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January 16 – February 26, 2009
Opening and Artist talk: Friday January 16, at 7 PM

A collaborative exhibition set out to examine ordinary inanimate spaces and objects by incorporating various modes of respiration in two diverse pneumatic installations. The movement of air acts as a fragile connector between elements in both pieces questioning the experience and positioning of the viewer. In Kohnke's Hollow, fifteen harmonicas are played by mechanized units resembling human lips creating a resonant, hauntingly eerie sound while Kazmer's Shallow, an inflated cloud-like sculpture, reacts to the movement of the viewer by shifting and twitching as it is being approached. Although both works appear relatively calm and benign, they also allude to anxiety, poetic memory and bodily restrictions. The endless cycles of mechanized respiration never stopping, never giving up.
Joseph Kohnke was born in the Central Bay Area, California in 1973. He received his BFA with an emphasis in sculpture from San Jose State University in California and his MFA with an emphasis in art and technology from The School of Art, Institute of Chicago in Illinois. He currently lives and works in southern Califonia, while also actively producing and exhibiting art.
Born in the Chicago area, Karen Kazmer studied at Loyola University, University of British Columbia and York University. Her work centers on mixed media installations and public art that address issues of the body and social spaces. Previous site-specific works have been constructed in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria and San Francisco.
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
378 Aylmer St. N. Peterborough ON
Sky Vessels
March 7 to April 18 2008
Sky Vessels is an exhibition of paintings, an artificial sky built panel by panel with miniscule elements that highlight the bizarre attributes of leisure activities emblematic of western culture. Jennifer Dorner's work is influenced by a variety of mediums, social spaces, and everyday life. Key concepts include artifice and display and how these can create atmospheric space within painting. As a juncture, the small and detailed representation of leisure activity combined with transport vehicles acts as the catalyst for disrupting the painting field. The use of humour - the uncanny - within the pictorial narrative introduces a subtle, but complex compositional language.
Jennifer Dorner was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1974. Since then, she has lived in Ontario where she received her BFA from the University of Ottawa, and MFA from the University of Western Ontario. She moved to Nova Scotia in 2003 to run the eyelevelgallery, an artist-run centre in downtown Halifax. Now based in Montreal, Quebec, Jennifer is pursuing her multi-disciplinary artistic career and in her spare time manages the Independent Media Arts Alliance, in the role of National Director. Jennifer is the recipient of several grants and awards including a grant for emerging artists through the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the arts. In 2004, her work was short-listed for the Atlantic region for the RBC National Painting competition. Her work has been exhibited in group shows across Canada including the "Jennifer Show" curated by Jenifer Paparo for the Oakville Galleries and "So Far So Good" at YYZ artists' outlet. She has taught at the University of Western Ontario, Dundas Valley School of Art and has a strong passion for advocating for the arts with an emphasis on artist-run culture.
Rez-Erection: Belle Sauvage, Buffalo Boy and Miss Chief Eagle Testickle set up Camp
June 18 - July 4 2009
Performance: Thursday, June 18th
Artspace and OKW partner to bring Peterborough Indigenous performance art
Belle Sauvage and Buffalo Boy invite you to watch their WILD west show where you can engage in playing dress up and join the show. Get your photos taken with real live 'Indians.' A queer rodeo you have never seen before where buckskin meets fishnets and buffalo g-strings and where rodeo's biggest name is a Cree/Saulteux women. The cowboy here revers the Buffalo and is a gender bending, sexually progressive two-spirit. The cowgirl here is the pistol wielding “Indian' women with the meanest roping skills. The time is now as a campy reincarnated turn of the century wild west show, world fair, early peep show where Indigenous Peoples performed western imaginaries of colonial conquest, manifest destiny and supposed savagery.
Artists Lori Blondeau and Adrian Stimson trot out their alter egos Belle Sauvage and Buffalo Boy mining and miming a long history of performing and playing Indian by Indigenous Peoples and Settlers alike. Remember to read the fine print. You must sign?? over all your rights to the photos taken and sign with an X. A re-enactment of treaty signing days when greedy unscrupulous treaty commissioners would make Indigenous Peoples of the Plains sign their names to treaties that they later refused to honour and which they interpreted as a signing over of all Indigenous rights to life, land and culture.
Kent Monkman's alterego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle's adventures and histories are captured in a trilogy of films expanding the critique of colonialism to all things canonical like Edward S. Curtis, Western films and George Catlin. In Group of Seven Inches, Monkman inverts the colonial gaze by presenting Miss Chief as the one with the brush, painting her understanding of the white man as she explores two hot hapless white men. Shooting Geronimo finds Miss Chief changing history one highheeled kick at a time as she records the history of two young 'braves' taking power back from the little white man behind the camera who desires more than their picture. Robin's Hood brings that wandering artist, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle into Sherwood Forest for her ultimate trist.
