Temporary Lull

Temporary Lull
[Photo By: KPA]

Beauty in the Time of COVID

[Photo By: KPA]

Despite the gloom, doom and nihilism surrounding us, there is beauty to contemplate, and with which to refresh our minds (and bodies).

Earth Day: The COVID-Coincidence?

Spring Landscape Study, Ontario, Canada, April 2020
Edward Burtynsky

(Photograph on Globe and Mail article by Burtynsky, April 22, 2020: "On Earth Day, we must reflect on our duty as stewards of nature."

This photograph is from a new body of work Edward Burtynsky is creating while in isolation, focused on natural landscapes, with proceeds going to support the arts in Canada)

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The global call to action against COVID-19 is a test run for our inevitable fight with climate change – and that time is looming.
Edward Burtynsky

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This is a slightly edited version, for privacy and grammar, of an email I sent a friend after I attended a program organized by the Ryerson Image Centre in April 2019:

That's when I saw the other Ryerson affiliate Ed Burtynsky, sitting quietly in the back row, who takes disaster photographs "aesthetically," now more recently in African countries in order to, I'm sure, destabilize leaders with "Climate Change" and "The Environment" from doing reasonable large scale programs.

Burtynksy is must be very wealthy, and has projects/books/tv documentaries/lectureships all over the place, all the time. (I've attached a photo from his facebook/instagram page on his visit to a school: "So fun engaging with aspiring artists and sharing stories...What a special opportunity letting them play with some of the things they're working on an avara media [Burtynsky is part of this also] and hearing their unique, intelligent perspectives..." Comment: valeriedurantvancouver: Shaping young minds for the future. So important...)

Catch them while they're young.

I continue

He [Burtynsky] is very impressive. But my admiration was short-lived. He is part of the elite global leftist artists whose mandate is to show how terrible the world is: Global Warming/Climate Change/Environmental Destruction. Of course they are not incorrect, where our civilizational responsibility is to use the world in a Godly manner, but we USE the world and its resources, not let them stew useless in their quarries.

And

[T]hese elitist Western photographers and professional artists dictate the course of "global" culture through their disaster imagery.

COVID must be a godsend for the likes of Burtynsky, especially since it coincides with Earth Day (which was April 22, by the way).

It feels a little surreal to be commemorating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in the middle of this unprecedented global crisis...

writes Burtynsky, in an April 22 article for the Globe and Mail, which is also available here, and which I've posted below.

He continues:

My first trip to China in 2002 took me to Wuhan en route to photograph along the Yangtze River, where entire cities and landscapes were being commandeered and flattened to make way for the building of the Three Gorges Dam. So, when the pictures first emerged of the coronavirus lockdown in Wuhan months ago, never did I imagine seeing cities being shut down in this new and devastating way – or that we would soon experience this contagion all over the world.

Finally, his China disaster photographs and world apocalypse have conjoined, and given him a re-invigorated mission, where

...isolated at home, with a new pathogen determined to wreak global havoc...[m]y hope is that during this time in isolation I am able to create a suite of images looking at nature, with proceeds going directly to support the arts sector in Canada.

The government is tanking because of a fake emergency, people are set to lose everything, home, job, savings, and his contribution is to print a few prints and sell them for the proceeds for those "starving" artists.

One has to conclude that even these elites realize that the COVID is a big scam. A couple of prints from Ed, and all will be well! What's wrong with that picture?

The future of life on this planet rests in our hands...

doom talks Burtynsky. What a lofty ordeal!

Below is the article, which Burtynsky wrote for the Globe and Mail (available here, and a version of it here), on COVID-19, and for Earth Day. He writes, and prints his charity photographs, from the comfort of his "cottage," his rural home by a lake and in the woods, somewhere in northern Ontario, far away from the urban apocalypse that ordinary folk are experiencing.

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On Earth Day, we must reflect on our duty as stewards of nature

It feels a little surreal to be commemorating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in the middle of this unprecedented global crisis. Admittedly, I had envisioned this day much differently, yet with COVID-19 forcing us all into isolation, the message of Earth Day seems more urgent than ever.

