Terrance Houle
GIVN’R
15 September – 5 December 2010
Opening Reception and Performance by Terrance Houle: Wednesday, September 15, 6 – 9 pm
Give’r: (verb) Canadian, particular to rural areas especially in the western provinces, meaning:
1. to work very hard.
2. to get wasted and rock as hard as possible.
3. to finish a job or task in an efficient and quick manner.
AGYU is givn’r this fall with a rockin’ survey of the past five years of work in film, video, performance, and photography by Calgary artist Terrance Houle. The exhibition also includes a recent installation inspired by his father’s experiences. Houle’s father spent the first part of his life on the Sandy Bay Reservation, Manitoba. Attending Residential School during the day, Vern Houle spent the rest of his time learning the traditions of the Salteaux (Ojibway) First Nations People. Joining the Canadian Armed Forces at a time when Aboriginal men were not predominant in the service, he travelled across Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, writing to his mother weekly. Offering insight into a young Native man’s journey and relationship with his Ojibway mother, this work speaks of home, connection, place, and time.
While the main works in the exhibition reflect the humour and DIY approach to art making that Houle is most known for (Urban Indian Series, Pitchin’ Tipis, Landscape, The Wagon Burner, for example), the recent installation points to a new direction for the artist’s work that highlights the specific ceremonies, traditions, and historical events of First Nations People in Canada such as Indian Leg Wrestling, Indian Sign Language, and All for You, a project made in collaboration with First Nations people who grew up with the effects of the Residential School System. Houle’s works continue to engage his Aboriginal and non-aboriginal viewers in accessible and participatory ways, allowing them, in the words of the artist, “to let go and say what they want — like good punk rock!”
Terrance Houle’s examinations of cultural identity, alienation, assimilation, and Hollywood stereotypes are intended to provoke. Houle’s extensive body of work ranges from painting to drawing, video/film, mixed media, new media, performance, and installation — often utilizing tools of mass dissemination such as billboards and vinyl bus signage.
The exhibition at the Art Gallery of York University features a specifically commissioned performance in conjunction with the exhibition opening. An exhibition catalogue, the first on the artist, will also be launched during the exhibition. The publication is co-produced and -published by the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, and Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, and features essays by Emelie Chhangur, William Richard Hill, and Anthony Kiendl.
Houle’s artwork has been shown across Canada, the USA, Europe, and in Australia. His short video and film works have been shown internationally, winning Best Experimental Film at Toronto’s 2004 ImagineNATIVE Film Festival, and screening in New York City at the 2006 Native American Film Festival, Museum of American Indian. In 2006, Terrance was awarded the Enbridge Emerging Artist Award at the City of Calgary Mayor’s Luncheon.
Involved with Aboriginal communities all his life, he has traveled to reservations across North America, participating in Powwow dancing and other Native ceremonies. He lives and maintains his art practice and Aboriginal Youth Mentorship in Calgary, Canada.
Exhibition and tour organized by
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg
Curated by Anthony Kiendl
Get on the Performance Bus!
There’s only two words to describe this Performance Bus, departing from OCAD at 6 pm sharp en route to the AGYU’s opening of Terrance Houle’s GIVN’R: Darren O’Donnell. The free Performance Bus returns downtown at 9 pm. Get yer cowboy hats on ’cause the ride is going to be so Darren O’Donnell, which means you gotta give’r and get involved!
Darren O’Donnell is a writer, director, social acupuncturist, designer, and Artistic Director of Mammalian Diving Reflex. He once said, “there is the need for an understanding of art that goes not only beyond pleasant aesthetics, but beyond even typical ideas of creativity and imagination, direct engaging with the civic sphere; an aesthetic that can work directly with the institutions of civil society — an aesthetic of civic engagement. An aesthetic that says: Okay, so you want to make culture and creativity a central part of civic life? Fine. Then, as an artist, I want in on the institutions that form — at ground level — the fabric of the city. I want to use these as material in my art practice.”
We like that very much. AGYU thanks you, Darren, for being out there.
AGYU Vitrines – Julie Moon
Take the pilgrimage to AGYU this fall. Three beautiful shrines will be built in the AGYU vitrines featuring the bad girl of ceramics, Julie Moon. This newly-commissioned work will transform the niches into devotional altars to contemporary craft.
Moon’s work grabbed the attention of art and design circles locally and nationally for using the traditional craft medium to sculpt seductively whimsical and edgy monstrous forms. A recent graduate from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Moon has shown at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Arts, the Design Exchange, and has an upcoming exhibition at the Pittsburgh Society for Contemporary Craft, DIY: A Revolution in Handicraft.
