Meditation on Time: The End of Term Reckoning, A.K.A. The Graduation Exhibition

....we all live in its grip...... time.

In the weeks to come, many university students and faculty will be marking the end of the 2014 spring semester. For some, it will be a time of deep reflection and accomplishment, while for others it will be a time of escaping and forgetting. Whatever the case, the final reckoning will be determined in large part by how time was budgeted, measured, and spent. Like many of you, this is a reality that I grapple with personally and professionally as I figure out how to balance the demands and pleasures of life. For the past year and a half, I have being running something of a marathon in my work and home life, and as I look forward to finally winding down this summer and reinvesting time for both this blog and my own writing and research projects, I find myself deeply inspired by the creative individuals I have been teaching and working with during this past academic year. Tonight, many of these students, along with their family, friends, colleagues, and instructors, will be gathering at a rite of passage-- the BFA Graduation Exhibition. Some weeks back, I was approached by the students of this year's show to write the foreword to their catalogue. I share it here with you as both an invitation to attend and celebrate in their accomplishments, but also as a way to reflect upon the theme of this year's show, the time that roughly spans the course of one semester-- ninety-seven days.

Congratulations to Tessa, Roxanne, Rhea, Celina, Kirsten, Hira, Shannon, Derek, Debbie, Charis, Cale, Alana, and Alison! It has been a true pleasure getting to know each of you, and watching the development of your talents and ideas over the years. Tonight is all yours.

FOREWORD to "Ninety-Seven Days" Catalogue

“There are moments of existence when time and space are more profound, and the awareness of existence is immensely heightened”—these words written by nineteenth French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire form part of one of the most important manifestos in the history of art. At its surface, his is a call upon artists to observe and bring awareness to the modern world around them, to see and record the fleeting, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half he argues is the eternal and immutable. Writing at a moment of cultural crossroads and urban transformation in capitalist modernity not dissimilar from the one we occupy today, the core of Baudelaire’s concern was how “time” was increasingly seen as a commodity—something to be divided up, standardized, rationalized, and exploited, ruthlessly reminding all of us of our limitations and perceived value in measurable terms. For him, the antidote to such evisceration of time was an art that brought awareness to the chance and ephemerality that rose up in face of the increasing rationalization and standardization of life’s moments. In this way, artists were called upon not only to produce work, but also to give new value to time.

It is in this spirit of critical inquiry that I invite you to view "Ninety-Seven Days." At its most banal, the exhibition title describes the passage of time over a university semester that the assembled artists experienced together in collective duration. It is a reminder of the pressure, the call to action, the reckoning, and institutional evaluation that will earn them their long awaited university credential. In short, it is a chronicle about the work of making art. But at its most profound and heightened, ninety-seven days represents a dynamic engagement with time and ideas beyond measure and language that the audience will be called upon to recognize, glimpse, and re-value within themselves. Themes of ambiguity, isolation, meditative journeys, fading memories, mutations and lost stories, comingle with art that engages codes, space, reorientation, technology, nature, and the overcoming of tradition and obstacles. Indeed, if one of the jobs of art is to turn time into things worthy of critical reflection, these thirteen artists remind us that time will pass, and that we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use and highest level of awareness.

Dorothy Barenscott, Art Historian

Focus on Tech: Art History Flashcards

It is closing in on midterms and I am once again urging my students to utilize the time honoured tradition of "old school" techniques for studying. To this end, nothing beats a well crafted deck of flashcards. Remember those? You were probably first introduced to them in kindergarten when learning the alphabet or later in grade school when mastering simple arithmetic and multiplication tables. On the one side, a question or problem or image, and on the other, the solution or description to memorize.

When it comes to art history, students are often intimidated with the vast array of visual images that they are assigned to study for exams. The typical first or second year art history exam involves studying many dozens of art objects and being shown a small selection of these images projected on a screen for a set amount of time with the instructions to identify the artist, title, and date and answer a specific question related to the art work's form, content and/or context. While this may sound daunting, what I remind students of is that art history exams are among the only kind of test that provide the luxury of placing the "answer" as it were right in front of them. In other words, even if you cannot identify all of the art work's constituent elements, there is always the possibility of drawing from what you see, or being reminded by association what the answer to the question could be. This is especially true if you are a visual learner.

Enter the flashcard. At its simplest level, the flashcard is useful to help associate all of the relevant information gathered via lecture, textbook, and outside reference material into one focused place related to any individual art work. In the flashcard sets I used to make in university, I would glue a colour copy of any art work I was studying, while on the back, I would categorize the information I was studying into three categories based on

FORM, CONTENT, and CONTEXT:

1) FORM: All of the details related to the medium, composition, scale, and description of the art work independent of meaning.

