Some of last year’s RAFF Doc on South Africa’s brilliant William Kentridge.

Canadian Art’s REEL ARTIST FILM FESTIVAL is now upon us and I am super excited. Last year’s lineup of fantastic documentaries was incredible and this year’s promises to be as good.

You can download the full REEL ARTISTS FILM FESTVAL schedule here.

The event opens this Wednesday and runs until Sunday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

GO & GET INSPIRED!

FYI – Read Festival Founder Ann Webb’s interview in the Globe and Mail

In 2011 I decided to give myself a self-directed course in film studies. It has been my luxury and my escape. Everyone knows about the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) but if Hollywood hipster hype and star gawking is not entirely your thing then you can get your film fix in so many other brilliant ways in this great city.

TIFF Bell Lightbox opened its doors in 2010. I was over the moon with their schedule to show the Essential 100 Films of all time. I got to see In the Mood for Love on the big screen again. Lush is an inadequate adjective when describing the cinematography of Christopher Doyle and the directing eye of Wong Kar-wai And there was the hunkering down for three hours (and a bit more) to finally see Seven Samurai on the big screen. Also, two decades after being in Morocco when it was filmed, I got a chance to revisit the landscapes of North Africa in Bertolucci’s Sheltering Sky during TIFF’s retrospective of Bertolucci’s spectacular career.

When visiting TIFF I caught on to the fact that along with its regular programming it is one of the host cinemas for some smaller, yet fantastic, film fests.

There is the Reel Artists Film Festival in February (FYI: 2012 RAFF starts this Thursday!), then Images Festival in March. Cinéfranco segues from the end of March to the start of April and Hot Docs the last of April to the beginning of May.

Although Luminato is not a film festival per se, their 2011 programming included screenings at TIFF and David Pecaut Square, many of which I was lucky to catch in between running back and forth between plays, concerts and readings.

To correspond with last year’s Luminato, the ROM’s Bollywood Cinema Showcards Exhibit, and The International Indian Film Academy award ceremony in Toronto, for the months of July and August TIFF showcased the movies of Indian film legend Raj Kapoor. I missed most but when TIFF screened West African directorial talent Ousmane Sembene’s films I caught a lot!

Autumn in Toronto ushers in the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival, followed by ImagineNATIVE, then Diaspora Dialogues. And to end off the crisp fall nights before the snow blows there is the Rendezvous with Madness fest and the Reel Asian International Film Festival.

In between all the festivals I attended there were some other fests I didn’t manage to make it to but a plan is in place to attend them this year – Human Rights Watch Film Festival (FYI- Coming soon to TIFF) and the ReelWorld Film Festival.

Over the next week, in anticipation of the the REEL ARTISTS FILM FESTIVAL I am dedicating some posts to recapping some of the great work I witnessed and share a few youtube clips with you!

Enjoy.
L.

In The Mood For Love – The most stunning scene in cinema!

Trailor for Bernardo Bertolucci’s Sheltering Sky

Ousmane Sembene’s La Noire de / Black Girl

“28 Days brings together the diverse work of Canadian artists with that of their international contemporaries in the United States and the United Kingdom to explore the staging of Black History Month”

28 Days is the vision of independent curators Pamela Edmonds and Sally Frater of Third Space Art Projects.

This past Saturday at U of T’s Hart House TSAP brought together some of the talent involved in the show, including artists Robert A. Pruitt (US) and Sonia Boyce (UK) as well as Paul Goodwin (UK), curator for the Tate. Canadian artists Camille Turner, Dana Inkster, Denniston Ewan and Stephen Fakiyesi also participated.

The goal of the gathering was a panel discussion on the cluster of topics that surround the main exhibition call to “explore the staging of Black History Month.” The event took things further by adding in the dimension of critical conversation as another layer to an important show.

