Former writer-in-residence Carolyn Jervis, who’s working with us this summer as special projects assistant, scored in the top 5 for the C New Critics Competition:
The C New Critics Competition is designed to help develop and promote the work of emerging art critics. Writers must submit a review of an exhibition, performance, or site-specific intervention, between 800 and 1,000 words in length, by Friday April 20, 2012.
The jury for the award includes Dan Adler, Assistant Professor of Modern Art at York University in Toronto, and a regular contributor to Artforum, Border Crossings, and Frieze; Michelle Kasprzak, writer and Curator at V2_Institute for Unstable Media in Rotterdam and co-curator of the upcoming ZERO1 Biennial in San Jose, California; and Amish Morrell, editor of C Magazine.
Carolyn wrote about Yusuke Shibata’s recent ProjEx Room show here at the gallery:
The consequence of a city being alive is all the death and the physical remainders of death that it creates: the once-faithful mattresses discarded in back alleys, the fast food wrappers and the coffee cups that once held lunches and hot fortifying liquids that find gutters as their final resting place. As with our physical being, our material remains do not come to a clean and final end. A tangible and remembered presence extends beyond a lifespan.
You’ll be able to read the winner, Ebony Haynes’ article in C Magazine’s September issue.
We’re excited to welcome Carolyn Jervis on board as our summer projects assistant!
Carolyn Jervis is a local cultural worker and curator. An emerging arts writer, Carolyn is the art critic for Vue Weekly, and was Latitude 53’s first writer-in-residence. Her recent curation projects include co-curating an exhibit with artist and curatorial collective fast & dirty called Curiosities, a mobile exhibit of dressers full of art shown in the back of a moving van, and Love Letters to Feminism, a nationally-exhibited mail art installation featuring letters from people across Canada and the world. In the fall, Carolyn is heading to Vancouver to start her Masters degree in Critical Curatorial Studies at UBC.
Vue’s Carolyn Jervis reviews our three shows in this week’s issue, finding a common thread:
A consequence of a city being alive is all the death, and remnants thereof that it creates: the once-faithful mattress discarded in back alleys, and the coffee cups and fast food wrappers that once held lunches and hot fortifying liquids that find gutters as their final resting place. As with human beings, our material lives do not come to a clean and final end. A material and remembered presence extends beyond a lifespan.
Read the review at vueweekly.com or pick up a copy on the street.
In “How Do We Know What We Know?” Licha does a brilliant job of opening up questions about journalism of such horrors through coverage of the recent political unrest in Syria. His film reveals the production behind a “real” live conflict, jumping between American news footage and video that records its production from the otherwise hidden windy hillside in Turkey. As the American production team leaves, a member of the local camera team asks a telling question: “How will it be when they’re gone?” Licha punctuates this question by showing how journalism makes an event real, alluding to the invisibility of stories that aren’t told in front of the camera.
Carolyn Jervis writes on our two new shows for this week’s Vue Weekly.
In Vue this week, Carolyn Jervis reflects on some highlights of 2011 in Edmonton art—and we’re there:
Solo Exhibit: Gary James Joynes/Clinker, 12 Tones, Latitude 53
Latitude kicked off a strong year of programming with this powerful exhibit by Edmonton artist Joynes. This show provided more than a viewing experience—it was a powerful, overwhelming immersion in raw, tonal sound—sound seen, heard and felt through your whole body. This intensity was so well balanced by photos of sand mandalas, suggesting the meditative aspect of the art experience, each created through the vibration of one of those intense tones.
There’s lots more in the article from all around town. We’re looking forward to another great year, starting with our opening receptions this friday.
Just before our holiday break, Carolyn Jervis wrote about our two December shows, Taxonomia and Working Order in Vue:
Usually my first reaction upon seeing taxidermy, or representations thereof, is to be creeped out. The posed, stuffed animal skins with their vacant glassy eyes are so transparently false in their imitation of living breathing things. Somehow Maria Whiteman’s Taxonomia, Latitude 53’s current Main Space exhibition, manages to create a space for intimate relationships with these and other preserved creatures.
Read the rest at Vue Weekly.
Check it out—our writer-in-residence alumnus Carolyn Jervis wrote a review of our current Main Space show, SPACES&PLACES in Vue Magazine. She writes:
Although Marshall McLuhan is a household name for the CBC-listening set, his ideas about how technology and media shapes our lives have faded from niche ubiquity, beyond his famous lines, “The medium is the message,” and, “Global village.” In honour of the 100th anniversary of McLuhan’s birth, Latitude 53 and curator Aidan Rowe have on offer an exhibition of artwork inspired by the visionary thinker.
Read the whole thing online here or grab a copy of this week’s Vue street-side.
Our friend Carolyn Jervis wrote about Of Brains and Magnets and When Dreams Lighten the Reality in this week’s Vue Weekly:
As a viewer, these three vignettes pose an interesting challenge for viewers, since they must sort through different relationships with a technology widely understood as a tool for scientific discovery and objective data collection. This is interesting to consider within an art gallery space, in which a viewer’s interaction with objects and information is interpretation, rooted in subjectivity. How is one to interpret data which at once reads as factual and as somewhat absurd and inconclusive exercises? The accompanying monograph text by formerly-Calgary-based artist Scott Rogers, whose loosely related words provide no insight or interpretive ways into Of Brains and Magnets, further reinforces the unresolved tension between understandings of scientific inquiry and art interpretation.
Read the full article here.
Our friend Carolyn Jervis wrote about Mathieu Valade and Lisa Rezansoff’s new shows here at Latitude 53 for Vue Weekly. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s part of her description of Cubic Units:
Startling art installation mischief, which is complementary to “Logotomy,” can be found in the show’s namesake piece. Innocuous-looking mirrored cubes cover one-third of the exhibition space, appearing to be quietly at home sitting on the grey floor and projecting reflected light onto grey walls and ceiling. Without warning, the diamond-shaped reflections abruptly disappear as the cubes reveal hockey puck-sized internal lights. The whole floor seems to vibrate and the cubes sound like a garburator chorus as they slowly migrate in no particular direction.
Read the article for the rest of her insights.
Carolyn Jervis, formerly of L53 Writer-in-Residence fame (you can re-visit her posts here), reviewed both our current exhibitions in this week’s edition of VUE Weekly.
On Brandon A. Dalmer’s Too Drunk to Fuck, she writes:
“[Brandon A.] Dalmer plays upon the human imperative to find pleasure in voyeurism through his series of peep holes, dioramas and prints of mundane and disconcerting neighbourhood life. ….This feeling of covert looking… is seductive, and creates an intense desire to scour each object and scene to seek out the story.
“Dalmer bars viewers from the satisfaction of a clear and singular story in any of his works by refusing to give the spectator enough information to create one. ….[He] draw[s] viewers in through voyeurism and nostalgia, only to present the realization that something sinister is going on beneath the veneer of these clean and tidy neighbourhood scenes.”
And on Gary James Joynes/Clinker’s Frequency Painting: 12 Tones:
“These images are fascinating to think of as snapshots of sand sculpted by sound. This is where the sense of awe comes in, as you consider that the striking differences in how every sand sculpture was formed is due to a manipulation of hertz. ….Experiencing this exhibition is an exercise in endurance. It is more than just visual or aural presentation. It is a visceral encounter to view beautiful images made through a stunning process, and to do so while the sounds reverberate through your body.”
You can read the rest of Carolyn’s article here.
Stop by the gallery this week, and see these two amazing shows for yourself. And don’t miss out on Gary James Joynes’ artist talk, this Saturday (Feb 5) at 2:00 PM! Check out the Facebook event for more info.