2) CONTENT: The subject matter and story or implied meaning of the art work that is derived by simply assessing the work without knowledge of any additional historical information-- the "what you see is what you get" kind of thing related to the themes and ideas represented in the art work.

3) CONTEXT: This is the largest category of information that includes all of the relevant circumstances in which the art work was produced and circulated. To avoid getting overloaded with too many details, here is where I tell students to isolate those aspects of history, theory, and artist details that the professor focuses on in their lecture first, and then add in any additional information provided in the textbook that helps extend those observations afterwards. Remember that most professors will draw midterm questions directly from their own lecture notes, and/or focus on themes and ideas that were being discussed more broadly when the individual art object made its appearance in the lecture. This is why it is always a good idea to take lecture notes that tie big ideas and themes to specific art works under discussion.

Now, you can make these flashcards the old fashioned way using index cards, colour photocopies, scissors, glue and pen, or you can check out some of these techie methods listed below to produce digital flashcards, saving trees and maybe a bit of time (depending on whether you have digital notes and images handy). Either way, the creation of the flashcards is as important as the actual studying you will be doing with them later. Here are some free flashcard applications and software to check out that either I have used or have been used by my students:

• Flashcard Machine: This is one of the older of the applications, created by a BFA student who wanted to create a simple way to produce flashcards using digital means. It is very simple to use, but does require you to upload images to a database before using.
• Fauxflash: A simple, quick and easy set up for creating on-line flashcards. This site makes them public, so that you can share your flashcards and/or collaborate with friends, but you can also "hide" them by simply forgoing the addition of a category or easy to search title for your deck.
• Evernote Peek: For iPad users, this application works with your tablet cover to help create a desk top flashcard that shows you snippets of information that prompt you to figure out the information or image being memorized. This one requires a bit more set up, but it is private and can be more customized for those concerned with design.
• ProProfs Flashcards: this application is one that many of my students have used and allows users to create and share flashcards as a group over social media, making that art history scene in Social Network come to life in new ways!

The fun part begins after the flashcards are made. Enlist your friends, family, and loved ones (you know, the ones who keep asking you what you are up to in school) and have them test you with the cards. It is a proven fact that the best way to learn about a subject is to teach it to someone else, so it is great to use the flashcards with someone who knows little about your subject area. Their natural curiosity and questions will help draw out important information from you and put you in the position of "expert." You will also likely remember these bits of conversation when the image appears as if magic on the screen during an exam. And even if you cannot recall every detail, chances are you will remember enough information about the art work to provide a decent answer. Good luck studying!

Ten Books To Share On My Current Wish List

Like many of you, I have ambitions of reading far more books than I possibly have time for. And even though I pride myself on reading beyond what is necessary for my teaching and research, there is always a new and wonderful title I am learning about to add to my wish list. I have featured ten books below that I wanted to share with those of you amassing your own wish list, or looking for something new and intriguing to read. You can also find these titles on my "Books to Explore" Pinterest Board-- I look forward to hearing about any of your suggestions as well. Happy Reading in 2014!

Art Cities of the 21rst-Century Avant-Gardes

Antawan Byrd and Reid Shier

 This Phaidon book got a great deal of buzz locally when Vancouver appeared on the shortlist of cities, along with Beirut, Bogotá, Cluj, Delhi, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Lagos, San Juan, São Paulo, Seoul, and Singapore. The text claims to track artists of an emerging “contemporary avant-garde,” so I am very intrigued to see how the authors set out this argument and why these cities in particular make the list.

Nothing: A Very Short Introduction

Frank Close

 I absolutely love the “A Very Short Introduction” series and have used these deceptively small texts in both my courses as required and recommended texts, and as recommendations to students seeking understanding in new fields of knowledge. Case in point is this most intriguing slim volume dedicated to examining the notion of “Nothing.” I have had this little gem on my radar for a while—I often think that if I went back to school, I would study the history of science to help unpack these sorts of mind-bending concepts.

Easy Riders Raging Bills: How the Sex-Drugs-And-Rock N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

Peter Biskind

I love the daring and renegade nature of many early 1970’s Hollywood films. Think Taxi Driver, Midnight Cowboy, Chinatown, The Godfather etc.. This book chronicles the new wave of American directors of this era (directors such as Francis Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese to name just a few) and how they moved from experimentation and rebellion in film school to success and transformation of 1970’s Hollywood. The research is amazing and based on hundreds of interviews that film critic Peter Biskind did with the who’s who of 1970’s Hollywood.  

