Jon Sasaki | Everything In Balance

If you’re in the St Catherine’s area, it would be a mistake to miss this event:

"For this year’s festival, Toronto-based artist Jon Sasaki will be spending the afternoon creating a collaborative hanging sculpture in St. Catharines, Ontario. With your help. 

Over the course of six hours in the outdoor lot behind the Niagara Artists Centre, Jon Sasaki will assemble a large, suspended mobile sculpture, incorporating objects contributed by visitors. Each object must weigh 5 lbs or less, and act as a stand-in for something that is important to the donor – not a treasured, sentimental object or irreplaceable family heirloom, but something that might symbolize a personal set of values or priorities. For example, a person who is interested in cooking or food security might arrive with edible plant cuttings. Someone who values responsible journalism or the printed word might bring a copy of last week's newspaper. Throughout the performance, as new objects arrive, they will be added to the suspended armature, incorporated carefully into its overall structure, with thought and care taken to avoid tipping and affecting its equilibrium. The sculpture will be in constant flux. Every new object will necessitate a rebalancing of its overall assembly. Every donor’s “important things” will belong, and the constant reconfiguration of objects to accommodate new, disparate additions will be the focus of the artwork. “Everything in Balance” will strive to place everyone's “important things” in a state of harmonious coexistence.

 Join us and Jon Sasaki this fall:

📍 Niagara Artists Centre, 354 St Paul St, St. Catharines

📅  Sept 18th, 2026 | 3 - 9pm

🔹 Donate your object* to “Everything in Balance”:

📍 St. Catharines Farmers Market, 91 King St

📅 September 10, 12, and 17

Or bring your object during installation at the NAC on September 18th

*Please note that all donated items will not be returned. 

Find more information and updates about this program at the link: https://buff.ly/0mC1hM5

Photo and project renderings courtesy of the artist.

Everything in Balance is part of the 2026 Niagara Festival Hub made possible by Tourism Niagara-on-the-Lake, the Province of Ontario, the Tourism Partnership of Niagara and the Ontario Arts Council.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, and producing partners 

Niagara Artists Centre and the City of St. Catharines.

Dave Dyment | Dead Ringer

Dave Dyment

Dead Ringer

Sackville, Canada: Self-published, 2023

107-minute film on USB drive, folded poster, printed materials

Edition of 5 signed and numbered copies [+2 AP]

The boxed edition of my 2022 film Dead Ringer, which investigates Toronto’s portrayal (or non-portrayal) in television and cinema. Comprised of hundreds and hundreds of clips filmed in Toronto, with the city standing in for New York, Boston, London, Mumbai, Tokyo and countless other international locations, the film repurposes these scenes to tell local stories and examine questions surrounding representation in cinema. 

The film uses Casa Loma (a medieval castle in mid-town, built just over a century ago) as the central lens through which to look at artifice, civic pride and folly. Casa Loma has portrayed Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in X-Men, Batman’s Wayne Manor in Titans, and Dr. Frank N. Furter's castle in The Rocky Horror Picture, as well as appearances in Scott Pilgrim, Ready or Not, Crimson Peak, Strange Brew, The Pacifier, and the Oscar winning picture Chicago (which was shot entirely in Toronto).

Dead Ringer premiered at Casa Loma last fall and had subsequent screenings at Toronto City Hall, all arranged by the good people at Ontario Culture Days. 

The work is now screening for the rest of the month via Hot Docs:

https://hotdocs.ca/whats-on/watch-online/canadian-arts

Owen Marshall | Communism Isn’t Stupid

Owen Marshall

Communism Isn’t Stupid

Toronto, Canada: Ninth Editions, 2019

18 x 24"

Edition of 10 signed and numbered copies

The only artwork we brought home with us from our recent trip back to Toronto is this screenprint and graphite on paper work by Owen Marshall. 

Other works in the series include "Tiny Flag", "I Didn't Actually Do the Reading", "Curse you Jesus" and "I Am Very Sorry Grandma" (which is reportedly a response to "Curse you Jesus"). We were torn between this one and another favorite (see next post). 

I'll be working with Marshall and Ontario Culture Days in 2023 to turn these works into actual flags atop flagpoles, either in Toronto or London, Ontario. 

The work is available from Ninth Editions for $90.00 CDN, here.