Holy Fire

Ichiban

I had my eyebrows singed off recently at Ichiban. Mmmm...chicken livers

Summer sum summer

Scintillating night cascades around me
as the clouds glimmer dance hover

A trellis is built of composite parts
towering over the trembling city
(that breathes in and out fitfully)
and keeps out nothing as it was designed to do

As the pace of the road quickens and slows
(like breath)
my mind turns to wonderings of duality and non-ness
such things as can only exist in the the mind
such things as to be or not to be

The rain stops and still the clouds
are still

Peace exists where nothing else can

Joe Fafard

Joe Fafard has exhibitions at the WAG and Mayberry Fine Art right now. Check them out if you're in Winnipeg.

Canada Day is Coming

I posted something by Kate Beaton before, but this comic was apparently in the National Post today (and would have been on the cover if not for the recent rash of celebrity deaths).

Classic Post no. 3--

Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Art, Intimacy, and Meaning

These are some quotes from an interview with Luis Jacob (at www.livewithculture.ca), an artist who I'm writing about this week. He has an installation piece at Plug In that he made in collaboration w/ Noam Gonick.

Your work as an artist spans a variety of media. Is there a particular medium that best conveys your messages?

--I don't define my work by medium. Being an artist is a life choice that encompasses all aspects of one's life--not only the moments when one is "making art".

Being an artist involves living one's life meaningfully --that is, as a meaning-generating act.
It also involves making one's life public, making it into something shared and open to others' judgement and influence.

Of course, what I have just said applies to all of us, not only to artists. As a result, many artists in the modern period have asserted that everyone is an artist!

If I were pressed to define my medium of interest, it would be "society".


When people view your installations or participate in your performances, what you do want them to learn, to take away with them?

--Here is my ideal scenario: that my work makes people feel engaged enough and free enough to give something of themselves to the project. There is a place within each of us that is our source of meaning, our power, our gift to the world.

Through my work, I would like to touch that place in other people, and in this way to create situations of contact and intimacy with others. Art withers without this intimacy, and so do individuals.
Posted by wolfBoy at 12:08 AM
9 comments:
wolfBoy said...
our posting stats for the THREE YEARS (that's right... 3!) that we've been at this blog thingy for...

* ► 2007 (864)
o ► December (65)
o ► November (67)
o ► October (54)
o ► September (116)
o ► August (116)
o ► July (70)
o ► June (38)
o ► May (69)
o ► April (67)
o ► March (62)
o ► February (69)
o ► January (71)

* ► 2006 (1302)
o ► December (102)
o ► November (81)
o ► October (102)
o ► September (125)
o ► August (118)
o ► July (102)
o ► June (53)
o ► May (112)
o ► April (100)
o ► March (146)
o ► February (145)
o ► January (116)

* ► 2005 (1123)

3:33 AM


cara said...
so if we follow from the Luis Jacob's description of art this blog would be certainly be a "situation of contact and intimacy with others".

So does the blog count as an installation? performance piece?
a installation in constant flux?

9:37 AM


jc said...
All very interesting....

I'd say the blog is a virtual installation or publication.

We seem to be down in our posts in 2007. I wonder why? About three a day the other years...

I like what Jacob says about art being different mediums. Is it really that creative to do the same thing over and over again? It becomes more like using a language you learn, rather than making art, which I like to think is about creating/sharing new ideas. Maybe that's where art and craft meet? Or maybe art and manufacturing.

Interesting...

Although I don't think good art has to be engaging(it can be quite the opposite) or that people need to give something of themselves for art.

Art,art,art,art,art,art,art.

1:13 PM


Sky Onosson said...
My partial definition of art:

- In order to qualify as art, a piece of art must be debatable as to whether it is art or not.

1:24 PM


Sky Onosson said...
As to the blog status, it has either plateaued down from a peak, or "real life" has gotten in the way - let's see how TWO little guys at home affects your posting rate, James! For me, family, job-hunting, and thesis work are all taking their toll... uh, not to mention that I discovered chess?

1:26 PM


wolfBoy said...
yep. chess is the culprit. :)

interesting, though, that in our "slow" year of 2007, we still averaged about 2.25 posts a day.

3:15 PM

c-science said...
It's too soon to draw any trends.

5:10 PM


wolfBoy said...
re: C-sci.

yes, yes. trends, charts, graphs, etc.

however, i would argue that 3,500 posts provides at least some indication of what we can expect over the next 3,500 posts, and then the 3,500 after that.

i base this on my experience working with random samples professionally, as a tree checker.

