Evening Poetry and Fiction Reading

Gallery 1C03 is pleased to host an evening reading of poetry and fiction by students from the University of Winnipeg's class, Introduction to Creative Writing (ENGL. 2102-003) on Thursday, November, 27, 2008.

The reading begins at 7:30 and all are welcome to attend.

We hope you'll be able to join us!

Creative Cities from the Grassroots Up -- Thank you!

G1C03 wishes to extend a warm thank you to everyone who joined us on November 13 for our panel discussion, "Creative Cities from the Grassroots Up". The presentations by each of our three speakers and respondent were very well received and stimulated fantastic conversation. The critique of Richard Florida's "Creative City" (that is, one that supports culture as a commodity, but not as a critical practice, and certainly not as a practice invested with political meaning and the capacity for resistance) was heard loud and clear, and audiences agreed that there is more to a city than the economic activity it can generate.

In a few weeks, we anticipate that we’ll be able to post video documentation of our event, so if you weren’t able to join us, you’ll at least be able to see and hear what was presented. Maybe we can continue the conversation right here on our blog?

In the meantime, please find below a few images...













Thanks to Marlo Campbell from Uptown Magazine and Andrew McMonagle from The Uniter, we also received some great coverage and commentary!

Click here to read this great report.


Click here, too!

More photos!

The following photos were taken by G1C03's volunteer from the U of W Collegiate, Ruth Sangalang, at Rodney LaTourelle's opening on November 26.

If you also took photos that evening, send 'em to us! m [dot] placentile [at] uwinnipeg [dot] ca =-)





















Rodney gave an artist talk the following day... it was also very well attended and the conversation that followed was very engaging.

Thank you to everyone who joined us on these days!

Rodney LaTourelle's INTERVAL

Rodney LaTourelle's two-part architectural installation, INTERVAL opened with a marvelously attended reception on November 6, 2008. This intensive installation process was made possible thanks to important partnerships both on campus – particularly U of W’s Library, Physical Plant, Shipping/Receiving, and Security staff – and off-campus, due to so many people coming together in a short period of time.

The artist and Gallery 1C03 wish to thank Louise Withhoeft, Ardis and Ron LaTourelle, Tim LaTourelle, Sue and Buzz Hamilton, Neil Minuk, Glen Johnson, Les Newman, Richard Dyck, Larry Strain, and Chris Poulsen for their assistance and support. Rodney also wishes to thank Jennifer Gibson for programming this project.

Special thanks are due to James Jordan, James Mac Sweenie, and Nathan Diederich for their fantastic job constructing the structure on such short notice!

A great deal of work took place behind the scenes in G1C03 and the Hamilton Galleria, and even further behind the scenes activity took place off-site.

Here are some photos of INTERVAL as it came together over the course of 2.5 days. Whew!

Creative Cities from the Grassroots Up

Creative Cities from the Grassroots Up
a panel discussion about creating equitable cities

Thursday, November 13, 2008
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, Centennial Hall, University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg, MB

WINNIPEG MB, October 24, 2008 – As a city, Winnipeg is inimitable. Its inspiring history of grassroots activism and its vibrant professional arts community easily outshine tales of long winters and mosquitoes. Yet, at the same time, Winnipeg struggles with social and economic inequities that prevent it from being a place where all citizens can live well in a sustainable manner. This disconnect must be addressed.

With the initiation of many new building projects, rising real estate prices and gentrification, and now finally the promise of a rapid transit system that aims to draw people closer together while reducing the number of vehicles on the road, it is clear that Winnipeg is witnessing a burst of development. However, owing to a lack of measured and coherent planning involving the input, ideas, and skills of citizens representing a diverse range of communities, interests, and needs, it is more important than ever to contemplate what type of city we truly want.

In other cities, and in other countries, an idea generating renewed buzz is the idea of a “creative city”... a city that attracts hip entrepreneurs and tourists with money burning holes in their pockets. The formula seems easy enough: build posh condos, start an international film festival, pour money into convention centers and other big glossy boxes that can be rented for weddings, and economic prosperity will surely follow. Is that so? Many seem convinced. That being, of course, those who believe future development is best served by letting the marketplace -- and nothing else -- lead the way. Surely, we can be more conscious, more proactive, and more creative than that.

