Latitude 53 Contemporary Visual Culture

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What Art is For Part 2: Dirt City:Dream City

By Blair Brennan – Part 2 of 2

Aaron PaquetteAaron Paquette, “Everyone is Welcome”, photo by Chelsea Boos

Regular readers of these Writers in Residence posts (if such a thing exists) will have read my apoplectic outpouring on The Works and Art Walk in Part 1 of “What Art is For”. I would be one of those guys who seethed and complained without offering a solution but one was conveniently provided to me by the recent Dirt City: Dream City project.

DC: DC was an exceptional meeting and mixing of artists and organizers of varying backgrounds and experience. Inspired by transitory public art interventions in other cities, this project culminated in a public outdoor display that attempted to employ visual art as a tool or “weapon” (if we are to believe Picasso – See Part 1) for community transformation. Site specific works by 15 artists were presented in this project led by American artist and curator Kendal Henry. As one might expect of a project this size, some artists were more successful than others but all of their attempts were enough to get my attention and admiration. The work revealed artists and organizers visual and, in the best work, community sensitivity. This was evident in the artist’s steadfast refusal to back down from issues affecting life in the inner-city and the site specific placement of works in predominately empty city lots in The Quarters downtown (located from Jasper Avenue to 104 Avenue between 95 and 96 streets).

Holly NewmanHolly Newman, “Crow’s Advice”, Photo courtesy of the artist

Holly NewmanHolly Newman, “Crow’s Advice”, Photo courtesy of the artist

My one major criticism, that the display was planned for a ridiculously short ten day period, seems to have been recognized and remedied by organizers. It was recently announced that DC: DC works will remain on display until the end of August. That’s great though I’d still like to see some of these works with that first layer of winter snow on them (but, hey it’s Edmonton. That could be in two or three weeks!)

The project included online and virtual projects, radio, light and video projection, performance art, open houses and, one imagines, much behind-the-scenes negotiation and planning to keep all constituents happy. In focusing on the public exhibition, I realize that I describe but a small apart of this project. There are many other components to DC: DC and I urge you to check them out online.

Carly GreeneCarly Greene, “Simulacrum”, photo by Chelsea Boos

Nickelas JohnsonNickelas Johnson, “Ripped Off”, photo by Chelsea Boos

Attendance numbers for DC: DC will be no where near those of The Works or Art Walk. And it is perhaps revealing that more people would rather spend their time at concurrent events like A Taste of Edmonton, in Churchill Square (500,000 people, by their estimate) than take a short walk east to DC: DC. The numbers don’t really matter though. If we’ve learned anything from The Works and Art Walk it may be that no amount of carnival-esque tents and milling crowds will accelerate a process of personal self discovery made possible by meaningful art. Art can take hold of a viewer but it takes some skill on the part of artists, curators, arts event organizers and artistic directors to slyly coax, or sometimes shock, those summer-sunlight-opiated-masses out of their reverie. Go to Art Walk and The Works if you are looking for art to hide that place where you punched a hole in the drywall. Support projects like Dirt City: Dream City if you believe that art can help us understand “what it is to be a fucking human being”, as David Foster Wallace famously described writing.

Jes McCoyJes McCoy, “Futile Fancy”, photo by Chelsea Boos

Mackenzy Albright and Rachelle BowenMackenzy Albright and Rachelle Liette Bowen, “Lonely Mountain”, photo by Chelsea Boos

Please visit the Dirt City: Dream City and Edmonton Arts Council websites for further information: http://dirtcity-dreamcity.ca/ and http://www.edmontonarts.ca/media_releases/

Please visit the Edmonton Journal’s Fish Griwkowsky’s photo essay of Dirt City: Dream City (but remember to bring your 3D glasses).

On Saturday, Easy Street curated by Megan Rose Mehler goes up for just one day at the old Duchess Bakery location at 10720 124 St. Check out previews from Carolyn Jervis at Vue and Ana Maria de la Fuente at Avenue. The show is the second part of a collaboration between Edmonton– and Victoria-based artists and curators, with a mixture of BC and Alberta artists—and the list includes lots of friends of Latitude 53, including local artists Mehler, Leanne Olson, Josh Holinaty, Smokey, Terrena Boss, as well as Emilio Rojas who last was in Edmonton for Visualeyez 2011. Of particular note for us this week, though, is a collaboration by Rachelle Liette Bowen and Mackenzy Albright who will be here in the gallery next week building a winter environment for the Parka Patio. Join the Facebook event or just drop by—the show is open from noon, with a $5 cover from six o’clock for the party portion of the event.

On Saturday, Easy Street curated by Megan Rose Mehler goes up for just one day at the old Duchess Bakery location at 10720 124 St. Check out previews from Carolyn Jervis at Vue and Ana Maria de la Fuente at Avenue.

The show is the second part of a collaboration between Edmonton– and Victoria-based artists and curators, with a mixture of BC and Alberta artists—and the list includes lots of friends of Latitude 53, including local artists Mehler, Leanne Olson, Josh Holinaty, Smokey, Terrena Boss, as well as Emilio Rojas who last was in Edmonton for Visualeyez 2011. Of particular note for us this week, though, is a collaboration by Rachelle Liette Bowen and Mackenzy Albright who will be here in the gallery next week building a winter environment for the Parka Patio.

