surrealist writing games: one
November 13, 2009
joseph beuys
“possibilities relating to the embellishment of a city: conserve//displace//modify//transform//suppress”:
toronto: st. james cathedral
dismantle the spire.
bring all 305 ft of it to street level
so it stands beside the aromatic gardens. the grass will deaden the bells– their contact with grass
will make their brass sound
solid when hit.
wingate paine
November 8, 2009
a series by toronto photographer-filmmaker aaron kopff.
red room: themes for david lynch
November 2, 2009
claire zeisler
His pale shock of hair behind the camera: we see
this in pictures. He could blow away, his sleeves
full of saw dust. Years later, in pantomime
theatre, dressed as Dragon Lady in silks. He could
be there: false cheeks falling
with new expressions.
Walking through life like a Marine, listening
for the warning sounds. Snapped twigs when
there are none. Wet clothes in a bush,
cottonmouth in a boot— wading through several
versions of the same story. It’s like my youth
all over, searching: preparation
in tiny wheels across my bed, Matchbox
cars. Making lists of model, colour,
the aqua fins. And now, his face
buried in orchid roots, under split logs.
His own sleight of hand, scarlet drapes
in the upsweep. I draft lists of clues.
We stepped into frame before— the Red Room
in the Black Lodge— and held forth,
danced to Badalementi’s drone.
We camped out in a kitchen somewhere,
shining flashlights over the Personals,
taking turns with different voices.
Night sweat in neck tendrils, a pocket in the dark.
the heart beat fort at heartbeat 960, october 24th 2009, y.y.z.
October 29, 2009
in the above photo i am reading poetry to an intimate gathering of people who came to toronto’s heartbeat 960 gallery on queen street west in toronto. natalie logan and i, aided by hannah firsten-kaufman, built a spectacular “fort” out of sheets and blankets in the gallery’s unfinished basement in honour of natalie’s 21st birthday.
natalie logan and neil cavalier prepare the digital image loop to be projected on the back wall of the fort.
we asked other artists to join us inside the fort for various performances, including john williams and nick gair– a musical duo made up of haunting b flat clarinet and husky tom waits-like vocals. also, maggie claire cross on piano and howling vocals, as well as poet carla coimbra, and singer-songwriter lauren mackenzie best.
watery projections against the womb-wall of the fort.
unfortunately, we had to take down the installation the following day.
my partner says "this photo reminds me of auschwitz photographs."
i made an archival outfit for a y.y.z. fashion show:
October 18, 2009
the great xenia benivolski (http://www.xeniabenivolski.com/) gave me an assignment as part of her upcoming curated fashion show in conjunction with YYZ: MASSIVE SALE collection, which was to create an outfit using clothing borrowed from, or inspired by, my mother. i chose to recreate an original outfit that used to belong to my estranged birthmother (not to be confused with the wonderful adoptive mother that i call my own) circa 1988. this proved to be a rather difficult task, and an overwhelming one, since i have not seen my birthmother for over a decade. however, i managed to put together quite a successful outfit over the course of a couple of weeks with the help of archival photographs from my baby albums (the source photograph to be posted later), as well as from a store called “the public butter” (http://www.thepublicbutter.com/, billed as ‘an artistic vintage boutique in the heart of parkdale, toronto!).
my birthmother, at the time of the outfit’s birth, was an avant-garde fashion designer for club monaco (http://www.clubmonaco.com/). she drew a lot of her design from french new wave film, as well as men’s fashions from the 1950s. she was also an advocate of madonna’s eccentric outfits from the mid- to late-1980s.
the outfit, which you will see in the video attached, is a mix of five different pieces:
oversized men’s tuxedo shirt in mint green (originally worn as shift-style dress),
belt (worn just under the bust), made out of a length of silk rope and woven with pink and gold sateen ribbon and faux-pearls,caramel-brown, hand-tooled leather shoulder bag,
hand-tooled leather shoes of the same colour.
here’s the original event posting for the YYZ show, titled “mom jeans!”:
Are all mom Jeans the same? Are all moms the same? Did everyone in the 70s dress the same? Yes the answer is YES. Just kidding of course not, duh!
By wearing vintage and current borrowed from their mothers, in “Mom Jeans” young men and women are going to debunk your “mom clothes” myths.
This fashion show will feature the following artists/models:
Gwendolyn Bieniara
Cameron Lee
Brette Gabel
Raymi Lauren White
Krysta-Lee Karenina
Vanessa Rieger
Amelia Ehrhardt
Yuula Benivolski
Anna May Henry
Alicia Nauta
Heather McTavish
Elizabeth Ewanchuck
Eva Kolcze
Lauren Bride
David F.M. Hanes
Helena Kvarnstrom
Zoë Alexis-Abrams
Sarah Bodri
Eric Shinn
Brainstormed and organized by guest artist Xenia Benivolski for MASSIVE SALE: YYZ MALL ; a series of events by Daniel Borins and Jennifer Marman concluding their residency at the YYZ artist centre.
This is not about making fun of moms!
This is about embracing what you will become or will not become! Drawing a clear line between then and now rather than avoiding it! See for yourself.
Runway Beats by the Onakabazian!
