yarn bombing etc

Yesterday I was at the Bata Shoe Museum looking through a book on knitting and yarn bombing in their special exhibition on socks. I didn't realize that putting yarn on stuff was something people did. Apparently, yarn bombers knit covers directly onto trees, poles, fire hydrants, etc. Here's an example by Kari McDonald, an American art student:

Defeat the Sorrow, by Kari McDonald (2009)

Defeat the Sorrow, by Kari McDonald (2009)

That looks like one warm tree. I like how you could almost miss the yarn at the bottom of the tree but it transitions into something more colourful. I really wonder how this stands up to the elements and if the authorities cut it off the tree when it gets wet and soggy. 


Here's another example by "Knitted Landscape" (two Dutch artists) who seem to have a similar purpose as McDonald - providing a colourful contrast to an otherwise bleak winter landscape:

by Knitted Landscape (Iceland, 2007)

by Knitted Landscape (Ireland, 2007)

Lastly, one of the most awesome things ever created - a knit cover for a motorcycle by Theresa Honeywell:

Everything Nice, by Theresa Motherwell (2006)

I couldn't even tell that this was a motorcycle at first. It just looked like a little girl's bike. Not that this would be the first pink vehicle - I'm reminded of the pink Hello Kitty motorbikes in Korea. Honeywell really takes advantage of the sweet girly aesthetic of knitware; her other works are knit guns and tools. Lovely!

Christmas video

A couple weeks ago, I got the chance to see Avner Levona and crew shoot a Christmas video. This was Avner's idea just for the fun of it. It was nice of him to include my name in the credits as the "Location Assistant" which sounds so nifty think I might put it on my resume. Truth be told, all I did was find the location.



And here's what shooting the video looked like: 

Shary Boyle's "Flesh and Blood" at the AGO

I, along with about 200 other people, crowded into the AGO yesterday to hear Shary Boyle talk about her exhibition. When I first saw the exhibition, I was so creeped out I didn't even want to look at it. The only piece I liked was a small porcelain sculpture called "The Bed" (which I unfortunately can't find an image of). It shows three people lying down sleeping in a bed: a woman, a man, and another figure whose head is under the bed sheet. I couldn't stop thinking about who that third person was supposed to be. Since it was shorter than the others, it reminded me of a child, but strange that a child would be in her parents' bed. I also thought it could be a third lover - maybe one of them was having an affair - or they were just the polygamous type. Luckily, I got to ask Shary Boyle about this, briefly. She mentioned that it was like another "you": There are always other you's in your relationships, whether you carry past selves around or future selves.

I also got her to sign my programme and she made a speech bubble for the two boys.

King Cobra

As I've been forced to see this exhibition several times for various reasons, I'm becoming acclimatized to it and starting to like more of the pieces. I really like some of the strange mini sculptures, as well as the life-size white sculpture of a woman which is illuminated by a colour-cut out projection of butterflies and other shapes.

Virus (White Wedding)

However, the scarecrow having sex with the woman made out of tiles still makes me uncomfortable and I really can't look at the glow in the dark woman-spider trapped in her own web.

Scarecrow

The exhibition is on until December 5th, 2010.

tiaf continued - bonfanti

Another thing that surprised me at the TIAF was Ross Bonfanti's concreatues. Bonfanti finds old stuffed animals, removes the stuffing, and fills them with concrete. The cool thing is that you can't tell that they're made of concrete. They just look like sad, inside-out toys until you touch them and find that they're completely hard. The cutest one ever was an upside down teddy bear, but Bonfanti even had a totem pole of bears with the ones at the top progressively smaller than the ones at the bottom.

the 2010 toronto international art fair

at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre is definitely worth going to. It's still going on today until 8 and Sunday and Monday from 12-6pm. You'll get to see a picture of a skull dusted with diamonds by Damien Hirst, plus a small painting he did of coloured polka dots which is far more expensive (and less interesting) than the diamond skull. On the same note, one of my favourites this year was a large sculpture-painting by Kim Dorland of a sparkly green swamp thing c/o the Mike Weiss Gallery. She also had some cool sparkly owls. More on that later. Happy Halloween.
Because I couldn't find pictures of the aforementioned works, here's Hirst's unicorn in formaldehyde (unfortunately not at the TIAF this year):

Still Life with June

Did you know books had trailers now? Weird...

bayview subway station

I really enjoy seeing art in the otherwise bleak subway stations and I think we could use more of it. It would actually be the perfect public space for changing installations, though we rarely use it for that purpose. 
I'm also intrigued by the imagery at Bayview and Sheppard that was created by Panya Clark Espinal in 2002. It looks like abstract distortions from most angles but viewed from the right spot it looks impossibly realistic, with the shapes extending from the walls to the floors.

Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy by Ronnie Burkett

Ronnie Burkett and Billy Twinkle puppet

It's hard to do a one-man show because it always ends up looking like you're playing with yourself - especially when you're talking to dolls and making them talk back to you. And especially when one of those dolls is a miniature version of you that you made yourself for that very purpose. It's an odd set up, but one that draws out multiple layers of meaning.

Burkett began the show with himself as the puppeteer Billy Twinkle, manipulating a stripper puppet who takes her clothes off seamlessly by herself. Then when Burkett/Billy becomes possessed by his dead puppeteering teacher, he himself becomes a puppet to the will of his possessor: he is forced to reenact his past, with puppets playing his past selves and mentors. The story explores the course of Billy’s career from when he was a kid at a puppet festival doing his gig with his stripper puppet (see above picture) and trying to get the puppeteering master to take him on as an apprentice - to him as an adult, now the master, being hassled by a kid with a drag queen puppet.

Basically, this is the best puppet show I've ever seen (granted, the only one - but still) and I highly recommend it. It's showing at Factory Theatre until October 24th 2010.

Ronnie on stage

Doreen puppet holding Jesus puppet