PERIODICAL FOUR

Page 1


Daniel Joyce 1


ISSUE 4 - OBSESSION

SUBMISSIONS FOR PERIODICAL FIVE

November 2012

The theme for our next issue is DISTANCE.

Welcome to the fourth issue of The Periodical Project. We aim to promote encourage and excite Artists based in Halifax Nova Scotia. We present to a broad audience the Art produced in the HRM to increase its exposure and profile, here and across the country. Periodical FOUR features 13 HRM based Artists and their interpretations on the theme of Obsession.

GREAT NEWS We are pleased to announce that THE PERIODICAL has received funding through HRM Open Projects to help with the production of our next four issues! We are now able to pay a small artist fee and continue to help promote Halifax based Artists into 2013!

Submissions are open to all Artists living and working in the HRM in all mediums fit for print. Submissions for our winter issue are due December 15 2012.

ADVERTISE IN PERIODICAL FIVE Please consider placing an Ad or Listing in PERIODICAL FIVE to help us fund and expand this project.

CONTACT US Send Questions / Comments / Submissions / Donations! / Advertisements / Listings to theperiodicalproject@gmail.com

FIND US ONLINE facebook.com/theperiodicalproject This project is funded through Halifax Regional Municipality’s Open Projects program.

Daniel Joyce; born 1982 Newmarket ON, lives and loves in Halifax NS, has a BFA from NSCAD 2007, Artistic Director for the Khyber Centre for the Arts since 2009, and has a website called danieljoyce.ca (not danjoyce.com). Melanie Colosimo is an interdisciplinary artist based out of Halifax. Her work employs drawings, miniatures and stop-motion video to negotiate the space around construction/ creation and themes of nostalgia and dislocation. She received a BFA from Mount Allison University and an MFA from the University of Windsor. Her work has been exhibited and screened in galleries and festivals across Canada such as the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Atlantic Film Festival and most recently Eastern Edge Gallery. Currently she is the Exhibitions Coordinator at the Anna Leonowens Gallery. www.melaniecolosimo.com

Originally from the Prairies, Kate Stinson has called Halifax home since 2006. She likes drawing, photography, and printmaking. (Currently, she combines all three.) kate.stinson.art@gmail.com

Elizabeth Johnson loom - delay - loop - degrade - aloof - decay adrift - disperse - shifting - sift - slow pan strain - bit frame - gold crust http://screencollect.tumblr.com/ Charley Young is an interdisciplinary artist, interested in printmaking, drawing, and installation. Born in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, Charley moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia to attend NSCAD University. She is predominantly interested in creating large scale, site specific artwork that interacts with historic buildings and which respond to the ever-adapting city. The current object of obsession is the Macara- Barnstead Building located on Granville Street in Halifax. Her work deals with themes of destruction, loss, memory, permanence, preservation and architecture. Charley is currently pursuing her MFA at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine, USA and looking forward to an upcoming residency at the Vermont Studio Centre in Johnson, Vermont. www.charleyyoung.com David Figueroa aspires to inspire before he expires. He is continuously hunting and gathering the great East Coast of Canada for goodies and inspiration. These various findings are embodied in the art he makes. wow + wow!!!

-Chris Foster & Natalie Slater

Andrew Patterson is often referred to as “Preppy” by his best friend. He is a charming schemer who breaks the fourth wall by addressing the audience, sometimes temporarily freezing all of the characters around him in the process by calling, “Time out!”. Andrew’s schemes, though amusing, often backfire, resulting in unexpected outcomes. Corey J. Isenor is continuing to develop his art practice further while hopefully recording a new album. He works in photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation and occasionally does design and layout work. He has exhibited throughout the Atlantic provinces (minus Newfoundland & Labrador). This past summer he worked as the Inventions Library & Archives Coordinator at Eyelevel Gallery in Halifax, which you should all go and see. coreyisenor.tumblr.com Elise Boudreau Graham is almost finished her degree at NSCAD and is currently spending a semester away in Baltimore. She really does like bad television and movies (ie: watching the same episode of Law & Order multiple times) but thinks that is an okay way to deal with heart break. eliseboudreau.tumblr.com Anne Macmillan is a Halifax based Artist. Anne held an obsession with Predator (1987) for many of her formative years. Perhaps her resourceful and determined nature can be attributed to this indirect mentorship. www.annemacmillan.com Bethany Riordan-Butterworth has been living and working in Halifax since 2003. Her interest in getting to know people and sharing experiences often leads to collaborative work, such as the Fuller Lecture Series and the Secret Tumbler Project. fullerlectures.com breadandbutterpottery.com Mitchell Wiebe was born and raised in the windy Canadian Prairies. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr College of Art and Design and his MFA from Nova Scotia College of Fine Art and Design. He is currently in a group exhibition titled Oh, Canada at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The resulting installation somewhat echoes a studio environment within the museum walls. www.mitchellwiebe.com Aaron McKenzie Fraser is a professional freelance editorial and commercial photographer with a varied portfolio of national and international clients. Aaron grew up in Moncton - studied photography in Ottawa and lived/worked in Upper Canada for nearly a decade before realizing that he missed his family, the East Coast sense of humour and the salty air of the Maritimes too much and moved to Halifax 4 years ago. http://www.amfraser.com



