1. Director’s Meandering Preamble 2. Collaging Myself - Jonathan Culp 3. ECHOES - Opening Reception4. ECHOES - Poetry and Performance5. Suitcase in Point presens The Big Time!6. Ape in the Mirror – Book Launch 7. Spectacle Chocolat - Call for Submissions
1. Director’s Meandering PreamblePreamble to Meandering PreambleA NAC member recently suggested to me that these periodic instalments of drivel were becoming formulaic. And while aimless diatribes about Vitamin D deficiencies and mood disorders during the winter months could be reasoned as self-referentially embedded in ruts, I’ve accepted the challenge to try and enliven things, just in time for this break of stupendous weather. I initiated a fresh approach by breaking with routine. Typically I derive inspiration for these missives in the following manner: open blank document, search out home row, hunch shoulders, sigh audibly, and begin stare down with monitor. In retrospect I realize that this practice may have defined the scope and flavour of past preambles. To reinvent things, I angled my line of vision about fifteen degrees away from the monitor’s screen to a small section of my desk (when it comes to breaking routine I can be a real radical). What I found to look at was the shell of a painted turtle and a pewter Monopoly token. There was other stuff on the desk too—a haphazard collection of piled paper, those persistent stockpiles of chores—but they were easily trumped for interest by this turtle shell and game token. The Office Grotto (edition one)Dwayne Coon (NAC member, great basketball player, and outdoorsman) worked in this building as a photographer before NAC purchased it. He left a couple of turtle shells kicking around here along with a collection of moose antlers—some very fine and unusual chattels. Somehow the fist-sized shell made it to my desk. I can’t say how the game token was divorced from its place in a Monopoly box or how it ended up on my desk, but it got there. Maybe a year ago, while on the phone or puttering with my piles of paper, I absent-mindedly placed the token on top of the shell. I instantly liked how they looked together and I’ve kept them paired and as a part of the clutter on my desk since.To my mind, these things are a match because of the meaningful debris that seems to spread from their collision. The little battleship sends a variety of signals. It’s industrial, military, imperialistic and originates from one of nearly everyone’s early lessons of the almighty money-go-round. The miniature scale of the ship transforms the turtle’s back into a world of its own, like a tiny globe. The turtle shell has it own collection of signals: slow, ancient, and hard. Plying its way across the shell’s surface a sense of nature’s indifference to the ship’s presence emerges, nature’s indifference to our presence. This narrative sketch also implies that this ship is without a port of departure or arrival. It’s a ship searching or a ship lost and the only thing certain about its voyage is that there is a perilous edge to this world. These two objects open a small pause for thought amidst the distracting, mindless, and ultimately inconsequential chores that mount around them on my desk. They are both a figurative and literal representation of how Heidegger (I think) once described art: like a clearing in the forest. Out thoughts, like the woods, can often grow dense and thickly and a clearing is a relief to find. If you happen to discover one on your desk, you leave it as a place to return to.
2. Collaging MyselfJonathan Culp in the Dennis Tourbin Members GalleryOpening Reception Friday 19 March at 7PMExhibit runs until Friday 27 March
3. ECHOES Works Inspired by Françoise Sullivan’s Danse dans la neigesFrançoise Sullivan, Luis Jacob, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Tom Scott, Carolyn WrenOPENING RECEPTIONSaturday 3 April between 4 and 6pmNiagara Artists Centre celebrates the creativity of Françoise Sullivan in an exhibition featuring the artist’s work alongside artists whose work is inspired by her seminal performance piece, Danse dans la neige created in 1948.Sullivan’s work is manifest by the other artists through video, print, and textile arts—a diversity of media that itself pays homage to the breadth and range of Sullivan’s artistic output. In addition to the work of Jacob, Scott, and Wren, Echoes is comprised of poetry readings and forums alongside the display of ephemera including a signed copy of the Refus Global manifesto.For a full list of events click here
4. ECHOES – Poetry and Performance for the AutomatistesFeaturing Christian Bök and CCMCThursday 1 April beginning at 7pmFive bucks or cough what you canAbout Christian BökChristian Bök is a Canadian experimental poet. His work Eunoia, a story that uses only one vowel in each of its five chapters (that is, a lipogram), is one of the best-selling works of Canadian poetry. Edited by Darren Wershler-Henry at Coach House Books, Eunoia won the lucrative Griffin Poetry Prize in 2002. His poetry has been featured in the lyrics of Norwegian artist Ulver's "A Quick Fix of Melancholy EP" (2003). Bök is also a sound poet, having performed an extremely condensed version of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate, and has created an artist book comprised of Rubik's cubes. Bök is a graduate of the University of Toronto and currently teaches at York University in Toronto. He has also worked in science-fiction television, designing artificial languages for fictional alien species.About CCMCCCMC 'free music orchestra' formed in 1974 in Toronto as the Canadian Creative Music Collective. Defining itself as, “a composing ensemble... united by a desire to play music that is fluid, spontaneous, and self-regulating,” the CCMC, by its instrumentation, by the backgrounds of several of its founders, and by the improvised nature of its music, was initially aligned with the free jazz community.CCMC is Michael Snow (piano), John Oswald (atlo sax), and Paul Dutton (vocals).
5. Suitcase in Point presentsThe 73rd Big Time World Theatre Awards - circa 1985Saturday 20 March 2010 Robertson Hall, Folk Arts CentreDowntown St. Catharines7:00pm - Red Carpet, Silent Auction Reception8:00pm - Awards Ceremony9:30pm - The David Fancy After Party"Heyyyyy youuuuu guys!"Suitcase in Point is going back to 1985 to host The 73rd Big Time World Theatre Awards! No guff! This event promises to be a seriously choice party with truly outrageous entertainment, totally radical boom boxin’, and your ultimate fave theatre stars walking the red carpet. Featuring a star-studded awards show, a serious silent auction, and a fly after party that you will remember for a million years! This is an 80's black tie event so start putting together your funky fresh gear!Beer courtesy of our friends at The Merchant Ale House & food by our friends from The Spotted Calf, The Office Tap and Grill, Wellington Court, and PowWow.Tickets:$20 General / $15 Student/ ArtistOR Ride up close and in style with a "Fancy Table of Four" - $300 (Includes a bottle of wine and VIP gift bag)Only 4 fancy tables left - book yours today by emailing annie@suitcaseinpoint.com Regular tickets available at Strega Cafe, The Spotted Calf and The Niagara Artists Centre (NAC) or at the event.For more information call 905.684.6255 x 1Trust us - you won't be saying - "let's not, and say we did."