As the dialogue dug deeper it became clear that scholarly language can be cumbersome and hard to wade through. It can get us stuck at a worn-out impasse leaving us to wonder if a shift has actually occurred. Words with their roots in academia (trans-cultural, creolization, hybridity, post-racial, etc.) may clink in the receiver’s ear with little resonation and seem indefinable. Historically though, it is in the academies of higher education where radical theoretical language combined with applied practice in the disciplines of art, architecture, literature, etc. produces movements that filter out to the masses. The point was made that the real work of giving the final push to constricting paradigms is being done in the universities and colleges. The graduates exposed to what our educators are teaching will be the ones filling the future positions in the cultural institutions, taking the lead.

The panel did not bring the artists and audience to a resolution but it did illustrate that we are still in the exploration stage where there is room for experimentation that can be supported.

Although the one half of the show has now wrapped up at University of Toronto’s Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, the other half will continue at Georgia Scherman Projects until Feb 29.

George Scherman Projects
133 Tecumseth Street
Toronto, ON
416-554-4112
www.georgiascherman.com

Tuesday – Friday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
or by appointment

Join Third Space Art Projects Facebook page.

Artists clockwise top to bottom: Sonia Boyce, Wangechi Mutu, Denniston Ewan,
Roshini Kempadoo,  Godfried Donkor and Carrie Mae Weems.

Curator Paul Goodwin (Goldsmiths / Tate) with “28 DAYS” curator Pamela Edmonds.

I was 19. It was a soggy day. In Venice the sky and the horizon blurred into one so that all the decadent architecture looked as though it was floating by; the water in the canals gently moving all the beautiful buildings out to sea and off to some exotic land, a gift for a foreign prince.

I wasn’t even going to be in Venice a full 24 hours.  After Milan, en route to Brindisi, it was the stop in-between to switch trains on my way to the coast and a ship that would take me across the Adriatic to Greece.

But the short time that I had seemed to stretch out and expand and my mind recalls the time in Venice as though the adventure was longer.

The only way to orientate one’s self was by intuition in this city of twist and turns and narrow passage ways. So with serendipity as my guide I set off.

At some point during the day I would come to Peggy Guggenheim’s Venetian Palazzo, Venier dei Leoni. Infused with my high school art history , backpacking through Europe made the pages of my text books come to life but nothing prepared me for the magic of the moment upon first entering Peggy’s enchanting place.

I stepped over the threshold and there greeting me, close enough to kiss, was Brâncuşi’s Bird in Space.

Brâncuşi’s Bird in Space part of the Guggenheim Collection. 

At the time I didn’t know that several castings had been done of this piece so to my understanding in that moment I had just tripped upon the only version of my most beloved sculpture. This was the piece that had started my love affair with Modernism so for it to be there so close, so sensual, so within reach, I gasped and nearly fell over! And then when I started to scan the room and the rest of the place Peggy was no longer this fact in a history book. She was flesh and real and full of visionary ideals that manifested into influence and a collection of art that was off the charts. It was there, in that brief and beautiful moment, that I came to the realization that I wanted to be the Peggy Guggenheim of my generation.

My life didn’t come with the same set of influential variables as Peggy’s. Building my dream has been full of starts and stops that sometimes make it feel impossible to ever reach. But after a health crisis wiped me out financially and emotionally leaving me with nothing but my original dream I decided what do I have to lose? Why not start again at building the foundation!

Just before my life broke apart into humiliating and painful bits and pieces I had some solid therapy that prepared me for the wild ride the next four years of my life would be and kept me spiritually intact. The gift came in the form of Navjit Kandola. Her technique and wisdom were worth their weight in gold Venetian coins!

Now that the dust has (almost) settled I have picked up where I left off revisiting that 19 yr old full of possible dreams! And the amazing thing is Toronto has become my Venice. I have let intuition guide me and suddenly out from the corners, in unexpected places, the carnival along with its colourful cast of magicians and jesters have appeared. Some of them are mentioned in this blog, many more will be mentioned soon and as a collective of individuals they are the loveliest group of people I have met, not to mention talented, inspiring and working hard at manifesting their own big and possible dreams.

