Leitmotif Artist Profiles:Caroline and Gord Langill, Ryan Livingstone & Johnson Ngo

CAROLINE + GORD LANGILL | www.ocad.ca/faculty_biographies/bio

Brian’s Songs is an audio installation that traces an interaction between the evolution of the AIDS pandemic and the accumulation of an individual’s operatic archive over the same period. This work memorializes the exuberant and rigorous archival efforts of one man with a passion for living, healing and opera.

Caroline is a Peterborough-based artist whose academic scholarship and curatorial work pertain to the intersections between art and science. Presently, she is an Associate Professor at OCAD University where she also teaches courses revolving around technology and digital culture. She is a recent fellow at the Daniel Langlois Foundation, in Montreal.

Gord is a social worker and therapist who specializes in the field of early psychosis intervention. Together with Caroline, they have developed DIY technology for use in kinetic installations and land-based art. This is their first collaborative public artwork.

RYAN LIVINGSTONE | www.ryanlivingstone.com

Harbinger is a statuesque representation of the black crow; mysterious and surreal, which communicated the crow’s position as a universal inspiration for art, literature, and legend, holding a symbolic position as a scoundrel in some cultures and creator in others.  Commonly seen as harbingers of doom, crows have been adapting alongside us as our spaces and environments evolve, both rural and urban. The highly evolved corvid is a reminder of our own evolution and adaptability, while simultaneously also being a symbol of death, a constant reminder of the brevity of our own existence on earth. Crows are powerful metaphors for life, death, and creativity. I see the crow as artist and creator, trickster and mimicker, scavenger and collector, soul and lover.

Livingstone is an emerging Toronto based artist, born in the East Coast of Canada.  His artistic practice is often project based and not bound by medium, exploring forms of installation, sculpture, printmaking and painting.  The work has explored nostalgic histories found within Canadian identities and culture, while simultaneously also reflecting the landscape both rural and urban.  His work is often driven by a playful and poetic combination of love, life and loss.  Ryan has a BFA from Ontario College of Art and Design University, and has studied at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design.  Ryan is represented by Ingrid Mueller’s Art and Concepts.

JOHNSON NGO | http://ngojohnson.blogspot.com/

Unbecoming is a live performance where individual identity is lost, emphasizing the artist’s Asian physical characteristics, while challenging ideas of gender. Throughout the performance, the artist will cast his body with edible rice paper, fashioning a new identity; one that is neither male nor female.
Ngo is a Toronto based multidisciplinary artist, primarily working with performance, video, sculpture, and print. Recent exhibitions include Spark Contemporary Art Space, Toronto Free Gallery, 7a*11d, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Art Centre, Mississauga Living Arts Centre, and Hart House. Ngo would like to thank Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue for their assistance with this project.

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LEITMOTIF on Facebook [Leitmotif | Scotiabank Nuit Blanche] LEITMOTIF on twitter [Leitmotif2011]

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their support of LEITMOTIF

LEITMOTIF is possible with good spirited collaborative support by Advantage Car & Truck Rentals – www.advantagecarrentals.com

LEITMOTIF is also appreciative of the support we are receiving from the following community sponsors:

Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, Barton Floor Coverings, Belle Optical, Brock Carpet, Capital Espresso, City of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch, Common Sort, Free Radio Berkeley, Future Cinema Lab at York University, Gladstone Café, The Gladstone Hotel, Hope Neon, Ltd., Imagine8, Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts, Mangez, Mascot Café, Misfit Studio, São Paulo Biennial Foundation, OCADU, PARC, Parkdale Village BIA, Public Butter, Queen West Antique Centre, Queen West Subscape Inc, Rhino, Shop Girls, Studio Brilliante, Toronto Public Space Initiative, The Workroom and the spirited community of Parkdale Village.

Leitmotif Artist Profiles: Lee Henderson, White Loop, & Kelly Jazvac

LEE HENDERSON | www.noattainment.com

Borne back, ceaselessly is a video installation that aims to bring the discourse of class and surveillance to bear by invoking a motif from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (the novel from which the work takes its title). Videotaping his own eyes on autofocus, Henderson fools his camera into doubting its own algorithm, forcing it to continuously oscillate between focal lengths as it gazes into him and he into it.

Henderson has studied art in Canada and Berlin, with talented professionals including Maria Vedder, Brian Eno, and Ellen Bromberg. Since completing his MFA in Intermedia at the University of Regina, Henderson has been furthering his time- and lens-based artistic practice while teaching Media Art, Computer Science, and Conceptual Photography at the postsecondary level (currently at OCAD University, Toronto). He continues to show in Canada and abroad. Recent and upcoming exhibitions and screenings include the Zero Film Festival in Los Angeles, The Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina, The Rooms in St. John’s, SAW Video in Ottawa and gallerywest and Trinity Square Video in Toronto.

