Alison Knowles

Happy Birthday to Alison Knowles. 

Jiří Valoch | Poem for bpNichol

Jiří Valoch

Poem for bpNichol

Toronto, Canada: GrOnk, 1988

print on yellow paper

5.4 x 15 cm 

Edition of 89

Coasters

 

Jon Sasaki | A Space of Endless Potential

A lenticular postcard (which doesn’t scan well) invitation to Jon Sasaki’s A Space of Endless Potential, commissioned by the Bank of Montreal for their project space on the 68th floor of their Toronto office tower. 

Curated by Dawn Cain, the Project Room has featured commissioned works by Micah Lexier, Lois Andison, Michel de Broin, Shary Boyle, Graeme Patterson and Roula Partheniou (the last three now all Sackville residents). Cain has left her role and I believe the Project Room is no more. 

Visit the dedicated project site, here, for more information, and Chris Hampton’s CBC piece about the work, here. 

"Something was set in motion.

It should have slowed to a standstill long before now but it didn't, it is still going. Slowly. It appears not to have succumbed to the many forces that threaten to sap its energy, which is strange; in the universe we live in, energy is finite. Once expended, it leaves that thing that held it (a ball, a person, the universe itself) listless and static. Yet this little ball is still bouncing, almost like it exists in a universe outside of ours, untethered from its rules.

This installation, made in collaboration with engineer Gordon Hicks, conjures both a little orange ball that can bounce indefinitely and the charged room that allows it to do so. A place where objects are immune from the forces—of drag, air resistance, friction, kinetic energy loss—that normally bring bouncing balls to a standstill. A place where we can imagine our own energy to be similarly boundless.

The mechanics of the illusion are apparent from the outset: a motorized gantry, similar to the movable bed of a CNC machine or 3D printer, has been scaled to the size of the project room and suspended from the ceiling. It has been programmed to control the ball along three axes of movement following paths of travel that an actual thrown ball would take. The movements are unpredictable, generated in real time, and conceivably might never repeat throughout the exhibition. Incorporating a slow-motion version of real world physics the ball traces an ever unfolding and ultimately unpredictable path.

Ever present, the gantry is hard to ignore. It tells us how the trick is done, while the movements of the ball invite us to disregard those facts and be party to our own deception. To imagine an entity with boundless drive. Slowed to a dreamy pace, the ball ricochets through the BMO project room, transforming it into a lunar, weightless space. Time slows as we contemplate a little spherical object that will never run out of steam, possessing the unflagging energy and dynamism that we might wish for ourselves.”

- Jon Sasaki

Jeff Koons | Balloon Dog (Blue)

Jeff Koons

Balloon Dog (Blue)

 Los Angeles, USA: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1995

26 x 26 x 10.8 cm.

Edition of 2300 numbered copies [+50 AP]

Despite being produced in a large edition size and being reissued a few times, this work regularly sells for upwards of ten grand at auction. We had a few at Art Metropole when I was there, selling for between five and eight hundred dollars. 

Toronto audiences weren’t interested, but they sold quickly when we took them to art fairs (Basel, Berlin). 

I’m lukewarm on a lot of Koons’ works, but I’m drawn to the populist pieces like this and the flower dog. 

Kenneth Goldsmith and Joan La Barbara | 73 Poems

Kenneth Goldsmith and Joan La Barbara

73 Poems 

Brooklyn, USA: Permanent Press, 1993 

[102] pp., 15 x 21 cm., paperback 

Edition of 1000 signed and numbered copies

Goldsmith’s third publication is a collection of 73 visually rich poems comprised of associated words, linked by the device of over-printing. The book is accompanied by a CD featuring interpretations by vocalist Joan La Barbara, best known for her collaborations with John Cage (who this title is dedicated to). The disc feature 79 untitled tracks, only six of which surpass the one-minute mark.

Van Maltese | Pencil For Your Non-Dominant Hand

Van Maltese

Pencil For Your Non-Dominant Hand

Toronto, Canada: Slow Editions, 2024

20.5 x 4.5 cm.