9 trees, in one small area, out of 9,000 trees, could tell you the whole story.

i like, though, that you say "it's too soon." b/c we need 10,000 more posts... :)

re Knack: i agree and disagree, sort of about not being repetitive. i'd say repetition has value because it helps one follow through on a disciplined, consistent practice, which is important. but as you can, it can get redundant.

12:42 PM


wolfBoy said...
p.s. C-Sci i know you're just itching to gimme a lecture now on probability, bell curves, etc. :)

there are interesting trends that seem to occur at times of the year, though. notice how early-mid summer is slow both years, and then late summer/fall is the busiest? (if 2 years can be said to be a trend...)

12:43 PM

Gotta love technology....

The first app featuring images of nude women to go up for sale on iTunes can no longer be downloaded because it was too popular, the developer reported Thursday.
"The Hottest Girls app is temporarily sold out," said a post signed by the "ATG dev team" on the website of developer Allen Leung.

The "Hottest Girls" application for the iPhone and iPod touch costs $1.99 and boasts more than 2,000 photos of "hand-picked images of the finest looking girls" that are automatically updated. A previous version of the app, released in May, contained scantily clad women, but none who were naked.

At least one online review, however, said even the new, nude images are relatively tame.
Wired News columnist Charlie Sorrel called them "distinctly softcore."

"While there are nipples to be seen, that's about it," he wrote on the magazine's Gadget Lab website. "A smartly worded Google image search would do better if you're looking for titillation."

From article: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/06/25/tech-itunes-porn-app-apple-ipod-iphone.html

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson is dead at 50.

Deck Views

rosedale

it seemed to take forever
to put on my shoes
that night
in the vestibule
alight with the twinkle of your christmas
tree
good bye

100-Year-Old Colour Photography

Visit this website to see more photos.

 

Photo credit: Cyan Onosson

AT 5 MINUTES AND 6 SECONDS AFTER 4 A.M., ON THE 7TH OF AUGUST, THIS YEAR, THE TIME AND DATE WILL BE: 04:05:06 07-08-09

THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN UNTIL THE YEAR 3009!!!

Classic Post No. 2-- Nov. 18, 2005-- BlueMask joins the fray (or is it the farce?)

Post title: I'm old, I'm weak, I'm poor

7 comments:
TheBlueMask said...
yet I`m curiously blissful.....
ignorance perhaps?
SNAPS/05 is a smart lookin` show. Good turn out for the day after our first blizzard.

12:59 AM
Macro said...
Ha! I love self deprication, welcome waterman!

2:44 AM
Quitmoanez said...
And you fit right in!

7:17 AM
James Culleton said...
brilliant!

8:47 AM
The Lion said...
indeed.

voodoo priest

beware

9:03 AM
l-blizzard said...
snaps 05 is a smart looking show. uptown is reviewing it as i type this.

and this work by h20 man is in it, oddly enuff.

8:06 PM
CaptainGoldStar said...
Ive very much admired your work for some time. You might remember meeting me at the label gallery once and we discussed music and then jammed breifly.

the attraction for me in your visual work is the unspoken narrative. Theres all these clues that make me wonder about the story. Tantalizing clues:

is that blood on your shoulder?
whats with the tissue?
what is the nature of the skull device you are holding?
some sort of vodoo rattle?
Does that mean you know voodoo?
By the ultra-natural glow emitting from your eyes and the un-material entities circling around you the wizard in me would say yes indeed this is a fello who is wise in the ways of voodoo.
Should I be afraid?
No I dont feel any fear only respect and admiration.

WELCOME

7:31 AM

Classic Post No. 1-- Ren, Josey and the Burnt Smokey

This, the first in a series of "classic" posts I feel like re-posting, was first put up by Culleton, on October 18, 2005 (a ten-post day).

I am continuing to sift through the archives, and may post more as time and spirit allows. I've only got like 4,500 posts to choose from, so...





15 Comments
Quitmoanez said...
Poor poor deviant, with his charred hotdog and burnt up morality.

:)

7:25 AM


James Culleton said...
My favorite part of this photo is at the left, where Ren's face is glowing from the sweet light of sunset. It's out of focus just enough to be disturbing, it looks like a painting!(that might be a cue)

8:17 AM


l-blizzard said...
ha ha! yes! burned up on the barbeque of his own base desires.

that'll teach 'im.

8:31 AM


l-blizzard said...
also, he skipped a planned 9 a.m. brekkie w/ us this morning.

guess he was too busy w/ his deviant deviancies. too busy sampling his burnt little morality-wiener.

