Monthly Archives: November 2007

really [this show is rented]

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really [this show is rented]

Redhead Gallery, 401 Richmond Street, Toronto, ON
Heldscalla Foundation, Second Life, Heldscalla, Buttemere
(66, 129, 23)

November 21, 2007 – December 15, 2007
Reception: Saturday, December 1, 2007, noon – 5 pm (EST),
“Dress Like Your Avatar” Day (no avatar? dress like yourself)

There are no toilets in Second Life (SL). It is a somewhat weird and flat world, with a decidedly photoshopped, airbrushed aesthetic. Most of the time you are alone in huge shopping malls full of sex-crazed clothing options and body parts. Often the place feels like a deserted ghost town rather than a world teeming with 9 million members. One of the most unnerving of SL characteristics is its unpredictable spirit. Internet speed lags result in strange, glitchy motion, slow communication and bizarre physics. A feeling of ambivalence and superficiality permeates. At any time you can quit / log-off / teleport with a button click. Unlike First Life (FL), you can just leave.

As much as possible, I’ve rented all the components for this installation – lights, projectors, streaming server, classic office-accessory rubber-plants and space. I intend for all these ‘by the week’ artifacts to underline the transitory nature of virtual existence.

Rented plants are a particularly critical part of this work. Redhead will be filled with tropical plants usually found in office lobbies. Rentable landscaping plays a largely unnoticed role in filling our daily lives with a vague semblance of the outdoors – a marker of our idealization of nature. This flora is the stand-in for nature in our everyday lives and will become even more so situated within the hermetic world of the art gallery.

Lynne Heller, Toronto based artist and designer, works in a variety of disciplines. Principally known for her work in fibre, she also has created new media pieces, sound, websites and installations. Heller completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. Group exhibitions include, The Stray Show, (Art Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA), Wide Borders, Heller, Roy & Thiessen, (Burlington Art Centre, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Cambridge Library & Gallery). Her solo exhibitions have been shown both nationally and internationally (Havana, Cuba; Chicago, USA; Santa Fe, USA). She is currently a member of Redhead Gallery, Toronto.

http://lynneheller.com

Nar Duell hasn’t done much in her short life but she does own a great wardrobe.

Oh hang on – Abaris Brautigan just reminded me that Nar also attended an epic quest to the edge of the world and thereby participated in an allegorical act of electrate thinking!

Info: Peter Kingstone, director – 416-504-5654, art@redheadgallery.org
Media contact: Susan Procter, procter.susan@sympatico.ca, 416-588-5756
Hours: Wed – Sat, noon – 5pm (EST)
Website: http://lynneheller.com/really

God Grew Tired of Us

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God Grew Tired of Us is as much about America as it is about Africa. The moving documentary begins in war-torn Sudan with the mid-1980s exodus of 27,000 Christian boys, most between five and ten. After their arrival in Kenya, the UN steps in with aid. Directors Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker pick up the story a decade later, narrowing their focus to Panther, John, and Daniel, three of 3,800 given the opportunity to resettle in the US. Quinn and Walker are with them when they land in the States, where everything is new and exciting–electricity, running water, pre-packaged foodstuffs–all the things Americans take for granted. Through the assistance of various relief organizations, their expenses are covered for the next few months. After that, the trio is expected to provide for themselves (they’re older than the subjects in 2003’s The Lost Boys of Sudan). Divided between Pittsburgh, PA and Syracuse, NY, the young men are thrilled with their suburban lives. Over the next year, however, joy turns to sorrow. They miss their families and have trouble making connections beyond their social group. The directors document another two years, by which point things are finally starting to look up. Produced by Brad Pitt, God Grew Tired of Us won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance. Nicole Kidman provides a little narration, but for the most part, the Lost Boys speak for themselves, which is exactly as it should be. –Kathleen C. Fennessy (Amazon.com)

Kate Teale

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Kate Teale
November 15th
Richmond Center Lecture Hall, 2nd Floor
5:30 pm

Kate Teale is an English artist, living in New York. Her work is figurative and informed by a particularly British approach to figuration, in which the physical body is both psychological and fleshy. In “Keeping it Real”, Teale is showing 3 paintings from a series of 14 paintings called “Through the Night”, which depict herself and her husband sleeping through the course of one night.

Kate Teale teaches drawing at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Kristen Frederickson Contemporary Art, and First New York Gallery, both located in New York City. Her work can also be seen at Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn.

Jesus Camp

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Tagline: America is being born again

Plot Outline A documentary on kids who attend a summer camp hoping to become the next Billy Graham.

Plot Synopsis: Jesus Camp follows several young children as they prepare to attend a summer camp where the kids will get their daily dose of evangelical Christianity. Becky Fischer works at the camp, which is named Kids on Fire. Through interviews with Fischer, the children, and others, Jesus Camp illustrates the unswerving belief of the faithful. A housewife and homeschooling mother tells her son that creationism has all the answers. Footage from inside the camp shows young children weeping and wailing as they promise to stop their sinning. Child after child is driven to tears. Juxtapose these scenes with clips from a more moderate Christian radio host (who is appalled by such tactics), and Jesus Camp seems to pose a clear question: are these children being brainwashed?

Next up: In Debt We Trust 11/13

The Remix Tour

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Educators and students are invited to a special event at a venue near you, featuring creative-industry professionals. With the art and media landscapes changing so rapidly, today’s college grads need to be fluent in every type of media possible, “remixing” the disciplines to create new and exciting projects. We believe our creative pros embody the idea of “remixing”, and are proud to bring them to you to hear about their inspirations, creative processes and career evolutions.

The Remix Tour brings creative-industry veterans to campus to discuss the ins and outs of integrated marketing in this fractured media landscape. They’ll share tricks of the trade, and introduce you to the industry-standard tools that will help your students create compelling content– no matter what the medium.At the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University, the creative pro will be John Dames from CoreAudiovisual  www.coreaudiovisual.com

The Remix Tour is scheduled in the following locations:

Monday, November 5, 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm
University of Michigan (North Campus)
Duderstadt Center
2281 Bonisteel Blvd.
Teleconference Suite, Room 1180
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Map

Please Register Here

Tuesday, November 6, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Ohio State University
Wexner Center Film and Video Theater
Building 386
1850 College Rd
Columbus, OH 43210 Map

Please Register Here