Melanie Colosimo 2


Kate Stinson 3


Chris Elizabeth Johnson 64 Foster


Elizabeth Johnson 4


5 Charley Young



David Figueroa 6


Maybe Speculation Will Help by Andrew Patterson Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe

making myself more uncomfortable will help eating less sugar will help doing more interviews will help making myself more comfortable will help quitting my job will help partying will help memorizing more jokes will help drinking hard liquor again will help getting blind drunk and trying to “make love” will help trying to understand people’s motives will help not giving in to social niceties will help moving away will help living where it is always hot will help paying mortgage instead of rent will help rearranging the furniture will help writing everyday will help learning to write on days where the weather is nice will help checking the weather report more frequently will help being more careful will help more meticulous planning will help keeping an electronic calendar will help sleeping less will help sleeping with my back straighter will help growing a beard will help a haircut will help dressing well will help having an array of footwear to choose from will help trying harder will help getting my heart rate up daily will help lifting weights will help stealing more will help volunteering more will help giving blood will help turning leaves will help remembering my childhood will help telling my family more things about myself will help knowing more about my father’s past will help knowing more about my mother’s future will help believing in astrology will help spending less time on the internet will help making a website will help deciding on a specific philosophical system will help driving really fast will help keeping up on current events will help getting caught up on HBO will help having more guy friends will help giving the Rolling Stones another chance will help putting on an old funk record will help selling some of my records will help collecting more books will help


Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe Maybe

reading everyday will help paying closer attention to narrative will help listening to more classical records will help throwing out old letters will help being more callous in general will help experimenting more will help crying more will help doing more drugs will help magnets will help recording myself speaking will help having people with exotic accents read my work will help being more honest will help Maybe settling debts will help calling an old friend will help an old friend will help learning how to use my hands will help using recipes will help not snacking will help gardening will help washing more frequently will help scratching with a metal spoon will help dating a real looker will help getting published will help a rich benefactor will help attending art openings will help leaving when a room gets weird will help walking alone at night will help listening to myself more attentively will help acting on thoughts immediately will help stopping a stranger and telling them they look beautiful will help not chewing my nails will help going a day without laughing will help finding solace in the mundane will help learning to make life more interesting will help peeling bananas from the opposite end will help asking for directions will help insisting people apologize less will help finding the right conversations rather than trying to sway the wrong ones will help staying up late and learning how to whistle with my fingers in my mouth will help worrying less about my mind and more about my body will help taking Vitamin D again will help drinking more water will help developing a more intricate system for my pockets will help keeping ticket stubs will help appreciating the ferry more will help spending time with younger people will help falsifying my birth date will help developing an alias will help a stronger conviction regarding the fluidity of nature will help a stronger will will help using less jokes in my writing will help formal repetition will help


Corey Isenor 8


9 Elise Boudreau Graham


Anne Macmillan is a Halifax based Artist. She met with Bethany Riordan-Butterworth to discuss art and obsession. Anne held an obsession with Predator (1987) for many of her formative years. Perhaps her resourceful and determined nature can be attributed to this indirect mentorship. See more of Anne’s work at www.annemacmillan.com BRB I wanted to start by asking you what you’re currently working on. AM I’m making these boxes for rocks, that’s what I’m calling them, although I don’t think that anybody who looked at this would actually consider it a box, they’re filled with gaps. They’re cardboard enclosures made from one piece of cardboard that’s been scored and folded to fit back over top of a rock again. I got this idea one night when I was sleeping, it’s a collection of a bunch of my interests put together in one sculptural form. BRB What ideas are coming together? AM Thinking about detail, like being attentive to something. The rocks are an arbitrary subject matter; it’s about looking closely, but not nearly closely enough. I’m also interested in measuring things quantitatively and how that gives authority. BRB Where do you find the rocks? AM I collect them on my way, walking around. I feel uncomfortable when people ask me about that, I wish I had a certain sort of criteria for it, but in fact I just want to be able to do this to all rocks so I have no criteria. I want to leave it really open-ended so that each one is equally as important as the other. I wouldn’t just go and get a bucketful of rocks to do this though. They each have their own story, so that way I can actually remember them and keep them distinct. BRB The cover is all from one piece of cardboard? AM Yes, even though it looks like they may be constructed of individual facets, they are made from one piece of

