Thursday, June 16, 2016

VSVSVS | Kettle Bells






VSVSVS
Kettle Bells
Toronto, Canada: Nothing Else Press, 2016
Weathered construction materials, metal handle
Sizes and weights vary
Ongoing edition, each unique, signed


Water eroded rubble from the Leslie Street Spit - a dumping ground for sand, broken bricks, cinder blocks and earth dredged from construction projects across the city - is scavenged and converted into equipment for ballistic exercises. In between weight-lifting sessions they serve as attractive floor sculptures.

Available for one hundred dollars CDN each, here, or this weekend at the Toronto Art Book Fair. Each are accompanied by a signed postcard.


VSVSVS (pronounced versus versus versus), are a collective of seven artists who live together in a warehouse space that also serves as studio, gallery and sometimes residence for visiting artists.
The members' (Wallis Cheung, Ryan Clayton, Anthony Cooper, James Gardner, Stephen McLeod, Laura Simon, and Miles Stemp) cohabitation is part of their practice, and the venue itself is one of my favourite artworks in the city. The group also consistently deliver smart and funny large scale projects for venues like the Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Metropole, Mercer Union and Nuit Blanche, as well as an increasing national and international schedule of activities.

(see images of their Steam Roller performance for an event I curated in Edmonton last year, in the tags below).








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