TORONTO’S BIGGEST ALTERNATIVE DESIGN EVENT
Come Up To My Room 11 JANUARY 23 - 26, 2014
CUTMR IS PRODUCED BY THE GLADSTONE HOTEL
Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen St. West., Toronto, ON, M6J1J6 416.531.4635 EXHIBITION HOURS
ADMISSION:
Thursday January 23, 6-8pm Friday January 24, 11am-8pm Saturday January 25, 11am-10pm Sunday January 26, 11am-5pm
$10 general admission $25 for school groups $5 for students (on Friday, January 24 with valid ID)
SPECIAL THANKS TO DESIGN CHAMPION
PROJECT SUPPORTERS
PART OF
PROJECT ENTHUSIASTS
KPMB Architects Yabu Pushelberg II BY IV Design Toronto Public Health Design Fabrication Zone
THE MANY GLADSTONE HOTEL STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS WHO HELP TO MAKE EVERY CREATIVE PROJECT COME TO LIFE! FEATURED TYPOGRAPHY
FEAS BY Designed by Raf Rennie www.rafrennie.com
CATALOGUE DESIGNED BY
Teresa Tam © THE GLADSTONE HOTEL
Come Up To My Room 11
CUTMR 11 MARKS THE START OF A NEW DECADE FOR TORONTO’S BIGGEST ALTERNATIVE DESIGN EVENT. IN A ONE-WEEKEND SPECTACLE, 60 ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS ARE GIVEN FULL REIGN OVER TORONTO’S ICONIC HERITAGE HOTEL, CREATING 25 PROVOCATIVE INSTALLATIONS THAT TRANSFORM THE GLADSTONE HOTEL BOTH INSIDE AND OUT.
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ABOUT THE GLADSTONE
Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.
The Gladstone Hotel is Toronto’s oldest continually operating hotel. In fact, this year, we’ll be turning 125 years young! Identifying as an art hotel since 2005, when local artists came together to transform our original 19th century hotel rooms into 37 unique rooms/functional art installations, we know that being an art hotel means more than hanging a few paintings. Inspired by the building’s history, exposed brick walls, high ceilings, huge Victorian windows and longstanding neighbourhood connections to Toronto’s arts and culture scene, we were able to create an internationally recognized art hotel that defies traditional expectations and fosters design and creativity. More like a gallery that never sleeps, we provide access to locallymade works 365 days per year. Our exhibitions and cultural programs host hundreds of artists, designers, craftspeople, musicians, performances, literary projects and social change events which illustrate Jane Jacobs’ assertion that ‘Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.’ Every year, we partner with community organizations and arts curators to produce a long list of exhibitions and programs relevant to communities across the city, including: That’s So Gay, a celebration of Pride; Grow-Op, a provocative exploration of landscape and place; If Walls Could Talk, an experiential illustration show; Hard Twist, a juried textile exhibition; Fly By Night which coincides with Nuit Blanche and many more. From the thoughtfully created dishes served in our Café restaurant on the first floor to the top of the iconic Tower suite’s private rooftop patio, we hope you enjoy the art — wherever you find it!
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www.gladstonehotel.com | www.comeuptomyroom.com COME UP TO MY ROOM 11
EVENTS
Press Preview (Private) Thursday, January 23, 4-6pm
Eyes on Design Thursday, January 23, 8pm in the Ballroom, $10 with CUTMR ticket
Opening Reception Saturday, January 25, 7-11pm
Love Design Party Saturday, January 25, 10pm-2:30am in the Ballroom, Free
Collage Party Saturday, January 25, 10am-4pm Sunday, January 26, 3-6pm
LOVE DESIGN PARTY JUSTIN BROADBENT Saturday, January 25, 10pm-2:30am in the Ballroom, Free
There is a Burning Ball of Fire in Outer Space
www.justinbroadbent.com C
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Garfield, Women’s rights, Two 2Pacs, A Boy walking on water, VHS tower, Beer, DJ, Music, Fence. I generally like to make things out of the objects that surround me whether it’s an image from the internet, a piece of wood on the side of the road, or a thrift shop gem. To me, life is about constantly looking at things in new ways. Sometimes a simple line becomes a tower. A sideways image makes you cry. A classic icon repeated makes us see new lines and new meanings. One of my favourite quotes is from John Cage. He says, “If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.” We are called to find truth or life or meaning in our day-to-day experiences, not just in beautiful metaphors. Let’s look at newspaper comics and rap and find God. What is real art when I have to dance around it? What is meaning when I can’t find the time for it? This piece embraces found objects surrounded by action. This is not nostalgic. I want you to move now. Feel now. Drink now. The universe. The end. Justin Broadbent is an accomplished multidisciplinary artist. His portfolio includes works in video performance, poems, funny ideas, illustration, photography, design, music video direction and installation. A graduate of Ryerson University’s New Media program, Broadbent currently ranks among Toronto’s top graphic designers. His awards include a Juno for Record Package of the Year, a CBC Bucky Award for Music Video of the Year, and 5 nominations for MuchMusic Video Awards. He is the 2014 Art Director for Massive Party, the Art Gallery of Ontario’s annual fundraiser.