 

NICK HUTCHESON, MARA MARXT + EVA SCHINDLING | whiteloop.evsc.net

White Loop is a sound installation that explores and infiltrates the collective unconscious of a neighborhood through noise generated by 100 dream stories. Visitors to the installation encounter a sound landscape similar to white noise – a signal that contains all human-perceivable audio frequencies at once and causes the brain to stop focusing on individual sound sources. The sound of 100 voices speaking simultaneously – retelling their dreams – is a natural source of white noise. As the cognitive brain chooses to ignore the noise, the unconscious is free to perceive and interpret the hidden words. White Loop filters stories originating from the unconscious – the dreams of the collective – subliminally back into the unconscious of the visitors. Dreams are sent into a feedback loop that escapes the attention of the conscious mind. Like Parkdale itself, this gallery in a truck is a space of migration, a layering of stories, history, and an encounter with the dreams of one’s family, friends, neighbours and strangers.

Nick Hutcheson is a Toronto based producer with a passion for collaboration and stories. His writing has been performed on stage and published in magazines. Nick was most recently the production manager for Hooked at Toronto’s Summerworks after staging it in over 20 houses around Toronto. Other recent projects include coordinating The New Yorker at Luminato and founding the arts collective, Siding Project. Nick was the co-founder and associate editor of boulderpavement, a magazine of arts and ideas, published by The Banff Centre Press.

Mara Marxt is a Banff based curator driven by the transformation of concept into realization, drawing on her background as an artist and designer. She is a cofounder of MAGAZIN, an art off space in Vienna. Exhibitions include: The Opening, Der Traum einer Sache – Social Design zwischen Utopie und Alltag, Deadline today! – 99 stories, Für den Fall. In 2010 Mara moved to Montreal as a curator-in-residence, researching public art in that city.

Eva Schindling is a Montreal based new media artist and creative technician practicing in the interdisciplinary zone between art, science, technology and design. Driven by a fascination for the emergence of complexity and the nature of reality, she uses code, sculpture, electricity and visuals to show the beauty and mystery of the fundamental truths that constantly surround us but are rarely seen. Exhibitions: Japan Media Arts festival, Hong Kong’s Museum of Art, Finland’s Live Herring exhibition, the Pixxelpoint festival in Slovenia and the Ars Electronica.


KELLY JAZVAC |
www.diazcontemporary.ca

Nest will be comprised of a UHaul moving truck completely covered in adhesive vinyl which has been printed with composite photographs of damage suffered by the facades of various big box stores in Ontario.

Jazvac is a conceptual artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation. Based in London, she has exhibited nationally and internationally, including a recent project at i8 Gallery, Reykjavik Iceland. Jazvac is represented by Diaz Contemporary in Toronto. Kelly Jazvac would like to thank Laura Goffin, Colin Miner, Solafa Rawas, and the University of Western Ontario for their generous financial support.

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LEITMOTIF on Facebook [Leitmotif | Scotiabank Nuit Blanche] LEITMOTIF on twitter [Leitmotif2011]

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their support of LEITMOTIF

LEITMOTIF is possible with good spirited collaborative support by Advantage Car & Truck Rentals – www.advantagecarrentals.com

LEITMOTIF is also appreciative of the support we are receiving from the following community sponsors:

Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, Barton Floor Coverings, Belle Optical, Brock Carpet, Capital Espresso, City of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch, Common Sort, Free Radio Berkeley, Future Cinema Lab at York University, Gladstone Café, The Gladstone Hotel, Hope Neon, Ltd., Imagine8, Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts, Mangez, Mascot Café, Misfit Studio, São Paulo Biennial Foundation, OCADU, PARC, Parkdale Village BIA, Public Butter, Queen West Antique Centre, Queen West Subscape Inc, Rhino, Shop Girls, Studio Brilliante, Toronto Public Space Initiative, The Workroom and the spirited community of Parkdale Village.

PVBIA’s Annual General Meeting, 2011

Members of the Parkdale Village Business Improvement Area are invited to attend the
2011 Annual General Meeting.

When: Tuesday, October 11th, 7:00pm
Where:
St. John’s Polish National Catholic Cathedral (186 Cowan Avenue).

Commercial, retail, office and industrial property owners and business operators, located within the BIA boundary, are members of the PVBIA and contribute automatically to the BIA budget through a special tax levy.

The purpose of this meeting is to decide on the BIA Budget for 2012 and general program. This program is paid for by a special levy charged to you as well as other commercial/industrial property owners and businesses in the BIA. The best way to participate in the decisions which your BIA is making on your behalf is to get involved.

Please Click HERE to view the Agenda and proposed 2012 Budget Summary.