10:52 AM


donmaximo said...
Ah, poor Josey - perpetually lost in the forest of sin. When, oh when will his charred wiener of deviance be replaced by a juicy, fat frank of fun?

12:09 PM


Krahn said...
I like to think of it more as a well cooked theory of good and evil. One in which I am good and all of you are evil.

Just for the record thats how I like my hotdogs and I'm an A student.
Also for the record I didn't 'skip' breakfast I missed it.
All in all though Lorne is a great asset to the badn. Ya'll should have heard us last night 'thisonell be called skinny woman' and so on. we rock, rock

12:20 PM


donmaximo said...
Yes...YES! I can see it now...replace the sausage-of-sloth with a six-string-groupie-slayer and those eyes! Whoa! Rock on Oscar Meyer!

12:43 PM


Macro said...
Right on Krahn!

Burn your wiener!

9:19 PM


TheSmokyTiger said...
have you ever tried a Blazing Smoky?

11:42 PM


Krahn said...
Have you ever tried eating 12 hotdogs at 6am while wearing a fleur de lie? with a spear?

9:50 AM


Quitmoanez said...
Krahn, I just wanna pop that zit on your head!

10:11 AM


l-blizzard said...
i think that's his eye, isn't it?

11:58 AM


Quitmoanez said...
The Third Eye of Deviance?

If so, it goes well with the Zit of Moral Depravity!

:)

12:54 PM


Krahn said...
thats not a zit thats my brain juice.

1:10 PM


Quitmoanez said...
Indeed it is, and no one ever, ever, I'll kick your ass if you do, question it.

Dog.

2:34 PM

Father's Day 2009

National Aboriginal Day

TOTEM ROAD IMAGE IS by Arthur Renwick and is FROM:

www.uoguelph.ca/sofam/portfolio_renwick.html



Metis flag is from fotw.fivestarflags.com/ca_omtis.html


So today, of course, in addition to being the summer solstice, is National Aboriginal Day, a day in which (imo) all non-Aboriginal Canadians should simultaneously hang their heads in shame, express their apologies for a 350-year holocaust, and think about ways to remedy this in the future.

Nowadays, of course, while, as John Ralston Saul and many others point out, the health, income, education and housing levels of native Canadians remains a black eye on our country, we have seen two generations emerge over the last several decades that has reclaimed a sense of pride in being native or first nations or Indian or whatever you wanna call it. These have included doctors, judges, politicians, school teachers, social workers, athletes, writers, filmmakers, parents, volunteers, community advocates, and so on.

Along with this has come a strong voice in visual art. Take for example my facebook friend Arthur Renwick, who is Haisla, and a fabulous artist. I've written about his work a few times in different places.

Here's what Rabble.ca says about him:
"Arthur Renwick comes from two places in northern B.C. -- Kitamaat, the ancestral home of the Haisla people, and Kitimat, an Alcan company town, built in the fifties to house the aluminum smelter’s workers.

Now based out of Toronto, Arthur Renwick is an artist, musician and professor who teaches Fine Arts at the University of Guelph."

While I'm hesitant to say what his work "means", Renwick has worked mostly in photo, depicting issues relating to land claims, to modern perceptions of aboriginal people, and of the weird and sometimes fascinating appropriations of native culture onto the mainstream. The image "Totem Road" here is a good example.

His 2004 show "Delegates: Cheifs of Land and Sky" was a fabulous photo exhibit that toured the country to mostly positive reviews, and still remains one of the best small-gallery shows I've ever seen. The Globe and Mail critic, however, who lives in a pretty cosy, blueblood art world that doesn't exist in Winnipeg, wrote that although the work was "admittedly handsome, its theoretical base is just about the silliest thing I've ever seen" and that, "while distressing, certainly, (aboriginal land claims) hardly rank on most people's lists of social ills to be fretted over and redressed".

I was happy to slam him, in print, twice. I hope he read one of them, though I doubt it.

Anyway, happy National Aboriginal Day everyone. And, as Arthur Renwick says: "If you got land, thank an Indian."

Setting the Standard

My friend Mr. White came to visit my new apartment. I was complaining to him about the tragic state of the sink, and it's un-scrubbable yellow tinged basin. I left the room and returned 15 minutes later to what you see in the picture.

What am I?

It's a wild combination of inadequacy, wanting to be accepted, and
complete confidence, quasi-forthrightness, and the will to power.

I've realised that this may even be a moral play in my head, and less
about what I perceive things to be or how they even are, 'cause
clearly, the former can change by the minute, and the latter is just
what it is, and while I'm often wrong, I am also often right.

