The McMaster Museum of Art is hosting a workshop to teach the basics of mini zine making and trading art
For this year's Thrive Week, the McMaster Museum of Art is hosting a mini zine-making workshop. The workshop will be hosted on January 23 from 12 to 1 p.m.
Thrive Week is being held from January 22 to 26, and it is being managed by the McMaster Okanagan Office of Health and Mental Well-being. Its purpose is to bring the university community together to discuss mental health and find ways to support each other. Different areas of campus will be holding events throughout the week for students, alumni, staff and faculty.
Past Thrive Week events have included a therapy dog visit, a guided forest walk, a farm visit and a kind thoughts box.
The event will cover the basics of making mini zines while allowing participants to practice their own unique artistic style. You can also learn about trading your creations and the artistic process of zines in general. The workshop will also have a tour of the museum's exhibition Chasm.
The workshop is free to attend and includes free access to zine-making materials. To attend, you have to register online. Spots are limited!
Students should check out the upcoming event if they are interested in creating art or zines, learning more about different artistic forms or taking a break from studies to do something fun. Students should also keep an eye out for other Thrive Week events, especially if they are looking for ways to prioritize their mental health during the busy start to the semester. The full listing of Thrive Week events can be found here.
All images C/O Bob McNair
The first interdisciplinary evidence-based exhibition to unpack the current discourse and complexities of global vaccination debuts at the McMaster Museum of Art
The debate on vaccines is neither new nor exclusive to COVID-19 vaccines. However, it has taken greater precedence in the context of the current pandemic with millions continuing to be affected by the disease and many countries introducing mandatory vaccine and testing policies. Other factors, including one’s level of confidence, access to vaccines and a sense of collective responsibility, have contributed to the debate’s complexity, making it difficult to unpack. Fortunately, where words have failed in facilitating these challenging conversations, art has found success in fulfilling its role.
Immune Nations is the first interdisciplinary evidence-based exhibition to address the issue of vaccines. Debuting for the first time in Canada, the exhibition will be at the McMaster Museum of Art from Sept. 14 to Dec. 10. All visitors must book their visit through the museum’s website and provide proof of vaccination. For a sneak peek of the incredible works on display, a virtual tour is available through the MMA’s website and YouTube channel.
The exhibition features works such as Jesper Alvaer’s Upstream the Cold Chain, a video comparing how developed and developing nations are navigating the network of fridges and cold rooms required to access vaccines, and Patrick Mahon and Annemarie Hou’s Design for a Dissemunization Station, portable tent structures presented with audio invoking feelings of the vaccine traveling through the body. A wide range of multimedia is used to explore vaccine hesitancy and resistance and global use and distribution of vaccines. Altogether, the works offer an immersive stage to contemplate and interact with the topics of current discourses on vaccination.
The research and design process of the exhibition took place from 2014 to 2017, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was initially developed to examine inequities in vaccine allocation and access under the co-leadership of Natalie Loveless, the curator of the exhibition and an associate professor of contemporary art history and theory at the University of Alberta; Steven Hoffman, professor of global health, law and political science at York University and the director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance, and the Institute of Population & Public Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; and Sean Caulfield, centennial professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, along with support from their graduate research assistant and PhD candidate Vicki Kwon.
During the research and design process, an interdisciplinary team of artists, scientists and policymakers from seven countries gathered in a series of workshops to share their perspectives and expertise. From the larger team, smaller groups were formed to each focus on a particular issue, such as the fear of misinformation, and strategize ways to encapsulate and promote public engagement with the topic.
“[A]rtists were not simply given a topic to reflect on, but were asked, together with global health policy experts and vaccine scientists and humanities scholars, to engage in a collaborative research journey out of which, together, they co-created artistic works designed to engage the public on issues surrounding vaccines—their use and distribution, history and value as well as anxiety and misinformation,” said Loveless in a statement.
In March 2017, the first exhibition of Immune Nations was presented at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art’s Galleri KiT as part of the 2017 Norwegian Global Health & Vaccinations Research Conference. Its second installment occurred shortly after in May of the same year at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva.
The current exhibition at the MMA marks its third iteration and a celebratory milestone for the museum as the show kicked off the museum’s first reopening since its closure in March 2020. Originally, the exhibition was scheduled to open last year in September at the MMA, however, due to the pandemic, it was postponed. Instead, the past year was used to introduce additional works that reflect the new challenges and uncertainties brought on by the pandemic. These include Caulfield and Sue Colberg's #InfoDemic, Kaisu Koski's HUG, Arman Yeritsyan and Mkrtich Tonoyan's Antisocial Distancing and Kwon's Travelling Memories: The Vaccine Archive.