For more information, please contact Heather Douglas, PVBIA’s Executive Director, at: director@parkdalevillagebia.com or 416-536-6918.

Leitmotif Artist Profiles: Digital Futures Initiative, Exhibit Change, & Lynne Heller

DIGITAL FUTURES INITIATIVE at OCAD University | http://web1.ocad.ca/dfi/

Play with Me is an installation that explores the idea that the playful appropriation of technology is the key to a creatively fulfilling digital future. Two vehicles on Queen St. West are physically separated by city blocks, yet are fused together by a magic window. A visitor in one van peers into the other through the magic window, to get a face-to-face, life-size view of the visitor(s) in the other van. When visitors interact on either side of the window and synchronize their body movements the window playfully responds through a series of sounds, visualizations, and cues for more sophisticated synchronized formations.

Kate Hartman, Director Social Body Lab, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Art, OCADU

Barbara Rauch, PhD, Director e_Motion Lab, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Art, OCADU

Derek Reilly, PhD, Director PICO Lab, Associate Professor, Liberal Studies, OCADU

Suzanne Stein, Director SuperOrdinary Lab, Associate Professor, Faculty of Design, OCADU

Emma Westecott, Directory Game:Play  Lab, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Design, OCADU

Through My Lens themes might be over, but this is just the beginning. Send us your pictures and come see them at our Leitmotif | Scotiabank Nuit Blanche exhibit on October 1. We are collecting pictures until Sept. 23.

EXHIBIT CHANGE | www.exhibit-change.com

Through My Lens
brings city building to the streets – everyone is invited to participate in capturing their perspective and stories about living in the city!  This is an interactive, community based project which seeks to engage and empower action to inspire and bring personal stories of the city to life. What is your favourite part of Toronto?  What do you seek to change?  If you were in charge of changing the city landscape, what would you do? Through My Lens is a 10 day, multi-city, interactive photo-voices project to bring out stories to lead to community action. Through My Lens only happens when people become involved. Through volunteer led neighbourhood walks, self-guided photography adventures and pure curiosity, we imagine that Through My Lens will ignite a new look at our spaces and to re-imagine what the city could be.  LEITMOTIF will be taking the Through My Lens images to the streets, literally! The exhibit is an interactive community based dialogue of images, stories and people connecting with the city; in a rental truck, on pedestrians, on buildings, on sidewalks, on anything we can get our hands on. We will be collecting stories all night to build a plan of action for city building and designing new ideas. Come visit us at our exhibit and make your mark on the city. The corner of Queen Street West and Noble Street will be animated throughout the night with images, scrawls, scribbles, gibberish and laughter. Together, we can make an impact on the city.

Exhibit Change is a platform for city building projects, founded in 2009 by Jennifer Chan. After completing her Bachelors in Architectural Science, working as an exhibit designer and finally finding her way in the nonprofit community, she started Exhibit Change as a way to bring all her passions to one place. Together with community partners, Exhibit Change is leading projects to create dialogue around city ecology. Exhibit Change lives in co-working spaces, local indie coffee shops and patios, we love adventure walks around the city and gatherings of community love. Exhibit Change would like to thank Zach Pearl, Toronto Urban Exchange, and Hello-Foto for their collaborative support of this project.

LYNNE HELLER | http://lynneheller.com

Everybody Deserves Love, Even You is an ongoing installation which uses the tropes of disco lighting and cast shadows to project poetry created from promising and sly found text from thousands of spam emails. Everybody Deserves Love, Even You, was the subject line of an email. Its despondent tone addresses contemporary cultural vulnerabilities, sadness, yearnings and desperation upon which marketers pray. The messages are concocted in endless variations: often funny, always bizarre, and occasionally poetic. Reminiscent of the seductive murmur of a foreign language, a sexualized computer voice whispers the text. The overly modulated and controlled cadence emphasizes the pervasiveness and monotony of spam, while at the same time, characterizing and transmogrifying the text. The work emphasizes the seemingly permanent ubiquity of spam as a shared experience and universal language – words that are largely ignored but still imbued with the power of omnipresence.

A Canadian post-disciplinary artist and educator, her interests encompass material culture, new media performative interaction, graphic novels and sculptural installation. International exhibitions include a solo exhibition and residency at the Australian National University, Canberra, AU; Low Lives 2, El Museo de Barrio, NYC, USA (among other locations), Hysteria: Past Yet Present, Rutgers University, Newark, USA; The Stray Show, (Art Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA); Neck of the Woods, England; IKEA, Ireland; Deviant Detours, Mexico; artist residency, Palazzo Rinaldi, Italy; IV International Textile Festival, Japan; and solo exhibitions at The University of Cuba, Havana, Cuba. She is the recipient of numerous awards from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council. Reviews and publications include Art Papers, USA; The Globe & Mail, Canada; Fiberarts, USA. Heller completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a doctoral candidate at University College Dublin.