Humberto Vélez Residency
8 August – 17 September 2010
Humberto Vélez’s (b. Panama, 1965) art, in essence, actively explores the possibilities of working in collaboration with diverse groups (artists and handcrafters, special communities, athletes, musicians) brought together especially for each project. For his Toronto project, Vélez—in collaboration with Philip Cote and Rebecca Baird, members of the Tecumseh First Nations Community Organization and Aboriginal/non-aboriginal youth, Toronto’s Urban Runners, and the Toronto Sport Council—will create a large-scale public performance produced by the Art Gallery of York University and curated by Emelie Chhangur and Elizabeth Matheson. Vélez’s projects are conceived from what he calls “the ability to create esthetics” through the collaborative action of groups who—according to their different lifestyles—thereby manage different expressions of popular culture, power, and ethics.
Initiated through a residency in 2009 and 2010 at AGYU, The Spirit is a multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary project, which will be, in the words of the artists involved, an “art ceremony”—one that talks respectfully about Canada and its inhabitants from past to present through the philosophies of the First Nations peoples, but in a new form. Diverse perspectives meld, potentially finding different ways to relate through art to everyday life, by means of collaboration on a single public performance, which involves choreographed dance, music, processions, and a culminating ceremony on Saturday, May 14, 2011.
This project defines new territories for the active involvement of youth, promotes social inclusion, celebrates First Nations perspectives, and creates alternate experiential real-time relationships within the existing built environment of the City of Toronto.
Manchester-based artist Len Grant, who will document the process of collaboration and produce new works intended for exhibition at the Art Gallery of York University in May 2011, will join Vélez in this year’s residency. The exhibition will take place in conjunction with the public performance, which will take place downtown Toronto.
Len Grant is a freelance photographer and writer based in Manchester. Since 1990, urban regeneration has been a major theme in his work including the documentation of a significant regeneration program in Manchester and the rejuvenation of east Manchester, an area of significant physical and social deprivation now subject to an extensive program of renewal. Since 2007, Grant has been working as a curator on the British Council’s OPENCities project. This international project explores how immigration can significantly contribute to city success.
Audio Out
From 6 September to 24 October, artist Atanas Bozdarov brings a little sophistication to the Audio Out series as he takes us from Punk Rock to Classical. Whether it’s distilling passages of Nietzsche into a musical score or finding rhythm in Bobby Fischer and Donald Byrne’s [chess] “Game of the Century,” The Rebirth of Tragedy features four works developed using various procedures to extract and assign musical notes from non-musical sources. All the compositions were translated and played on double bass by Stephen Kreuger.
Atanas Bozdarov is an artist and designer. He has exhibited his work at the Art Gallery of Peel, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, AGYU, Blackwood Gallery, XPACE, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Whitney Gallery, and as part of Wade a series of interventions co-presented by YYZ Artists’ Outlet. He was also co-curator, with Tejpal S. Ajji, of the exhibition Heritage Complex at the Art Gallery of Peel.
Book Launch – São Paulo!
AGYU celebrates its newest publication with its launch in São Paulo on September 20th at Galeria Vermelho in conjunction with the 29th São Paulo Biennial! Beautifully designed by Lisa Kiss, no. it is opposition. documents Carla Zaccagnini’s 2008 exhibition and features texts by curator Emelie Chhangur and artist Carla Zaccagnini. While the exhibition was all about doubles, the book launch is a threesome, with artist, curator, and designer there to sign books! During the book launch, Procedures Performed/Auto-Pilot, the AGYU commissioned work for the exhibition, will be projected on the exterior of Galeria Vermelho while we enjoy caprihina’s in the sun. Later, the book launch will turn into the opening party for the Bienale so by sunrise on the 21st, we will still be drinking caprihinas…
Fall Contemporary Art Bus
On Sunday, 17 October, join us at the Art Gallery of York University for a guided tour of the Terrance Houle’s GIVN’R. The free bus will depart from OCAD (100 McCaul St) at noon and departs to the AGYU, Blackwood Gallery, Koffler, and Doris McCarthy Gallery, returning to OCAD at 5:00 pm. Seating is limited. To reserve please contact Julie Zalucky at 905-828-3789 or j.zalucky@utoronto.ca.
AGYU @ Art Toronto
28 October – 1 November 2010
The Art Gallery of York University participates in this year’s Art Toronto with Colombian artist and DJ Mateo Rivano. The project builds upon the AGYU’s presentation of the artist at ArtBo 2009, South America’s premiere art fair in Bogotá. The AGYU will be collaborating with Mia Nielsen at the Drake Hotel to provide Rivano with a one-month residency where he will produce new work for Art Toronto as well as a specifically commissioned mural project and DJ set for The Drake Hotel. Join us for Art Toronto’s artist party in the Drake Underground on Saturday, October 30th and hear Rivano rock the house.
Mateo Rivano was born in Bogotá in 1978. In 2006, he obtained his degree in art, directing, and painting in the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence in Italy. He has participated in many collective and individual exhibitions, such as Cantos y otros amigos imaginarios, Galería de Arte de Cámara of the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá, Salitre branch (2009), Crack, Art Biagotti, Florence (2008); Scope Basel, Art Basel (2008) 49 disegni, Redline Art Gallery, Florence (2007); Opere grafiche due strade a confronto, Academia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Florence (2007).