My 40-year career as an artist has taken me on a journey around our planet in search of the largest examples of human systems expressed upon the land and sea. I have been to many places that very few of us have any reason to go – the places where we wrest out the things we need from nature to propel our human destiny. My first trip to China in 2002 took me to Wuhan en route to photograph along the Yangtze River, where entire cities and landscapes were being commandeered and flattened to make way for the building of the Three Gorges Dam. So, when the pictures first emerged of the coronavirus lockdown in Wuhan months ago, never did I imagine seeing cities being shut down in this new and devastating way – or that we would soon experience this contagion all over the world.

There’s no doubt that the ravenous human appetite to conquer nature has compelled us to encroach on natural habitats and biodiversity in an ever-expanding way, and that this has led us to where we are today – isolated at home, with a new pathogen determined to wreak global havoc. It seems the paradigm has shifted: Where humans once had our collective boot on nature’s neck, we now find ourselves with nature’s boot firmly pressed against ours.

On this 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I find myself in northern Ontario. This familiar landscape has become hugely important to my career. It’s the place where I recalibrate and consider nature, and where I first came to understand that we do not own this land – we merely serve as its steward, taking care of it and passing it on to the next generation. It has become an inflection point for me, a stark reference for when I’m able to go out into the world and see humanity shaping nature at scale through industry, urban sprawl and the sheer impact of the nearly eight-billion-large human population dominating our planet.



Rural Canada has taught me many things, and as I reflect on humanity’s impact on the planet, the most profound lesson now is that our reach into nature has gone too far. The global call to action against this virus is a test run for our inevitable fight against climate change. And that time is looming.

Over the past few weeks, I have been inspired to go back to my origins of photographing in these natural landscapes – viewing nature as a kind of painting. Looking at abstract expressionism and trying to find that place through photography. Going back to the shrubs and bushes of the forest. Going back to my home, nature.

My hope is that during this time in isolation I am able to create a suite of images looking at nature, with proceeds going directly to support the arts sector in Canada. The arts have taken an oversized hit during these times and will continue to suffer enormously because of this crisis. And yet, it is the artists, musicians, filmmakers and performers to whom we are all turning for catharsis, relaxation, distraction, entertainment and, perhaps most importantly, hope. As the great artist Gerhard Richter once said, “Art is the highest form of hope.” Artists now need our support as much as we need theirs.

There will be a lot of pain felt out there over the next months, as we regroup, as we try to gather in spaces and share them together again. I don’t know what those next few months will bring, but in this time of isolation and contemplation, I can be assured of one very important thing: The future of life on this planet rests in our hands. There might one day soon be a vaccine for this virus, but there’s no vaccine for climate change.


Landscape Study #4, Ontario, Canada, 1981
Edward Burtynsky
(Photograph on Globe and Mail article by Burtynsky, April 22, 2020: On Earth Day, we must reflect on our duty as stewards of nature)

Standing Guard

Standing (Sitting) Guard
Photo By: KPA

Canada Goose, by Lake Ontario in Port Credit.

Have a Sweet

Here is a post at the Ryerson Image Centre Facebook page. I recently sent a proposal to have my works exhibited at the RIC, and which I withdrew after I realized that: 1). They were going to stall, and eventually decline my proposal, and 2). Do I really want to be associated with such an organization anyway?

Here is my proposal, including images.

And, as usual, my instincts were prescient. Above is how the RIC sends out wishes for Easter on their Facebook page.

Have a Sweet, everyone!

Blasphemy With the Poor

Matthew 26: 6-11

6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,

7 There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.

8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?

9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.

10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.

11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.

12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

Zanele Muholi (South Africa)
Miss D’Vine II, 2007
From the series Miss D’vine
Chromogenic print

The image above is from the exhibition The Way She Looks: The Way She Looks: A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture, a photography exhibit on photographs by and of African women at the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC).