That is the stream of my consciousness.

June 15

It’s been fifteen days, twenty one hours and forty three minutes
since I arrived
and I still feel like I’m driving
here
past turquoise water
slanted conifers chewed up by god knows what
past souvenir shops and fool's gold
amethesyt
viens full of copper.
still moving
still
which scares me just a bit
i’m three stories up now
and looking at the tops of the trees
wondering what's on the ground
and about the colours moving around
and if you are sitting on the bench across the street
from where I've been.

la rage.

Boredom is a Choice!

http://

The World is My Canvas

http://www.theworldismycanvas.com/

I posted a response to a Robert Genn article about maps and someone read it and sent me a link to this website. it's hilarious. all hail Stavros!

@ the Office

Building

Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. ~Albert Einstein

Co-opting a symbol (Part 2)

This letter appeared in today's Winnipeg Free Press, in response to the coverage about the Swastika (as previously commented on by Sky):

'Svastika' stolen from Hindus

Re: Girl brainwashed to hate, says aunt (June 6).

Upon reading this horrific story of these two parents and this innocent little girl, I feel I must comment not on the story itself but on the symbolism of the swastika as published in this article.

As the little girl correctly states, it is a symbol of love and it does symbolize the sun. This symbol is one that belongs to the Hindu religion and culture.

There are many Hindus that display the "svastika" prominently and proudly in their homes but unfortunately, as Hitler was famous for, he pilfered and stole the symbol as their own and sullied and destroyed the true image. Whenever I read or see a a story in the media regarding skinheads, Aryans and the svastika, it is always in relation to Nazis and pure hatred. The media never reports the true meaning of this symbol or the origins, in effect perpetuating the evil nature of the symbol in the public's eyes.

There were and are many more millions of people that regard the svastika as a symbol of love and peace than there ever were Nazis on this planet. I for one, would like the public to know that this symbol belongs to peace-loving Hindus and the true meaning of this needs to be given back.

RON SANKAR

Winnipeg

home office (circa 1996)

Here is my work space from the early days of my undergraduate degree. Does anyone recognize the computer? I'm shocked that I actually had one in my room - I know I didn't have an email account until 97 or 98. I still keep make up and a blow dryer at my desk, and I still have it set for tea through out the day. how serendipitous that my uncle sent me this image this morning (pictures of my current work spaces to follow).

Studio

 
 
 
 

So, I spent all day clearing out the mess that was slowly filling my office/studio, and making room for a used drumkit that I picked up for my kids to bang on. Finally got things set up as a decent mini recording studio, and so I recorded a tune! It's a funky kind of organ jam, which I just threw together really quick and did a rough mix. You can click on the little player down below to listen to it, if you're curious - it's the first song (after that it will play clips of the songs on my album).

Fire and Water, charcoal and conte

attempt for Art of Music #1

I'm fighting the urge to whitewash and start again. It's just a giant head. 18"x22".

KnackerSonique

digital koans are non-(con)-sequential

the writer takes up his keyboard
and composes a delicate tune
that hovers between absurd and cliche

here, it is presented to you
to read between the words
and see no meaning

the autumn wind does not retreat
from the celestial source
even on a solsticial moon-month
(lunarity prevailing)
solar sleep amid symphonies

the beacon is lit
and the march begins

will you follow?
will you tumble down the cliffs
and swim for the mythical shore?
will you give your soul
to find your soul?

you know too much already
this you must forget
and listening so well
you must now learn to speak

Food Party!

This show is awesome. You may or may not agree. The New York Times has a nice write-up here, and the main website is here.

If you learn anything about cooking, I think that would be entirely by accident.

Papa Smurf

A friend of mine asked me to draw him a smurf under a mushroom. He told me he was attending a wedding this week-end and when the groom was really young they were walking through a forest together and he had told him to walk carefully through the forest and make sure he didn't step on any smurfs...I guess this was a memory that he remembers and that they share to this day. He said to me how much for the drawing and I said make me some borscht.

Co-opting a symbol

Shown here are some usages of the swastika from, top to bottom: Finland(municipal coat-of-arms), Japan (municipal flag), India (provincial seal), and Korea (Buddhist temple). 7,000 year old swastikas have been found in the archaeological record. According to Wikipedia:

The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastika (in Devanagari, स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. It is composed of su- (cognate with Greek ευ-, eu-), meaning "good, well" and asti, a verbal abstract to the root as "to be" (cognate with the Romance copula, coming ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *h1es-); svasti thus means "well-being." The suffix -ka either forms a diminutive or intensifies the verbal meaning, and svastika might thus be translated literally as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious."

