Varying Proximities: A New Series of Works by Broken City Lab

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For the past year or so, we’ve been working on a residency with Watershed+ in Calgary, Alberta. Watershed+ is a unique public art residency program that creates a climate of opportunity for water initiatives to build an emotional connection between people and Calgary’s watershed. Our task was to embed ourselves within the Water Centre (and Calgary in general) and really take the time to explore what the watershed means to Calgarians and us as visitors.

The Bow River and Elbow River are Calgary’s main sources of water and during our residency we explored ideas inspired by their physical structure, social implications, and municipal infrastructure. We went on a number of tours and took hundreds of photographs, audio clips, and short videos. After months of brainstorming, meeting, and reconfiguring, we have produced a series of works called Varying Proximities. An exhibition of the project was generously hosted by Stride Art Gallery Association in Calgary and will remain on view until Saturday, August 2nd, 2014.

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Varying Proximities (Connecting to the Bow Hotline) 

“Hello. One moment as I connect you to the Bow River.” With this simple introduction, you are transported to the river’s edge and begin to experience the Bow’s rushing, gurgling, and babbling efforts to connect to you. Whether nearby or across the world, anyone can attempt to connect to the Bow, and begin to explore its wisdom, or its secrets, or its songs, creating a unique opportunity to explore proximity and access as fundamental components of our relationship to the Bow River.

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The toll-free number to connect is 1-844-OUR-BOW-RIVER (1-844-687-2697) and the hotline will remain active for the foreseeable future. We installed a retro telephone at Stride Gallery to allow visitors to call the hotline.

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Varying Proximities (Bow-Inspired Hard Candy) 

What does the Bow River taste like? What colour is the water flowing through it? How does one savour the Bow? With the creation of Bow-Inspired Hard Candy, residents of Calgary can start to explore these questions through a fun and interactive public art work. Candies made from colour and flavour inspirations of the Bow allow residents to wonder about where the flavours and colours of the candies end and their own subjective experiences and memories of the Bow begin.

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The installation consists of 10 jars, each filled with about 100 candies of a specific colour. Municipal water from the Bow River was used in the production of these hard candies.

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Varying Proximities (The Results of Searching for “The Bow River”) 

In order to understand how images and ideas about the Bow River change over time, we produced a small booklet consisting of images pulled from a Google search of “The Bow River”. This collection of halftone images suggests a moment in time and further explores the notion of “varying proximities” in terms of web search language.

Copies are available in Stride Gallery and we encourage visitors to grab one from the two shelves mounted in the main gallery space before the exhibition ends on August 2nd.

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Varying Proximities (Subtext: River Signs) 

Distributed along the Elbow and Bow Rivers and affixed to the stormwater outfall signs, Subtext: River Signs, will aim to engage the public to consider a number of questions about the rivers that have come to define the City of Calgary. Playfully asking a series of questions, Subtext: River Signs, will be installed on up to 100 posts for three months and encourage thousands of residents and visitors to think about the ways in which we collectively and individually experience the rivers and how these questions might cue new relations, memories, and stories of the Bow and Elbow.

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Nearly 100 signs were installed in the second room of the gallery and demonstrate the breadth of the questions posed. Viewers are invited to ponder these questions and how they might relate them to their ideas about the river.

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The signs on display will be installed on posts around the Bow and Elbow Rivers this fall, so stay tuned for more updates!

The Best of Awards: A Celebration of Windsor Documented

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Earlier this month we held an event to celebrate both the closing of Civic Space–our storefront workspace project generously funded by The Ontario Trillium Foundation–and the people who make Windsor such a unique place to live. This project called upon the residents of Windsor to nominate someone they knew for a “Best of” award in any category they could think of.

We dressed up Civic Space with balloons, paper lanterns, a red carpet, and as much gold as we could find and hosted an awards ceremony to hand out 57 trophies we made for the nominees. We had these trophies engraved with the title each person bestowed on their nominee and lined the walls with them.