EVENTS
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EYES ON DESIGN Stephen Eyes with Kaleb Robertson Thursday, January 23, 8pm in the Ballroom, $10
EYESONSHOW
Eyes on Design is a special Come Up To My Room version of the Eyes On series. Hosted by Stephen Eyes, the shows use a late night talk show format to present some of Toronto’s finest emerging and established acts including comedy, burlesque, filmmakers, music and more. Stephen Eyes is a local entertainer and comedian who has done comedy, public speaking, hosted karaoke contests, funerals and talk shows for the better part of the last decade. He is available for any gigs that provide a healthy bar tab or a suitcase of Lauriers. Co-host Kaleb Robertson has a healthy mix of love and disdain for Stephen but also likes attention and a bar tab. He can also be found dancing around town as the Queen of Parkdale, Miss Fluffy SoufflÊ. The show will take a booze-filled comedic look at the world of design and how Stephen can conquer it.
FEATURING Musical performance by LLVK: Sook-Yin Lee, Adam Litovitz, Brandon Valdivia, and Benjamin Kamino. LLVK improvises within set constructions and melodic prefabrication and has been having fun since 2013. Burlesque by James and the Giant Pasty Comedy by Kathleen Phillips + Terry Clement Chairs by Waterloo School of Architecture students 10 COME UP TO MY ROOM 11
EVENTS
HARDTWIST 2014 This is Personal January 23 - April 27, main floor + 3rd + 4th floor galleries
The Gladstone Hotel’s 8th Annual Juried Textile and Fibre Arts Exhibition. Hard Twist, an annual juried show of work curated by Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell that celebrates the intimate, layered and complex relationship between people and textile, has become an important annual event within the Canadian fibre art community and a signature event for the Gladstone since 2006. Hard Twist 8: This is Personal showcases works exploring the nuances, complexities and politics of that which is individual, private and intimate. Cloth is personal. Cloth speaks of the person cocooned in successive layers of textile that communicate who they are, that tell of their dreams and aspirations. And occasionally betray their secrets. Radiating out from underwear – intensely personal, usually hidden, and sometimes surprising – through the various layers that signal origins, social position, hopes, fears, sexuality and aspirations, Hard Twist 8 – This Is Personal encompasses the gamut of the human with signals wrapped in cloth. Hard Twist 8 Jurors: Tonya Corkey, Chung-Im Kim, Helena Frei, Chris Mitchell, Roxane Shaughnessy Participants: Vicki Burns, Anne Devitt, Kate McGrann, Susan Avishai, Amy Bagshaw, Elaine Beetison, Jillian Booth, Marianne Burlew, Calica Studio: Meghan Macdonald & Rebecca Horwitz, Tonya Corky, Candace Couse, Marie Pierre Daigle, Marie De Sousa, Noah Gano, Miriam Grenville, Philip Hare, Alexa Hatanaka, Lydia Haywood-Munn, Fiona Kirkwood, Dana Kletke, Valerie Knapp, Deborah Koenker, Meghan Macdonald, Tim Manalo, Deborah Margo, Colleen McCarten, Joyce Melander-Dayton, Shawna Munro, Lois Schklar, Joanna Schleimer, Silky Shoemaker, SKETCH, David Woodward
ASSOCIATED EXHIBITION
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TORONTO DESIGN OFFSITE FESTIVAL (TO DO)
The Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO) is an annual city-wide design festival. Celebrating and promoting design in Toronto, from workshops to installations and prototypes, to design parties and curated shows, we form a creative network and community of exciting events and exhibitions. Join us for the fourth annual Festival January 20-26, 2014. With over 60 events, exhibitions, and window installations this year, TO DO brings together a diverse group of makers from a wide range of creative disciplines. Happening in venues across the city, from storefronts to galleries to national institutions, you’ll find ephemeral installations, open studios, film screenings, practical design interventions, and covetable objects. The Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO) has strong ties with both Come Up To My Room (CUTMR) and the Gladstone Hotel. As a venue for creative studios and cultural programming, the hotel has been an important supporter of TO DO since its founding. The Festival’s sense of community and collaboration stems from the involvement of TO DO’s founders with CUTMR, and connection with other independent design shows in Toronto.
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ASSOCIATED FESTIVAL
ART BAR EXHIBITION Capacity Artbar
Capacity is an annual contemporary design exhibit featuring the multidisciplinary work of Canadian women working and or studying in the field of design. In its fourth year the exhibition presents projects inspired by the life and works of Ray Eames.
ASSOCIATED EXHIBITION
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CUTMR 11 PARTICIPANTS
49 A Zero (A0) 30 Ana Jofre 45 Andrew Foerster 38 Bettie Cott + Megan Blake 48 Bruno Billio + Department of Unusual Certainties 39 Christine Kim + Vanathy Ganesharajah 40 Claire Scherzinger 31 Collage Collective 27 Currentform 25 Evelyne Au-Navioz, Robert Giusti, Raymundo Pavan + Nikki Shih 34 Hilary Hayes + Tim Richards 50 Jennifer Rong Designs 37 Jordan Evans, Ryla Jakelski + Evan Jerry with Lois Weinthal (RSID) 08 Justin Broadbent 43 Kathleen Wicks 36 KRDW 41 Natasha Basacchi + Aliya Tejani 47 Rollout 24 Sarah Keenlyside + Nathan Whitford 46 Shannon Scanlan 51 Sheridan College Furniture Program 29 Sisley Leung 44 SPAM 42 Torontonians + Mammalian Diving Reflex 28 Victoria Taylor + Linda Dervisha 26 University of Waterloo School of Architecture 35 Wayne Muma
MEDIUMS, PRACTICES + TECHNIQUES On each of the following project pages, icons highlight the diversity of production processes in CUTMR 11, and emphasize the encounters between mediums, practices and techniques.