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LEITMOTIF on Facebook [Leitmotif | Scotiabank Nuit Blanche] LEITMOTIF on twitter [Leitmotif2011]

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their support of LEITMOTIF

LEITMOTIF is possible with good spirited collaborative support by Advantage Car & Truck Rentals – www.advantagecarrentals.com

LEITMOTIF is also appreciative of the support we are receiving from the following community sponsors:

Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, Barton Floor Coverings, Belle Optical, Brock Carpet, Capital Espresso, City of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch, Common Sort, Free Radio Berkeley, Future Cinema Lab at York University, Gladstone Café, The Gladstone Hotel, Hope Neon, Ltd., Imagine8, Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts, Mangez, Mascot Café, Misfit Studio, São Paulo Biennial Foundation, OCADU, PARC, Parkdale Village BIA, Public Butter, Queen West Antique Centre, Queen West Subscape Inc, Rhino, Shop Girls, Studio Brilliante, Toronto Public Space Initiative, The Workroom and the spirited community of Parkdale Village.

Leitmotif Artist Profiles: Alexandre David, Patricio Davila, & Dan McCafferty

ALEXANDRE DAVID | www.alexandredavid.ca

(Truckstop) For this work, the artist transforms a truck into a square or public place, made to walk into and sit in, simply by surrounding it with a plywood platform that extends inside the truck to create a sort of covered space at the centre of this makeshift town square.

Living in Montreal, the artist mainly works in the field of sculpture, with projects often related to architecture. His work has been shown in various museums and galleries in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland and France. He has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions at Optica and Dare-Dare in Montreal, at Aceartinc in Winnipeg, Grunt  in Vancouver, YYZ  in Toronto and most recently at Espace Tilt in Lausanne.

PATRICIO DAVILA + DAN MCCAFFERTY | www.publicdesignunit.org

Public Design Unit 1: Parkdale’s Versions asks what version of Parkdale do we turn to when we think of the past or when we imagine the future? What is your version? What is her version? Which is the right version? Any local resident is a potential Hyperlocal Knowledge Experts and can help represent what Parkdale is really like or what it could or should be like. These workshops have been held in the neighbourhood and offer participants from the area as well as greater Toronto a chance to learn how new media tools can create models of a possible future Parkdale using their own words and images. The Digital Mapping and 3D Modeling Workshops will be held in July, August and September. Designs created in the workshops will then be displayed as part of the Public Design Unit’s Video Projection Studio during the 2011 Nuit Blanche event on October 1st.

Patricio Davila is a designer, artist, researcher and educator. He is currently an Assistant Professor at OCAD (Faculty of Design) and currently pursuing a doctoral degree in the Communication and Culture at York and Ryerson Universities. As a researcher, Patricio has been involved in various projects, including: Biomapping (investigating the representation of biometric data, movement and space through the creation of 2D visualizations and 3D objects); Information Design for Chemotherapy (field study with OCAD students and the University Health Network Healthcare Human Factors Group) As an artist he has created locative and new media installations including: E Tower (Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Installation with the CN Tower and Rogers Communication); System for Forgetting and Remembering (Leona Drive Project interactive video installation).

Daniel McCafferty is a musician and designer, with over 12 years of professional experience in design. Daniel founded, co-managed and acted as creative director for an independent record label before graduating from NSCAD-U. As a designer he has worked on varied projects from newspaper and publication design, to large-scale wayfinding programs and environmental signage, to the design of stamps for Canada Post. After several years of professional practice in Toronto, Daniel received his Master’s degree from North Carolina State University. He now teaches at OCAD University and keeps a small design studio practice focused on speculative design, writing and research.

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LEITMOTIF on Facebook [Leitmotif | Scotiabank Nuit Blanche] LEITMOTIF on twitter [Leitmotif2011]

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their support of LEITMOTIF

LEITMOTIF is possible with good spirited collaborative support by Advantage Car & Truck Rentals – www.advantagecarrentals.com

LEITMOTIF is also appreciative of the support we are receiving from the following community sponsors:

Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, Barton Floor Coverings, Belle Optical, Brock Carpet, Capital Espresso, City of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch, Common Sort, Free Radio Berkeley, Future Cinema Lab at York University, Gladstone Café, The Gladstone Hotel, Hope Neon, Ltd., Imagine8, Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts, Mangez, Mascot Café, Misfit Studio, São Paulo Biennial Foundation, OCADU, PARC, Parkdale Village BIA, Public Butter, Queen West Antique Centre, Queen West Subscape Inc, Rhino, Shop Girls, Studio Brilliante, Toronto Public Space Initiative, The Workroom and the spirited community of Parkdale Village.