The strategies of mimicry, parody and masquerade allow for a humourous but unsettling window into the relationship of sex and conquest, desire and colonial representation. In wilding the West, all three artists transform the 3 C's of Capitalism, Christianity and Colonialism into Camp, Chance and Celebration.
Join them at Artspace on June 18th for modern myth-making mayhem.
Lori Blondeau is a Cree/Saulteaux/Métis artist and curator based in Saskatoon. She is a co-founder and the current director of TRIBE, one of Canada’s most innovative and exciting Aboriginal arts organizations. Blondeau’s performance, photo, and media-based works have been presented nationally and internationally. She is currently completing a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Saskatchewan.
Adrian A. Stimson is a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation in southern Alberta and a Saskatoon-based interdisciplinary artist. He has exhibited and performed nationally, and is a sessional instructor at the University of Saskatchewan. His research has included identity, metaphysics, two spirit people, ecology, spirit and healing modalities within artists practice. Adrian was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003 and the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005 for his human rights and diversity activism in various communities.
Supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Performance programming.
June 3 - June 17, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday, June 5th at 7PM
As an Artist-In-Residence Brian is using Artspace's MUDROOM as a studio for production of new works for his upcoming exhibition. He is a recent graduate of Fine Arts program a Georgian College. This is his first solo exhibition.
A Reef Story
December 7 2007 - January 5 2008
Opens: Friday, December 7 at 7 PM

A Reef Story project examines our way of domesticating landscapes by re-creating singular spaces (remnants of foundations, a scrap yard, an old shed, a chapel, etc.) that tell cultural stories, both real and imagined. They encourage the viewer to experience through his senses the object and its inherent cultural identity. This installation presents a detached look at preconceived ideas of the rural world and nature, while the realistic details induce fascination and wonder.
In his work, Laurent Gagnon has developed a great curiosity about techniques. His investigations are varied; he produces sculpture, serigraphs, etchings, drawings, pictural projects, art books and more. But this fragmented horizon is united by a concern with density, tenacity, and minutiae that are typical of Gagnon. He has a bachelor and a master's degree in visual arts from Université Laval. He has produced a number of outdoor sculptures, including at l'îlot fleurie, Québec (Émergence '97). His work is featured in various public and private collections.
The artist would like to thank Don Darby, Valérie Murray, Jaques Harvey, Louis et Myriam Gagnon, and CALQ for assistance in this project.
Dub-poetics: Cultural Movements in Artistic Contexts
Saturday, February 28 & Sunday, March 1st 2009
The creative and multidimensional Lillian Allen has enlivened the OCAD community since 1992. Allen, whose poetry is used in university curricula across Canada, is internationally acclaimed as an originator of the genre of dub poetry —a form of oral literature charged with rhythm and political ideas. She also writes plays and short fiction, produces films and makes award-winning recordings.
Known for her strategic views on cultural diversity, Allen is a consultant and advisor to governments, organizations and community groups. As an executive member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, Allen helps to formulate Canada's input into such initiatives as the World Summit on the Information Society. Allen has received many citations and arts awards, including two Junos for her recordings, the Canadian Congress of Black Women award for contributions to "black culture in particular and Canadian culture in general" and the City of Toronto and the Toronto Arts Foundation Margo Bindhardt award for "significantly impacting the arts in Toronto through leadership and vision in creative work and cultural activism." Allen is a founding member of the Dub Poets Collective.
Saturday, February 28 2009 7 PM
Talk and performance by Lillian Allen -
with performances by The M.A.D Poet and Chet Singh and dub mixing by Jarret Prescott
A major theme of Allen’s talk will be the 3 phases of dub in Canada and the socio-political forces at play in the society during these phases as well as the poets' engagement with the form vis a vis politics and esthetics.
Sunday, March 1st 2009 12PM – 4PM
Dub Poetry Workshop with Lillian Allen
This workshop will be an interactive exploration of voice, rhythm and revolutionary impulse. Lillian Allen and Chet SIngh, with the M.A.D Poet will work with participants to produce a single collaborative piece of poetry that will be rotated in a musical dimension and performed with the music and dub mixing by Jarret Prescott.
Admission is free. Everyone is welcome.
The M.A.D Poet (AKA Melissa A. Dean) is a Spoken Word Artist, Performance Poet and Writer who got her start in Church. She is a graduate of the International Academy of Design & Technology (Toronto Film School) Entertainment Business Management Program, and one of the founding members of the DPC Youth Initiative.
