archive

Exhibition

Lesley Hope Farley’s experimental documentary Moving and Shaking It archives a public dance intervention/happening, staged in the streets of Montreal in 2000. Fifteen dancers paired with videographers were dispersed around Montreal, to dance and document. All were connected sonically through headphones and portable stereo units tuned to the same community radio transmission (90.3 FM in Montreal).

As part of her exhibition at the Or, Farley will be staging a second Moving and Shaking It in the streets of Vancouver. Drawing on the same principles as Montreal’s intervention, October 24th’s performance will use Vancouver dancers and videographers connected by a live broadcast courtesy of DJ Elisa Rose and Vancouver’s Co-op Radio 102.7 FM.

Exhibition

view the Free jazz Pinball Machine in action.
http://www.netsign.com/~or/OR%20archives/2002_archive/pinball.mov

OR MUSIQUE
COME ON DOWN AND PLAY THE FREE JAZZ PINBALL
WITH ONE OF THE MUSICIANS !!!

NOV. 2 – Brian Ruryk [misc. guitar]
NOV. 9 – Pagan Ninny [violin]
NOV. 16 – Masa Anzai [tenor saxaphone]

Performance

OR MUSIQUE
Performances by:
Brian Ruryk
outhern acific
Sinioia Caves

Exhibition

The Log Family was a collaborative installation at the polar bear caves in Stanley Park. The artists used materials ranging from metal faceted buildings and large foam bones, to logs, signage, and tinfoil, creating a fantastical archeological dig, and a play on what the artists call “Outside Art”, art that takes place outside.
Over the month of August, the artists worked on their installation and continued on through September, inviting four performers to join them in a closing ceremony, for a enjoyable half-magical surprise in Stanley Park.

OR MUSIQUE
September 28
at the Polar Bear Caves, Stanley Park
Performances by:
Brian Ruryk
outhern acific
Sinioia Caves

Exhibition

The OR Gallery is proud to present Maura Doyle’s first exhibition in Canada since her return from Tokyo. The OR Gallery serves as a franchise for The Money Collection. This is the second in a series of Doyle’s annual collections that have made their way into sculptural and installation exhibitions. The 1970s conceptual art movement inspires Doyle’s work, and though those influences can always be found, her unique aesthetic creates an art historical puzzle.

A basketball hoop with a pair of neutral pantyhose for a net plays with Dadaism and the found object. A large square black magnet beside a smattering of smaller round magnets, complete with musical triangle, call to mind Russian Constructivist painting, while the sparseness of the exhibition evokes minimalism. These are not simply sculpture for sculpture’s sake; they serve as interactive depots for money. Visitors are encouraged to throw money into the pantyhose, as well as at the magnets, where various coins are already stuck. The most poignant moment of Maura Doyle 2002 is perhaps a V-formation of brown Canadian Geese installed on the wall, cut from one hundred-dollar bills that have been recirculated, sans geese.

The Money Collection serves as a meta-collection as it supports all other collections and speaks of the difficulties and joys of being a visual artist.

Do you ever throw pennies in the garbage?
STOP!
Throw them at The Money Collection instead!

The Money Collection is now accepting donations and I am writing this letter to ask for a donation of money. There is no catch. This isn’t a scam. It’s simply a request for money. I can guess that you have a problem with this request. Why should you give me money? I will tell you why.

I am collecting money for two reasons. First of all, I am a collector. Over the years I have been collecting all kinds of things and ideas from around me. For example, I have a collection of rocks, a collection of songs made from a Zoom Rhythm Trak RT-123, a fanny pack collection, a collection of no smoking buttons, a collection of answering machine messages from1999, etc.

Secondly, I need money. I wish that I could spend my time collecting all kinds of things and ideas, but instead I am busy trying to pay for my next bowl of oats or my last month’s rent. Out of necessity,

I’ve turned my interest in collecting into a more practical endeavor.

I’ve already started to look for money on the street. I donate my own loose change to the collection.

I have asked friends and family to help with the collection. I’m looking under the pillows of sofas, in washing machines, in unlabeled donation boxes, in coat pockets, etc. I have even looked under rocks.