The exhibition's photographs were assembled from the Walther Collection

RIC Facebook page here
RIC web page here

"He has made everything beautiful in its time"

Fall Leaf Patterns
[Photo Collage By: KPA]

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Spring Swirl

Peach Swirl
[Photo By: KPA]

Negative Space

Negative Space
Marc Cain Mannequin, Square One Shopping Centre, Mississauga
[Photo By: KPA]

Eternal Light

Eternal Light
[Photo By: KPA]

From the Back-Window '291'

From the Back-Window '291'
1915
Platinum print
Dimensions: 24.5 x 19.4 cm (image) 25.2 x 20.2 cm (paper)
Alfred Stieglitz Collection [more information here]

291 Gallery, Promoter of Modern Art

Stieglitz himself became editor and publisher of Camera Work (1902-17), Photo-Secession's high-quality magazine - which rapidly became an important forum of modern art - and also staged numerous exhibitions in partnership with Steichen, with whom he set up the venue "Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession", in 1905. It soon became known as "291" after its address on Fifth Avenue. Through his writing, exhibitions, and other social networking, Stieglitz became a strong supporter of creative photography, as well as avant-garde art generally, and went to great efforts to inform modern artists in America, about the latest modern art movements, notably Cubism (1908-14), Futurism (c.1909-14), Dada (1916-24), as well as works by modernist 20th century sculptors. Indeed, during the decade 1905-1914, "291" metamorphosed from being an outlet for exhibiting Photo-Secessionist photography, to being the foremost centre for modern European and American artists. With the advice of Steichen, Marius de Zayas, and Max Weber, all of whom had contacts with artists in France, "291" became the first place in America to showcase works by the Fauvist Henri Matisse (1869-1954), the Post-Impressionist Cezanne (1839-1906), the naif painter Henri Rousseau (Le Douanier) (1844-1910), the Cubists Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Francis Picabia (1879-1953), as well as the famous sculptors Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957). In addition, he also promoted representational and abstract paintings by modernist American artists including the master watercolourist John Marin (1870-1953), as well as Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Arthur Dove (1880-1946), Alfred H Maurer (1868-1932), Abraham Walkowitz (1878-1965), Charles Demuth (1883-1935), and others. [text source]

Kodak, The Early Years

The photograph below is from the Ryerson University's Kodak Canada Corporate Archives and Heritage Collection at the Ryerson University Library. The image dates from 1922.

The image is part of the exhibition "Kodak Canada: The Early Years 1899-1939" at the Ryerson Image Centre's Student Gallery, on view from January 23 – February 24, 2019.


Fig. 1 Canadian Kodak Co., [Kodak brings your vacation back], ink on paper, 1922.

Snow and Fog

Snow and Fog, Early Morning
[Photo By: KPA]

Barrie, Lake Simcoe

Barrie, Lake Simcoe
[Photo By: KPA]

Killing Off God

It is one thing to go through other people's garbage to fish out junk for "art," although that's the perfect metaphor for the "art" of the contemporary artist, but the "split screen art" requires a little background.

Split Screen is the title of Annie MacDonell's photography piece posted at her website and also exhibited (posted) at the online at site Either/And on August 25, 2013.

From Annie MacDonell's program notes for Split Screen:

The images in...[Split Screen] are scans of found 35mm slides. I came across a box of them next to the trash a few months ago. They were unlabeled, undated, and unsourced. I’ve put together a selection of 15, which now form a slideshow you can click through on your computer monitor. Maybe you will recognize some of the images. Others you may not recognize specifically, but you will certainly be familiar with their sources – art monographs, fashion magazines, notebooks and textbooks, technical manuals.

The gallery's website describes MacDonell thus:

Annie MacDonell is a Toronto-based visual artist working with photography, film, sculpture, installation. Her recent work draws attention to how still and moving images are staged in the spaces of gallery and cinema, creating multi-layered, uncanny and formally elegant meditations on the act of looking. Annie MacDonell received a BFA from Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts in 2000, followed by graduate studies at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, in Tourcoing, France. Recent solo shows include the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Mercer Union Gallery, in Toronto. She has participated in group exhibitions at The Power Plant, Toronto, Mulherin & Pollard, New York, Le Grand Palais, Paris and the 2012 Daegu Photo Biennale, in South Korea. In 2012 she was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award and short-listed for the Grange Prize. She teaches in the photography department at Ryerson University and her work is represented by Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art.