Past performances include International Dub Poetry Festival 2008, Urban Words' NYC 8th Annual Poetry Slam, The 2nd Annual' Queens of Reggae Showcase, 106&York: Urban Arts Festival, The Anthony Johnson Sickle Cell Bash 4 Cash, and Lyricist Link Up 6: Poetik Justice, in correlation with the 2nd Annual Prisoner's Justice Film Festival.
Featured Spoken Word video entitled 'Open Your Eyes' can be found on Jane-Finch.com
www.myspace.com/madeinmadness
Born in Jamaica, Chet Singh moved with his family every few years, following his economist father’s job postings. He has lived in Guyana, Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and Fiji. Each time he moved, young Singh was struck by the common trend of disparities between rich and poor everywhere he lived. It was this experience that shaped the man, the poet and the teacher. He wants justice in the world and finds his true voice in activist poetry and music.
Chet has been performing dub poetry since the eighties. In performance, Singh chants passionately in the hypnotic rhythms characteristic of this Caribbean-based poetry.
Chet is a founding member of the Dub Poets Collective. As an educator, Singh has developed and taught courses in human rights in the workplace, dispute resolution, labour relations and employment law. He has worked at the University of Toronto, York University, Sheridan College and Sir Sanford Fleming College. He also has a long history as a human rights advisor to governments, hospitals and public school boards.
Ths presentation is made possible thanks to The Canada Council for the Arts funding.
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,
In light of the recent announcement from your government of further cuts to arts funding we
wish to showcase the importance of arts in our community and the value of organizations,
such as ours by sending to you an original piece of art.
The exhibition you are receiving is an installation comprised of 10,000 individually printed
post-it notes with signatures from members in our community concerned with the cultural
future of Canada.
We are providing you with this exhibition to demonstrate the severity of cuts in the arts and
implications of the further deterioration of support to our sector, which as you know
contributes significantly to our economic growth, international relations, and most
importantly, the quality of life for all ordinary Canadians.
Pieces of this exhibition with original signatures from ordinary Canadians are being
sent to you individually, and instructions for re-installation of the work will be provided to
you with post-it #1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000.
We hope you enjoy this exhibition.
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
378 Aylmer St. N. Peterborough ON
Pioneering Video from the UK, CANADA and POLAND (1968-88)
FOLLOWING THE PUBLIC SCREENING OF ANALOGUE ALL PROGRAMS REMAIN AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT ARTSPACE UNTIL JUNE 15TH.

May 30 - June 1, 2008
Presented by VTape (Toronto) in collaboration with The Art Gallery of Peterborough and ARTSPACE
The AGP and Artspace are pleased to collaborate on the Peterborough presentation of Analogue: Pioneering Video from the UK, Canada and Poland (1968-88).
This presentation of 5 exciting programs seeks to illuminate the little-known early histories of video art in the UK, Canada, and Poland. By examining twenty years of artists' video from these three countries, it also aims to broaden our understanding of this versatile medium, while charting its transition from the politicized margins of artistic practice to the mainstream.
Analogue was curated by Peggy Gale, Catherine Elwes, Maggie Warwick, Chris Meigh-Andrews and Lukasz Ronduda and includes many seminal works by artists such as David Hall, Mona Hatoum, David Critchley, Pratibha Parmar (UK), General Idea, Vera Frenkel, Lisa Steele, Paul Wong, Rodney Werden (CAN) and Pawel Kwiek, Jozef Robakowski (Poland) to name only a few.
Analogue consists of five - 1 hour video programs and is accompanied by a significant catalogue.