A "creative city" is more than a popular catchphrase; it is a complex and loaded concept that is often used without a clear understanding of what culture is, how it happens, how people become involved, and why a critical approach to culture is necessary to build a truly "livable" city. Culture is more than a mere commodity.

To what extent do perspectives on the nature of urban life acknowledge the role of artists and other creative thinkers in the organic versus constructed evolution of city dynamics? How can a local arts policy help a city move toward intelligent and sustainable incorporations of creativity that embrace challenging practices and empowering critique as part of a healthy social and political process and framework for equitable development?

Many contemporary art practices demonstrate intersections with other aspects of contemporary life. Thus, it is important to participate in conversations about the roles of creative practitioners in ways that cross disciplinary boundaries. It is true that we sometimes speak different languages and, consequently, do not always understand each other. Nevertheless, let us find common ground in the following question: To what extent can artists contribute to the livability of cities in ways that transcend the decoration of them? And in doing so, let us consider contemporary art as a point of entry into exploring ethical human interaction as a premise for urban development.

Featured Speakers:

Hazel Borys, Managing Principal of Placemakers, will discuss new urbanism and draw attention to planning strategies that incorporate social, ecological, cultural, and economic interests and measures.

Roewan Crowe, artist and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, will address community building through relational practices in the arts, as well as an event she curated called Art Building Community, which took place at the University of Winnipeg in May 2008.

Izida Zorde, Editor of FUSE magazine, will explore the contradictions inherent in conventional understandings of what constitutes a “creative city”. She will demonstrate the consequences of accepting this proposition without sufficient recognition of local conditions, strengths, energies, and needs.

A response will be offered by Tricia Wasney, Manager - Public Art, Winnipeg Arts Council.

This discussion will be moderated by Jino Distasio, Director of the Institute for Urban Studies.

Members of the media are welcome to attend this free event, which is open to all; no pre-registration is required.

Organized by the University of Winnipeg's Gallery 1C03 with generous support from:

The University of Winnipeg
The Institute for Women's & Gender Studies
Institute of Urban Studies
Visiting Lecturers Committee, Department of History
Department of Political Science

This event is free for all - all are welcome!

* * *

Biographies

Hazel Mouzon Borys is the Managing Principal/President of PlaceMakers, LLC, a U.S.-based New Urbanist firm that addresses the full scope of placemaking through a passion for creating timeless and endearing places and a committed to translating time-tested principles into purposeful efforts for quality growth. Borys holds an MBA in finance and marketing, coupled with an electrical engineering bachelors degree and, within PlaceMakers, she guides both public and private sector clients through urban design and master planning efforts, utilizing collaborative community outreach techniques. Her work encompasses visioning efforts with cities and towns to articulate master plans, followed by land use reform to enable walkable, mixed-use, compact, sustainable places — both infill blocks and buildings and greenfield neighborhoods.

Roewan Crowe has a passion for feminist art, creating community, and facilitating initiatives in cultural democracy. Her varied practice employs a 'feminist curiosity' crafting together academic prose, poetry, theory, photography, performance, fiction, activism, and video. In May of 2008, in collaboration with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art, Crowe curated the Art Building Community Project, which launched 10 new works and a weekend symposium. She is currently working on an arts-based research project entitled, "Feminist Imagination as a Space of Resistance: Artistic Practices Contesting Violence", which explores the ways in which art creates space for forbidden narratives to contest massive political processes such as economic globalization and militarism. She is also working on a project, "A Positive Sense of Origin and Belonging: An Initiative in Cultural Democracy with Aboriginal Girls in Winnipeg’s North End", with historian Jarvis Brownlie, and Cheyenne Henry at Ndinawe Youth Resource Centre. She is the Academic Director of The University of Winnipeg's Institute for Women's & Gender Studies housed at Global College and she teaches with the Women's and Gender Studies Department.