PRODUCT including furniture, objects, industrial design ENVIRONMENT including horticulture, architectural and interior design SCULPTURE including assemblage, framing, model making, sewing, structure, re-use, nature-sourcing INTERACTIVE including performance, exchange, commodification, online shopping, comedy, eyes, everything MIXED MEDIA including installation, projection, animation, film, video, lighting, photography, sound, music RESEARCH including crowd-sourcing, archival work, documentation, arts-based inquiry, on-line surveys, end-user consultation, observation CRAFT including slow-made, handwork, found and repurposed materials, carpentry, ceramics, paper making, glitter, collage
For CUTMR11, participants were encouraged to submit a video, extending the visitor experience beyond the final product to the processes required to get there. Look for the video icons and visit comeuptomyroom.com/2014-videos/ or scan the QR codes.
CUTMR 11 CURATORS
JACLYN BLUMAS
Jaclyn Blumas is a practicing artist and curator living in Toronto. She is also a working practitioner and is now currently working through the steps of what it means to become a human and live an existential life where art is what you believe in. It’s hard, but she’ll persevere, as one does naturally when one writes their own biography. Her multidisciplinary approach to creating art has led to a series of large-scale, site specific, immersive installations that have exhibited across the country. And her passion for curating comes from all ideas that are met with collaboration. Since art is struggle and art is social networking, then exhibitions function as the news feeds of the moment. Jaclyn is a member/co-founder of Heretical Objects Cooperative based in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
ROBERT CRAM
Robert Cram divides his time thinking about space as a practicing landscape architect, artist and curator. Exploration, creation and decimation are central tenets of both his practice and purpose. Research, collaboration and community engagement often steer his projects away from linear trajectories toward more rambunctious and spirited outcomes. His interactive site-specific works have taken him to cities across Canada though he continues to call Toronto home. He is a member of Heretical Objects Cooperative, a candidate for the MFA program at OCAD U and a freelance everything.
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ELISE HODSON
Elise Hodson is part teacher, part student, sometimes curator, sometimes design historian, and constant admirer of people who make stuff. When not commuting between Parkdale, York University and the Institute without Boundaries, Elise is interviewing designers and makers about the globalization of product design for her PhD in Communication and Culture. Elise is formerly Director of Exhibitions and Associate Curator at the Design Exchange, and recently took on the role of Acting Chair at the School of Design, George Brown College.
BRITT WELTER-NOLAN (CURATOR/PRODUCER)
Britt Welter-Nolan is constantly curious about creativity and its relationship to communities. Britt’s curatorial, art education and design background plays with interdisciplinary practices to present alternative modes of engagement. With a passion for participation in public space she has worked with organizations all over the city to create vibrant learning opportunities in exhibitions. She began her exhibitions career with Massive Change: The Future of Global Design, with Bruce Mau, and has since developed a hybrid programmatic and curatorial practice over the past 10 years. She has worked with the AGO to create collaborative web and community arts projects and served recently as Acting Managing Director for ROM Contemporary Culture. She is currently the Managing Director of Artistic Projects at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.
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THE 11TH HOUR
11 years ago, Christina Zeidler and Pamila Matharu wanted to create an event that encouraged the design and art community to take risks, begin new dialogues and embark on new creative trajectories. Their goal was to provide artists and designers a space to experiment, interact and exhibit outside of disciplinary parameters and commercial constraints, coinciding with the long-established Interior Design Show. The result was Come Up To My Room (CUTMR), an annual design exhibition and program at the Gladstone, and a catalyst for a much larger expression of alternative design activity across the city. Each year of CUTMR sees skills, visions and egos collide in immersive, site-specific installations that reveal where design and art may be heading. The exhibition momentarily captures new ideas and provides a glimpse into what designers are thinking right now. Surprise, rush, urgency and risk all characterize CUTMR. With limited time, resources and assistance, participants are challenged with reimagining, reinvigorating and reinventing spaces of the hotel based on 11th hour considerations, calculations and meditations. At the time of writing, we remain unsure of what we will see on opening night. We look forward to sharing the surprise of what will be revealed at the 11th hour.
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EXTERIOR + MAIN FLOOR
EXTERIOR A. SARAH KEENLYSIDE + NATHAN WHITFORD B. EVELYNE AU-NAVIOZ + ROBERT GIUSTI + RAYMUNDO PAVAN + NIKKI SHIH C. CURRENTFORM MAIN FLOOR D. VICTORIA TAYLOR + LINDA DERVISHAJ E. SISLEY LEUNG F. ANA JOFRE G. UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE EVENTS H. LOVE DESIGN PARTY BY JUSTIN BROADBENT I . EYES ON DESIGN BY STEPHEN EYES WITH KALEB ROBERTSON J. COLLAGE COLLECTIVE ASSOCIATED EVENTS + EXHIBITIONS K. HARDTWIST 8 L. CAPACITY
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GOOD BONES exterior
SARAH KEENLYSIDE + NATHAN WHITFORD
Good Bones is a projection mapped installation that will draw attention to the unique architecture of Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel, exploring the notion of public and private space by creating a 3-dimensional illusion of transparency into the building from street level. The hotel’s imposing size and unique architecture relative to the newer buildings surrounding it anchors the West Queen West area in history. But it’s also a somewhat dim corner of the city at night – the building isn’t lit up dramatically and so we lose its architectural presence after dark. And we can never see the bones inside – the way it would have appeared to the architects when it was just an idea on paper back in the late 1800s when it was first designed. Our intention is to draw attention to the building with this added twist, to make it appear like a 3D architectural drawing.
