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Contribute to our Upcoming Book!

From Walter's Homework sketchbook

We received this from our friends (and Homework artists-in-residence) Brennan and Chloé, who have been compiling content for our upcoming book on our latest conference and residency, Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices.

Hi All,

I hope all is well.

We have received a number of contributions from most of you, but there are a few of you we are still hoping to get some materials from.

If any one had an interview, reviews, essays, photographs, sketches, notes, etc. that they would like to add to the publication still please let me know.

A dropbox was created and last I checked it had not been used all that much (if any). If you do have files to contribute, they can be added here, or (smaller) files can be sent to us directly at oerogue[at]gmail.com

I encourage anyone with any leftover materials to send it our way so it can be included in this publication.

Thank you!

Brennan

If you attended Homework and have anything you’d like us to consider adding to the upcoming book, please get in touch with us or Brennan and Chloé ASAP!

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…and then the city told itself the same old stories

...and then the city told itself the same old stories

For the first time in over 25 years McIntosh Gallery and Forest City Gallery have joined forces to bring the latest contemporary art to audiences in London and further afield. Together, the two galleries have published …and then the city told itself the same old stories by Broken City Lab. This publication documents our recent exhibit at Forest City Gallery, through which we aimed to explore the narratives around London, Ontario. Based on a research project we initially developed in Windsor, Ontario, our exhibition revolved around a curiosity about locality and the ways in which it becomes shaped through shared experience and interwoven narratives.

Both galleries have a long history in London Ontario. McIntosh Gallery, the oldest university art gallery in Ontario, was founded in 1942. Forest City Gallery, among the oldest artist run centres in Canada, was founded in 1973. Their last collaborative project was a 1987 exhibition curated by Bob McKaskell about Marcel Duchamp.

This publication is also the first publication of the McIntosh Gallery Curatorial Study Centre (MGCSC) founded in 2010. With the financial support of the Beryl Ivey McIntosh Gallery Fund, MGCSC includes a resource centre dedicated to curatorial practices and publishes innovative research on museology and contemporary art. …and then the city told itself the same old stories is a co-publication of Forest City Gallery and the McIntosh Gallery Curatorial Study Centre. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Beryl Ivey McIntosh Gallery Fund, which has provided funding for this publication. The McIntosh Gallery wishes to acknowledge the annual financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, The University of Western Ontario and Foundation Western. Forest City Gallery wishes to acknowledge the annual financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the London Arts Council and the City of London.

If you’d like a hardcopy, we’d recommend getting in touch with Forest City Gallery or the McIntosh — we’re fairly certain they have some extra copies. Or, you can also download the PDF version of the publication.

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DX Salon Nights: In Conversation

Poster for DX Salon Night with BCL & DoUC

Michelle and Justin head up to Toronto on December 8th at 6:30pm at 234 Bay Street for an interview with the Department of Unusual Certainties, as part of the ongoing DX Salon Night.

Not familiar with the Design Exchange?

The Design Exchange (DX) is Canada’s design centre and museum with a mission to promote the value of design.  We are an internationally recognized non-profit educational organization committed to promoting greater awareness of design as well as the indispensable role it plays in fostering economic growth and cultural vitality.  We build bridges by improving communication between various design disciplines, educators, businesses and the general public through programs, exhibits, lectures, and workshops.

Yes, we’re excited. Hope you’ll join us.

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New Website is Up (but we’re working out the kinks)

RIP BCL v4

It felt like it was time for an update around here. With the winter coming, it seems right to have something a little brighter.

There’s also a bunch of new features that we’re still working out, so please be patient. All of our content is on here, somewhere. Let us know if you have any particular trouble finding things.

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Martha Street Studio Residency Day 3: Install & Exhibition

A quick three days at Martha Street Studio finished up with the opening for our exhibition, All the Stories We’re Not Telling About Winnipeg. The show features a series of posters made by participants from our workshops and created in response to the stories they collectively wrote.

The exhibition runs until January 5, 2012!

We have to extend an incredibly huge thank you to everyone at Martha Street Studio for facilitating this residency and exhibition. We were floored by the support we received there and were lucky enough to host some exceptionally great Winnipegers at our workshops.

Needless to say, we had a great time — and below is how it all came together.

