what: artist talk by jennifer bélanger, birte endrejat, irene izquierdo and joshua schwebel

where: skol gallery

when: september 16, 2009

when artists talk you learn things…and this is especially true when the artist engages in a practice that can not (for whatever reason) disclose itself as « art » while you are experiencing it. confused?

well, take jennifer bélanger for instance who shared with us the time she sent gifts to strangers, such as flowers to the women who work at the dollar store. this project, like much of jennifers work, relies upon an encounter that takes us out of our daily routine and encourages us to look at the world through fresh eyes. although don’t let the « nice girl » role fool you, jennifer also has her mischievous side too…

or birte endrejat who shared a work that only the participants knew about. in this work birte invited four people from four countries to prepare the favorite meal (vegetarian lasagne) of another artist (whom birte had invited for a residency project.) birte sent the same recipe to the four participants and instructed everyone to cook the lasagne on a certain day and to photograph the meal and send the photos to birte. over four countries the four participants were united through the commonality of following the instructions of birte, a community that never met shares in the knowledge that they are all preparing and eating the same meal.

or joshua schwebel. we are told a long and convoluted (and funny) story of the creation of an illusion of productivity. this illusion of productivity (which actually required a lot of work) was aimed towards debunking a power structure of elitism which ran through joshua’s experience of attaining a masters degree from the nova scotia college of art and design. joshua, who sees and brings to light flaws of logic or flaws in systems often exposes these flaws through a conceptual poetics. (conceptual poetics, i just coined that phrase…like it?)

and then we have irene izquierdo, an artist who works very much through an intuitive felt relation to space: architectural space and social space. space that conditions our compliance often without our conscious awareness. as irene spoke of the work she will be researching while here in montreal, i will not divulge her process, as her work, like jennifer’s work, relies very much on our unmediated reception. but if you see something in your travels through the city that sensitizes you to your relation to space through a gutsy yet somehow quietly unassuming action…it might be you have encountered irene.

jennifer bélanger: http://ineverreallylikedyou.blogspot.com

joshua schwebel: http://joshuaschwebel.com

birte endrejat: http://birteendrejat.com

irene izquierdo: http://ireneizquierdo.wordpress.com