paper roll, the physical translation of the musical score, controls the mechanized elements. The preparations to Playing Piano include various machines which strum and press a pie plate against the strings, whistle using the air of the pneumatics and amplify various parts of the piano’s mechanics. An array of sensors placed on the strings in conjunction with a computer and a series of microprocessors, enables the player piano to control these preparations.

A Case for Sound, 2009 (Ongoing)

A Case for Sound is a sound object made to look somewhere between a suitcase/carrying case, record album box, instrument and portable record player. The object is constructed with wood and finished to a high gloss, holes are cut in each side for the speakers. Inside an MP3 player loops an audio segment. Each sound work composed for the cases is made up of as many as 8 segments–each case plays one looping segment. A motion switch interrupts the audio when the object is tilted. If repeatedly tilted, the interrupted audio can sound similar to a skipping record.

Second Floor Window Fill, 2011

Second Floor Window Fill was part of the solo exhibition Rooms at Oakville Galleries Gairloch Gardens exhibition space, a site-related collection of works.
The average square footage of the rooms on the second floor is calculated. This square footage is then reduced to a shape that fits the gallery window; the ratio is 1:4.5. Second Floor Window Fill consists of all of the rooms’ volumes on the second floor added together then reduced using the 1:4.5 ratio (1 inch = 4½ inches).
All of the sounds of the rooms on the second floor are edited to a proportion that relates to the size of the room they were recorded in. These sound clips are then strung together consecutively; the clips fade in and out of each other.

Walls was produced as part of Hallwalls’ Artist in Residency Program (HARP)
Two of Hallwalls’ moveable walls have been reduced to approximately 1:5 scale and then re-imagined as machines. In the scale model version, one wall now turns a full 360 degrees and plays a hip-hop record backwards. Both the record and the machine’s platform are amplified and heard through two speakers placed in proximity to the machine. The other wall, now paper, rolls back and forth via a lever-like movement. As the wall dips down, it at times bangs and at other times brushes amplified strings. The sound from this machine is heard from 2 other speakers, also placed proximally.

 

Soundball (Dancehauling), 2013

Soundball (Dancehauling) is an instrument/sculpture that viewers can manipulate as a way to play with sound compositions. The sounds, developed in collaboration with musician Eric Chenaux, deconstruct the rhythm and melody relationship of traditional dance music (jigs, reels, slipjigs or hornpipes to use examples from Irish, Scottish and English traditional music) wherein the musician uses his/her beating foot to ground the often sinuous or meandering melody as a rhythmic aid for the dancer. Here the performance/recording of both the foot beat (Hlady) and the bowed guitar (Chenaux) have been made independently. Each sound is now in its own ball ready to be played, separately or in unison. Previous iterations of this sculpture include a smaller version produced as an artist multiple (Soundball 4) and a percussion instrument used for music performances (Marla Hlady and The Tristanos)

Starting from the late 70s, Hsieh made five One Year Performances and a thirteen year plan, inside and outside his studio in New York City. Using long durations, making art and life simultaneous, Hsieh achieved one of the most radical approaches in contemporary art. The first four One Year Performances made Hsieh a regular name in the art scene in New York; the last two pieces, intentionally retreating from the art world, set a tone of sustained invisibility. Since the Millenium, released from the restriction of not showing his works during a thirteen year period, Hsieh has exhibited work in North and South America, Asia and Europe.

One Year Performance, 1978-1979

 

One Year Performance 1980-1981

(Video in link, first 1min 30 seconds gives a succinct explanation of the piece)

 

Art / Life One Year Performance 1983 – 1984

Tehching Hsieh 1986-1999

Sourced from Teching Hsieh’s Website