For more information on Navjit and her services visit her new website Tender Logic.
You can also follow her on Facebook and twitter @navjitkandola.

Navjit Kandola of Tender Logic.

The Readymade Process Discussed and Demonstrated.

Exploring Process & Prototypes with Stephen Burks

On until April 1, Stephen Burks Man Made is an exhibit at Design Exchange put on in collaboration with Wedge Curatorial Projects. This exhibit is about exploring where cultural hybridity can take us in design. Sunday’s event was a workshop about working the “readymade process of bricolage using diverse elements of inspiration… to participate in the artists’ spontaneous process of creative engagement” *(sited Design Exchange)

The afternoon started off with a tour given by Stephen that filled in the inspirational and technical background as well as the social context of his current project that one could label as “design activism”. The tour opened up more questions than it answered – which was the point. In the 21^st century we are a global community intimately linked at many points of convergence and in this place we are positioned quite precariously. Micro moves can now impact the whole so how we set up models of design, production and distribution matter in macro ways. We need to start asking questions that are thoughtful, exquisitely articulated then followed through with careful exploration.

One such question was asked on Sunday regarding Stephen’s work with artisans that has resulted in products for big name companies like Moroso and Cappellini as well his goal to elevate the work of artisans with his projects for the organization Aid to Artisans.

Is the work with artisans about elevating craft or brand?

We can continue on this line of questioning by asking ourselves what are our values attached to fair-trade, one-of-a-kind, or ‘third-world’ artisan? What are our values attached to mass production, exclusivity, and ‘first-world’ luxury brands?

Stephen’s work exists in this in-between world that is a not-yet-fully-defined space. The ethical stakes are high and he is a trickster that dances between the two worlds. It is a tight-rope act of crossing lines of personal and professional principals that is charged because the cast includes many stakeholders and an audience that is more articulate when it comes to issues of social justice.

So Sunday’s session, along with providing a chance to explore or own creativity, also presented a provocative space to question the trajectories design can leap from in the 21^st century.

Thanks to Design Exchange, Wedge Curatorial and Stephen Burks of Ready Made Projects for the vision to hold a great event!

A photograph by Stephen.  Upon noticing how this woman adapted her basket with her own personal touch Stephen started to think about how design can be done by everyone.

Photograph to Stephen’s left of an artisan coiling and sewing the basket style that was then used for the lamp to his right.

Same process of coiling and sewing utilized back at Stephen’s studio in New York using synthetic cords instead of grass. Juicy effect! LOVE!

An example of bricolage (the assembling of a selection of found objects and materials) created at Stephen’s studio using Sori Yanagi‘s Elephant Stool as a foundation structurally and for the final representational form as an elephant.

The ‘finale’ presentation of each of our bricolage masterpieces – fun headdresses, lights, totems, dolls, elephants, kitty cats, jewellery, purses and so much more! 

A beautiful example of simple weaving attached to the bottom of a plastic water bottle.

A purse made from cut-offs of baskets, masking tape, cords and lots of love by MOI! :)

All photographs above by Leah Snyder.

STEPHEN BURKS: MAN MADE TORONTO Jan23 – Apr 1
@ Design Exchange

FYI!!

In Dialogue: Stephen Burks and Company : Feb 10,  6:30pm – 8:30pm

Man Made At Work – An Ad Hoc Community Workshop: Feb 12, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Walk-through &  film screening with Wedge Director Kenneth Montague: March 5, 6.30pm – 8.30pm

Uncovering a Kindred Spirit: Cultural Hybridity in Art & Design

I think my love of African design started at about 4 months old. My Aunt, just returning from Ghana, sat me down on a mini version of an Ashanti queen stool she had purchased for me as a welcome-to-the-world gift. When my tiny little tush touched wood the spirit took.