During the ceremony the trophies were handed out and those who made a nomination (and those who were nominated) had a chance to say a few words to the crowd. It was a memorable night for me and I hope everyone who came could say the same. Thanks to all who participated. Stay in touch!

Below are a collection of photos taken at the event.

Continue reading “The Best of Awards: A Celebration of Windsor Documented”

Flagged For Review Launch & Open Studio and Social Practice Pot Luck

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Can you believe it’s already almost the end of April? We’ve been working out in Vancouver on a new project since January and it’s been an amazing experience, we’ve met so many incredible new friends, we’ve got to dig into our work face to face again, and we’ve got to make a bunch of new work! And so, as we wind down our residency at the Contemporary Art Gallery’s Field House Studio, we have two events to announce, both of which we’d love to see you at…

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We’ll be unveiling the flags we’ve been working on…

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…and our mobile flag beacon, which we’ll parade around (if the weather holds)!

Two Events…

Flagged for Review Launch and Open Studio
Tuesday, April 22, 7-8.30pm

Marking the end of our residency, we’ll open the doors to the Field House for an open studio gathering, as well as the launch of Flagged for Review. Look for these bright and beautiful flags to be temporarily installed in and around the building.

Social Practice Pot Luck
Saturday, April 26, 7-9pm

To celebrate Broken City Lab’s Field House residency we are hosting a pot luck and conversation regarding social practice with special guest artist and Founder/Director of the Art and Social Practice MFA program at Portland State University, Harrell Fletcher. Fletcher is visiting Vancouver as a part of the Working as an Artist workshop series at Purple Thistle. He will be giving an artist talk there on Friday April 25, 7:30pm and leading a workshop the following day, Saturday April 26, 1-4pm, with local artist Carmen Papalia. www.purplethistle.ca

Bring a snack and join in on the conversation.

The Field House Studio Residency Program is generously supported by the Vancouver Park Board and the City of Vancouver.

The Best of Awards: Join us Thursday, May 8th at 6pm!

The Best of Awards (May 8th)

Thursday, May 8th at 6pm – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario)

First and foremost, we want to give a huge thanks to everyone who made a nomination for the Best of Awards and helped uncover the things that make Windsor such a unique place to live. Also, thank you so much for your patience. We had an unexpected delay sourcing some of the materials for the celebration, but things are back on track and we’re holding The Best of Awards on Thursday, May 8th from 6pm – 10pm

We hope that this change isn’t prohibitive and you can make it; it’s going to be a blast. All you have to do is bring the person you nominated along with you. Refreshments will be served and everyone who was nominated will receive a personalized award during the ceremony. If you weren’t able to make a nomination, come along for the celebration anyways! 

See you May 8th!

Flagged For Review: Projecting Forward (Wish List) Projections on the Burrard Bridge

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Above: Caitlin and Lois exchanging answers to a series of fill-in-the-blank questions

We’re currently artists in residence at the Burrard Marina Field House, aka the Contemporary Art Gallery‘s Field House Studio and our work continues until the end of April.

Our four month project, Flagged for Review is based on imagining the symbolic and lived potential of a city. We’re wondering what we might expect from a city that could establish its policies, identity and politics around a range of challenging (or inspiring) values. This line of inquiry will inform our production a series of flags that will be installed in and around the Field House and throughout the city in the coming month(s).

Continue reading “Flagged For Review: Projecting Forward (Wish List) Projections on the Burrard Bridge”

The Best of Awards

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We know that a city is more than just buildings, roads, political decisions, pools, telephone poles, and parks. We know that it’s all of the little things that make this city great, or better yet, it’s all the little things that so many people we know do for us, knowingly or not, every day that make this city great. We think it’s long overdue that we help celebrate those people and we hope you’ll help us.

We want to have a big awards ceremony…really big actually. So, we’ll make the awards and host the party, all you have to do is find someone to nominate and show up to help us celebrate.