Dr. Jino Distasio is the Director of the Institute of Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg, a position he has held since 2003. Jino has worked and researched Winnipeg's inner city and urban issues since joining the Institute in 2000. During this time he has examined urban Aboriginal housing and mobility, reviewed and studies problems and solutions for rooming houses and single room occupancy hotels as well as actively participating on numerous inner city committees and boards. At the national level, he has led multi-city projects that have examined hidden homelessness, working poverty and most recently developed a national neighbourhood distress index for Canadian cities. He also helped produce an urban Aboriginal housing plan for Winnipeg. Jino actively teaches urban issues and is an Adjunct Professor of City Planning at the University of Manitoba. He is also routinely asked to provide both local and national media comment on issues relating to urban change and poverty, transportation, inner city renewal and other civic and urban issues.

Tricia Wasney has worked in Winnipeg's art community for many years in roles including program coordinator, project manager, board member, juror, and artist/writer. In former positions at the Winnipeg Art Gallery she developed programming in film, literature, and music and managed the creation of two virtual exhibitions. She has served as a juror for the Manitoba Arts Council and Video Pool's First Video Fund and she has held board positions with Prairie Fire Magazine and the Winnipeg Film Group. Wasney holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Studies and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree, both from the University of Manitoba. Her work in recent years has centered on the exploration of identity through place and environment. Since May 2002, she has researched public art programs worldwide while developing the public art policy that was adopted by Winnipeg's City Council in September 2003. In January 2004 she was appointed to the role of Manager - Public Art.

Izida Zorde is a writer, curator, and the editor of FUSE magazine. She is a founding member of the Department of Culture and a co-curator, with Heather Haynes, of the Creative Cities exhibition at the Toronto Free Gallery (January 15 - March 1, 2009). Her critical work explores politically engaged visual arts practices, neo-liberal economics, and participatory democratic models.

Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg launches INTERVAL by Berlin-based artist, Rodney LaTourelle

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg launches INTERVAL
by Berlin-based artist, Rodney LaTourelle

WINNIPEG MB, October 16, 2008 – Gallery 1C03 proudly presents a two-part architectural installation by Berlin-based artist, Rodney LaTourelle.

Titled INTERVAL, LaTourelle’s site-specific exhibition at the University of Winnipeg will feature two installations investigating relationships between light, colour, space, and the body. Referring to his work as a form of “three dimensional painting”, the artist uses various spatial transitions, colour associations, and oscillating rhythms of reflection and absorption of light to explore territories of space and to draw attention to the affects of light on the human form and social interactions. The artist’s complex immersive environments employ physiological, psychological, and aesthetic considerations allowing him to provoke an array of intuitive and memory-based responses.

For this project, LaTourelle will construct twin installations in Gallery 1C03 and the Hamilton Galleria. Referring to the original supergraphics sited in Centennial Hall designed by Ursula Ferguson, both installations will involve undulating sequences of saturated colours, reflective walls, and seating areas. Visitors will notice a formal reference to the original "high tech" modernist architectural style of Centennial Hall, the building that houses both installation sites. This "high tech" style is reminiscent of Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (which Centennial Hall pre-dates), and whose antecedents include the British avant-garde architectural group Archigram, and the earlier movement of Russian Constructivism, both of which were characterized by efforts to invest art and technology with social purpose.

The notion of the twin, or doppelgänger, evokes ideas of simultaneous presence. Each construction will appear like an unfolded, spatialized graphic image and, through the strategy of twinning, they will creative parallel yet shifting narratives seeming to move between the two physical spaces. This experience of spatial displacement between the two sites will construct a spectral interval – a strange and un-locatable feeling of recognition – intended as a metaphor for this particular architectural spirit, which is characterized throughout history by a (flagging) social optimism. The constructions will draw viewers into alternate realms to provide unique experiences referencing both the history of art and architecture, and the dual nature of contemporary society where many lead twin lives: one based in reality and the other played out in the virtual space the Internet.