I loved seeing my aunt and uncle’s colourful Kente cloth when I visited and their blonde wood stool, proportioned for an adult-sized Queen, rather than a pintsized princess. I remember the large stool my parents received and the leather poufs that floated around the house which sadly are long since gone. Before ending up in a pile marked “garage sale” I did manage to save the salad serving utensils with beaded handles brought back from my parents honeymoon in South Africa.

And then there were the stamps from Morocco that were given to me from another Aunt and Uncle that added to my expanding aesthetic sensibility.

So this thin but tenacious thread started to weave through my visual iconography of what I perceived as great design even if I yet had the words. My travels to Africa, on my own and to visit family, only confirmed this. Asilah. Lamu. Jo’burg. The Maasai Mara. All these places multiplied my love of African design whether the creative spirit blew in from the West, East, North or South.

In 1993 upon a plan to start a store specializing in African design and furniture, the love of my life (at the time) promised to bring me back the perfect Queen stool from a run to Cameroon. The stool never arrived. And as love stories sometimes go, the plan (along with the man) ended up in the pile marked “un-salvageable dreams”. But I digress…

This other love in my life still continues to grow though and so Stephen Burks’ tour at Design Exchange was a treat.

What a design synthesizer like Stephen does is bring to the world something myself as well as many others have known for a long time – Africa has been on point aesthetically for thousands of years.  The trade routes that criss-crossed the Sahara and sailed up the Swahili coast created hybridity in design, culture and cuisine many millions of moons ago. And it is this syncretic heritage that makes African design from all areas the ideal starting point from which to draw creative and technical design inspiration that makes complete sense in a 21^st century space.

A little about Stephen:

• He is a dot connector and a cultural fuser
• He seems to be a ME to WE kind of guy working with non-profits Aid to Artisans and the Nature Conservancy
• He believes in a pluralistic approach to design
• He feels that Marcel Duchamp’s readymades were the most important contribution to art in the 20^th century
• He is a whiz with Papier-mâché

And contrary to what was reported in the Italian press he was never a jazz musician or a baller. It was unexpected and reductionist comments such as these that made Stephen question how does identity and voice impact a designer’s point of view.

What Stephen is can be described as accessible, charming, and enthusiastically in love with the process of industrial design. He is eager to explore the possibilities of a new language that we can use to describe the people, places and products that emerge when cultures overlap and integrate. And for this reason Stephen Burks is a great ambassador for a new inclusive way of thinking about design in the 21^st century.

More about Stephen and his studio at Ready Made Projects.

Stephen Burks’ papier-mâché stools for Cappellini. Image via Inhabitat. 

Stephen Burks’ work for Missoni made from textile cut-offs. Image via Style Files.

Stephen Burks Swarovski lights. Image via Whitezine.

Alvin Ailey’s inspirational input to my “Obscure Cover Series”

It has been on my wishlist of things I want to make happen – seeing the great Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and my wish came true this past weekend. The AAADT performed at the Sony Centre for Performing Arts to an excited, packed-out house. The program featured work from the 1960s to current pieces that helped to showcase the history of this important dance company.

Alvin Ailey, as a choreographer and an artist, really is the god-father of cultural hybridity in American dance.

The auditory landscape of the music ranges from Classical to Afrobeat; the physical language of the choreography shifts from ballet to powerful moves that escaped cultural death in the Middle Passage, survived slavery then exploded freely in the 20^th century. Those same moves  still strongly inform contemporary urban dance with a West African articulation.

The piece that really lifted me was IN / SIDE. It featured only one dancer performing to Nina Simone’s cover of Johnny Mathis’ “Wild is the Wind”. If you know this song then you know the intensity that infuses it and the dancer brought his own bold strength to the performance. Since I cannot fully share the experience of the performance I figure I can at least share the music.