ABOUT | Sarah Keenlyside and Nathan Whitford collaborated
vimeo.com/channels/inkblot
at the 2012 ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche for Douglas Coupland’s
urbanvisuals.com
Museum of the Rapture, and followed up the next year with their own installation titled Lightbridge for the 2013 ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche. Together they strive to push possibilities by combining documentary and art, and explore innovative environments to
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create new relationships between audience and screen. COME UP TO MY ROOM 11
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ESCAPESPACE
ROBERT GIUSTI, EVELYNE AU-NAVIOZ, RAYMUNDO PAVAN + NIKKI SHIH
exterior
Dream. Create. Consume. Play. Express. Rest. Destroy. How and why do you escape reality? We have been polling Torontonians in an open dialogue to better understand how we all momentarily or repeatedly escape reality and why. Using these collected responses, Escapespace is an installation and 3-dimensional representation of how we as a city and as individuals, choose to disconnect with our daily realities and environment and escape within our own personal spheres.
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escapespace how do you escape reality?
ABOUT | This diverse team includes designers with
www.escapespace.ca
backgrounds in architecture and exhibition, urban and communication design. Connected by their interest in the transformation of spaces through interaction and perception, they seek to understand, explore and manipulate how to shape emotional and sensory experiences.
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THE CHAIR PROJECT ballroom
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
For CUTMR 11, chairs designed by students at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture will grace the stage of the Ballroom during Eyes on Design. These chairs are the result of a third year course, the Structural Design Build Workshop, which focuses on the design, construction and structural analysis of a folding or take-apart wooden chair for a specific "client" of the student's choice. The project allows the students to explore the nature and process of designing a structure that is at once stable under changing load conditions and capable of reconfiguration.
ABOUT | Professor Elizabeth English began using the “chair
www.uwaterloo.ca/architecture
project� as a tool for teaching structures to architecture students more than ten years ago. The chair project has been part of her courses in schools of architecture at the University of Michigan, Tulane University in Louisiana, and now the University of
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Waterloo, whose faculty she joined in September 2007. COME UP TO MY ROOM 11
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FLUX
CURRENTFORM
entrance
Flux will inhabit the main entrance of the hotel, responding to the presence and movement of people in the space to create an abstracted, synaesthetic feedback loop. When entering and exiting the Gladstone, visitors will pass through an arbour of synthetic verdure activated with light and sound ranging from icy and sterile to a soft, warm glow. Video and sound will be used as inputs to create a distilled and distorted reflection of activity within the space.
ABOUT | Currentform is a project platform and creative
www.currentform.ca
consultancy based in Toronto, that brings an interdisciplinary network of designers together to create objects, environments and experiences based on fresh understanding. The project team has backgrounds in industrial design, architecture, theatrical lighting, sound production and blacksmithing.
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EMERGENT STRUCTURES ballroom
VICTORIA TAYLOR + LINDA DERVISHAJ
Using a series of 100 images shot during six weeks of Spring 2012 in Trinity Bellwoods Park, Emergent Structures celebrates changes in form, colour and context during this transcendent phase in the life cycle of trees.
ABOUT | Linda Dervishaj’s work
ranges from temporary, site-specific installations to architecture and urban design. Her projects explore scale, form, colour and texture as a response to their surrounding environment. She works with various media across several disciplines, shifting her focus between small details and broad visions. She lives and works in Toronto. Victoria Taylor designs spaces informed and inspired by context, ecology, community engagement and social and horticultural possibilities. Victoria curates Grow Op: Exploring Landscape and Place, the Gladstone Hotel’s annual spring event celebrating innovative ideas and conceptual responses to landscape and place.
www.victoriataylor.ca www.gladstonehotel.com/spaces/ gladstone-grow-op/
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CREATURES OF COMFORT
SISLEY LEUNG
main + 2nd floor + stairs
Creatures of Comfort is a series of tiny installations peaking through the nooks and crannies of the Gladstone, suggesting that it is not only humans who reside in the historic hotel. Each object reveals something of the whimsical lifestyle of these tiny residents who live a parallel existence in the same space. They use hot air balloons to go to the next floor, gondolas to cross halls, and they have concerts on the mouldings of the archways. But each and every element represents something more - each is a metaphor for Sisley’s life. The hot air balloon represents love, the gondola represents friendship, the doors represent opportunities, and much more. This installation can be found scattered throughout the ground and second floors. ABOUT | Sisley Leung is a designer,
architectural technologist, illustrator and model maker who is inspired by simple, relevant sustainable designs that set high standards in craftsmanship. As a child, Sisley loved spending time at her desk creating “art” with anything she was able to find. Today, you will find her collaborating with different designers and going on adventures around the city to find inspiration.