Continue reading “Martha Street Studio Residency Day 3: Install & Exhibition”

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Martha Street Studio Residency Day 2: Another Day in Manisnowba

After a full night’s rest and a wholesome breakfast at The Tallest Poppy, we headed back to Martha Street Studio to formulate a game plan for our second work session and workshop later that evening. Knowing that we had an inordinate amount of work to do before our opening, we decided to spend the bulk of the day getting the visual material (posters) completed and ready to hang.

Our workshop participants from Monday night left us with a very good chronological story and a number of great Letraset statements on paper. Our intention is to combine the posters and text from both sessions into a body of work. We also had pockets of time to consider our exhibition layout and what we should include.

Pictured above is a rough layout of the workshop poster series colour options, each of which may or may not denote an emotion or theme.

Continue reading “Martha Street Studio Residency Day 2: Another Day in Manisnowba”

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Martha Street Studio Residency Day 1: Winnipeg / Winterpeg

Arriving in Winnipeg late Sunday night, we were met with our first taste of winter for the year. It seemed like the right introduction to Winnipeg. This residency and exhibition is all about exploring the narratives that are (and are not) circulated about the city of Winnipeg, and perhaps any story of Winnipeg should indeed begin with the winter.

Suzie from Martha Street Studio picked us up at the airport and gave us a quick driving tour before we settled in at MAWA‘s apartment. Monday morning, we headed in to Martha Street Studio and got started right away sorting through the materials and work spaces available to us.

Among many things, we also got (re)acquainted with silk screening, which is now officially one of our favourite things to do.

Continue reading “Martha Street Studio Residency Day 1: Winnipeg / Winterpeg”

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Next Week’s Adventure: Martha Street Studio in Winnipeg

Next week, Justin, Michelle and Josh will be stationed at Martha Street Studio in Winnipeg to do a quick residency involving workshops, walks, and a lot of on-the-ground research leading up to an exhibition.

In Winnipeg? Check out the Martha Street Studio facebook page for more event information!

Here’s the details:

Martha Street Studio houses an exhibition gallery open to the public 5 days a week from 10–5pm. Martha Street Studio also has an inventory of artists’ work for sale and an archive of work produced at the studio since 1988.

“All the Stories We’re Not Telling About Winnipeg”

We know a city from the stories we tell about the city. But, we can also know something about a city from the stories we don’t tell about it. Winnipeg is no different. Some of these stories we tell are about celebrating everything the community has to offer, while others are about all of the things that make the city a difficult place to love. However, there are still other stories that fall somewhere between the two, based on the personal narratives we all chart as we live, work, play, and move throughout the city. These stories of our everyday experiences are the ones that we don’t hear enough about.

You are invited to participate in the creation of a sprawling series of posters featuring the titles of all the stories Winnipeg isn’t telling, written by you. Facilitated by Broken City Lab, this workshop will begin with shared story telling, community mapping, and DIY design tactics and culminate in an exhibition at Martha Street Studio, of all the posters.

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WORKSHOP INFORMATION:

Monday, November 21st, 6-9pm
Tuesday, November 22nd, 6-9pm
Each workshop costs $10.
Sign up now, space is limited!
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EXHIBITION INFORMATION:

“All the Stories We’re Not Telling About Winnipeg”
Broken City Lab Exhibition at Martha Street Studio
Opening November 23rd 5-8pm
Exhibition runs November 24th-January 5th

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And, we’ll definitely be trying to blog as much as we can about the trip! More soon.

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HFBC Book Ready for you to Explore (& get a copy for your collection!)

Remember a couple of weeks ago, we received some copies of our How to Forget the Border Completely book? Well, there were a couple of print issues that have now been resolved, so if you’ve been waiting to get your hands on a copy, now’s the time! HFBC was an 8-month research project that looked at the ways in which we might actually be able to forget about the border between Windsor and Detroit. Whether through small-scale micro-grants or large-scale infrastructure proposals, we imagined these two cities as one big community across 150 pages.

You can purchase the book through Blurb. It should arrive within a couple weeks tops. We’re going to get around to offering a soft cover version too, soon. In the meantime, you can also read through a PDF of the entire book (p.s. it’s 72mb). It’s probably not as fun as having a book in your hands, but the content is there for your perusal.

This book is actually phase 1 of a larger HFBC project — think airplanes, scale models, and a few other things that will take a lot longer to complete than we ever anticipated. For now though, we’re just really happy to see this in print!

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUY a copy!!!

How to Forget the Border Completely is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council.