Fashion (Oxford History of Art)

Christopher Breward

I have collected the Oxford History of Art series since my time as a student, and this title has somehow been missing from my book shelf. I have long held an interest in the intersections between art and fashion, and this book seems tailor made for such an exploration (and maybe a special topics course in the future!).

The Global Contemporary and the Rise of New Art Worlds

Hans Belting, Andrea Buddensieg, Peter Wiebel

I’ve been working on a Global Art History course for some time now, and this book is one of the many contenders for the course textbook and/or source book. The authors have chosen 1989 as the “tectonic year” to begin tracking their narrative about the expansion of international exhibitions and the rising interest in contemporary art worldwide.

Art Since 1980: Charting the Contemporary

Peter Kalb

I learned of this title on my Twitter feed via a recommendation tweet from Lev Manovich, digital media theorist extraordinaire. Simply put, I will read anything this man thinks is worthy—especially concerning art—I respect him that much.

Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship,and Betrayal

Nick Bilton

Love it or hate it, Twitter is now part of our social media lives. Was it William Gibson that said “Twitter is the street. Facebook is the mall”—love that quote! After finally becoming a publicly traded company this year, the story of Twitter’s beginnings is getting a written treatment, and from all the buzz surrounding this book, it sounds especially juicy.

Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture

Dana Goodyear

I have a real love of the food literature genre, especially the kind of adventure food narratives of the Jeffrey Steingarten and Anthony Bourdain variety. I actually first heard about this book listening to an interview with the author Dana Goodyear on a New York Times Book Review podcast, and was drawn in with her discussion about how the mainstreaming of foodie culture and the culinary “avant-garde” are revealing anxieties about global food security and access to clean, non-government regulated food. This whole snout to tail phenomenon of recent years is especially interesting to me since the food of the “old world” poor is now lauded as gourmet, while the real food of the poor, fast food, is largely ignored by food snobs. No doubt I think there is something really worthy to consider about class and access through a book like this.

Living and Sustaining a Creative Life

Sharon Louden

This book has been on the top lists of many respected art bloggers and journal editors since late last year. Essentially, it is a collection of essays by forty working artists about what their day to day lives look like inside and outside the studio. Working with so many young art students and artist colleagues/friends, I am especially looking forward to reading this book so that I can gain more insight, inspiration, and practical information about the challenges and realities of being a creative working person today.

The Painted Girls: A Novel

Cathy Marie Buchanan

Finally, a book treatment about Degas’s ballerinas and the underbelly of  the late nineteenth century Paris Opera. Whenever I lecture about the Degas ballerinas and reveal how the artist was commenting on the prostitution that ran rampant behind the closed doors of the Paris Opera, students are often shocked and in disbelief. How could images so seemingly innocent and beautiful tell the story of such sordidness? This book, written by a Canadian author, is on the top of my must-read list before I lecture on nineteenth century art later this year.

Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting in 2014

Dorothy Iannone, The Next Great Moment In History is Ours (1970)--part of a retrospective of the 80 year old artist in one of my picks for top ten exhibitions of 2014.

Another new year, another new year of art exhibitions to look forward to. Having spent one of the quietest holidays on record close to home in some years, I have had the pleasure of hunting around for those exhibitions worthy of a visit (in case you needed an excuse to travel to any of the wonderful locales represented below). I first posted a list like this back in 2011, when my blog was at its peak of activity and engagement, so I thought it was fitting to reinvigorate and breathe some life back into my blog with this 2014 edition. Here in no particular order for your consideration and enjoyement. Happy New Year! 

Douglas Coupland's Lego projects are sure to evoke nostalgia and discussion of local housing concerns in Vancouver with audiences this summer.

Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything

Vancouver Art Gallery, May 31-September 1

Starting close to home in Vancouver, it is hard to believe that Douglas Coupland—synonymous  with all things merging pop and Canadiana— hasn’t yet had a major survey exhibition. This spring the Vancouver Art Gallery will finally give Coupland a long overdue show, one that will likely garner international attention from Gen Xers, art/design enthusiasts, and hipsters alike. If you live in Vancouver, you may already have heard of, or taken part in, Coupland’s Lego play as part of the build up to the exhibition.

Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities

Museum of Modern Art, November 22-May 10

Moving to New York, it is clear that architecture and urban design will be critical themes in a number of high-profile shows set to open in the city through 2014. The “Uneven Growth” exhibition as MoMA will bring together six interdisciplinary teams of researchers and practitioners to examine and develop proposals for new forms of “tactical urbanism” in six global metropolises: Hong Kong, Istanbul, Lagos, Mumbai, New York, and Rio de Janeiro. All of the proposals will be part of the much-anticipated exhibition in the latter part of this year.