Leitmotif Artist Profiles: Amanda Browder


AMANDA BROWDER |
www.amandabrowder.com

Volunteer to be part of the collective sewing project at the Leitmotif section of Nuit Blanche. Visit The Workroom on Queen St. to donate fabric, sew, and chat with the artist. Be PART of Nuit Blanche and find your slice! click on this photo for more information!

Chromatic Hi-Five! : Additive and Subtractive involves the action of “community” as paralleled with the construction of a site specific large-scale fabric sculpture.  Cutting, sewing, tailoring, talking, and collaboration – these processes form what makes this project an additive and subtractive experience which aims to collaboratively build the sculpture with the parallel uniqueness of what is “collaborative.”  The artist aims to question the citizens of Toronto with the conceptual approach of gathering and collecting as community praxis. The works seek to physically challenge the uniqueness of the individual a represented in a color field of fabric donations sewn into a mono-chromatic conversation.

Born in Missoula, Montana, Amanda Browder currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA/MA from the UW at Madison.With a recent grant from The Brooklyn Arts Council and supported by the NBArt group, she completed Future Phenomena; a community driven, large scale fabric sculpture that hung off an apartment façade in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at the SWAB Art Fair, Barcelona; Gallery Poulsen; Copenhagen, Denmark; Nakaochiai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; Lothringer 14, Munich, Germany; and White Columns, New York.  She is also a founder of the art-podcast www.badatsports.com and member of the Round Robin Collective.

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LEITMOTIF on Facebook [Leitmotif | Scotiabank Nuit Blanche] LEITMOTIF on twitter [Leitmotif2011]

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their support of LEITMOTIF

LEITMOTIF is possible with good spirited collaborative support by Advantage Car & Truck Rentals – www.advantagecarrentals.com

LEITMOTIF is also appreciative of the support we are receiving from the following community sponsors:

Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, Barton Floor Coverings, Belle Optical, Brock Carpet, Capital Espresso, City of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch, Common Sort, Free Radio Berkeley, Future Cinema Lab at York University, Gladstone Café, The Gladstone Hotel, Hope Neon, Ltd., Imagine8, Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts, Mangez, Mascot Café, Misfit Studio, São Paulo Biennial Foundation, OCADU, PARC, Parkdale Village BIA, Public Butter, Queen West Antique Centre, Queen West Subscape Inc, Rhino, Shop Girls, Studio Brilliante, Toronto Public Space Initiative, The Workroom and the spirited community of Parkdale Village.

The Tale of a Town – Queen West

Lofty Artists Remembered

From left: Charles Ketchabaw, Andy McKim and Lisa Marie DiLiberto. (photo fromAaron Lynett / National Post

Inspired by a neighbourhood made famous by the art movements and media moguls who shaped it over the last 30 years, The Tale of a Town – Queen West is a site-specific theatrical journey that celebrates the history of this legendary strip .  Based on countless interviews with local icons, artists and entrepreneurs, this trip through time takes off “outside the walls” of Theatre Passe Muraille.  The audience is led on a promenade-style theatrical tour of Queen West by a fictional condo developer, passing by the controversial Loblaws big box development (which coincidentally opens to the public on the same day as this production), and ending up inside the imaginary Champagne Flaming Feather Eco Boho Legend Lofts.  The story unfolds in these imagined lofts, which are actually located on the top floor of the new Duke’s Cycle building, recently constructed on the site of the massive fire which destroyed a handful of independent Queen West businesses only three years ago.

The Legend Lofts replicate iconic locales by turning them into model condo suites with names like The Rivoli Retreat Room, The Cameron Penthouse, The Handsome Ned Nook and Jane’s Place – a model of a vintage clothing store destroyed in the fire.  These condo designs become the playground for our protagonist Jane as she flashes back through her life on Queen West, beginning in the 80’s.  Memories of riding the Spadina Bus, bar-hopping with Handsome Ned, sexually explicit Performance Art shows busted by the morality police, and the overnight commercialization of the strip (following City TV’s arrival) are just a few of the blasts from the past within this inter-disciplinary extravaganza.  Accented by a track of original Queen West music, archival video and photo projections, audio documentaries and rounded out by a pair of live musicians, The Tale of a Town – Queen West twists and turns through over 6000 square feet of re-designed space.

Back by popular demand after a sell-out run last spring as part of the “beyond the walls” initiative, TPM is thrilled to open their 2011 season with this newly envisioned The Tale of a Town – Queen West as a co-production with FIXT POINT. Named the “Queen Mother” by NOW Magazine, this production is led by the artistic vision of Lisa Marie DiLiberto, TPM’s newest playwright-in-residence. The play is directed by Varrick Grimes, who has received international recognition for his work in promenade theatre and is currently a resident artist at The Stratford Theatre Festival, audio and video design is by Charles Ketchabaw, (CBC Radio, National Lampoon), and musical direction by Juno-Nominated Treasa Levasseur, lighting by Michelle Ramsay (seven Dora nominations), set and costumes by Lindsay Anne Black (Harold Award, three Dora nominations) and projection design by Trevor Schwellnus (two Dora awards).