I’m looking for a job. I’ve entered contests. I sent a message into outer space to ask the Universe for assistance (www.TeamEncounter.com). I’ve collected a plastic bag full of pennies and nickels. I set up a money depot in my room. I’m offering franchise opportunities. I found two wallets. I take pictures of money. I photocopy money. I tried to eat money. This collection needs your help.

In attempt to extend my search worldwide, I’m now sending out a general call for money. I have nothing to lose. It may be strange for you to give money to someone you don’t know. But, you wouldn’t have to donate a lot of money. Loose change, foreign money, old checks, credit cards, small bills are being accepted. You can donate money that you don’t spend, such as silver dollars, rare coins or coins with sentimental value. Even valuable items are ok. Actually, anything with monetary value will do.

If you have any questions or for more information please contact: themoneycollection@yahoo.com

I look forward to receiving your donation.

Sincerely,

Maura Doyle
Money Collector

Send further donations to:
The Money Collection2002
701 #2, Queen St. W.Toronto Ont. M6J 1E6 Canada

Exhibition

Welcome to Vancouver, a Restful Scenic Vista, is an installation created to evoke a sense of peace and rest from the surrounding world; a place to stop for reflection, and enjoy a cool frosty beverage while doing so. In post 9/11 New York City, artists and residents have lived in a constant state of alert. The artists have taken the opportunity of this show to escape from the stress of everyday life in New York, and seek refuge in the evergreen playground. Their show reflects both the desire to lead a peaceful existence and the desire to escape to a fantasyland.

Part scenic vista and roadside rest station, part dollhouse, and part funhouse, Burke and Dilling have transformed the Or Gallery into a place where every view is an artificial vista, where guests and residence of Vancouver alike can come and escape. They have assigned gallery director Sydney Hermant the role of Park Ranger, setting up an office for her in the gallery on a picnic bench and outfitting the gallery staff with matching forest green uniforms. They have also put Sydney in charge of “The Guide to Vancouver,” asking her to map out her favorite restaurants, bars, and sites around the city, then posting her choices on maps pinned up in the gallery. These maps act visually to unite the gallery, the gallery director, and where she escapes to in Vancouver.

Scenic Vista Ranger Guide Instruction Manual

Or Gallery restful scenic vista July 2002

by j.burke + m.dilling

When you wear the uniform you are a ranger in the or gallery’s restful scenic vista. The ranger is a helpful tour guide and host/hostess and is on hand to facilitate the viewing experience in the gallery. Your office is the picnic table – feel free to go about your normal gallery tasks and let people approach you. Try to not prey on visitors. When a guest ventures over you may introduce yourself and offer a beverage.

Some sample scripts:

“Hello, welcome to the or gallery, let me know if here is anything that I can help you with today.”

“Hello, my name is Sydney/Sara. Would you like some iced tea while you enjoy the view?”

“If there are any other restful places you would like to share I can mark them on our scenic vista map…” use map pins and sharpie. Feel free to make extra notes on a post it for complicated directions. These could be compiled later into a guidebook?

Try to remain professional at all times. If people are rude you can warn them that they will be asked to leave the park if they do not comply with the rules. The rules are at the discretion of the ranger on duty.

Guest rangers: anyone with a love of the Vancouver area who wants to share their knowledge can apply to be a guest ranger at the or gallery. Guest rangers will be on hand to help facilitate discussion of the area and offer their pix for adventures outside the gallery. Guests can post a special list on the scenic vista map. Something like “top ten places of rest by xxxguest” the guest ranger wears any uniform parts that fit: the guest hat, apron, pants, and extra shirt…

There is no pay for being a guest ranger, but a gift pack of thanks will be offered which includes a complementary souvenir of Canada and a scenic screen saver signed by the artists.

Weekly ranger report: the artists would like to hear of the weekly happenings in the gallery once they are in NYC. Please keep a “log” of significant events.

There are special brown cups with disposable plastics inserts to use for beverage service.

Thankyou!! We hope this environment remains a peaceful place to work once we leave… we love Vancouver!!