Here’s how it will work: You make a nomination below, we’ll mail you two invitations (one for you and one for the person you nominate), and then you both show up for our awards party on Thursday, May 8th, 2014 at 6:00PM.

**Don’t forget: The nominator is responsible for bringing the nominee to collect their award.


Submissions are now closed. Thank you to everyone who made a nomination for The Best of Awards! We’ll be in touch soon and see you on Thursday, May 8th at 6pm (CIVIC Space – 411 Pelissier Street, Windsor)

Vancouver: Flagged for Review

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Since January, we’ve been in residence at the Burrard Marina Field House, and our work continues until the end of April.

Our four month project, Flagged for Review is exploring the Contemporary Art Gallery‘s Field House Studio’s physical site and its relation to current perceptions of the city rooted in initiated conversations surrounding critical social and political issues in Vancouver. We’re also currently producing a series of flags to be installed at the Field House and throughout the city during the last two months of our residency.

Beginning on Tuesday March 18th and continuing every Tuesday until the end of April , we’ll be hosting a series of public games, temporary installations, and conversations at the Burrard Marina Field House  from 7 – 8:30pm. These public interactions aim to highlight a range of curious and challenging ideas that inform the ways we experience, imagine, and historicize the city of Vancouver. For the first two Tuesday events, we’re inviting YOU to contemplate and define our use of flags in the urban setting. Flag finding, making, and planting will be some of the potential activities we’ll take on over the next six weeks.

Tuesday March 25, 7-8:30pm ( Burrard Marina Field House Studio, 1655 Whyte Avenue)

Annexation or secession?

We invite you to participate in a workshop that encourages the temporary creation of imaginary new outposts, enclaves and territories to better understand Vancouver, the values it holds/supports/ignores and the histories it chooses to hide/reveal. This event will take place outdoors (weather permitting).

Tuesday, April 1: Projecting Forward,  7-8:30pm (Burrard Marina Field House Studio, 1655 Whyte Avenue)

We’ll gather to imagine what the future holds for the city and then create a series of short declarations to project onto the Burrard Bridge that animate our hopes, doubts and dreams for the short and long-term horizons of Vancouver.

Tuesday, April 8: The Trouble is… 7-8:30pm (Burrard Marina Field House Studio, 1655 Whyte Avenue)

Bring your questions, suspicions, and inspirations for art in public spaces to an open conversation on art as troublemaking and troublemaking as art.

Saturday, April 12: FREE GALLERY HOP LIMITED EDITION BY BROKEN CITY LAB

As part of Canadian Art Foundation Gallery Hop Vancouver, we’re making limited-edition flags that will be available at the Contemporary Art Gallery as well as participating Hop galleries.

Tuesday, April 15: Capture the Flag, 7-8:30pm (Burrard Marina Field House Studio, 1655 Whyte Avenue)

We’ll host a giant game of Capture the Flag in Vanier Park!

Tuesday, April 22: Flagged for Review Launch and Open Studio, 7-8:30pm (Burrard Marina Field House Studio, 1655 Whyte Avenue)

Wrapping up the end of our residency, we’ll open our doors to the Field House for an open studio gathering as well as the launch of Flagged for Review. Works will be temporarily installed in and around the field house.

HOMEWORK II: LONG FORMS / SHORT UTOPIAS (Nov 8-10, 2013) + Livestream Archive

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We’re very pleased to announce Homework II: Long Forms / Short Utopias, a three-day conference and collaboratively-written publication that will aim to unfold the ways in which we construct, articulate, and practice ideas of micro-utopias, pop-up ideals, collaboration, and long-term social engagement in Ontario, across Canada, and abroad.

The conference will build on our previous conference, Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices, in bringing together multidisciplinary artists and creative practitioners enacting and articulating the complexities of working in practices driven by curiosities about utopian collaboration, community, infrastructures, locality, and long-form social practice. With support from the Ontario Arts Council and Ontario Trillium Foundation, we’re looking to build an event that can frame a discussion on socially-engaged practices that span disciplines, with a particular focus on emerging practitioners.