scored cardboard. I find that a beautiful concept, that it’s made from one piece folded together, I think that’s what makes it a box to me. Boxes tend to be six-sided cubes, and the contents are obscured by the outside shape. I thought about making something that’s really intended for something, a specialty box. I like that quality of attentiveness. In my everyday life I am not especially attentive all of the time like I try to be when I make my art. I often find myself burning rice, or impatiently ripping packaging open, not cooking food long enough, or letting milk go bad in the fridge. I don’t want to act like I pay attention to every detail, though I’d love to be, instead I think I pay a lot of attention to a few things. BRB Now in its present state is it different from when you started trying to figure out the process? AM It definitely went through some changes. On the technical side of the process, I wanted it to be as objective as possible, I didn’t want to have to make artistic decisions during the initial process, which is funny because of course I had to, and that in itself is a decision, to remain objective. Objectifying things removes agency in decision-making, which is something I am critical of yet interested in, that you can rely on systems to make decisions for you. It is methodical, and in order to get the finished product you have to train yourself very intensely to follow certain steps so that you do it properly. I guess I like improving myself in that way, being patient, not rushing things. I really think that you can achieve anything if you just take time to figure out how it’s supposed to be done and have confidence in yourself. So I think that my process is enforcing those philosophies, slowing down, being careful, figuring things out, and then doing it justice. When I learned that the topic for this interview was Obsession I had a flurry of mixed feelings, at first I was like “I’m not obsessed!” But I think it’s something that is impressive in people when they exhibit signs of obsession, because I just think it shows they’re really invested in something [laughs].


BRB How do you measure the box for the rock? AM I have a 3D scanner and it measures the surface detail really accurately, way better than I could ever reproduce by hand. After I scan it, I reduce the surface detail from millions of facets to between a hundred and two hundred so that it’s something more manageable that I can make out of cardboard. Then I use different software to make sure it’s sized properly, but I actually have to measure the rock myself with calipers. I compare the rock shape to the model shape and make sure the sizing is correct because that information doesn’t always get recorded properly. And then I unfold it with other software. That’s where the gaps happen; it’s a result of the geometry not being able to be unfolded one hundred percent because of the complexity in the shape, or inherent problems with the scanned object. BRB Have you found there are boxes that you can’t make? AM There are a few rocks that I’m still working on but I haven’t given up on any rocks yet. There are rocks that I’ve had to do many, many times. It’s like putting together a puzzle and then when the last piece doesn’t fit you’re like “Shoot. I have to make the whole puzzle again.” BRB Are there any similarities in the boxes that you’ve made? AM I’ve found that the more edges that a rock has, the easier it is. If it’s more of a regular geometric shape, like if it’s closer to a pyramid, or a cube, then it will work really well. But even if it’s a smooth, rounded object that will work really well toothe undercuts are hard, and the really pitted shapes are hard. But similarities, I don’t know. They’re all really the same but at the same time, they’re all extremely unique. BRB You said the idea of boxes for rocks came when you were sleeping? AM I think it was an accumulation of work I’d done before that led to this, I was in bed and I woke up and thought “boxes for rocks!” I was so excited [laughs]. I had been working with cardboard for a while as a prototyping material to make large asteroid shapes, but those past experiments were problematic because they seemed a lot more like models to me. I was interested in geological forms like coastlines, and surfaces like potholes in roads and I’d been collecting rocks, so it all clicked together. It was really satisfying to figure that out. Making boxes for rocks has a lot of the same concepts as my Coastline drawing except in a sculptural form. I was thinking about the infinite detail of natural objects that I’d try to describe with traditional mathematics, which is an impossible thing to do without totally overlooking the real shape of it. BRB Can you explain the Coastline drawing? AM It was a drawing that could infinitely be more detailed the longer I worked on it. It’s one line that was broken in half repeatedly, and I used a randomly generated process with a coin and a dice to make it so the results were impartial. B.B. Mandelbrot wrote an essay called How Long Is the Coast of Britain? explaining that it depends on the length of your ruler. A coast becomes longer the shorter the unit of measurement you use because it’s infinitely detailed. You can look closer and closer and closer at a rock or a coastline and the repetitions of itself, instead of measuring it with a straight line you have to measure the degree of roughness. I thought that was amazing and I thought about what it would be like to walk on a coastline and pay as much attention as you can to what’s underneath your feet. Eventually you would just have to stop walking because you wouldn’t be able to move forward [laughs]. I think that’s a nice metaphor

for learning. I think a lot about specialization in learning as opposed to having a general knowledge, and I stress out a lot about that. There are strategies you have to figure out in order to cope with not being able to know very much to still feel like you know something. BRB I was looking at your drawings of object spinning on a certain axis- can you describe what these are? AM Those are asteroids, I’m scanning their surface with a drawn line as they rotate. So it’s their contour lines as they spin, and I’m tracing them frame-byframe. They’re real asteroids, they’re not just made up shapes although they look like they could be. The fact that they’re derived from something that’s real and massive, floating in space right now, is really exciting to me.