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RICARDO, ROSA, ANA, BANANA, SUZANA + AN UNNAMED JOFRE
ANA JOFRE
main floor
Life-sized marionette characters mingle among the viewers in public spaces such as the CafĂŠ. The marionettes will have human proportions to blend into the social environment. They have articulation at the knees, hips, wrists, elbows, shoulders and neck, which allows a single character a large range of positions. Seated or standing, they emote interpersonal situations. The goal is to emotionally engage the viewer and to invite the audience to investigate the unspoken interactions between individuals.
ABOUT | Ana Jofre started exhibiting her figurative
www.onewomancaravan.net
sculptures while teaching physics at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. She is currently a graduate student at OCAD University working on marionette characters that straddle the chasm between subject and object.
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CUT IT OUT! TRINITY COLLAGE FEST
COLLAGE COLLECTIVE
main floor
Cut it OUT! Trinity Collage Fest at CUTMR will be one giant collage party. Collage Collective invites you to make a collaborative work of public art inspired by our beloved Trinity Bellwoods. Join Collage Collective in creating fantastical interpretations of the park using images collected from social media and historical photographs of the area. At the first sign of spring we’ll hang the community’s masterpiece in the park to welcome the fine weather and fun times!
ABOUT | Collage Collective is a group of artists, creative
www.collagecollective.ca
collaborators and friends who gather at cultural venues and events around Toronto to show and make collage together.
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UPPER FLOORS
SECOND FLOOR A. HILARY HAYES + TIM RICHARDS B. WAYNE MUMA C. KRDW D. RSID E. BETTIE COTT + MEGAN BLAKE F. CHRISTINE KIM + VANATHY GANESHARAJAH G. CLAIRE SCHERZINGER H. NATASHA BASACCHI + ALIYA TEJANI I. TORONTONIANS + MAMMALIAN DIVING REFLEX J. KATHLEEN WICKS K. SPAM L. ANDREW FOERSTER M. SHANNON SCANLAN N. ROLLOUT O. BRUNO BILLIO + DOUC P. AZERO (A0) Q. SISLEY LEUNG R. ANA JOFRE THIRD FLOOR S. JENNIFOR RONG DESIGNS T. SHERIDAN COLLEGE FURNITURE PROGRAM ASSOCIATED EXHIBITION U. HARD TWIST
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SECOND FLOOR
NATURAL PROCESSED 2nd floor
HILARY HAYES + TIM RICHARDS
Natural Processed is a site-specific sculptural and dynamic lighting installation exploring the boundaries of combining natural materials and digital processes. Central to this exploration are experiments with accuracy, measurement, and replicability; sometimes allowing digital processes and models to guide the design and construction of artifacts, other times pushing back at them and allowing natural processes and human error to shape the work. The installation attempts to peer into and question the physical impossibility of absolute accuracy, and draw from it the only things that don’t change: models, instructions, code. The abstract ideals of the design process. The installation explores the trend of procedurally-generated, parametric design, by translating the process from a computer-generated to a humangenerated one. It aims to test the limits of current trends surrounding digital fabrication, computer art, and cyborg culture by challenging the normative roles of nature, human and computer.
ABOUT | Hilary Hayes and Tim Richards
have worked together since 2007. They create delightful, engaging experiences through varying media and environments. Their interest in conceptual, researchbased approaches to creative projects frequently leads to playful takes on the normative and traditional, while maintaining the highest integrity and attention to detail in materials and processes.
www.southstreetboatbuilders.ca
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WALNUT BAR
WAYNE MUMA
2nd floor
ABOUT | Wayne Muma is a craftsman
driven by passion. It is his dharma to pursue the art of woodworker. This close affinity to the tree compels him to find always higher levels of skill in the woodworking arts. It also influences technique and design, and is most often articulated through unusual local hardwoods. The Japanese have an expression, Ten Ita, meaning heavenly board. Finding these challenging pieces of
This design is built exclusively for the Gladstone’s CUTMR 2014. Wayne Muma found affection for this piece of walnut slab due to the unique void (knot hole) in the centre. The curved legs of the table are actually different sizes making the base asymmetrical. Within this asymmetry, the walnut surface mirrors its underneath.
wood continues to push his creative and technical limits. To honour these boards, he uncovers the indwelling and gives them a new life as functional objects. It is his
www.muma.ca
goal to create Walnut Bar to inspire the atmosphere and to precipitate the unique CUTMR dialogue.
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URBAN SWATH
KRDW
2nd floor
This installation combines the intimacy of the Gladstone Hotel setting with the large-scale broad reach of Toronto as a city. The project seeks to envelop the viewer with a 3-dimensional swath of the city, testing notions of scale, density, pattern making and form. As the swath cuts across different neighbourhoods and urban conditions, the installation will wrap the surfaces of the interior corridor. Spaces of mass and void, light and shadow will be revealed to the viewer out of context. The project aims to bring the urban fabric to a macro scale by creating a pattern - a tangible object - that works to translate the fabric of the city in which we live. The viewer is invited to experience the community that he/she may visit daily from a different perspective.