Featuring the Artist Ulysses Castellanos, War & Leisure fashion line by Aleks Ognjanovich, Alphabeta Moda fashion line by the Shinn family(w/ music by Fushuntruth & Friend of Phi), DJ Brontron, DJ Sidenote, DJ Invisibling, DJ Chirajito.
zoë alexis-abrams and mina sewell mancuso’s “fruition”
October 5, 2009
FRUITION: 2009 MINA SEWELL MANCUSO, ZOE ALEXIS-ABRAMS
performance art:
companion film duration: 55 minutes, h.d. colour.
selected appartus:
china, glassware, assorted textiles, digital film projection, concentration.
for the summer, i teamed up with filmmaker mina sewell mancuso to create an installation involving mundane, and ultimately fruitless tasks for the following group show at toronto’s deleon white gallery:
“peripheral redundance: the other In the everyday” – 2009
curated/organized by: david f. m. hanes and xenia benivolski
since the the founding of the white house studio space late in 2008, a group of emerging toronto artists have been producing works that inspire and ignite the uncanny in the familiar. peripheral redundance: the other in the everyday, as a curatorial experiment allowing these artists to present durational performances, happenings, videos, and installations in a free-flowing but structured environment; focused on the unexpected in the overlooked.
“the other in the everyday” as a concept posses a variety meanings. each artist has taken a personal approach to this concept; vanessa rieger and kevin hainey approach the theme of theft and collection by providing a glimpse into a process that builds up in front of the viewer but begins at a laundromat down the road, rebecca fin simonetti poetically touches on the subject of insanity and addiction by building a “pill tent” that contains an “other self” ready to be let out at any moment, while zoe alexis-abrams’ performance builds up a precarious structure that is erected only to be destroyed moments after its completion.
the notion of the ‘other’ can be seen as a difference and a presence, retaining a discourse of collective action, voyeurism, consciousness, cause and effect and even things like fate, luck, and fortune; interference or the requesting of interference with another entity or being. peripheral redundance: the other In the everyday will feature over 22 local artists at the deleon white gallery, bringing visibility to an ever-changing subject in an ever-growing world.
the show is open to toronto and vicinity residents on september 26th, 2009 beginning at 12pm (noon) and ending at 11PM.
the event will unfold idiosyncratically in the course of these 11 hours: the first 7 hours will contain more durational and object based works, while the following 4 hours will present more action and body based works.
with works by: (in no order):
zoë alexis-abrams, amelia ehrhardt, laura paolini, jamie ross, derek muehlgassner, anna-may henry, johnny wheeldon, melissa fisher, randall gagne, vanessa rieger and kevin hainey, xenia benivolski, adam cowan, dahye kim and lanie chalmers, faye mullen, rebecca fin simonetti, neelam kler, jubal brown, audrey pagulayan and robin cook and jennifer weddell, s.r. palm, laura mccoy, minae omi.
the completed china installation against a backdrop of digital projection
two zoës
building the installation live
favourite words and phrases, part one
September 6, 2009
touch glutton
corridor of trees
replica
brass replica
alphabets of exposed plumbing
cluster
tags
mantle photograph
September 6, 2009
replica:
September 2, 2009
fragment of a story on a small resin surface
an exact copy or model of something, especially on a smaller scale
duplicate of an original artistic work
origin: mid 18th century (as a musical term in the sense [a repeat]): from italian, from ‘replicare,’ “to reply.”
more on this. there’s something that my mind is up to.
I Said: Rock, What’s A Matter With You, Rock?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to all on that day?
Run to the moon,
“Moon won’t you hide me?”
Run to the sea,
“Sea won’t you hide me?”
Run to the sun,
“Sun won’t you hide me all on that day?”
Lord says,
“Sinner man, the moon’ll be a bleeding.”
Lord says,
“Sinner man, the sea’ll be a sinking.”
Lord says,
“Sinner man, the sun’ll be a freezin’ all on that day!”
Run to the Lord,
“Lord won’t you hide me?”
Run to the Lord,
“Lord won’t you hide me?”
Run, run,
“Lord won’t you hide me all on that day?”
Lord says,
“Sinner man, you should’ve been a praying.”
Lord says,
“Sinner man, you should’ve been a praying.”
Lord says,
“Sinner man, you should’ve been a praying all on that day.”
— Traditional
1.
If I said she was a good friend,
I would be lying. One night, she folded
worry dolls into my palm.
One for every sleep. The plastic peeled
from her suitcase nightstand beside bed, cardboard
underneath the pink flowers. A note on the mirror
when I woke up.
Worry dolls: their matchstick heads
and thimble weave skirts. Their bodies wound
tight round small twigs—
I put them under
my pillow. Closed the hallway light
and slept.
I ran my fingers over
the dolls, read them like embossed
book covers. Less texture
than I wanted
and no mail from Rhoda.
2.
Rhoda wore a mantilla, the pattern
a parrot’s roving eye over
branches— and glass shoes. I know
she carried a lantern
and that is all I saw. In the bathroom, the tub ran over.
My lover in the doorway,
all her power. The Lord said
I was wrong for loving her.
3.
Rhoda wore a mantilla, a parrot playing each shoulder—
sunlight resolved the cloth. That’s what I mean.
Embroidered there, too: a boiling sea. And a river:
it was bleeding lye— chrysanthemum dye
all over her hands.
A dark mantilla,
we agreed in the store. The river and sea,
they stitched their own corners. Some
red thread, some green thread— motes
from the air settled when
we paid.
Closed the hallway light
and slept during the day.
Where she is I don’t know.
All her power. Just gone for cigarettes,
or else dead. Worse.
4.
I’d like to pack up
the moon and walk
alone along the river Hudson
like a Marine, listening for snapped branches—
for sudden weight, wet clothes in the bush,
cottonmouth in a boot, warning sounds for all my trouble.
I don’t know where I’ll live, maybe the river,
wading through two versions of one year.
Weaving between the trees, seedy-looking.
Like a man who trades dead parrots for a living—
his suitcase trailing the odd feather. Feigning
a limp to ward off the familiar. All her scent fallen from me.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