The Tale of a Town is a series of plays created by FIXT POINT, which was developed in Parkdale in 2008 and has since been produced in downtown St. Catharines and in Toronto’s Corktown.  Upcoming The Tale of a Town will be touring across Canada animating neighbourhoods through site-specific documentary theatre.

Previews September 14 , opens September 15, runs to October 9

Begins at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson Ave (NE of Queen and Bathurst) http://passemuraille.on.ca/shows/fall2011/taleofatown/

Performances: Tuesday-Sunday 7:30pm

For Ticket Information: Arts Box Office 416.504.7529 or at The Arts Box Office located at 16 Ryerson Avenue is open Tuesday-Saturday from 12:00pm – 6:00pm and one hour before the show. Or 24 hours a day online: www.passemuraille.on.ca

 

 

 

LEITMOTIF Artist Profiles: Lee Blalock & Cecilia Berkovic

For its fifth year participating in Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, The Parkdale Village BIA is proud to present LEITMOTIF: Experiments in Public Space, curated by Stuart Keeler. On the night of October 1, 2011, 15 enigmatic rental trucks will appear in Parkdale – each one transformed by a LEITMOTIF artist. (for more info, visit our ‘what’s on’ page!)

In addition, 5 site-specific projects grouped as “Associations” will be revealed during the 12 hour Nuit Blanche event. Each of these artist projects will be the result of integrated community collaboration. An artist project – LEITMOTIF is a platform for experimentation in urban public space.

Is your interest piqued?  Here are two of our LEITMOTIF artist profiles for you to explore; stay tuned to our website to find out more about the talented individuals involved in this project!

CECILIA BERKOVIC | ceciliaberkovic.com

WWJMD?

Made in response to Jeremy Deller’s What Would Neil Young Do? poster, this work shifts the viewer’s focus to another great Canadian icon, Joni Mitchell.

Berkovic is a Toronto-based visual artist who uses strategies of collecting and displaying to explore aspects of feminism, consumer culture, leisure and queer identity. Not bound to a single medium, her work includes poster projects, limited edition objects, photography and installation. She is currently pursuing her MFA from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in New York.

LEE BLALOCK | www.leeblalock.com

Render: Loop 1 is a durational performance. The artist will perform an original composition as a looping sample, played via a music box outfitted with accompanying electronics. The residual puddle of music box strips from which the melody is played will provide sculptural documentation of the performance loop.

Blalock is an interdisciplinary artist and musician who uses her background in science and design to inform projects dealing with concepts of self-similarity and future history. She employs sound, electronics, digital art, choreography, and performance as her communicative media. Lee has performed at Le Flash, Atlanta; the inaugural Impact Performance Festival, Chicago; was on the sound and processing team for Jan Tichy’s Project Cabrini Green in Chicago; and she performs electro-acoustic music in venues throughout Chicago.  Lee recently received her MFA from The School at the Art Institute of Chicago.

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LEITMOTIF on Facebook [Leitmotif | Scotiabank Nuit Blanche] LEITMOTIF on twitter [Leitmotif2011]

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their support of LEITMOTIF

LEITMOTIF is possible with good spirited collaborative support by Advantage Car & Truck Rentals – www.advantagecarrentals.com

LEITMOTIF is also appreciative of the support we are receiving from the following community sponsors:

Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, Barton Floor Coverings, Belle Optical, Brock Carpet, Capital Espresso, City of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch, Common Sort, Free Radio Berkeley, Future Cinema Lab at York University, Gladstone Café, The Gladstone Hotel, Hope Neon, Ltd., Imagine8, Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts, Mangez, Mascot Café, Misfit Studio, São Paulo Biennial Foundation, OCADU, PARC, Parkdale Village BIA, Public Butter, Queen West Antique Centre, Queen West Subscape Inc, Rhino, Shop Girls, Studio Brilliante, Toronto Public Space Initiative, The Workroom and the spirited community of Parkdale Village.

Parkdale Village BIA Presents: LEITMOTIF | an independent project produced for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2011+


Directed and Curated by Stuart Keeler End Date October 2, 2011

Exhibitions in Cube-Box rental trucks transform Parkdale into a hybridized landscape!

EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Cecilia Berkovic, Lee Blalock, Amanda Browder,  Alexandre David, Patricio Davila + Dan McCafferty, Digital Futures Initiative at OCADU, Exhibit Change, Lynne Heller, Lee Henderson, Nick Hutcheson + Mara Marxt + Eva Schindling, Kelly Jazvac, Caroline + Gord Langill, Ryan Livingstone, Johnson Ngo, Luke Painter, Tamara Platiša + Sasa Rajšić, Quality Slippers, The Toronto Alliance of Art Critics (TAAC), and Marcia Vaitsman

THE EXHIBITION
For its fifth year participating in Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, The Parkdale Village BIA is proud to present LEITMOTIF: Experiments in Public Space. On the night of October 1, 2011, in the neighbourhood of Parkdale Village, 20 enigmatic rental trucks will appear – each one transformed by a LEITMOTIF artist. The trucks will become sculptural objects interpreted as performance stages and installation platforms or completely transformed by audio and video experiences. An artist project – LEITMOTIF is a platform for experimentation in urban public space.
As temporary exhibition spaces, the cube-trucks will be “parked” for the night along Queen Street West from Dufferin to Roncesvalles Avenue. The goal of the exhibition is to have viewers connect with personal experiences and define urban epochs as a group experience. The social relations and styles of cultural production are evident in the material culture of opera, performance, and object based works – the actions of dancing, performing, text, talking, puppetry and group sewing – will reveal themselves as constructed built environments, all re-situating the local landscape of Parkdale Village in an intellectual inquiry. LEITMOTIF will guide the artists and communities with interactive works of site-specific engagements from dusk to dawn.

THE CONCEPT
LEITMOTIF narrates itself as a dominant and reoccurring theme. The “cube” trucks, which are actually transitory objects, will embody the repetitive nature of Nuit Blanche – each becoming a site of visual, spatial and visceral expansion. Multiple boundaries of the unconscious will be traversed to reveal new gestures of the imagination as the ultimate experience of viewer déjà vu. These artist supported curatorial inquiries are situated within larger contexts of modernism, postmodernism and what has been called the condition of super-hybridization. The exhibition as a whole considers how we relate to the city, live in the present urban moment and also think about the future of social connectivity.

ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY – Artist Workshop Projects
In addition, 5 site-specific projects grouped as “Associations” will be revealed during the 12 hour Nuit Blanche event. Each of these artist projects will be the result of integrated community collaboration, constructed through investigations via workshops, community participation and online hi-jinks over the 6 months leading up to the October 1 twelve hour exhibition. These socially engaged projects will become embedded into the fabric of the neighborhood and remain after the Nuit Blanche experience. How does art transform a known urban landscape? Workshop Artists: Nick Hutcheson + Mara Marxt + Eva Schindling, Amanda Browder, Marcia Vaitsman, Patricio Davila + Dan McCafferty, and Jenn Chan with Exhibit Change.

ABOUT STUART KEELER, Curator and Director for LEITMOTIF
www.stuartkeeler.com
Stuart Keeler is a Toronto based artist of public spaces who organizes exhibitions and multiplatform projects with the indeterminate role of “curator” as the main identity of his practice. Is it “public art” or is it art in public space? The role of the artist is challenged by his investigative projects interpreting social praxis as an innovative business model. This ongoing dedication aims to analyze, critique and reanimate the challenging and tedious norms of an institutionalized art world. Declaring his identity as an “Institution,” Keeler aims to model a new process of “curator” by engaging with a continuing dialogue in public space centered on the expanded role of the artist. Over the last 20 years Keeler has exhibited internationally, as well as completed over 70 public art commissions on 4 continents. A veteran practitioner of art in public space, Keeler consults, advises, as well as produces innovative multifaceted approaches with public and private agencies and institutions.

ABOUT THE PARKDALE VILLAGE BIA
www.parkdlaevillagebia.com
Parkdale Village began as a wealthy suburb of Toronto in 1879. The elegant Victorian mansions are a constant reminder of Parkdale’s heritage. That’s history. Today, you can see that Parkdale has undergone a renaissance, a rebirth as a unique and vibrant neighbourhood that delights, that enthralls, that welcomes visitors seeking exciting and wonderful sensations. Wander along Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and Roncesvalles Avenue. The sights and sounds will entice you to take a closer look; the tastes, aromas and touchables will make you linger and return, again and again.

Experience Parkdale the way it is today. Look again and see it for the first time.

The Parkdale Village Business Improvement Area (PVBIA) is dedicated to improving Parkdale Village’s streetscape and beautifying the neighbourhood to create and continue a feeling of pride within the community, and encourage new visitors to explore Parkdale.

