Curator, Term Projects

Xpace Cultural Centre, Toronto, ON, August 14-23, 2009. 

Term Projects: Deadline-driven installations by multi-tasking artists

On a tight timeline, with the clock counting down, five artists assign themselves seemingly impossible experimental projects. Enforcing their own limitations of time, space, and materials, artists explore the paradoxical relationship between restrictions and creativity. This “end-of-term” rush of deadlines, intensive research, and exhaustive preparation will culminate in remarkably inventive solutions.

Working together on a collaborative community art project called Dear Toronto, Petrina Ng and Shannon Phair invite visitors to write a letter to Toronto. Fedora Romita documents the awkward nature of mimicry and costuming through a performance and video project. Zeesy Powers offers her “I Will Tell You Exactly What I Think of You for $5” service Wednesdays from 3-6 pm and Fridays and Saturdays from 12-6 pm. Jennifer Sciarrino creates an improvised sculptural animation in the gallery on Thursdays and Fridays from 3-6 pm and Saturdays from 12-6 pm.

Public Programming:

The practice of “not knowing”: On working against the clock, experimental curating and courting failure
Panelists Sally McKay, Nicholas Brown, curator Gabby Moser and exhibiting artists discuss the pleasures and pitfalls of creating work on the fly.

Addressing the role of open-endedness and problem solving in contemporary art practice, this panel discussion examined the role of “not knowing” how things will turn out in experimental art projects. What does it mean to experiment and potentially fail in front of viewers? How do artists approach this kind of risk-taking? How do experimentation and open-endedness come into play in curating?