***Disclosure: MacDonell was a classmate of mine while I was studying Film, Photography and New Media (New Media is now re-named Integrated Digital) at Ryerson University's School of Image Arts. I remember her as perennially perplexed, and even angry. Her projects were labours of, well labour, of precisely this "appropriated" art of which she is now an expert. She would at one time follow my progress with avid, and strange, curiosity, and for reason: I finished my two-year "term" with multiple exhibitions: Film, video and photography pieces. All my work was later exhibited at external venues.***

Don't be fooled by the sophisticated art language MacDonell uses to describe her Split Screen project. Artists are at such want for "topics" that they cling on to any subject which might give them a potential project.

The underlying theme of MacDonell's work, if MacDonell is even aware of it, is simply: destruction.

"...the spine’s interruption of the image reminds us of where they came from in the first place..." writes MacDonell.

And she continues:

The visibility of the spine is what attracts me to them. It marks one of the many transformations these images have undergone since they were produced by the original artist.

[...]

Each one contains an interruption of the image by the spine of the book in which it originally appeared

There are a variety of images in Split Screen, all with "naturally" occurring splits: a hospital operation table, a messy room perhaps in a house about to be vacated, a magazine shot of crotches (male? female?), an orgy of legs, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and the sculptured head of Christ from Michelangelo's Pieta.

Cleverly, MacDonell gives us no background on any of the images. She has a bigger purpose than juxtaposing interesting photographic shots.

The sculptured head seems the least aggressive of her choices. There is a serenity around this head, and the sculptural work is of high quality. And here, MacDonell treads very carefully. She has removed the head from its context and its significance, and it appears to be simply the head of a man sleeping.

MacDonell's "head" is all the more disconcerting because it is at a different angle from which we would be accustomed to seeing it. The photograph was taken from the top rather than the side, thus exposing to us Christ's full face. And it is also flipped to its mirror image.


Untitled piece from Annie MacDonell's Split Screen series presented at Either/And


The Pieta by Michelangelo in St. Peter’s Basilica as it would be visible to visitors


The Pieta in St. Peter’s Basilica

What was a deeply religious work, the head of the dead Christ on his mother's knees after he was taken down from the crucifix, becomes the head of a man.

But why the split screen?

MacDonell is subtly and carefully "dismantling" Jesus. Removing, first his Godliness by presenting him as a mere man, then his intellect, his personality by splitting him, his head, apart. A form of decapitation, worse perhaps than the crucifix. At least after the crucifix, Jesus' body was left intact. But with MacDonell's rendition even Jesus' mind, his Godly intellect, is removed.

Despite its apparent tranquility, this is the most aggressive of the works played on Split Screen, where MacDonell attempts to kill off God permanently: body, mind and spirit.

Winter Entrance

Glass wall at the entrance to the Jubilee Garden, Mississauga
November, 20 2018
[Photo By: KPA]

The Broken Promise of Fields

There was a time when fields were a good thing, a place where nature was allowed to bloom in all its glory.

I took these images of the M-City developments now in full progress along Webb Drive, in Mississauga. These empty fields held some promise at one time, of flowers and grass and even trees. Now they are deserted lots, which make them good candidates for development.

Now, the only promise we can expect from them is some apocalyptic design of strange narrow high rises which look like they will topple down at a mere hint of a breeze.




















Webb Drive Development Strip
Mississauga
[Photos By: KPA]

Incremental Changes

Incremental Changes
[Photo By: KPA]

Psalm 145

[Photo By: KPA]
Entrance to the Jubilee Garden
Mississauga

Psalm 145

1 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
8 The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
9 The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
10 All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee.
11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
16 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

Green For Red

Green For Red
[Photo By: KPA]