ABOUT SCOTIABANK NUIT BLANCHE
http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca
Nuit Blanche was originally conceived in Paris, France in 2002, in an attempt to bring contemporary art to the masses in public spaces. Now universally translated as ‘Sleepless Night,’ Nuit Blanche brings more than a million people to the streets of Paris every year. In 2006, Nuit Blanche came to Toronto. At its core, Nuit Blanche is a 12-hour event with a mandate to make contemporary art accessible to large audiences, while inspiring dialogue and engaging the public to examine its significance and impact on public space. Nuit Blanche is both a “high art” event and a free populous event that encourages celebration and community engagement. From sunset to sunrise city spaces and neighbourhoods are transformed into temporary exhibitions. Unusual or forbidden spaces become sites of contemporary art open for all-night discovery and rediscovery.

To locate artist projects on the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Website or in the published map/catalogue produced by The City of Toronto please use the following as a guide: http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca

C 33 Experiments in Public Space:
LEITMOTIF aims to create a platform for artist experimentation from the studio to public space

C 34 Cubes:
Stationary rental “cube” trucks are investigated as experimental artist platforms of “site”

C 35 Manifestations:

Temporary audio, video or light based works specifically located throughout the neighborhood

C 36 Cohesions:
A series of interactive installations which involve the viewer in the production and experience

C 37 Associations:
A collection of projects which embody a relational or social participation, interaction and dialogue as a main component of the work

C 38 Dioramas:
A pageantry of performative actions repeated throughout the night as the viewer engages

Ce document est disponsible en français sur demande. | This document is available in French upon request.

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FOR INQUIRIES, Please contact:

Parkdale Village BIA Executive Director – Heather Douglas: director@parkdalevillagebia.com

Curator and Director – Stuart Keeler: r.stuartkeeler@gmail.com

Project Manager and Advisor – Lisa Dewberry Thrower: projects.leitmotif@gmail.com

Parkdale Village: http://www.parkdalevillagebia.com/

LEITMOTIF on Facebook [Leitmotif | Scotiabank Nuit Blanche] LEITMOTIF on twitter [Leitmotif2011]

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their support of LEITMOTIF

LEITMOTIF is possible with good spirited collaborative support by Advantage Car & Truck Rentals – www.advantagecarrentals.com

LEITMOTIF is also appreciative of the support we are receiving from the following community sponsors:
Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, Barton Floor Coverings, Belle Optical, Brock Carpet, Capital Espresso, City of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch, Common Sort, Free Radio Berkeley, Future Cinema Lab at York University, Gladstone Café, The Gladstone Hotel, Hope Neon, Ltd., Imagine8, Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts, Mangez, Mascot Café, Misfit Studio, São Paulo Biennial Foundation, OCADU, PARC, Parkdale Village BIA, Public Butter, Queen West Antique Centre, Queen West Subscape Inc, Rhino, Shop Girls, Studio Brilliante, Toronto Public Space Initiative, The Workroom and the spirited community of Parkdale Village.

Then & Now Festival – July 23rd 2011+

The Parkdale Village BIA would like to extend warm thanks to all businesses and community partners for their participation in the 2nd year of the Parkdale Then & Now Festival.

On Saturday, July 23rd, Parkdale Then & Now raised just under $5,000 for the Parkdale Community Food Bank! We couldn’t have done if without the support of the Parkdale community and all of you who were out and enjoying the beautiful weather, fantastic entertainment, and wonderful events Parkdale Then & Now had to offer this year.

This year’s Parkdale Then & Now Festival saw the setting up of seven performance zones throughout the neighbourhood all sun-filled day long.

Fuller Avenue’s Kid Zone was hopping (literally!) as children enjoyed the bouncy castle and trying out their musical talent on the Seussmobile (pictured), a percussional bicycle built and provided by local Parkdalian Phil Sarazan. Boreal Gelato Company being on hand with cool treats for the kids and adults sure helped with keeping Fuller busy and fun!

On Dry Land – A Seaworthy Skateboarding Installation put on by the Bait Shop at Dowling Avenue was rocking all day long with live local talent, including Octobre’s Ending, and Shuggie and the Bandits (view a video of their performance HERE).

Visitors to the Parkdale Summer Market over on Elm Grove were serenaded by wonderful acoustic sets including performances by locals Carlin BelofHarrison Fine, Treva Bondarenko, and Graham Cavalier. Triller Avenue and O’Hara Avenue were also in on the Parkdale Then & Now festivities, with performances by The Gypsy RebelsHorses WonParillegal and others livening up the streets.

 

Dufferin Amphitheatre is well on its way to proving it makes for a great venue in its second event since its opening; we were happy to see West End Food CoopGreenest City, and Exhibit Change (pictured) spreading the word on their community projects while spectacular performances were delivered by Vibonics, ZuviriHey Amy and many more!  Parkdale Then & Now 2011 rocked the streets of Parkdale, thanks to you!

For more photos of the event and a full roster of bands and artists that participated, check us out on facebook: Parkdale Village

If you have any photos you’d like to add to our collection, please send them along! We’d love to see them! info@parkdalevillagebia.com