Join the Facebook event or just drop by—the show is open from noon, with a $5 cover from six o’clock for the party portion of the event.

This is one of several works still on display after The Works festival this year, part of the Downtown Banners Project. We spoke to artist and Latitude 53 board member Anya Tonkonogy about the Jasper Avenue banners she created along with Tim Rechner, Nickelas Johnson, Pearl Rachinsky. She was recruited to the project by our good friend Carolyn Jervis on behalf of The Works and then-Poet-Laureate Roland Pemberton, whose verse appears on the banners and who was “instrumental” in finding artists “who he thought would compliment his poetic vision”. Tonkonogy says her greatest challenge was working within the terms of an unfinished poem: “I had a few brief chats with Rollie about where he was going with his poems, but ultimately it was an abstract idea of a theme of ‘The city vs. the city’ that I had to work with, which was a bit of a blessing and a curse! “Over the past few years I have been busy painting commissioned portraits in Edmonton. So, this idea of ‘publicly displayed work’ is slightly foreign territory for me, and was a challenge to visualize. “We were asked to submit a minimum of 20 images, …[that] fit the theme of ‘The City vs the city’. I did create 8 or so new pieces for the Banner Project specifically, but some of the Banner images displayed around Edmonton are actually from work I’ve completed in the past. The work for this project was very individual, as each artist worked independently on their pieces. It was not until the banners were hung that I got to see [the other artists’] work for this!” Anya had a little more to say about those other artists: “I only know of Tim Rechner’s abstract painting work through visiting ArtsHab galleries, and attending an artist talk at the AGA a year or so ago (where Tim discussed the paintings that came out of his collaboration at the zoo with Lucy the Elephant). I find his paintings command attention. The scale he works with, and the rhythmic/geometric qualities of his mark making are very compelling. “I am more familiar with the work of both Pearl Rachinsky and Nickelas Johnson, as we have been rolling in the same social and artistic circles in Edmonton for quite some time. I think they are both incredibly talented, and have a unique voice in the Edmonton Arts scene… I actually own a few pieces by Pearl, and look at them fondly every day! Nick and I had both had the pleasure of being involved in the National Portrait Gallery project” . Anya says she is “endlessly proud to be in such good company with these artists”. You can go to see the Banners themselves on Jasper Avenue between 97 Street and 109 Street—a perfect stroll on the way to see the latest nearby at Latitude 53.

This is one of several works still on display after The Works festival this year, part of the Downtown Banners Project. We spoke to artist and Latitude 53 board member Anya Tonkonogy about the Jasper Avenue banners she created along with Tim Rechner, Nickelas Johnson, Pearl Rachinsky. She was recruited to the project by our good friend Carolyn Jervis on behalf of The Works and then-Poet-Laureate Roland Pemberton, whose verse appears on the banners and who was “instrumental” in finding artists “who he thought would compliment his poetic vision”.

Tonkonogy says her greatest challenge was working within the terms of an unfinished poem:

“I had a few brief chats with Rollie about where he was going with his poems, but ultimately it was an abstract idea of a theme of ‘The city vs. the city’ that I had to work with, which was a bit of a blessing and a curse!

“Over the past few years I have been busy painting commissioned portraits in Edmonton. So, this idea of ‘publicly displayed work’ is slightly foreign territory for me, and was a challenge to visualize.

“We were asked to submit a minimum of 20 images, …[that] fit the theme of ‘The City vs the city’. I did create 8 or so new pieces for the Banner Project specifically, but some of the Banner images displayed around Edmonton are actually from work I’ve completed in the past. The work for this project was very individual, as each artist worked independently on their pieces. It was not until the banners were hung that I got to see [the other artists’] work for this!”

Anya had a little more to say about those other artists:

“I only know of Tim Rechner’s abstract painting work through visiting ArtsHab galleries, and attending an artist talk at the AGA a year or so ago (where Tim discussed the paintings that came out of his collaboration at the zoo with Lucy the Elephant). I find his paintings command attention. The scale he works with, and the rhythmic/geometric qualities of his mark making are very compelling.

“I am more familiar with the work of both Pearl Rachinsky and Nickelas Johnson, as we have been rolling in the same social and artistic circles in Edmonton for quite some time. I think they are both incredibly talented, and have a unique voice in the Edmonton Arts scene… I actually own a few pieces by Pearl, and look at them fondly every day! Nick and I had both had the pleasure of being involved in the National Portrait Gallery project” .

Anya says she is “endlessly proud to be in such good company with these artists”. You can go to see the Banners themselves on Jasper Avenue between 97 Street and 109 Street—a perfect stroll on the way to see the latest nearby at Latitude 53.

Latitude 53 Video Podcast

Here’s a video I shot especially for Latitude 53 of Edmonton visual artist Smokey playing his pretty music. Hope you like it.