CAFKA.02
Power to the People
The thematic title Power to the People was chosen to recognize the 100th anniversary of the inception, in Kitchener, of one of the largest publicly owned utilities in the world. The phrase encouraged artists either to make works that responded directly to this history, to take up its democratic connotations, or to simply view public artistic activity as an act of empowerment in itself.
On September 21st, Kitchener welcomed 20 artists from across Canada, the United Kingdom, United States, and Mexico. Accompanying their fascinating projects was a program of video works including titles from Canada, France, and Germany. Round Table Discussions featured an impressive roster of museum, arts, and academic professionals who debated issues related to artists and activism, censorship, and the artist/curator hybrid.
The organizers hope that this event helped increase the public for visual art in the spirit of what was once a civic motto: "Public enterprise started here."
Helen Quinn - A New Electrical Machine for the Table
My work is primarily about motion. I am interested in tracking movement and trying to understand its spirit. I have found that light, sound and mark have been excellent ways to track movement. In A New Electrical Machine for the Table sound tracks the movement of a variety of simple mechanisms. This tabletop machine is based on electrical experiments and contraptions of the 18th century, a time when scientists were thought of as magicians, and electricity was thought of as a spell or elixir.
Helen Quinn lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her undergraduate degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1991 and her Masters from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2000. Her kinetic installations, sound pieces and drawings have been exhibited in the US and now, in Canada.
James Williams - Untitled
Since the erection of Hamilton's first blast furnace in 1896, steel has played a primary role in my hometown's industrial development. In fact, for more than a half century, the steel industry in Hamilton, Ontario was the city's largest employer. It is not surprising, therefore, that much of my art focuses on issues of industry, labor and working class.
Society clings to stereotypical images of blue-collar workers and treats heavy industry and hard labor as an embarrassment. I hope my work can stimulate a moral impulse in viewers and provide a positive reinforcement for working class people everywhere.
A graduate of the Master's Program at State University of New York at Buffalo an of the Ontario College of Art, James Williams has exhibited his work in The American Labor Museum, New Jersey, George Meany Center Archives, Maryland , Instituto Chileno Norteanericano Gallery, Santiago, Chile, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, and at Kunstlerhaus Ulm, Ulm/Donau, Germany.
Jillian McDonald - Power Tattoo
As a performance artist, I want to take everyday activities beyond their usual significance, inserting a sense of play. Participants become instant co-authors of the artwork, allowing direct interaction between artist and participants. Power Tattoo will be a sidewalk performance where passersby are invited to receive a temporary "power tattoo."
Jillian Mcdonald is a Canadian performance and media artist living in New York. Her work has been shown at Whitebox, NYC; Headquarters, Toronto; Art in General, NYC; Ars Morta, Czech Republic; and online at Straylight (Dublin). She received a Canada Council for the Arts Grant for In the Public Eye, a series of public performances, and is co-curator of No Live Girls—a 60-artist video project for peepbooths.