Edition of 500

Produced by Eunice Luk’s Slow Editions as a free give-away, Pencil For Your Non-Dominant Hand invites artists to participate by submitting a drawing made using their non-dominant hand. 

Send a 300 dpi image of your drawing and your name to pencilforyournondominanthand@gmail.com. The drawings will be posted at https://pencil-for-your-non-dominant-hand.blogspot.com and eventually collected for a future publication. 

"For some time now, I have been experimenting with drawing using my left, non-dominant hand. This interest began as an exercise to develop muscle memory and potentially enhance cognitive functioning. However, I have since learned that the idea of practicing ambidexterity to improve brain function is widely debated—some argue that the brain’s efficiency benefits from having distinct hemispheric tasks. The idea of using ambidexterity to strengthen cognitive functioning is perhaps just another fact I thought I knew.

Alongside trying to get better at what I do, I am also very curious about getting worse at it. Drawing with my non-dominant hand has evolved into something more profound: a way of exploring failure, and relinquishing some sort of control. It’s a counterpoint to the idea that an artist’s legitimacy lies in some kind of consistency. Instead, I’m curious about how it feels to unlearn, or re-learn.”

- Van Maltese

Richard Kostelanetz | RECYCLINGS VOLUME ONE 1959-67 A Literary Autobiography

 

Richard Kostelanetz

RECYCLINGS VOLUME ONE 1959-67 A Literary Autobiography

Brooklyn, USA: Assembling Press, 1974

64 pp., 21 x 13.5 cm., staple-bound

Edition of 1526

"Quoted in the preface to Recyclings: A Literary Autobiography: Volume One 1959-67 are passages from Roland Barthes and John Cage that celebrate the vast encyclopedic significations of the single word and call for the demilitarization of syntax, respectively. This poetic thesis statement from Richard Kostelanetz foregrounds a collection of truly avant-garde poetry from the author’s early career. Kostelanetz abandons the formality of punctuation, the “militarization” of syntax, and structure altogether for a poetic formalism that, like the Abstract-Expressionists, triumphs the material: the word.”

- Printed Matter

Alex Morrison | Giving the Story a Treatment

Alex Morrison

Giving the Story a Treatment

New York City, USA: Lukas & Sternberg, 2005

106 pp., 17 x 11 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

Giving the Story a Treatment is the first comprehensive publication on artist Alex Morrison, featuring contributions by Jeff Derksen and Danish art critic Lars Bang Larsen.

Last night I hosted an event in Toronto where it was announced that Morrison will be the 19th Canadian Artist in Residency at the Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown, Scotland. He will arrive next month and spend three months at the site, alongside artists from China, Kenya, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. 

The residency includes airfare and accommodation, a salary, and a generous production budget. And lots of whisky. Former residents include myself, Annie Pootoogook, Damian Moppet, Van Maltese, Lee Henderson, Marla Hlady & Christof Migone, Jon Sasaki, Daniel Barrow, Eleanor King, and many others. 

During his residency Morrison plans to conduct an architectural design case study which will explore art forms at the distillery that serve dual purposes, specifically the rooftop pagoda forms of the distillery, initially designed by Architect Charles Doig, creator of the Doig Ventilator (1889). The Doig Ventilator was originally designed as a ventilation system adopted by distilleries in Speyside and beyond. Drawing inspiration from the architecture of Glenfiddich’s past, Morrison aims to create a repeating pattern design that could be applied to wallpaper, textiles or packaging design, combining his interest in architectural and design history, pace making and marketing promotional aesthetics. 

“Thematically, my work focuses on the intersection of heritage, the built environment, and selfhood, examining how various materials, aesthetics, and objects associated with public and domestic spaces in the present simultaneously shape and are shaped by visual identity, societal values, and our understanding of the past,” he said. “I am incredibly honoured to explore these processes while immersing myself in the rich, storied landscape of the Glenfiddich Distillery.” 