ABOUT | KRDW is a Toronto-based design
collective, founded in 2011 by Kristin Ross and Danielle Whitley. Their works explore both built projects as well as speculative research in the realms of architecture, design and placemaking with a keen interest in questions of temporality, ephemerality, public space, landscape and culture.
www.krdw.ca
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HANGING MATTERS 2nd floor
JORDAN EVANS, RYLA JAKELSKI + EVAN JERRY WITH LOIS WEINTHAL (RSID)
A string is all it takes, to change this place. Hanging Matters, an inverted terrain, is intended to alter and transform as a composition over the duration of the installation through the participation in its destruction. The mass intends to capture people’s attention through the creation of a dynamic and layered ceiling plane, compelling people to dwell within this in-between space. Playful yet provocative, the abstracted piñatas reveal their contents upon release, creating a moment reflective of child-like intrigue, wonder and surprise. The interior therefore develops a sense of ambiguity, with the space evolving as people so choose, from regulation to mess in an unknown span of time. Through the alteration of individual modules, the physical space mirrors the activity below over time, becoming a catalogued topography of party happenings. What are we even talking about? You’ll have to pull a string to find out.
ABOUT | Jordan Evans, Ryla Jakelski and Evan Jerry are
three young designers at Ryerson School of Interior Design (RSID), whose mutual interests of the ephemeral and material have inspired them to blend their diverse range of past experiences, which include business, art, industrial design and fashion, in order to explore the elements which constitute the
www.rsidatcutmr2014.tumblr.com
full human experience. The wide-ranging academic career and practice of Lois Weinthal, current chair at RSID, investigates the relationship between architecture, interiors, clothing and objects, resulting in works that take on an experimental nature.
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GO SIT IN THE CORNER 2nd floor
BETTIE COTT + MEGAN BLAKE
Take a seat. Let’s shed some light on the problem.
ABOUT | Bettie Cott and Megan Blake are designer/makers
www.bettiecott.com
based in Toronto, Canada. They both hold their own practices
www.meganblake.ca
designing custom and commission-based works. Their work includes a variety of products as well as functional high-end furniture pieces that they hand craft in downtown Toronto.
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CHRISTINE KIM + VANATHY GANESHARAJAH
CONFESSIONAL 2nd floor
As modern technology advances at rapid speeds, our methods of communication are increasingly confessional, yet surprisingly devoid of physical interface with others. Confessional explores the relationship between public and private spheres, referencing the architecture and attributes of traditional sacred spaces, while creating a new space that encourages the physical experience of exposure and concealment. Traditionally, a confessional is a freestanding structure where the screen – separating penitent and priest – hides or diminishes the identity of the sinner. Contemporary practices have changed so this separation is no longer used; however, it is this offer of anonymity that allows for an unfolding of the soul. In this installation, participants will journey through a pathway of screens, being folded into areas where they see others obscured, or find themselves alone and hidden from view. In this manner, we echo the nature of the confessional, where one is simultaneously veiled, yet revealed, physically and psychologically.
ABOUT | Vanathy Ganesharajah’s artwork explores
www.christinekim.ca
themes of representation, identity, boundaries, both built and imagined, and a poetic reimagining of spaces. Christine Kim creates intricate collage cuttings and drawings, carving away the boundaries between drawing, sculpture, collage, and installation.
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CRACKING SHELLS OF MODERNISM
CLAIRE SCHERZINGER
2nd floor
The primary concept of this project is drawing on two-dimensional and threedimensional planes. The installation explores pointillist drawings that show implausible structures and designs in space through translating the act of drawing on paper to primed pieces of wood and foam that have been cut into specific shapes. This dialogue between object and drawing is what is investigated since many of the designs produced during the periods of Russian Constructivism and Suprematism, the main inspirations for this project, were beautiful and yet illogical.
ABOUT | Claire Scherzinger is an artist based in Toronto,
www.clairescherzinger.com
Ontario and holds a BFA from OCAD University. She has shown her work on multiple occasions in Toronto with an upcoming solo show at Mark Christopher Gallery in February 2014.
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CONJUNCTION JUNCTION 2nd floor washroom
NATASHA BASACCHI + ALIYA TEJANI
Conjunction Junction creates individually specific and emotionally charged experiences that bring to question the relationships to and perception of our surroundings. The washroom as a private yet public space becomes an important place where moments of self-reflection and transitional awareness occur. A visual loop of alternating (illusive, plausible/implausible) landscapes superimposed onto reflective surfaces invites participants to explore these private moments and confront the precarious gradient between reality and illusion. Conjunction Junction considers the dynamics of perception and its implications on connection, ownership, and action within ourselves and public space.
ABOUT | Natasha Basacchi is a designer/artist currently
www.natashabasacchi.com
exploring themes of transition, relationships and emotional
www.aliyatejani.com
connection within the context of public space. Aliya Tejani is an urban planner/designer who enjoys exploring temporal/spatial trajectories and constructing narratives. Basacchi and Tejani have been collaborating with each other for over two years.
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GET OUT OF MY ROOM room 201
THE TORONTONIANS + MAMMALIAN DIVING REFLEX
The Torontonians, Mammalian Diving Reflex’s teen collective, has commandeered room 201. Applying a manic and hyper teen aesthetic, the Torontonians ask for a little privacy in this very public moment as they hide in their blanket forts, looking at who-the-hell-knows-what on Reddit, whispering gossip about you and your ugly shoes, and praying they won’t be killed in the avalanche of their piled belongings: dirty socks, bongs, manga, teddy bears, homework, homework and more homework. Get out of my room!