Born in Winnipeg, LaTourelle holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Landscape Architecture, both from the University of Manitoba. The recipient of numerous grants, LaTourelle's installations have exhibited across Canada and in Europe. LaTourelle is also a curator and art critic; his writing has appeared in C Magazine, Canadian Architect, and various publications in Germany.

Members of the media are invited to arrange interviews with the artist on November 5 and 6.

Rodney LaTourelle’s installations will be available for viewing from November 6 – December 6, 2008

Exhibition launch: Thursday, November 6 from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. (1st Floor, Centennial Hall) Artist talk: Friday, November 7 beginning at 12:30 p.m. in Room 2C15 (2nd Floor, Centennial Hall) Admission is free for all and all are welcome!

Gallery hours: Monday – Friday: 12:00 – 4:00 p.m.; Saturday: 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Closed Remembrance Day.
Please note that the Hamilton Galleria is open during regular library hours; see http://library.uwinnipeg.ca for details.

Gallery 1C03 wishes to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Manitoba Arts Council.

Images: Rodney LaTourelle, In the Absence of Unambiguous Criteria (details of installation at Program, Berlin), 2007.


Milena Placentile, Art Curator, Gallery 1C03, University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg MB R3B 2E9
204.786.9253 | m [dot] placentile [at] uwinnipeg [dot] ca
uwinnipeg.ca/index/artgallery-index | gallery1C03.blogspot.com

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The nature of sleep

The following article appears in this week's edition of Uptown. Thanks for the fantastic review, Whitney!!

The nature of sleep
Joan Scaglione's Regeneration is a meditative exploration of one of our most basic needs
Whitney Light

Regina-based artist Joan Scaglione intuits nature with gusto. An early example is her work as a Master's student. She started collecting, or hoarding, bushels and bags of nature's materials in her studio, including raw sheep's wool. After a time but all of a sudden, she gave in to an inexplicable desire to wrap herself in it: burrow like a vole; cocoon like a caterpillar. That work was called Nascent Beings.

Now, Regeneration is at Gallery 1C03. In it, nature and slumber are together again as part of a meditative installation about creativity, ecology, eternity and the unconscious. A thigh-high mound of dirt, ash, bricks, thick rope and a rusted-out metal bed frame suggest a funeral pyre. But crowning the heap is an object that shows there's nothing as final as death here, but perhaps more to be feared. A TV monitor exhales the sound of sleep around the gallery in a yogic rhythm. A mouth opens and closes, revealing an image of the cosmos in its cavern. Sleep, it seems to say, unites us with the great unknown.

The TV's presence is jarring. Flickering in the dim light, it creates subtle tension. The metaphysical renewal suggested by the other elements diverges from the material world the TV set belongs to. The layered cultural ruins direct our reflection to ceremony, spirituality and the world of myth, while our connection to the slick world of technology and entertainment breaks down. If only temporarily, Scaglione's built a space for an alternative, interior-oriented analysis of human ecology.

What if TV broadcasters really did play this image of breath? Not so far-fetched, considering that we already get turkeys being basted and fires being poked. These are pretty crude examples of the current popular yearning for simplicity and primal experience, but Scaglione's work turns our thoughts onto a similar path, holding up to viewers the basics of human experience and culture-building material. And its presentation is beautiful and sincere in a way that much of today's consumption of eco-conscious goods is not.

Far from rejecting technology, Scaglione embraces it and strikes a balance. The second part of the installation, in fact, is a video projection of a naked female body swimming in sunlit waters. Her movement is slowed to gestational speed and appears as rhythmic as the breath sounds. The high-tech is employed in the masterful capture of the most basic of natural pleasures.

The final part of the exhibition is outside - and is a bit more fanciful. If you view it last, it's a kind of celebratory send-off to making one's own everyday flights of intuitive imagination. Outside the Duckworth Centre, images of the swimming body are suspended in the trees. They float and dive, a mythical painting come to life. Between here and the gallery you may find yourself recalling dives into cold lake water, or perhaps that familiar dream of flying like a bird. Regeneration points the way to living symbiotically with our world.

REGENERATION
Until Oct. 22, Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg