Current

December 5 – January 11 2008

opening reception and artist talk: December 5th 2008 7pm

Real or imagined, we live in a dangerous world; the TV warns that disaster could be lurking around any corner and demands that we must protect ourselves and our families from these perceived threats. Suzanne Franks’ work explores potential anxiety about preparing our children to become world citizens while at the same time trying to cloak them in some protective “armour”.

Suzanne Franks received her BFA from the University of Calgary in Drama and a Diploma from the Alberta College of Art and Design. She is recipient of grants from both the Canada Council and The Alberta Foundation for the Arts and participated in four residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Franks has exhibited in various cities across Canada and remains active in the artist-run culture in Calgary.

December 5 – 20, 2008

opening reception: December 5th 2008 7pm

The word doll implies something to be interacted with-a miniature-complex-living Object, which powerfully interacts and exists as a being within and without human life. The doll engages us in the palpable reality of the imagination and opens up possibilities of unacknowledged, perceivable, possible realities. A doll is something to be reckoned with.

Featuring original doll inspired work for show (and some for sale) by the following artists: Shannon Taylor, Wendy Trusler, Hilary Wear, Beth McCubbin, leigh kotsilidis, Leigh Macdonald, micky renders, jess Rowland, Erin Parker, Margot Klingender, Jody Boyd.

Work ranges from short animated video works, photographs, drawings, paintings, sock puppets, dolls constructed from various materials, a multimedia sound installation, an interactive doll shrine to lost children, burr and found object sculptures, ceramic fashion plates, and even interactive Stephen Harper dolls.

12 Hours of Artspace

November 18 - 26 2008 at ARTSPACE's MUDROOM

Opening: Friday, November 21 at 7 PM

“British Columbia has a leper colony. Its existence is not widely known, for those who compose it are of a race whose affairs never reach the public ear.” The Dominion Medical Monthly: Ontario Medical Journal, No. 6, Vol. XI, Toronto, December, 1898.

In the nineteenth century D’Arcy Island, a small island off the east coast of Vancouver Island was used by the city of Victoria to quarantine residents diagnosed with leprosy after the discovery of the disease in a few people in 1891. The exhibition D’Arcy Island is part of a larger project, Carceral Landscape, which is concerned with the use of landscape as a device for human incarceration. The idea of Carceral Landscape was germinated by photographer Ansel Adams’s belief that the sublime beauty of the natural environment surrounding the internment camp at Manzanar, California inspired and helped Japanese American internees transcend their detention during WWII. D’Arcy Island critically considers the use of an island as a site of detention or banishment.

“While the floor of the Owens Valley is desolate, very hot in summer and very cold in winter, the surrounding mountains are spectacular, especially the Sierra Nevada on the west, culminating in Mount Whitney rising fourteen thousand five hundred feet above the valley floor. The Inyo Range to the east is more of desert character and of lower elevation but is very beautiful in its own way. I have been accused of sentimental conjecture when I suggest that the beauty of the natural scene stimulated the people in the camp. No other relocation centre could match Manzanar in this respect, and many of the people spoke to me of these qualities and their thankfulness for them.” Ansel Adams: an Autobiography. Little Brown, 1998. Pg 220

Social history is inextricably tied to natural history and Lethbridge artist Don Gill's investigations have produced a convergence of the two; often evolving into case studies which the artist documents through photography, text, video and installation. His practice has been one of critical questioning based on explorations of specific sites and their social histories; these sites are often in proximity to where he finds himself geographically. He is currently a Visiting Research Professor at Trent University in Peterborough.

Steve Daniels: homologies

Exhibition runs October 16 - November 15, 2008

“The works in homologies are part of my exploration into machine-human interactions. Through kinetic objects referred to as living particles I am abandoning the dominant relationship of human-computer interface as portal-to-utility in an effort to expand the possibilities of interaction. These works seek an engagement between human and device that is experienced as mutual exploration not simply unidirectional control”. S. Daniels

These projects are supported by a Ryerson New Faculty Development grant, a Creative Fund grant as well as an FCAD project grant to Steve Daniels.

Steve Daniels is an electronic artist and dumpster diver. He splits his
time between Peterborough, Toronto and the Greyhound. He holds an MSc from the University of
Manitoba and is a graduate of the Integrated Media program at OCAD. Steve’s practice juxtaposes
disparate knowledge systems and experiences in an effort to reveal their underlying
structures and assumptions.  He is an assistant professor and Program Director of the New Media
option in the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University (Toronto) where he teaches courses in
Physical Computing, Telepresence and Networked Objects.

Ann Jaeger: Disarming Language
Visual footnotes on the persistance of the romance vernacular and design of the literature of hunting, trapping and outdoorsmanship in the 20th century

Exhibition runs October 16 - October 31, 2008

This work juxtaposes the charm and romance of a genre of literature and book design against its contradictory subject matter - the killing of wild animals for profit or pleasure. By blurring the lines between written and visual language, it speaks of the unconscious influence of history and literary culture on human behaviour, of nature as a metaphor for language, and confronts the contemporary dichotomy of the relationship between humans and non-domesticated animals.

Ann Jaeger is a multimedia artist and a graduate of OCAD. Her work, once describedas "ruthless journalism" explores the natural world, human psychology, pattern, motion, information design and architecture, and language.

Due to popular demand, POST-IT to Mr. Harper has gone national! We will be keeping this campaign running until the last poll closes on the west coast. We are encouraging you to donate $1 per Post-it note, which we will sign in your name. You can purchase as many as you'd like until they are all gone. As well, you can mail a cheque to:

Artspace

P.O. Box 1748

Peterborough, ON

K9J 7X6

Your donation goes toward covering the cost of the campaign as well as helping to offset recent municipal funding cuts to Artspace's programming. We just sent out the first batch of Post-its today. Over 200 were mailed to Mr. Harper's office at the House of Commons with the attached letter:

Dear Mr. Harper,

Sincerely,
Ordinary Canadians for the Arts – ARTSPACE ARC, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

*****

For Immediate Release

October 2, 2008

Peterborough Artspace announces the POST-IT petition campaign in reaction to Conservative government’s cuts in funding for arts and culture.

To showcase the importance of arts in our community, and the value of arts organizations such as Artspace, we will send to our Prime Minister an ORIGINAL PIECE OF ART ONE POST-IT AT A TIME.

Using the most recent exhibition at Artspace, “Taking Care of Business” by Immony Men which is comprised of 10,000 Post-it notes, we are aiming to put one signature on each Post-it from members of our community that are concerned with the recent cuts in arts funding and mail them individually to the Prime Minister’s office.

For $1.00 you will have a choice of any unsigned Post-it on the wall, numbered and labeled with Ordinary Canadian For the Arts. In support of the arts, you will leave your signature on the chosen Post-it which we will document, and send individually with an explanation of the petition directly to Mr. Harper at the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada.

The proceeds from this campaign will cover administrative costs for the petition as well as help to support Artspace in light of recent funding cuts to our programming.

We are seeking 10,000 signatures! To make this action effective we ask everyone to stop by Artspace and sign the POST-IT petition.

The petition kicks-off on Saturday October 4, 2008 at NOON in conjunction with the Artsweek street party. Artspace will remain open until MIDNIGHT on October 4th. We will be showcasing other ways you can get involved and provide information on the actions Canadians across the country are undertaking to highlight culture as a nationalist issue in the coming election. The POST-IT campaign will continue until October 10th 2008 and regular Artspace programming will resume after October 14th.

Please tell your friends, family and colleagues about this campaign and show your support by participating in this one-of-a-kind petition: POST-IT to Mr. Harper. A complete exhibition directly in his mailbox.

AND

GONE IN 30 SECONDS-ARTSPACE SPEAKER'S CORNER

Saturday October 4th from 9pm to midnight we will extend our video equipment to help you make your 30 second videos-a reaction to the cuts, the future of culture, or whatever message you want to send to the government.

Lester Alfonso, our resident filmmaker, will compile and edit your videos, post them on Youtube and forward them to the Department of Culture for a national collection of stories from across the country.

Show Up! Speak Up! This is your future at stake!

For information and questions please contact Artspace:

705-748-3883

info@artspace-arc.org

378 Aylmer St. N. Peterborough ON

August 19 - September 26 2008

Reception: Friday, September 5th 7 to 10 PM.

Taking Care of Business is a performance/installation that last the run of the exhibition. The performance is the work process itself: The artist will create a multi-wall mural out of photo-printed post-its that will cover the entire gallery. This post-it mural will depict the social entrapment of the everyday white-collar workforce. In creating this mural, the artist subjects himself to a robotic routine through systematic repetition which will parallel a 9 to 5 office job.

I am mesmerized by the drudgery of daily office routine. The pattern I have established in the creation of these kinds of murals attempts to replicate this drudgery. By subjecting myself to a mind-numbing process, I will also create and exhibit the mental state fallen into in performing iterative tasks. I want the process to be accessible and comprehensible. Spectators will be allowed an intimate look at artists creating rather than merely the finished work. Artist

The materials used are those found in an ordinary offices: a computer to process the image, a printer to transfer the image, and the post-its that will become the mural.

The main objective is to create a strong and disquietingly self-reflexive presence within our work environment - in this case a work environment interlayered with an art environment. The final result will be a minutely detailed and overwhelming visual space. The performance in the space will give viewers a vivid sense of the intensity and effort required to create such a self-contained and self-replicating project.

Immony Men will be at Artspace starting this week, with the gallery returning to regular operating hours on Tuesday August 19th. Do visit the gallery to see the artist at work and check on the progress of the piece.

Reception for the show will take place on Friday, September 5th 7 - 10 pm after the project is completed and will remain on display until the end of September.