ABOUT | The Torontonians are the
teenagers in residence at the Gladstone Hotel, often seen taking over Mammalian Diving Reflex’s office on the second
www.mammalian.ca
floor. Together they create performances, question the status quo, give lectures, make videos, dance on the street, take photos, draw penises, check cell phones, play cellos, draw bunnies, take the TTC,
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ride bikes and rap about Rob Ford. COME UP TO MY ROOM 11
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COMMON THREAD
KATHLEEN WICKS
room 202
This installation incorporates discarded wool blankets to address the paradox of wealth and value in our society where the environment and the economy are at odds. The resources needed to maintain the wealth which fuels consumerism contrasts with the balance in the natural world. I recognize the value of the wool blankets. The transformation in Common Thread from utility to art questions the value society puts on using discarded objects and their place in a system of wealth. Would placing higher value on natural materials like wool, constitute a shift in the economic paradigm? My inspiration comes from fond memories of my grandmother weaving wool into fabric. The properties of wool have fascinated me through my professional and creative endeavours. Wool blankets arranged and formed into familiar shapes and objects draw connections and elicit emotions. We are at a critical cross roads where wealth is blinding our sense of value.
ABOUT | An education in interior
design and construction, together with experience in furniture design, pottery, fibre arts, woodworking, drawing and painting, intuitively inform Wicks’ work. The makers, artists and collectors that populated her childhood cultivated her interests. The largest influence on her aesthetic came from her frugal father who used at-hand materials to produce, build and repair. www.alchemistshq.tumblr.com
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TOUCHED
SPAM
room 205
The value of the garment forms a thread between workers of the third world and consumers of the first. Through the perspective of motherhood, Touched explores both the unfolding of her labour within the confines of home and in gendered industries of our homelands. She is a common performer in this endless stage of production. Connections and disconnections are revealed through varied processes, raising hidden questions.
ABOUT | SPAM is a collective of four graphic
designers: Ayeshah Ijaz, Maggie Chan, Preethi Jagadeesh and Sayeda Akbary. Having become familiar with various aspects of traditional graph-
www.spam2014.tumblr.com
ic design, each one of them now moves beyond their structured professional practice and into the intersecting horizons of various art and design disciplines through critical and visual exploration.
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TIN CANYON
ANDREW FOERSTER
room 206
Created, designed, and animated by Andrew Foerster (Rewfoe), Tin Canyon follows three well-meaning bluegrass musicians who must overcome their debilitating stage fright to unleash their talent on the world. Initially created by Rewfoe as a stage show of visuals, music, and storytelling, Tin Canyon has since been adapted by Together’s Pazit Cahlon into a rhyming ballad, and has been produced by Together and Rewfoe as an animated short. Tin Canyon features the bluegrass-inspired sounds of Juno Award-winning banjoist and composer, Jayme Stone.
ABOUT | Andrew Foerster is a Toronto-based
illustrator and animator. He strives to create interesting projects that challenge his artistic abilities and push his comfort zone. Foerster is always looking for new ways to combine different styles, techniques and media. He is particularly fond of combining music, storytelling, sculpture and video. Driven by his
Rewfoe.com Rewfoe.tumblr.com
determination to create exciting art for himself and others, he endeavours to inspire people to dream big and follow their hearts.
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GUT FEELINGS
SHANNON SCANLAN
room 207
Shannon Scanlan’s immersive installation, Gut Feelings, is an investigation of the social, psychological, and sexual aspects of corporeal politics, body perception and body image. In this setting, viewers are confronted by informal representations of body parts where “the dry outside moves toward the slippery inside.” Ambiguous conglomerates of fabric, toys, and carpet play on both the viewer’s desire and hesitation to interact. With hand-stitching and her trusty sewing machine, Scanlan creates protuberances, openings and crevices out of garish fabrics. She literally stitches across the boundaries between the inside and outside of these fluid spaces with feigned sites of abjection that solicit tactile investigation despite themselves.
ABOUT | Scanlan’s installations are a (re)-reconfiguration
www.shannonscanlan.tumblr.com
of bodily representation in art, from that of the two-dimensional image and the autonomous figure, to lived experience, space, materiality and temporality.
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ANALOG PIXELS
ROLLOUT
room 208
Rollout’s interactive installation explores the use of pattern in three dimensions, empowering the audience to reconfigure their space while uncovering the history of digital graphics in an immersive environment. The wallcoverings company, accustomed to working in two-dimensional square feet, considers pattern in three dimensions by presenting a series of modular cubic-foot building blocks.
ABOUT | Rollout was born out of the need for graphic
www.rollout.ca
expression in the interior design industry. Gone are the days of slick minimalism. Rollout embraces texture, expression, emotion and colour, filling the gaping hole left by modernism.
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WINDOWS / ROOFS / BALCONIES AND OTHER ELEMENTS: A MOVEMENT
BRUNO BILLIO + DEPARTMENT OF UNUSUAL CERTAINTIES
room 209 + 210 + exterior
Remembering all the things you never did. Imagining all the things you already know. Romanticizing should never be mistaken for co-opted nostalgia. This project aims to evoke the first and not the second.
