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 Takin' it to the Curb
An Installation by Clinton Michael Lown
On display from 3 March - 9 June 2012
Preview: Saturday 3 March at 3pm
Opening Reception and Artist Talk to take place in April
I bought a VHS player at a garage sale for 5 dollars. It worked for a good six months and then I took it to the curb. My first beta was used and cost me 400 dollars which is the equivalent of 10 000 dollars in today’s dishwashing economy of St Catharines. I used to work at a video store, gone; a factory, gone; and a full service gas station, gone. I could afford a made of steel, made in Japan Beta Max. My first machine wasn’t even H Fi and cost me over 500 dollars. You couldn’t buy a machine back then unless you went to a video store to buy one. There was no Best Buy next to Future Shop next to Walmart and Zeller’s didn’t have them. You can own it on Blue Ray and you can spend over 100 dollars a month on internet and cable even though the movies are still the same. Oh they might look better, but they’re still the same. I was given a DVD player; I didn’t have to buy one and I’ve already thrown two away. Now if someone breaks into a house all they can steal has already been taken to the curb and anything made of steel has long been rusted away. The crows stay high in the trees and wait patiently for me to be taken to the curb and when they do they will fly down and peck out my eyes and take me to a place that’s special. A place where size matters most, the size of your Beta movie collection. |
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 drip | jon shaw
On display from 9 Aug - 8 Nov 2011
Reception Sat 10 Sept at 8pm
Jon Shaw’s animation documents a keen interest in technical and critical experimentation. His work combines a variety of media through self-taught animation techniques. As a traditionally trained painter, drawer and sculptor, Jon does not classify himself as an animator or filmmaker in the conventional sense. He views his animated work as an extension of other branches of artistic production, preferring to categorize them as “animated drawings” rather than “films” or “videos”.
Jon’s animations often focus around the theme of technology and its role in a contemporary world. Drip, alternatively, is a more concise experiment. Containing neither a beginning nor an end, the work focuses on the interaction of different drawing styles. The work’s essence is contained within the reciprocal nature of the moment – it invites the viewer to stop, look, relax and enjoy the serene simplicity.
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 Rough Count by Deirdre Logue
March - June 2011During the simple act of counting a bag of confetti – piece by piece – memory thresholds are found and failures amass. The performer begins each count where she left off last. Like pixilation, each individual dot is required to complete the picture. Each tiny piece must be located first in the hand, then between fingers, accounted for and then placed. But with memory maxing out, she is distracted, often fumbles, then forgets. She is disappointed in herself, becomes impatient, and anticipates the impending interruption, knowing that each inevitable failing will stop the clock. At Rough Count’s conceptual centre is anticipation and the accumulation of anxiety that results. In this emotional pile up, time spent is grieved with each lost number and the counting becomes a sight for the analysis of self-doubt where even before the point of completion, one starts to question the purpose of ones action.
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