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