ABOUT | DoUC is a research and Design Art |
studio based in Toronto. Concept and creation
www.brunobillio.com departmentofunusualcertainties.wordpress.com
of projects are by Christopher Pandolfi and Simon Rabyniuk. Bruno Billio is contextulizer of light, sound and object and resident artist at
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the Gladstone Hotel. COME UP TO MY ROOM 11
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FALL OF THE WALLED GARDEN room 214
AZERO (A0) ALSO COLLECTIVE + MASON STUDIO
Fall of the Walled Garden explores the creation of public and private experiences. You are transported from the Gladstone to a new space where light, sound and structure mediate the body and personal interactions. This is a space of stillness, a space to slow down. At the centre lies a bright void where individuals are asked to commit their minds and bodies to an introspective journey. With full commitment— and some time—the exterior of the space will be transformed into a shifting environment of audio and light, before once again returning to a previous state of stillness.
ABOUT | A Zero (A0) is built from the joint efforts of ALSO
Collective and Mason Studio. The studios share philosophies of design, but originate from two distinct practices. ALSO occupies a space in digital media and graphic design, while Mason inhabits the space of architecture and interiors. A Zero represents a shift in the boundaries of design, offering a space where two, three and four dimensions cohabitate and coalesce into a hybrid design practice.
www.azero.ca www.alsocollective.com www.mason-studio.com
A Zero includes Antonio Lennert, Ashley Rumsey, Blake Macfarlane, Bohdan Anderson, Luke Greidanus, Marti Hawkins, Mike Lovas, Simone Ferkul, Stanley Sun and Symon Oliver.
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BARK 3rd + 4th floor stairs
JENNIFER RONG DESIGNS
Bark is an exploration of tree bark as a medium for producing both functional and sculptural pieces. With an emphasis on aesthetics and sustainable production, these pieces incorporate found/repurposed material to realize the bark’s full potential. Bark comes in various forms, some very durable when found in the right conditions while others can be fragile. Bark has been incorporated into these pieces to showcase both its fragility and strength, serving as wall décor, seating and lighting. Everything is made with bark.
ABOUT | Jennifer Rong Designs specializes
in one-of-a-kind, handmade, upcycled pieces made primarily from reclaimed wood, vintage items and found objects. Emphasis is on aesthetics, function and sustainable production. Drawing on the practice of ‘nose to tail’ eating, everything is used, nothing is wasted.
www.rongdesigns.com
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RENEWAL AND CHANGE 3rd floor
ABOUT | The Furniture Studio of
Sheridan’s three-year Craft and Design Program has set the standard for contemporary furniture design and making in Canada since its inception in 1967. Students and alumni rely on critical thinking, careful craft, sustainable approaches to material use and supreme functionality in making work for exhibitions, private clients and prototypes for industry. Third year students: Courtney Black, Neil Botelho, Allsun Campbell, Matthew Chan, Katrina Ennamorato, Peter Harrington,
SHERIDAN COLLEGE FURNITURE PROGRAM
Third year furniture students from Sheridan College collaborated with The Hincks Dellcrest Centre for Children’s Mental Health to design and make new public seating for their main treatment reception area. Students redesigned and refurbished old wood and metal gymnasium chairs, creating comfortable, functional and engaging seating arrangements. This new public seating will be an important part of creating positive first impressions of the Hincks Dellcrest Centre, and will act as a subtle metaphor for the possibility of renewal and change.
Vanessa Jackson, Kevin Jones, Chadd Kam, Cristyan Leathley, Corey Macdonald, Duncan McNeil, Andreas Moreno, Brendon Taylor, Robert Vecchiarelli, Wyatt Walkem and Jesse Wilson. Course Instructor: Connie Chisholm.
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TRIANGLES AND TRIBULATIONS 3rd floor stairs
LOIS SCHKLAR + NOAH GANO
Artists continue their exploration of space for this site-specific installation Triangles and Tribulations. Evolving an earlier collaboration, they have created a three-dimensional drawing through an emotional and intuitive process, responding to the architectural and material challenges of the third floor staircase in the historic Gladstone Hotel. Two elastic cords link pathways around the walls and architecture, doubling back and moving forward in new directions at different depths, and creating triangular shapes as lines intersect. Animating the natural flow of the staircase, the lines appear to shift and change in reaction to perspective and daylight.
ABOUT | Most recently Lois Schklar’s Drawing
Installations have been chosen for the following juried exhibitions: The World of Threads International Exhibition (2012), Drawing at the Aird Gallery (January 2013) , Art Spin (August 2013) and with Noah Gano, Boxed In, The Rooms, St. John’s NL ( January –April, 2013). In 2011, she had a retrospective exhibition, Lois Schklar, Thirty Years of Dolls. Noah Gano is a visual artist and cultural
www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram www.noahgano.com
consultant living in Toronto, Canada. Navigating through themes of experience and identity, he works conceptually in photography, sculpture, and collage.
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IF YOU LIKED CUTMR 11 AS MUCH AS WE DID MAKE SURE YOU COME BACK MARCH 6 - 16
FOR OUR EXPERIENTIAL ILLUSTRATION EVENT
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“Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.�
- Jane Jacobs