David Bowie also did a cover of Wild is the Wind after meeting Nina Simone and being moved by her style of singing. Today’s post is a double feature because I really cannot decide which version I love more!

More of my “OBSCURE COVERS SERIES”…

My beautiful Dantesca Chairs. Photo by Leah Snyder.

Where I sit on Canadian furniture design.

Like most women I know, I have a deeply satisfying shoe fetish. But stronger than my desire for killer heels is my desire for a sexy chair. I am always hot for something with a strong back and a sturdy pair of legs.

Give me a therapist and a chaise longue upon which to comfortably lie (preferably Le Corbusier’s LC4) and I will intensely describe how my love affair with the chair began.

And since I am sharing, I have noticed that when it comes to where I place my derrière I crush on Canadians.

BROTHERS DRESSLER
I have dreamed about having the The Brothers Dressler sensual Slab D-Chair as companion to my collection of Spanish Dantesca chairs (top image) but then I saw the Brother’s manly felt upholstered chaise longue at last year’s IDS. This year’s stunning surprise was their ‘lawn chair’. My body got warm and tingly all over thinking about sitting under an August sun with a great beer, a good book and a beautiful view of Georgian Bay. These chairs – I want them all! They are the perfect threesome.

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CHRISTOPHER SOLAR
Christopher Solar’s Plantation Chair Redux made my heart skip a beat.  When the crowds parted at IDS 2012 and my eyes met with it resting marvelously before me it was a “HELLO LOVER!” moment.

SHAWN PLACE
Shawn Place’s SP210 rocker looks like its caress is comforting and sweet. Unfortunately he did not have it on display at IDS so I have planned a date for an in person introduction at Hollace Cluny.

MANI MANI OF FISHTNK
Mani Mani’s (Fishtnk) Cortical Chair is aesthetically masculine but displays enough curves to show it is not afraid of its feminine side.

DEREK McLEOD
Derek McLeod’sSum Chair Lounge for IDS Prototype is like a man in a Savile Row suit – sophisticated and intriguing; made even more so if you were lucky enough to catch Derek’s talk at Design Exchange on the behind the scenes process that lead to its creation.

Upon popping into the  Associates show on Sunday (part of Toronto Design Offsite) Derek encouraged me to have a rest and try out his chair there.

It only affirmed what I already know – my ass is fond of leather and wood!

FABIO NOVEMBRE – THE PANTON (im)PERFECTED
And on the subject of chairs and derrières, at his IDS talk, Italian designer Fabio Novembre explained why he wanted to add his twist to what he calls the perfectly designed chair. He felt that with the Panton Chair its perfection was its flaw so he decided to make it “dirty with life” infusing the smooth, unbroken lines with a more human form – the back side of a woman. Fabio’s new take on the Panton Chair allows it to be imperfectly perfect (like the ideal woman, si?)

And for now this is where my tail ;) ends.

FYI– along with hot chairs this year’s IDS also showcased sexy sideboards, tables, lamps and throws.
Check out…

FURNITURE

Kino Guérin (image a.)

Heidi Earnshaw Design (image b.)

Ridgley Studio Works (image f.)

Pab Furniture (image g.)

LAMPS

Atelier 688 (image c.)

Tahir Mahmood (image d.)

Ridgley Studio Works (image f.)

Pab Furniture (image g.)

TEXTILES  

Armstrong Textiles (image e.)

Ryerson’s School of Interior Design in  the Offsite / Onsite Exhibition. Photo by Leah Snyder.

Young blood + deconstruction of old models = The BEST! Exhibits to visit @ The Interior Design Show 2012

George Brown’s Institute without Boundaries in the Offsite / Onsite Exhibition. Photo by Leah Snyder.

Armstrong Textilesin the Studio North Section. Photo by Leah Snyder.

Christopher Solar in the Studio North Section. Photo by Leah Snyder.

Designers in the Prototype Section. Photo by Leah Snyder.