Homework II will run November 8-10, 2013 in Windsor, Ontario at Art Gallery of Windsor and CIVIC Space.

Our featured keynote speakers this year will be Jeanne van Heeswijk (Rotterdam), Darren O’Donnell (Toronto), and Steve Lambert (New York). In addition to our keynotes, we’ve also invited a series of curatorial partners to develop panels that tackle the conference themes. And, to top it all off, everyone who attends will be co-authors of a book that captures the ideas and conversations from this year’s conference through a series of interviews with presenters, attendees, and organizers alongside collected materials from our 2011 conference.

For more information, please email homework@brokencitylab.org



Homework II – Tentative Conference Schedule

1. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH

Keynote Panel Discussion | Art Gallery of Windsor | 7:00pm-9:45pm

Featuring presentations from:

Jeanne van Heeswijk (Rotterdam)

Since 1993, Jeanne van Heeswijk has been working on socially committed art projects that take place in public spaces. She sees herself as a mediator, an intermediary between a situation, a space, a neighborhood and the people connected to these. Acting, meeting, and communicating are key concepts in her method of working. She has coined the term “urban curating” for her interventions. In the sedate Dutch art world in which all taboos appear to have been broken, her work – uniquely – arouses fierce controversy.

Darren O’Donnell (Toronto)

Darren O’Donnell is a novelist, essayist, playwright, director, designer, performer, Artistic Director of Mammalian Diving Reflex and Research Director of The Tendency Group, an emerging think tank and social policy laboratory. His books include: Social Acupuncture, which argues for an aesthetics of civic engagement and Your Secrets Sleep with Me, a novel about difference, love and the miraculous. In addition to his artistic practice, he is currently an Msci candidate in Urban Planning at the University of Toronto.

Steve Lambert (New York)

Steve Lambert is an artist who works with issues of advertising and the use of public space. He is a founder of the Anti-Advertising Agency, an artist-run initiative which critiques advertising through artistic interventions, and of the Budget Gallery (with Cynthia Burgess) which creates exhibitions by painting over outdoor advertisements and hanging submitted art in its place. He has also worked with the Graffiti Research Lab and as a senior fellow with Eyebeam Open Lab.


 2. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH

A. Registration and Opening Remarks | Art Gallery of Windsor | 8:30am-9:15am

Remarks by:

Justin Langlois, Hiba Abdallah, and Josh Babcock (Project Coordinators, Broken City Lab)

Srimoyee Mitra (Curator of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Windsor)


 

B. Thematic Panel Discussions | Art Gallery of Windsor | 9:00am-6:30pm

Thomas Provost | 9:30am-10:40am

Ad Hoc, a panel organized by Thomas Provost, will feature panelists Kaija WuolletElaine Carr, and Marcin Kedzior.

An archaeology of the human world reveals there are infinite systemic exchanges constructing our environment: weathering, investments, labour, political forums, contracts, negotiations, among other occurrences and phenomena. Essential to this discussion on spatial-collaboration are the various exchanges a creative practice must navigate in order to create micro-utopias, pop-up-ideals, or projections of time & place. Within architecture and landscape, experimental operations have emerged despite an uncertain economic trajectory and forbearing ecological instability, under which our panelists curiously work, at least in part, ad hoc.


Reena Katz | 10:50am-12:00pm

Organized by Reena Katz/Radiodress, artist and Acting Director, Galerie SAW Gallery, Ottawa-Gatineau, Engaged to be Wary: De-authorizing Social Practice will feature panelists, Srimoyee Mitra, curator, Art Gallery of Windsor and Alana Bartol, artist and Project Manager for Neighbourhood Spaces, Windsor.