The catalogue cover for the Guggenheim exhibition

Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe

Guggenheim, February 21-September 1

Futurism remains one of the most misunderstood and maligned avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century. It is also among the most fascinating and relevant to our contemporary moment. The Guggenheim will finally be presenting the first comprehensive overview of Italian Futurism in North America, presenting over 300 works spanning 1904-1944. Besides visual art, the exhibition will feature architecture, design, fashion, film, music and performance as part of the interdisciplinary exploration.

Mike Kelley

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, March 31-July 28

It has been nearly a year since the untimely death of Mike Kelley, one of the most provocative and influential contemporary artists of the past twenty years. My first encounter with his work was as an M.A. student at UBC when Kelley and John Miller were featured in an exhibition titled “Consolation Prize” at the Belkin Art Gallery. I recall being both repulsed and seduced by his environments (a mound of dirt with crumpled up dollar bills and sex toys was the center point of the show), and over time I have come to respect and understand his keen commentary on class, youth rebellion, and American popular culture. This is one of several shows (the expansive Mike Kelley exhibition at MoMA PS1 is still running now in New York) that are set to open in the coming years, but the Los Angeles setting is special to Kelley’s legacy— the place where he attended art school and built his practice.

and Materials and Money and Crisis

Museum Moderner Kunst, now through February 2, 2014

Art and the global economy go hand in hand, but the examination of that relationship is mostly obscured from the public and rarely the subject of serious critical examination within the spaces of the gallery. This group exhibition currently on in one of Vienna's most vibrant galleries (which was first initiated as a symposium on the consideration of these themes) is therefore truly unique and begins with the proposition of addressing “the matter of capital as it exists in the artwork.” No doubt many more conversations will be initiated as a result of this show.

Dorothy Iannone: This Sweetness Outside of Time

Berlimischie Museum of Modern Art, February 20-June 20

Dorothy Iannone is one of those artists that rarely make it into contemporary art surveys. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that she only made it onto my radar after grad school, and even then it was a poet that brought her to my attention, and not an artist or art historian. Simply put, Iannone is art’s original bad girl, an artist unafraid to examine and celebrate facets of sexuality and eroticism at a time when it was certainly more difficult (she was arrested in the 1960’s for importing Henry Miller novels to the US) if not a career crusher for a female visual artist. She is today 80 years old, living in Berlin, and the focus of a much-deserved retrospective this spring at the Berlimischie Gallery.

Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde

Museum (now through February 2); Bundeskunsthalle (March 11-June 22); Tate Modern (July 17-October 26)

With all eyes on Russia this year for the Winter Olympics, I am glad to see that a traveling exhibition of Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde will continue to remind audiences of the radicalism and major contribution of Russian modern artists to the legacy of transgression and collective forms of action in the name of art seen in the activities and output of contemporary Russian artists such as Pussy Riot. These legacies are important to keep in plain view as Russian social policy continues to spark debate globally.

Ai Weiwei

Martin Gropius Bau, April 3-July 7

Berlin will be hopping this summer with its popular Biennale, and speculation about Ai Weiwei’s major solo exhibition at the Martin Gropius Bau has been building since last year. Although Ai has denied rumours that he might take political asylum in Germany to gain some freedom from constant surveillance in Beijing, it will be fascinating to see how the artist will oversee and help plan the show.  It will arguably be his most high-profile exhibition since the Sunflower Seeds installation at the Tate Modern in 2010.

War is Over (If You Want It): Yoko Ono

Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, now through February 23

Yoko Ono, like Dorothy Iannone, is one of the original female provocateurs of the art world and also celebrated her 80th birthday this past year (hard to believe I know!).  As a long time fan, I would gladly brave the 14+ hour flight to Sydney to visit the exhibition surveying her long career as an artist and activist. People forget that Ono played a significant role in Fluxus and the New York art scene long before her partnership with John Lennon. The exhibition celebrates both her legacy and the vibrancy of her current projects.

Antonin Artaud's 1947 writings about Van Gogh serve as the inspiration for this intriguing exhibition

Vincent van Gogh/Antonin Artaud: The Man Suicided By Society

Museum d’Orsay, March 11-July 2014

Van Gogh and Artaud—what a perfect pair—two men that experienced and made art about deep alienation. I am incredibly intrigued by the Orsay exhibition that juxtaposes the French playwright and poet Artaud’s written meditation on Van Gogh’s manufactured “madness” (along with graphic works), with a selection of some thirty Van Gogh paintings. Decades before Michel Foucaut’s writings on the subject, Artaud tackles the difficulties and power dynamics of understanding the conditions and normative claims of what constitutes “mental health.”

