The North
of Nowhere (NoN) Expo:
A Multidisciplinary Festival of
Independent Media & Underground Art
Sept. 16-30, 2007
JustSeeds
Location: Naked Cyber Café
JustSeeds Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative is a decentralized community
of artists who have banded together to collaborate with and support each
other and social movements. JustSeeds believes in the power of personal
expression in concert with collective action to transform society. JustSeeds
was originally started in 1998 by artist Josh MacPhee as a way to distribute
his art and the Celebrate People's History poster series. He slowly expanded
JustSeeds to include the work of like-minded artists. In 2004 it grew too
large to hold in MacPhee's apartment and order fulfillment was taken on
by Clamor Magazine and their new online sales venture Infoshop Direct. Both
JustSeeds and Infoshop Direct continued to grow, but in late 2006, serious
financial problems at Infoshop Direct caused it to unexpectedly and immediately
shut down. JustSeeds was left with no functioning website, no order fulfillment
service, and over $8,000 in debt; things looked pretty bleak. Amazingly,
a grassroots effort of hundreds of people donating relatively small amounts
of money helped JustSeeds pay off all it's debt, and a couple of successful
benefit art shows raised enough money to launch a new and improved website.
During this difficult time, MacPhee reached out to a dozen like-minded artists
and previous collaborators as well as the political street art blog Visual
Resistance in order to re-create JustSeeds as a cooperative effort. JustSeeds
was transformed into JustSeeds/Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative, an
artist/worker owned and run cooperative that has just launched as of the
summer of 2007. Their online infoshop is a destination to find out about
current events in radical art and culture, and their blog covers political
printmaking, socially engaged street art, and culture related to social
movements. This exhibit will contain 48 posters ranging from woodblock prints
to lino prints, stencils and mixed media. http://www.justseeds.org
Artists:
Colin Matthes, Icky A., Josh MacPhee, Meredith Stern, Pete Yahnke, Chris
Stain, Bec Young, Dylan Miner, Erik Ruin, Kristine Virsis , Mary Tremonte,
Nicolas Lampert and Roger Peet.
INGRID RICE
Location: Outdoors, North Side, Jasper Ave. at 108
St.
*Indoors @ Naked Cyber Cafe Oct. 22 - Nov. 30
Ingrid Rice was born in England in 1956 and attended high school in North
Vancouver. After attending Langara College for a year, Rice worked in the
graphics department of BCTV. She then became the Art Director of TV Week
magazine and then Art Director of Westworld. Since 1985 she has been self-employed
as a graphic designer. Ingrid Rice is the only western-based national female
editorial cartoonist. Rice freelanced for the Vancouver Sun from 1992 to
1994, after which she pursued self-syndication, producing 2 to 3 cartoons
per week and publishing in major dailies across the country and also in
community newspapers throughout British Columbia.
http://www.canadiancartoonists.com/cartoonist_rice.html
http://cagle.msnbc.com/politicalcartoons/PCcartoons/rice.asp
http://edocs.lib.sfu.ca/projects/Cartoons/bio-rice.htm
Street
Art Workers Poster Project: Land & Globalization Series
LOCATIONS: Indoors, at the Propaganda Party; Outdoors
@ 10336-Jasper Ave.(Right beside Naked Cyber Cafe)
The newest project from the Street Art Workers (SAW) takes a look at how
corporate globalization has affected our world, how it has impacted the
land, and how people are fighting back. This collection of 25 posters represents
artists from 20 cities in 10 different countries. These posters illustrate
specific struggles in countries like Brazil and the United States, and they
also tackle international issues around poverty and gentrification. Along
with a strong critique of imperialism, the posters show how communities
throughout the world are resisting corporate power for a more just and sustainable
world.
Artists: Ally Reeves, Anthony Garner, Andalusia, Bahador Shojapour,
Bérénice Kaluza, Colin Matthes, Erik Ruin, Danielle Foder, Free Cooperative
of design/Octavio Jiménez, Katie burkart, Lena Szczesna & Filip Berendt,
Kim McCarthy, Nicolas Lampert, Lex Drewinski, Ljubica Marcetic Marinovic,
Pete Yahnke, Sam kerson, Sébastian Courtois, Jonathon Baker, Meredith Stern,
Taber Calderon, laude moller, Slawek Rogowski & Dominic Edwards, Collectivo
Sublevarte, Icky A.
Celebrate People's History Poster Series
Location: Still homeless during the actual Expo,
sorry.