Performance

Destroyer is acclaimed singer-songwriter Daniel Bejar, a founding member of the New Pornographers. Destroyer played an acoustic set for the opening reception of Welcome to Vancouver, performing from an oversized picnic table.

Exhibition

Not Much to Do: the Village is based on the writing of Terrence Dawes, Nothing to Do. Dawes, a recent MFA graduate in Film Production from Concordia University, also holds a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

In his essay Nothing to Do, Dawes explores the late 60s television show The Prisoner, the critical question being the investigation into the development of narrative and its Proustian powers of mnemonic identification; creation of identity itself through narrative conceptions of time. By using Number 6, The Prisoner, as his paranoid subject, Dawes explores the many tangents associated with the process of narrative construction such as landscape, millenarianism, and tourism:

“Portmeirion, the site of the filming of The Prisoner, was designed by Clough Williams- Ellis between 1925 and 1975 on his own private peninsula in Cardigan Bay, on the coast of Snowdonia in Wales. It was visited as a tourist resort by many including Noel Coward who used Portmeirion as a retreat at which he wrote Blithe Spirits during the war, because he felt people needed to laugh during such times of horror. Williams-Ellis was an environmentalist who felt that the ‘beauty of landscape was being ruined by modernity and that the development of a naturally beautiful site need not lead to its defilement’.

Utopian visions of tourist landscapes are an attempt to recapture a lost Arcadia whether it’s the recreation of 19th century Prince Edward Island in northern Japan, the invention of the Anne of Green Gables mythology on P.E.I itself, Portmeirion or Disneyland. These utopias, while offering narrative idealizations of the past, also contain the past as well as the viewer within its own narrative constraints.”

Portmeirion’s fictional name in The Prisoner is The Village, a name more recently used by Thomas Kincade for his gated community, created in the likeness of his own paintings (see “America’s Most Profitable Artist” by Susan Orlean, New Yorker, Oct 15 2001.)

Exhibition

Shary Boyle is an artist from Toronto currently living as an artist in residence with the Klondike Institute for art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1994 and has been traveling and making art in Canada and Europe ever since. Shary’s practice revolves around drawing and painting, as well as performance, sculpture and super8 film. Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally. recent show include a solo exhibition at the vonRot Gallery in Berlin in September 2001, a solo exhibition at Toronto’s YYZ Artists Outlet in January 2002, and a live drawing performance in Los Angeles for the Sonic Youth curated “all tomorrows parties” festival in March 2002. Her work is involved with inventing representations of women, animals and fantasy which subvert established orders of power.

Exhibition

Robyn Laba’s technique involves the time consuming practice of tying thousands of uninflated latex balloons onto wire mesh grid. The effect is luminous and fantastically tactile, while remaining subtly monochromatic. Referring as much to the high modernist practice of colour field painting as it does to textile practices such as tapestry and weaving, Laba has created a method of “painting” which raises a number of allusions to gender specific techniques. These “paintings”, however, reach beyond specific historical references to create a wholly new and vividly evocative picture making technique.

Exhibition

Oksanen is an emerging artist with a developing exhibition repertoire both locally and internationally. Featured in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s These Days exhibition, she is becoming widely known for her meticulously rendered drawings of such pop cultural icons as Nana Mouskouri. Oksanen’s fascination with icons and imagery that have disappeared from the Media’s attention is a salient comment on the ephemeral nature of public life and the growing culture of nostalgia. For her show at the Or, Oksanen built on another thematic interest of hers, that of figure skating. She projected a 16mm black and white film of a young figure skater, seemingly performing on the edge of the world, with a backdrop of twinkling stars. A lone figure skater enters on the left side of the screen, as if from the wings of the gallery walls, does a series of elegant and seamless spins then exits stage right, only to recommence. In the repetitive motion and elegant, rhythmic movement of the spin, the viewer becomes easily hypnotized.

Exhibition

Tim Lee presents a video installation in which he has recorded himself playing each instrument in a version of the Kingsmen’s garage rock hit Louie Louie. Lee sings, plays bass and lead guitars as well as drums. With no musical background, Lee learned each instrument specifically for production of this work, which will feature four video monitors, each with a recording of himself playing a component of the song in sync with the other monitors.