Of course, the swastika has come to be associated with something entirely different in modern times - but, as the examples here illustrate, this has not obliterated its older senses and uses. The last photo is one I personally took, and I can testify from personal experience that it is a common symbol in Buddhist architecture in Korea, with no negative connotations in that society.

Two interesting facts: 1) that a symbol can come to have two diametrically associated meanings/connotations; 2) that people aware of one meaning can be utterly unaware of the other. I bring this up in the context of recent news stories surrounding a little girl involved in a custody case in Winnipeg. Apparently, her parents belong to some kind of neo-Nazi organization (or perhaps would like to), and the court case stems from, among other things, her being sent to school with swastikas and other markings drawn on her skin. Nowhere have I seen any mention that the swastika has any other association than with Naziism.

June 4-5, 1989

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the day that the government of the People's Republic og China ended the protests in Tiannamen Square by sending in tanks and soldiers.

Starting on April 15 with several dozen students, the protests eventually grew into nearly a million people camping out in downtown Beijing, demanding the government allow basic human rights, a free press, and end political oppression.

This famous picture, taken by Jeff Widener, shows an unknown protester confronting the tanks in the street. By standing in front of them, he stopped their movement for half an hour until the commander, in the lead tank, was able to drive around him.

Immediately afterwards, several people surrounded the protester and led him away. Fellow protesters claim it was security agents, and that the man, whose identity remains unknown, was taken out and executed.

The government, of course, claims that it was that man's friends, and that they were taking him off to have a picnic somewhere.

Estimates of the number of people killed range between 270 (gov't figure, which includes soldiers) and up to 4,000, with an unknown number being detained, tortured, and likely executed.

A leader of the protests, who was released from prison last year, now lives in Canada. He says that he spent the last 19 years in forced prison labour, making Christmas lights for export to western countries.

June 4, 1944

So today, of course, marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of one of the most significant military operations in history-- the D-Day landings, by the Allied forces, on the beaches of northern France.

Involving nearly 300,000 men from Canada, the U.S., Britain, and members of the French resistance, the attack took place along fifty miles of beaches, and was the successful beginning to pushing the German army back across France.

In addition to arial bombardment and naval shelling of key positions, the ground assault happened along Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold, and Sword beaches, with the Canadian forces being concentrated on Juno (hence the name of the music award).


Here's what Wikipedia has to say: "The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach faced 14 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach.

The first wave of Canadian attack suffered 50% casualties, the second highest of the five D-Day beachheads.


Despite the obstacles, the Canadians were off the beach within hours and beginning their advance inland... The Canadians were the only units to reach their D-Day objectives, although most units fell back a few kilometres to strengthen defensive positions.

By the end of D-Day, 15,000 Canadians had been successfully landed, and the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division had penetrated further into France than any other Allied force."


The anniversary of this event was marked today with veterans from both sides of the conflict gathering on the beaches to meet, swap stories, and remember their fallen comrades.


Images:
1-- Bény-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetary, Normandy, France, containing the graves of all the Canadians killed at Normandy, plus four British soldiers and one French resistance fighter.
2--D-Day, the Assault, by Orville Fisher. (Canadian War Museum).
3--Canadian troops landing, Juno Beach. (Nat. Archives of Canada)

Hailstorm (Zurzolo on sighs and hums)

Summer Residency Space: CulletonMacri Studio

My summer home office

Challenge 1C.

My real home office. I don't actually work down here very much (it's in the basement). Mostly I do filing, or record music when I get around to it - haven't done any this year, so far. In the left foreground you can see a pile of stuff, as this room as turned into largely a general storage room, also.

Challenge 1B.

This is one of the spots I work at home - the desk under the TV in the living room. There's usually some kind of cartoon or soap opera on (I don't really watch anything except news and weather).

It's not the most conducive spot for being productive, but it does allow me to multi-task: the kitchen is right beside it, I can hear the kids in the backyard, etc.

Challenge 1A.

This is my first response to the first challenge... I will have several more, as I do my work in a variety of places - I don't have one single spot where I do most of it.

This picture is a corner of the U of M Experimental Linguistics Laboratory, which was renovated and given to the department just a couple of years ago, so it's still in pretty nice shape and has nice new furniture. Unfortunately, there are no windows so it gets a little claustrophobic after a few hours. In the centre of the photo is the department's human skeleton (the real thing). I don't think it (he?) has a name.

Writing Studio