Courses for Spring 2014: Topics in Film and the City, Contemporary Art, Film Studies, and Ancient to Pre-Renaissance Art

As registration for Spring 2014 academic courses begins soon, I wanted to provide more information about courses I will begin teaching in January, 2014. Please see detailed descriptions below. If you have any specific questions that are not answered here or in the links I provide you to the registration for the courses, you can contact me directly. I look forward to another rich and engaging semester with both new and familiar faces.


ARTH 3130: Film and the City

Kwantlen Polytechnic University 

(Mondays 7:00-9:50pm, Room Fir 3414)

Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire (1987) representing Berlin

This course takes as its focus the dynamic intersections of the filmic medium and the emergence of the “city” as both a conceptual and material idea, examining how filmmakers and the techniques of filmmaking from the early 20th C. forward have been closely bound up in representing the visual, spatial, and mental contours of the metropolis. Beginning with an examination of film’s critical role in the development of modern art and the history of the avant-garde, this course will also draw from existing issues and debates concerning the expanding field of visual culture, exploring how the evolving city (as place and idea) and its various filmic representations have played a reflexive role in the development and understanding of important themes emerging in the modern and contemporary art of the past century. In this way, the course will roughly follow the history and theory of visual arts as it moves from the emergence of the modern period in Europe through the demise of modernism following WWII and into the areas of post-modernism, post-colonialism, and identity politics informing current debates about globalization/migration.

The course is organized using case studies beginning with European cities and representative films that engage with questions of modernism and modernity, then working outwards to non-Western and North American cities, allowing for both a chronological and thematic approach to exploring the intersections of film and the city. Cities under investigation will include Rome, Tokyo, Paris, London, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Lahore, Los Angeles, Beijing, and Vancouver.

ARTH 2122: Modern & Contemporary Art-- 1945 to Present

Kwantlen Polytechnic University
(Wednesdays 7:00-9:50pm, Room Fir 128)

Geoffrey Farmer, Leaves of Grass (2012) exhibited at Documenta 13

ARTH 2222 offers a critical examination of international visual art and culture focusing on the role of art in consumerist society and the emergence of postmodernism. The course concentrates on visual art from the mid-1940s to the present day, with particular regard for historical events, factors of patronage and institutions—as well as changing attitudes to making and approaching art—in modern and postmodern art. We will consider the traditional media of painting and sculpture but must also take into account the addition of innovative media to art practice in recent years. From photography to video, collage to assemblage, installation to performance, such media have extended notions of what art could materially consist of, but have also affected the anticipation of audiences for that work, having social as well as aesthetic implications. Ultimately, our attention will be on the network where art is made, presented to and reacted to by different parties, and to the ways that portions of the art system―such as art history and cultural criticism―have conceived of and explained the workings of such a system and the society it exists within.

ARTH 1130: Introduction to Film Studies

Kwantlen Polytechnic University 

(Fridays 1:00-4:50pm, Room Fir 128)

Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Students will study the history and development of world cinema, and the comprehension and theory of film as a visual language and art-making practice from its inception in the late nineteenth century to the present. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the critical interpretation of the cinema and the various vocabularies and methods with which one can explore the aesthetic function, together with the social, political, and technological contexts and developments, of moving pictures. The weekly format of this course (as a 4 hour block) will normally entail a 1.5-2 hour lecture and the screening of a full-length film. Each film will thus serve as a starting point and gateway for discussion about the course’s weekly theme.

ARTH 1120: Prehistoric to Renaissance Art

Kwantlen Polytechnic University
(Mondays/Wednesdays 4:00pm-5:20pm, Room Fir 128)

Thomas Struth, Pantheon (1992)

This course provides students with the ability to critically evaluate and recognize how the art, architecture, and modes of representation of the early eras of Western culture continue to impact our collective visual, intellectual and cultural environment today. All of the works under examination in this course (which will introduce and cover aspects of visual culture from Prehistoric Europe, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, Ancient Greece, the Roman Republic, Early Christian and Byzantine cultures, and the period of the Medieval, Gothic and early Renaissance in Europe) will be related to their original contexts and functions, but also ask questions about the range of functions that art might fulfill within different societies. The course will therefore not just be about following a chronological and progressive trajectory of “great monuments” and “great artists”, but will instead address broad issues related to political power, gender, sexuality, race, and the formation of individual and group identities. In this way, the ideas raised in this course will also draw student’s attention to the constructed nature of more traditional art history while exploring the paradigms and models of knowledge production that art historians and other commentators use to explain art, architecture, and visual culture.