Friday May 30, 2008
UK Programme 1 & Canadian Programme 1
8:00 pm Reception 8:30 -10:30 pm Screening: Location: ARTSPACE
UK Programme 1
David Critchley. Pieces I Never Did, 1979 (extract) 4:50 min
Marceline Mori, Second and Third Identity, 1977, 4 min
Akiko Hada, Oi Hoi Bang Bang!, 1988, 6 min
Stuart Marshall, Distinct, 1979, (extract) 3:36min
Sera Furneaux, Lessness, 1986, (extract) 3:30 min
Chris Meigh-Andrews, Interlude: (Homage to Bug_s Bunny), 1983, 4 min
Judith Goddard, Electron, 1987, 5 min
Marty St.James and Ann Wilson, Beatnik, 1984, 5 min
Pratibha Parmar, Sari Red, 1988, (extract), 5:44 min
John Scarlett-Davis, Chat Rap (Volker),1983, (extract), 2:10 min
Mona Hatoum, Measures of Distance, 1988, (extract) 5 min
Tina Keane, Demolition/Escape, date, (extract), 4 min
Gorilla Tapes, The Commander in Chief, 1985, 4 min
Peter Donebauer, Moving, 1980, 4 min
Running Time: 63 min
Canadian programme 1:
Pierre Falardeau and Julien Poulin, Le Continuons de Combat, (extract) 10 mins, 1971
Colin Campbell, Sackville I'm Yours, 1972, 6:10 mins
David Askevold , 1973, My Recall of an Imprint of a Hypothetical Jungle 5:30 mins
Jeffrey Spalding Video Wash, 1973, 4:30 mins
Eric Cameron, 1973, Contact Piece: A Nude Model (Donna), (extract), 5 mins
Lisa Steele, Birthday Suit, 1974, 12 mins
Rodney Werden Say, 1978, 3 mins
Paul Wong 60 Unit Bruise, 1976, 4:30 mins
Daniel Dion and Phillippe Poloni, Division de la Nature, 1981, 5 mins
Running time: 55:30 mins
Saturday May 31, 2008
Public Talk: Su Ditta in discussion with curator of Canadian program Peggy Gale
2:30 - 4:00 pm Location: Art Gallery of Peterborough
Saturday May 31, 2008
UK Programme 2 & Canadian Programme 2
8:30 - 10:30 pm Screening: Location: ARTSPACE
UK Programme 2
Mick Hartney, State of Division, 1979, 6 min
Mike Stubbs, Greetings from the Cape of Good Hope, 1985, 5 min
Cerith Wyn-Evans, Degrees of Blindness,1988, (extract), 5:10 min
George Barber, Branson, 1985, 4 min
Katharine Meynell, Medusa, 1988, (extract), 4:15 min
Pictorial Heroes, Reflections on the Art of the State, 1988, (extract), 4 min
John Hopkins, Video Space, 1970, (extract), 5 min
Steve Littman, Crisps, 1982, 4 min
Catherine Elwes, Kensington Gore, 1980, (extract) 4 min
Jeremy Welsh, I.O.D, 1984, (extract), 4:08 min
Ian Bourn, The Wedding Speech, 1978, 5 min
Steve Hawley, Extent of Three Bells, 1981, 4 min
Graham Young, Accidents in the Home: Gas Fires no. 17, 1984, 4 min
Running Time: 60 min
Canadian Programme 2:
General Idea Pilot, 1977, (extract), 5 mins
Tom Sherman, Televisions Human Nature, 1977, (extract), 8 mins
Alex Poruchnyk, Live Wire, 1982, 5:50 mins
Jayce Salloum In the Absence of Heroes (Warfare - a case for context) 1984, (extract), 6 mins
Su Rynard A Tape About Memory, 1985, 3:30 mins,
Vera Frenkel, The Last Screening Room: A Valentine, 1984, (extract) 11 mins
Robert Morin/Lorraine Dufour, The Thief Lives in Hell, 1984, 19:40 mins
Running time: 55:00 mins
Sunday June 1 2008
Polish Program and Closing Reception
8:00 Reception 8:30 - 9:30 Screening: Location: ARTSPACE
Polish Programme
Wojciech Bruszewski, 10 works, 1973-1977 (fragments), 10 min.
Pawel Kwiek, Video A, 1974, 3'15 min
Pawel Kwiek , Video C, 1974, 3 min
Pawel Kwiek, Video O, 1975, 2'45 min
Ryszard Wasko, Corner, 1976, 3'45 min
Andrzej Paruzel, Video-Photographic Situations, 1976, 2min
Janusz Kolodrubiec, Transformations, 1977, 5'15 min.
Janusz Szczerek, Disturbance, 1977, 1'45 min.
Janusz Szczerek, Submerge Messiah, 1984, 5 min.
Zbigniew Libera, How to Train Little Girls, 1986, 16'25 min.
Jerzy Truszkowski, Farewell to Europe, 1987, 12'45 min.
Józef Robakowski, My Videomasochisms, 1989-90, 3'40 min
Adam Rzepecki, Every Dog Has His Day, 1989, 5 min
Józef Robakowski, Dance with the Trees, 1985, 2,45 min
Józef Robakowski, My Foot is Painful, 1989, 2'45 min
Józef Robakowski, Videosongs , 1989, 9'15 min
Józef Robakowski, Art is Power, 1985, 9'10 min
Igor Krenz, Solidarity TV (Reconstruction of the Solidarity TV from the 1980s), 2006, 3'53 min
Analogue: Pioneering Video from the UK, Canada and Poland (1968-88) was funded by the Media Arts Section of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Touring and Collaborations Program of the Ontario Arts Council, and Vtape. It also received the generous support of Arts Council England, the Polish Cultural Institute (London), Camberwell College of Arts at the University of London, and the University of Central Lancashire.