At a time when community engaged art practices are becoming ubiquitous throughout gallery, museum and institutional education systems, there is a strong need for conversations around what works and what doesn’t in this growing and chaotic field. The goal of this panel will be to discuss diverse perspectives on Social Practice, ask critical questions, and formulate some useful guidelines for its successful pedagogy and praxis. We will use the opportunity of the publication to publish the beginnings of a malleable, living manifesta on the subject, based on the presentations, discussion and ideas generated at the panel.


Maggie Flynn | 1:00pm-2:10pm

A discussion between Tities Wîcinímintôwak Arts Collective and Chris Rabideau will address themes such as intergenerational organizing, learning in the context of Two-Spirit, trans, and queer communities, and personal approaches to long-term, community-based work. This panel is organized by Maggie Flynn.


IN/TERMINUS | 2:20pm-3:30pm

The Shape of a Question: Art, Politics, Pedagogy, a panel organized by Michael Darroch and Jennifer Willet for IN/TERMINUS, will discuss historical and contemporary models and contexts at the intersection of art, politics and pedagogy.


Michael Davidge | 3:40pm-4:50pm

For a panel presentation on Saturday November 9, Michael Davidge has brought together a group of creative practitioners whose work addresses the themes of the Homework II conference through their engagement with electronic dance music. Davidge is an independent curator, artist and art critic who lives in Ottawa, Ontario. The panelists include Bambitchell (Sharlene Bamboat and Alexis Mitchell) (Toronto) who will present on their project, Border Sounds; Michael Caffrey and Kerry Campbell (Gatineau) who will discuss their “GhettoBlast Sound System;” and Chris McNamara (Windsor) will discuss his experience with the Windsor/Detroit techno music scene and describe his involvement with the audio collective “Nospectacle.” The panelists’ projects employ electronic dance music in various ways that construct, articulate, and practice ideas of micro-utopias, pop-up ideals, and long-term social engagement.


Department of Unusual Certainties | 5:00pm-6:10pm

“Support Someone Else’s Revolution” – The world is small, interconnected and formed from extensive systems that intersect with our lives. Knowingly and unknowingly our actions reinforce and resist the transformation of these systems, which do shift under the weight and energy of people and things. The Information Age is more a statement of societal arrogance than a reflection of a broader cultural understanding of the world. Gaps in knowledge exist and will not be rectified through the consumption of media nor exchanges within our personal networks.

Department of Unusual Certainties has invited four individuals to speak to the ways that we support other people and things in transition (eg. corporations, neighbours and democracy etc.). Each of these four individual’s were selected because their practices empower citizens within stable States to reflect and then to act. The panel will feature: Michèle Champagne (Founder/Creative Director, That New Design Smell), Jordan Tanahill (Artistic Director, Suburban Beast), Satsuko Van Antwerp (Manager, Social Innovation Generation), and Justin Langlois (Director, Broken City Lab) moderated by Department of Unusual Certainties. 


3. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH

Workshops and General Assembly | Art Gallery of Windsor & CIVIC SPACE | 11:00am-5:00pm

A day of conversation, interviews, and workshops to inform the forthcoming publication.

Open Community Breakfast at Civic Space | 10:00am-11:00am

Join us and fellow conference panelists, attendees, and anyone else walking around the neighbourhood for some light breakfast. We’ll open our doors to serve cereal, fruit, coffee, and tea, along with some great conversations to kick off the final day of the conference.

Workshops for Publication, Part 1 at the AGW | 11:00am-2:00pm

We’ll be back at the AGW for a series of workshops, discussion groups, and interviews that will help shape the forthcoming publication. We’re asking you to consider participating in the creation of this publication by conducting at least one interview with someone else attending the conference. Meanwhile, back at CIVIC Space, Hiba will be working to compile the content she receives from the participants — interviews, photographs, sketchbook notes, manifestos, endless questions, and more.

General Assembly at the AGW | 2:00pm-3:30pm

An open community discussion on issues surrounding socially-engaged practices, the infrastructures required to support them, precarious labour, educational possibilities, the professionalization of artists, and the conference itself.