*Indoors @ Naked Cyber Cafe Oct. 22 - Nov. 30
A separate exhibition from the JustSeeds Collective, this wildly popular
series of 38 underground art posters profiles legendary radical folks, events
and movements such as anarcho-feminist Emma Goldman, Wangari Maathai (creator
of the Greenbelt Movement), to Crazy Horse's defeat of General Custer in
the Battle of Little Bighorn, to Hitler's White Rose resisters, eventually
caught and executed by the Nazis." http://www.justseeds.org
Artists: Chris Stain, Eian Dhruva, Aprille,
Lindsay, Roger Peet, Brandon Bauer, Pete Yahnke, Swoon, Keinom, Icky A.,
Erok Aldredor, Pete Yahnke, Roger Peet, Marc Nelson/Peter Cole, David Lester,
Erik Ruin, Anonymous, Art Hazelwood, Anonymous, Meredith Stern, Beth Pulcinella,
Shaun Slifer, Cristy Road, Nicolas Lampert, Colin Matthes, Dylan Miner,
Miriam Stahl & Boff Whalley, Anonymous, Ally Reeves, Adam Fanucci, Nicole
Schulman, B. Cortez & B. Riley, Josh Russell, Claude Moller and Josh MacPhee.
Stupid Protests
Location: Alberta Public Interest Research Group*, HUB Mall, University of Alberta
The Worth1000 website recently sponsored a "stupid protests" contest,
inviting people to contribute their own Photoshop-remixed versions of
protest photos from various rallies and marches. We protesters get a bad
rap sometimes, so this is our opportunity to prove we have a sense of
humour. Like our massive copyleft anti-war poster series in 2005, ESPA
has reproduced the best, most hilarious Worth1000 entries into an exhibit
that we hope will inspire others to protest... however stupid their
cause may be. www.worth1000.com
* We has a hard time finding a taker for this exhibit:
"I regret to advise you that your request
for the "Stupid Protests" exhibit at the legislature has not been approved.
We are not opposed to humorous exhibits but this one falls a little short of the
standard here. However I do appreciate your interest and I hope you are able
to locate a suitable venue."- Visitor Services, Legislative Assembly of Alberta
GISELLE
PETERS
Location: Cargo & James Tea
Giselle Peters graduated in 2006 from the Alberta College of Art and Design
in Calgary, Alberta with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Ceramics.
Working primarily in ceramic, fibre, and painting mediums, Giselle experiments
with mixed media techniques to combine these materials both sculpturally
and two dimensionally. Recurrent subjects in her work in all mediums are
nostalgia, decay and change as she finds inspiration in historical imagery
and in the beauty of aging. Giselle has exhibited in the Illingworth Kerr
Gallery and the Marion Nicoll Gallery in Calgary and the Chagall Gallery
and Kamena Gallery in Edmonton and has taken part in several group exhibitions
at the Red Deer College, Sage Theatre, the Alberta College of Art and Design,
and the University of Regina. She was a recipient of the Jason Lang Scholarship
and a nominee for the Governor General Award in 2006.
Artist Statement: "In my work, the materials I use are central to
the concept. I am inspired by fabric as a central material because of its
ability to produce strong connotations based on cultural associations and
its ability to conjure memory; silk and lace bring different ideas than
burlap or vintage wallpaper though these fabrics might combine in one memory
of a specific time or place. I am inspired by things of the past, methods
of transformation and by patterns of decay. I like old pictures that have
faded and torn, old magazine covers with outgrown products. I remember rust
patterns on old buildings, knots in old trees and cigarette burn patterns
on bus stop walls. The mind remembers only fractions of moments and for
me, these are recorded in textures. 
These motifs direct my work and together
create a sort of dialog of memories and potential imagery from which I create
my own patterns or events. I work with combinations of sculptural and illustrative
to create a balance between the real and the imaginary and to juxtapose
sensations of mind and matter. The tactile quality of the paintings
gives substance to the illusory imagery of painting. I consider all of my
work to be a constant self portrait; all images and textures are fed by
things that inspire me, places I've been, pieces from my diaries, pictures
from my past. They are a scrapbook of my memories and influences." Giselle
currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta. www.artofgisellepeters.com
Pinwheels for Peace Project
Installation Date: Sept. 21, International Day of
Peace
Location: City Hall (1 Sir Winston Churchill Square)
around the War Memorial (oh, the irony). As this is September in Edmonton,
Pinwheels may very well have to be removed later that afternoon, so we will
re-plant them in a nearby indoor location--look for them!
In today's world, peace needs to become more than just a word. Society is
bombarded with television images, video games, and magazine articles that
give importance to conflict and war. Violence has become commonplace and
accepted as part of our society and, for some students, it is a way of life.
The Pinwheels for Peace project aims to help people
make a public visual statement about their feelings about war & peace, tolerance
& cooperation, harmony & unity, and awaken the public and let them know
what the next generation is thinking.
The NoN Expo's local installation of Pinwheels will
be planted at a (currently secret) location downtown on Sept. 21.
We invite all others to create pinwheels
of all shapes and sizes and plant them with us,
or, we challenge other groups (schools, community
groups, NGOs, etc.,) to simply create and plant your
own Pinwheels on Sept. 21, wherever you like! If
you plant your own Pinwheels, please send us digital photos HERE
, or call us at (780) 434-9236, and we will forward your photos with
others from Edmonton to the International organizers.
