This weekend, Edmonton-based art collective fast & dirty debuts Curiosities, an exploration of the personal and political contexts of furniture. The project is a collaboration between five curators, who tasked 20 artists with transforming a drawer of their own into a site-specific artwork. In the end, five dressers, each with four drawers of artistic interpretations, make each piece of furniture into a “cabinet of curiosities.” Each chest of drawers is also based on a different theme: intimacy, family, line, collections, and landscape.
The project will be appearing in three different locations throughout the city, appropriately displayed in a moving van. The exhibit runs from Friday to Sunday, and there’s also an opening party at Cask & Barrel on Saturday afternoon.
The drawer pictured comes from Latitude 53’s own Development Coordinator Tyler Sherard, whose work will be included with the family-themed chest of drawers, curated by Robert Harpin.
Check out all the details, including locations, times, and a full list of the artists and curators participating, on the Facebook events for the show and the opening party.
This weekend we’re looking forward to a special project we’ve put together with our recent Writer-in-residence Megan Bertagnolli, and the support of the Edmonton Arts Council. Who are we writing for? is a weekend-long workshop about art writing in this city—we’ve invited a group of local writers as well as BlackFlash magazine editor John Shelling to discuss, write and develop their vision of art writing in Edmonton and beyond. Curious? Meet the participants on Friday night at Andrew Forster’s opening reception, and follow the workshop blog at writers.latitude53.org.
Harcourt House is taking submissions for their Artist In Residence program until May 31st:
The program’s goals are to provide the selected artist with a stable studio environment to continue developing their practice. This program allows for the Artist in Residence to engage and interact with the local visual arts community, encouraging shared ideas, expression and discourse.
This program provides innovative, interactive opportunities for artists and other members of the vibrant visual arts community in Edmonton. Please contact the gallery with your ideas and interest.
Applicants will be selected by the quality of work submitted, their demonstration of commitment to serious practice and evidence that they are at a crucial juncture in the development of their practice.
This one-year residency includes a studio space, access to our art education courses and facilities, teaching opportunities and a $150 monthly art supply stipend. The AIR will be given a solo exhibition in the centre’s Main Gallery at the end of the one-year term to conclude their residency. The AIR will receive CAR/FAC fees for the presentation of this final exhibition.
Find the full details on their website.
We’ve got another busy summer planned this year and we’re hoping to bring a Development Assistant, Communications Assistant and Program Assistant onboard for a few months. Find the full details on our website.
To continue from Megan Bertagnolli’s article about the “Dirt City|Dream City” talk, we spoke to one of the artists this week about her position in Edmonton and her relationship with Latitude 53. Jes McCoy was responsible for the tunnel installation that marked the gate to the patio at February’s Parka Patio event, but you might have seen her work elsewhere—she graduated from the University of Alberta’s BFA in 2011 and showed work in The Works festival that same year.
Do you remember you first time at Latitude 53?
I honestly can’t remember the details of my first visit to L53. I remember it was one of my first experiences visiting an artist run space and I remember wanting to be a part of it really badly.
You’re a young artist in Edmonton, having just graduated from the U of A in 2011—since then you’ve already been busy showing your work here and abroad, from The Works downtown to a sculpture park in Minnesota. What can you tell us about the experience of starting out and setting your sights beyond the city?
While I was in school I did really want to show my work abroad because I felt like I needed a new audience somehow; but I got the same kind of feedback there as I did here, both the good stuff and the critical stuff, and it made me realize that the art community, in a global sense, is really connected. Perhaps it speaks of a common human experience too, which was a good thing. I became aware that what the people in Edmonton have to offer, in terms of life experiences, can be as potent as anywhere else.
You’ve been selected for Edmonton Arts Council’s Dirty City|Dream City public art project in the Quarters this year, which takes as its starting point the complicated idea of downtown revitalization that is planned or already underway in that neighbourhood. How do you feel about being an Edmonton-based artist and what do you see happening in the next few years in this city?
Edmonton is great place to be an artist. There is not a whole ton of us which gives the existing ones lots of space and room to participate. Although I feel that there is a bit of complacency in the artists here in terms of street art and public interventions. Perhaps it is because our winters are harsh and we don’t want to go outside, but I wish there was more of it. I wish we were more vocal, even politically. We have to tools to do so we just need a kick in the pants. And that’s what I’m hoping the Dirt City|Dream City project will encourage; a more prominent and engaged voice using art as the mediator.
Dirt City|Dream City goes up in July—but there’s an open house this Saturday at the ARTery (9535 Jasper Ave) to mark the end of this week’s workshops with the artists, where you can meet curator Kendal Henry and the artists: Aaron Paquette, Adam Waldron-Blain, Andrew Buszchak, Carly Greene, Destiny Swiderski, Emily Van Driesum, Holly Newman, Jackson McConnell, Jes McCoy, Jill Stanton, Mackenzy Albright and Rachelle Bowen, Matt Prins, Nickelas Johnson and Tiffany Shaw-Collinge.
This year’s Nextfest is taking submissions from emerging artists until May 4—visit their website for more.
Latitude 53 Video Podcast
“Skater” is one of Yusuke Shibata’s current works-in-progress.
Join Yusuke on May 12—the closing day of his ProjEx Room show—for a workshop at 1:00 to participate in the development of this project. (Here’s the Facebook event)
The workshop will begin with an introduction and presentation at the gallery, and then we’ll head out onto the streets of downtown Edmonton to scout locations, as Yusuke will demonstrate and discuss his techniques for producing performative video.