BRB It is intriguing how you leave evidence of the hand drawn and the handmade in your work. AM I get a lot of satisfaction from making things by hand and seeing how it changes from the stages of where it existed on the computer. I think a lot about authority, and the different strategies that there are to come to know the world- whether it’s an accepted method, like a scientific method, or a natural intuitive method. I’m thinking about those two methods quite a bit and comparing them and seeing how I can integrate both of them in my art practice because I feel they’re both valid. BRB How does science and technology inform your work? AM I’m more inspired by things I read in science than the arts, to be honest, it’s where my interests lie. But I’m by no means an expert in science or math, I don’t know as much as I would like to in these areas, because I am an artist borrowing concepts from these disciplines. BRB Is there anything that you have worked on that you’ve found particularly satisfying or exciting? AM There is one project I did a while ago that I should mention, because I think it helped inform work I’ve done ever since. It was a photography project where I tried to document everything in my apartment individually. It was this cataloguing process that first got me thinking about the paradox of the closer you examine something the more there is to see. I remember having a hard time deciding if I should photograph the outside of the game RISK, or open it up to each individual component. I had to make a lot of decisions like that, which was difficult. I also thought that by undergoing this process I could better understand my surroundings by understanding each separate component. In reality the work did more to abstract the relationship of the components. The projects I’m working on right now are super satisfying to me. I feel like I’m getting closer to what I’m interested in the more that I focus. The work I’ve done in the past is valid but I didn’t know what I wanted at that point, or where I was going, it’s creation became valuable as experimentation. And I think that’s maybe all I’ll ever do, is just a bunch of experiments, but I think I’ll get closer, or fine-tune the thoughts and feelings that I’m trying to achieve, the more I experiment. BRB This might be a question that’s impossible to answer but do you have any ideas about why you do what you do? AM Well, making these things is a way for me to think about the world. I’m not very good at stringing together words, for them to be eloquent and original, so this is my strategy. I feel fulfilled and driven when I get to be creative as a way to think about how we operate in the world.

10 & 11 Anne Macmillan interviewed by Bethany Riordan-Butterworth0



WORKROOM IS A NEW SECTION THAT PRESENTS IMAGES OF HALIFAX BASED ARTISTS IN THEIR STUDIOS

Mitchell Wiebe in his former studio photographed by Aaron McKenzie Fraser 12 & 13


Elsie’s Be Yourself and Have Fun 1530 Queen Street 425-2599 Aaron Mckenzie Fraser` www.amfraser.com Pictures of people wherever you are aaron@amfraser.com / 902. 233. 5666 Michael Fuller Photography themichaelfullerwebsite.com rivinus@gmail.com

I Leica You - Pictures of people & places

Invisible Publishing www.invisiblepublishing.com info@invisiblepublishing.com

Independent Canadian books for people who are cool. None of our books are about lighthouses or wheat. Seriously. Promise.

Centre for Art Tapes 902.422.6822 / centreforarttapes.ca cfat.communications@ns.sympatico.ca #220-1657 Barrington St. (Roy Building)

The Centre for Art Tapes supports artists at all levels working with electronic media including video, audio, and new media, through residencies, scholarships, production facilities, the presentation of media art exhibitions and screenings.

Lost & Found Store www.lostandfoundstore.blogspot.com 2383 Agricola St lostandfoundstore@gmail.com 902 446-5986

Art

DIVORCE DISTRO lost & found - 2383 Agricola St. www.divorcerecords.ca

experimental | punk | jazz | international | other ::::: a choice selection of new vinyl :::::

Bread & Butter Pottery breadandbutterpottery.com 2733 Agricola Street SHISO SHOP shisoshop.tumblr.com helloshiso@gmail.com EYELEVEL Gallery 2159 Gottingen St. 902 425 6412 director@eyelevelgallery.ca

2203 gottingen Street Space for emerging artiStS & engaged audienceS HaLifaX’S performing artS BLacK BoX rentaL Venue

www.thebusstoptheatre.org

/

Vintage /

Kitsch

Lighthearted functional pottery made in Halifax!

Someday this will be a real shop!

Eyelevel Gallery is a not-for-profit charitable organization dedicated to the presentation, development and promotion of contemporary art.


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