OFFSITE PROJECT SERIES
Our offsite project series this year involves a broad selection of local and national artists chosen to create offsite works that activate public space, the outdoors, and alternative environments outside the gallery walls.

Three works by New Brunswick artists have been selected from a regional call for submissions. Adriana Kuiper & Ryan Suter, Amanda Fauteux, and W.L. Altman will present offsite works with funding from Canadian Heritage, Local Arts Festivals Program. The projects will be ongoing throughout the duration of Ok.Quoi?!, at locations to be announced.

Adriana Kuiper & Ryan Suter will be working collaboratively to combine interests in sheltered spaces, unexplained phenomena, audio & electronics through the construction of a motion-sensor truck canopy and gramophone. Their installation will be located in Memorial Park.
Amanda Fauteux will conduct a gentle social intervention in the downtown landscape through the animation of her cotton and polymer clay rats.
W.L. Altman will present a video in conjunction with a live performance, which will culminate in a musical piece of a truly unique nature.


ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER
"Art in the public realm carries with it a strange responsibility. While it is ostensibly for the larger community, it is rarely chosen with their input, and often ignores their interests.

“Art is not democratic. It is not for the people,” remarked Richard Serra after a nine-year long battle that saw the removal of his public sculpture Tilted Arc, because locals complained that it was an eyesore, disrupted foot traffic, encouraged rats and graffiti, and (most staggeringly) might aid “muggers, assassins and anarchists” in their various crimes.

“We have enough concrete in Bow already” was a popular argument against Rachael Whiteread’s monumental East London sculpture House. Well received among the art communities, the installation work came under fire from locals and was debated on the front page of national tabloids and in the House of Commons. Erected in August of 1993, the work was demolished a mere five months later.

Commissioning bodies or project funders often have an ulterior motive for public art, ranging from a benign kind of visual fluoride to attempting to reduce anti-social behaviour such as loitering or vandalism. Temporary projects, such as the ones in this festival, have become increasingly cajoled into becoming light family entertainment. Outdoor art events such as the international Nuit Blanche franchise are designed in part to fuel tourism. Success is measured in attendance figures and economic impact. Accordingly, artists are charged with making their projects bigger, brighter and more interactive.

When, as it is with most interventionist art, the audience for a work is primarily accidental, certain questions nag: Should public art be community or artist-driven? Are the options limited to elitist ‘expertise’ or mediocre consensus? Who has aesthetic ownership over public space? Is it the role of the artist to contribute to the betterment of society?

The artists in this exhibition deftly sidestep these questions with discreet works that involve weather, sound, light, gas, and even less tangible materials. The mostly site-specific projects are neither cynical nor antagonistic. From laughing gas to healing crystals, many of the works refer to – and indeed are – gestures of goodwill, but without the unmistakable scent of condescending do-goodery.

The projects eschew obtrusive monumentalism and in-your-face provocation in favour of subtle integration. The works are dynamic and conceptually rich, but relatively inconspicuous. They are to be sought out or stumbled upon."
Dave Dyment, 2010 curator


A series of works by national artists has been curated by Dave Dyment (Toronto), a multi-disciplinary media artist, writer and curator. Artists Scott Rogers (Calgary), Jason de Haan (Calgary), Robert Hengeveld (Toronto), Eleanor King (Halifax) and Alex Snukal (Toronto) will each travel to Sackville to install site-specific works. Scott Rogers will be drawing attention to curious crack that rents the pavement on Lorne Street through a sculptural and audio work that aims to draw attention to a lesser-known wonder of the Sackville landscape. Jason de Haan will tap into the mysterious restorative energy of new age crystallography in a gesture of goodwill titled Hope, Love, Peace, Healing, Generosity, Purpose, Harmony. Robert Hengeveld animates a series of common objects abnormally with the electrical pulse of morse code in a work titled Still Looking For More. Alex Snukal presents Pleasing Atmosphere, a series of nitrous oxide canisters mounted throughout the town in the spirit of engaging and uplifting public art. Look for Alex's project at various locations downtown. Eleanor King's performance will use the act of renovation to create a musical piece where subtle and jarring sounds are captured by contact microphones attached to the tools of the trade, then amplified and manipulated in real time. Eleanor’s work is meant to be helpful and to give notice to - and expand on - rhythms and utterances created by the body at work.


COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE
This year's composer in residence is Martin Arnold from Toronto, ON. Martin is a composer and performer who has studied in Edmonton, Banff, the Hague, and Victoria, where his teachers included Alfred Fisher, Frederic Rzewski, John Cage, and Louis Andriessen, among others. He is a founding member of the Drystone Orchestra and from 1995-2000 he was artistic director of The Burdocks. Currently he plays guitar, banjo, melodica and live electronics in Marmots and Cow Paws as well as in bands led by Ryan Driver and Eric Chenaux. Martin works as a gardener and teaches in the Cultural Studies Department of Trent University.

Martin will perform on multiple occasions throughout the festival, as well as his work being performed by members of Motion Ensemble. Martin’s residency will culminate in a performance of his piece ‘Tam Lin’, accompanied by musicians Eric Chenaux, Ryan Driver, and Doug Tielli.

OPEN STUDIO ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Our Open Studio artist in residence this year is Caitlin Thompson. Caitlin is a performance and video artist born and raised in the rural farming community of Meeting Creek, Alberta. This locale led her to be interested in small community activities like festivals, parades and pageants. Caitlin recieved her BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art & Design, where she focused her graduating body of work in costume and video.

Caitlin's residency will kick off with an artist talk on Wednesday, July 7th at 7pm. She will be on air at 7pm on July 8th with Claire Gallant's ARTWAVES on CHMA 106.9. On July 14th at 3pm, Caitlin will be hosting a workshop involving a walk around the Waterfowl Park and a photoshoot. For Ok.Quoi?!, Caitlin will install a series of periscopes in the Waterfowl Park where the view provided is of a landscape other than the natural environment. Combining interests of movement, landscape andcostuming, Caitlin will create a series of spectacular views appealing to the meandering, observational nature of the Waterfowl boardwalk.
caitlinthompson.ca/

FREQUENT MUTILATIONS
Andrew O'Connor (Ontario) is an installation/sound artist and radio producer. His installation Frequent Mutilations, a pioneer of radio art programming which uses analog tape loops that weave together different sounds and textures into slowly evolving, slightly random compositions, has been presented in various locations such as the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener, the Filmless Festival in Chicago, and Vancouver New Music Festival.

Andrew O'Connor will present Frequent Mutilations at the festival - a continuation of, or tribute to, "one of Canada's longest-running audio art programs" - a radio art program of the same name that existed on a small community station in Waterloo for over twenty-five years. The installation is made from four reel-to-reel tape machines and a series of giant analog tape loops that are cut and spliced live into the mix. The artist listens to random pieces of analog recordings through another machine on his headphones, and cuts a piece of tape to be looped - the randomness involved in the process is with deciding on the selection to be cut, the timing of setting up the loop, and last minute adjustments to the loop size, adding up to create an interesting and complex sound structure.


ANDREW MILLER
Andrew Miller (New Brunswick) founded Motion Ensemble in 1998. He has played with The Canadian Opera Company, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and has written music for orchestra, dance, chamber music, film, theatre and performance art. Andrew is also the host of Re:Sound, a weekly show on community radio CHSR 97.9FM and is currently teaching courses in the audio engineering department of the Centre for Arts and Technology.

In addition to performing with Motion Ensemble, Andrew will present two installations, Fan (2009) and Breath I (2010). In Fan, a double bass and violin are played with an oscillating fan and propellers attached to the instrument’s strings. In Breath I, a still image projects on a hanging piece of fabric, accompanied by an audio loop.