Pinwheels for Peace is an art installation
project started in 2005 by two Art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillan,
who teach at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Florida, as a way for
students to express their feelings about what's going on in the world and
in their lives. The project was quickly embraced by their students and the
entire school community. On Sept. 21, 2005, they estimate that 500,000 pinwheels
were planted in over 1,350 locations throughout the world! On September
21, 2006, approximately 1 million pinwheels were planted in 2,500+ locations!
See the main site at: www.pinwheelsforpeace.com
Please plan to join us again, on Sept. 21, 2007, as
we once again celebrate the International Day of Peace with "whirled peace!"
* DOWNLOAD A PINWHEEL TEMPLATE HERE.
The UN International Day of Peace Flag-Raising Ceremony
NOON at City Hall (1 Sir Winston Churchill Square)
Join us for this annual flag-raising ceremony and official Proclamation by the City of Edmonton in honour of the International Day of Peace! Includes speakers representing Edmonton Women in Black, Project Ploughshares, the Edmonton Interfaith Centre, and more.
Info: Earth's General Store (780) 439-8725 or egs@interbaun.com
The NoN Expo is ESPA's Contribution to the HUMANITARIAN
ART MANIFESTO…
The world is changing constantly, and as we respond to the challenges of
a society in permanent turmoil, our focus and attention shift to different
matters. Today on all continents, there is higher consciousness about: people's
dignity, fundamental rights & freedoms; the cruelty of wars; and the oneness
of the human family on a global level. Artists from all around the world
have started to place humanitarian and environmental concerns at the centre
of their work. Here is a manifesto to declare and bring to attention the
artworks produced passionately by artists dedicated to the happiness of
people, as a new movement in art: Humanitarian Art, as witness to the world
and to inspire unity.
We the artists: place our creative talents
at the service of humanity, and share in the sufferings of those under injustice,
with the goal of empowering them with hope and energy o use the universal
language of art to communicate the beauty of humanity and positive peace
o bring to view the need to act with care and compassion instead of inhumanity
o speak for, and on behalf of, our fellow artists who cannot exhibit and
share their works because of the suppressive rules under which they live;
those artists whose lives are in danger o prompt dialogue among different
cultures through our art.
The essence and focus of Humanitarian Art is passion for people and life.
It is communicative and carries a message intelligible to and felt by the
viewer. It has one main object: the theme of Human Dignity. It is an art
for all people to share and take part in, not just for the artist who has
created the artwork. It is an art produced with purity of intention, with
love towards others and not for political prestige. It has sincerity as
its strength, and is given from one humble soul to the next. It speaks for
the voiceless-exploited peoples whose voices & needs have been suppressed.
Humanitarian Art is an eye that sees beyond the
surface and strives to find deeper meaning in all things.
The above is an abridged version of the full text. Read
the full Manifesto HERE.
The Edmonton Small Press Association
(ESPA) is a founding signatory of the Humanitarian Art Manifesto, which
was created by Ms. Lida Sherafatmand (Iran). The Humanitarian
Art Manifesto has been signed by dozens of artists from around the
world, and invites all other artists to join this movement. Contact the
ESPA for more info and a direct link. Make Art,
Not War!
ALSO THIS MONTH, CHECK OUT:
STATE OF THE ART 2007
A series of workshops and a competition to create paintings for the
exterior wall of the new East Jasper Ave. iHuman building. Develop skills
with artists and compete creatively!
On location at the new iHuman Youth
Society Building 10231 95 St.
Weekend Workshops
Techniques and Discussion
11 am - 4 pm
September 08 + 09 September 15 + 16
all materials supplied
Competition for 5 Murals
Submit sketches by September 16
Runs September 16 - October
06
$ 2500 available prize for leading concepts
Teams of 2 to 4 only
all
materials supplied
OPEN TO ALL ARTISTS
Call ihuman at 780.421.8811 or email stateart.ihuman@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/ihumanyouthsociety
www.ihuman.org for further
info on competition and workshops
EDMONTON POETRY FESTIVAL
Sept. 17-23, Various Locations www.edmontonpoetryfestival.com
CORTEX - a multidisciplinary event
www.thecortex.ca
Tuesday, Sept. 18, 7-9:30pm
Latitude 53 Gallery, 2nd Floor, 10248 - 106 Street
Admission: $5 at the door; cash bar and finger food available
This is Your Brain on Art! Come experience CORTEX, an event designed foster
collaboration and connections between artists of various disciplines. CORTEX
brings together poets, visual and video/media artists, musicians and dancers
for an evening of collaborative creation. The participants in CORTEX have
spent the last several months working on their own and together to create
new work that explores the inspiration that can come from work in another
discipline. Poets will work with dancers and musicians; visual artists will
work with media artists and poets... and more.
* Visual art, video, and poetry will be on display from September 19-22
inclusive, during regular gallery hours: 10am-5pm
searching for balance
www.artgalleryalberta.com/content/view/128/13/
Works by Leszek Wyczolkowski
@ the SNAP Gallery, 10309-97 St.
Sept. 6 - Oct. 13, Tues-Sat 12 noon-5pm
INFO: 423.1492 or snap@snapartists.com