Workshops for Publication, Part 2 at the AGW | 3:30pm-4:30pm

The work continues at the AGW and at CIVIC Space towards compiling the contents for the publication, with follow up discussions driven by the General Assembly.

Closing Remarks at the AGW | 4:30pm-4:45pm


Homework II: Long Forms / Short Utopias runs November 8 – 10, 2013 at Art Gallery of Windsor, located at 401 Riverside Drive West, Windsor, Ontario and CIVIC Space, located at 411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario.


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1W3KND: On Social Practice and Collaboration, 48 Hours at a Time – New Book Available Now!

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Late last year, we started hosting a series of weekend residencies at CIVIC Space. They were designed to bring together two people (and sometimes more) to write about socially-engaged practices. We wanted to provide a platform, or an excuse, or at least a quiet space to spend a bit of focused time writing. We wanted to do this because we were curious about the gap in writing from emerging practitioners, and that curiosity was driven as much out of our desire to read more from our peers as our realization that we have done very little writing on our own.

So, we posted a call for submissions on our website under the title of 1W3KND.

1W3KND stood for One Weekend, Three Thousand Words, No Distractions. It would be a brief, yet focused two days, just long enough to pull away from everyday life, but not so long that the itch to overly-polish any of the writing would arise. It would ideally put people into a dialogue, maybe even with a stranger, to try to tease out new entry-points into likely familiar conversations and capture an urgency around itself. It would concentrate this activity in a specific place without necessarily insisting on a response to it.

Between November 2012 and February 2013, we were happy to host the following artists, writers, curators, designers, thinkers, and scholars:

Penelope Smart & Erin MacMillan, Irene Chin & Megan Marin, Jason Deary & Mary Tremonte, Zoe Chan & Sarah Febbraro, Mike DiRisio & Nathan Stevens, Amber Ginsburg & Siobhan Rigg, VSVSVS & Julian Majewski, Jacqui Arntfield & Emily DiCarlo, Nathan Swartzendruber & Mike Fleisch, and Allison Rowe & Rhiannon Vogl

We compiled what they wrote into a book. It’s available now on Blurb for just $10.

The residency as an experiment, as a site of production, or as simply a retreat, spurred writing that reflects a diversity of approaches towards articulating the concerns, ethics, aims, and ideals of socially-engaged practices. Largely written by emerging practitioners and minimally edited, this is not necessarily a cogent collection of essays — in fact, such an expectation would arguably be missing the point. This book captures an energy and urgency around a complicated set of ideas still unfolding in relation to a world rapidly shifting around them. To have the opportunity to collect the texts, at the early stages of so many of the contributors’ practices is a gift and hopefully a tool for further reflection and dialogue across geographies, politics, and practices.

If we had more time at Civic Space, we’d probably do this again. Maybe someone else can pick up where we left off.

New Publication Out Now: Invented Emergency (For Small Cities & Big Towns)

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We just received a few boxes of our newest publication, INVENTED EMERGENCY (For Small Cities & Big Towns), published through White Water Gallery. They look so good, we can’t wait to give them out!

INVENTED EMERGENCY is built on the research developed for Surviving North Bay, a residency and exhibition by Broken City Lab, hosted by White Water Gallery in the summer and fall of 2012. Surviving North Bay developed as a series of exploratory public interventions, micro-gestures, and tactical responses to North Bay. Each of these exploratory initiatives called on public participation to engage with North Bay, its infrastructures, and its communities. Throughout the residency, we collected research on the city in support of an exhibition that aimed to not only examine the practice and production of a northern locality, but also present a range of resistive tactics that can help the community survive, or help one survive the community. Emergencies became shorthand for this series of resistive tactics and gestures and INVENTED EMERGENCY extends these ideas towards developing a series of starting points and positions for new (and revisited) radical practices.

Pick up your copy at CIVIC SPACE, or let us know if you want one, and I’m sure we can arrange getting one in the mail to you!

Huge thanks to Clayton and Robyn and everyone at White Water Gallery for making this possible!

This project was generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council.