Kathe Burkhart | Ask me about being a Dominant Woman

Kathe Burkhart

Ask me about being a Dominant Woman

Antwerp, Belgium: Roger Vandaele Edition and Graphics, 1997

9 x 27.5 cm.

Edition of 500 signed and numbered copies

A bumper sticker printed on green adhesive vinyl and signed in black felt pen. Produced in an edition of five hundred, the work is scarce now, selling for upwards of two hundred dollars. 

Dieter Roth | Quick

Dieter Roth

Quick

Koln/Amsterdam: Rudolf Rieser/Bookie Wookie, 1965/1994

[150] pp., 1 x 3 x 1.8 cm., softcover

Edition of 150 signed and numbered copies

Quick was a German-language news magazine active for forty-four years, between 1948 and 1992. It was the first periodical published in Germany after World War Two1. By 1960 the magazine had reached peak circulation, with 1.7 million copies printed weekly. 

After previously turning its pages into sausage, Dieter Roth used the periodical to produce approximately 150 copies of a small hand-bound book to distribute for free at an exhibition in Koln, in 1965. They were published by Rudolf Reiser, a bookbinder who helped fabricate, finance and promote many of Roth’s works of this era. Fewer than fifty were taken by visitors to the exhibition, leaving behind just over a hundred copies. 

Decades later, in 1994, gallerist Rudolf Zwirner discovered a shoe box containing 105 copies of the miniature books. He contacted Walter Koenig, who suggested that Boekie Woekie in Amsterdam might help revive the project. 

A ‘re-issue’ was released with the copies signed “1965/1994” by Roth and housed in a clear plastic box with a blue adhesive hinge and the addition of a wrap-around information sheet. Printed in Dutch, English, German, and Icelandic, the info sheet explains the work’s provenance in the artist’s own handwriting. 

The books - reportedly the smallest Roth had made - feature approximately 150 sheets cut from Quick Magazine, bound by glue and a cotton string spine. Other magazines that received similar treatment include Dagblegt Bul, Der Spiegel and Icelandic Leather.

Quick is currently valued at over a thousand dollars. 

1. The magazine’s chief editor for many years was Traudl Junge, the former secretary to Adolf Hitler, who typed out his Last Will and Testament immediately before the dictator's suicide. 

Sophie Calle | True Stories

Sophie Calle

True Stories. Hasselblad Award 2010

Göttingen, Germany: Steidl & The Hassleblad Foundation, 2010.

112 pp., 27.5 x 25.5 cm., hardcover

Edition size unknown

In 2010, Sophie Calle was awarded the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography, which was celebrated with an exhibition and this publication. 

Mike Kelley | The Uncanny

Mike Kelley

The Uncanny

Arnhem, The Netherlands: Sonsbeek, 1993

152 pp., 24 x 17 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

An influential catalogue published in conjunction with Mike Kelley’s landmark exhibition of the same name, at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, as part of Sonsbeek 93. 

"Mike Kelley's contribution to Sonsbeek '93, 'The Uncanny' - an exhibition within an exhibition - has since attained almost mythical status. Many know it only through the book, which sold out long ago, so its return in updated form 11 years on, in Liverpool rather than Arnheim, is itself a little uncanny. 

The book's essay, 'Playing with Dead Things', accompanied by a long and extraordinary photo-essay, is the artist's most ambitious to date. Like the best writings of Dan Graham and Robert Smithson, it is a remarkable piece of cultural synthesis that makes most academic writing on art seem pale, confined and reiterative. Without the essay the exhibition is just half the story.”

- Alex Farquharson

Christo: Running Fence

Calvin Tomkins and David Bourdon

Christo: Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California 1972-76

New York City, USA: Harry N Abrams, 1978

694 pp., 28.5 x 27 cm., hardcover

Edition of 2159 signed and numbered copies

Extensive documentation of the temporary installation by Christo, with photographs by Gianfranco Gorgoni, text by David Bourdon and a “Chronicle" by Calvin Tomkins. The book is signed and numbered and presented in a slipcase.