These new additions to the exhibition highlight the complexities of experiencing the pandemic in a war-torn country, the influence of ideologies on trust in science and profound loneliness linked to social isolation.
“It’s really interesting that we did this project before the pandemic and that we have had this opportunity to reflect on it and situate it in a very new context/world created by the pandemic,” said Loveless in her statement.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the exhibition has gathered increasing interest from the larger public. Loveless hopes the exhibition can help people to have deeper, more respectful and more empathetic conversations with each other.
“Art, at its best, brings that nuance and complexity that we need sometimes in this world of sound bites and memes and social media factoids…The exhibition emphasizes the power of the arts in thinking more deeply and critically about these pressing public policy issues…and in more fully addressing underlying root causes through exploration, empathy and collaboration, ” said Loveless in her statement.
In addition to the power of the arts for facilitating difficult dialogues, Loveless stresses the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in bringing new perspectives to the inquiry of social and political issues and overcoming implicit biases across different fields.
“Rather than bringing experts in different fields together to expediently combine their resources and skills, I'd like to see more interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and scientists, or artists and experts in other fields, that take as their starting point a kind of mutual questioning—an inquiry into the disciplinary bases and biases that work to configure how we ask our questions, from where we ask our questions and consider how these affect the kinds of answers that surface,” explained Loveless in her statement.
A trove of paintings is held on McMaster’s campus. Monet, Matisse and Van Gogh are just some of the artists in the collection. Staples in galleries around the world, immortalized in art prints or socks, these artists have reached the pinnacle of the art world, but also having a place in Hamilton.
The collection of European masterpieces comes from Herman Levy, a Hamilton businessman and art lover who once took art history classes at McMaster. Levy was a jeweler by trade and in his spare time an engaged member of the McMaster and Hamilton art communities. His interest in European art prompted him to collect famous works from the canon throughout his lifetime, including German expressionists and French painters.
Levy donated his private collection to the McMaster Museum of Art in 1984, and upon his death in 1990 left a bequest so the collection could be expanded. The accumulated art works now belong to McMaster and have toured the world, a testament to the collection’s prestige.
The Levy collection’s return from a cross-Canada tour brings 185 European and American art works back to their Hamilton home. But first the works had to be curated into an exhibit that would resonate with viewers nearly 30 years after Levy’s death. Faced with this challenge, Pamela Edmonds, the senior curator at the MMA, interpreted the pieces to provoke new ideas and interpretations in the homecoming exhibition.
French masters Monet and Matisse now hang on the white walls of the MMA. Monet’s painting of Waterloo bridge shows an industrial scene against a hazy sky, not unlike the real scenes of Hamilton’s shores. Except this image is worth millions. Another work by the impressionist sold for $110.7 Million in May 2019.
But cost doesn’t necessarily equal value.
“The Monet is something I’ve been told is in demand all the time for people to see, but is it more about the cachet or whatever around the artist, or is it the actual object. And so I was trying to play with the hierarchy — of why something if it’s worth $50 million makes it more important? Does it really? . . . For me, I could be just as connected to something if I don’t know the artist,” said Edmonds.
Levy’s donations reflected his art interests: artists are predominantly European, and almost exclusively white. Edmonds, throughout her career as a curator, has questioned why galleries and exhibits didn’t seem to reflect perspectives beyond the western canon. Without curation, dominant voices within the art canon remain unchallenged, despite representing very few experiences captured in the visual form. This prompted the curator to consider how to include more works from the long history of non-western visual arts in the newest presentation of the Levy collection.
The latest exhibition of the collection, it is from here that the world unfolds, which opened Aug. 24 and will run through Dec. 14 2019, prompts viewers to reconsider the familiar art works.
In this exhibition, the big names in the Levy collection are accompanied by artworks that speak to the gaps of a history without much diversity. Contemporary, modern and historical works come together to create an aesthetic experience that contradicts the elitism of the art world. It doesn’t pretend to represent all of art history, but nods to what is missing.
Reflecting on her curatorial practice, Edmonds says, “it was a great opportunity for me to bring together a show . . . from a lens that critiques that canon but still does so respectfully — these are amazing artists — but trying to put a spin on it that’s questioning the way that art has been presented in that linear, universal, humanist way.”
The exhibit, titled it is from here that the world unfolds goes against curatorial convention by avoiding linearity. It doesn’t present a history. Instead, it presents moments in time, space and aesthetic perspectives that speak to one another and to the viewer. That’s what Edmonds thinks that art spaces should be about — a conversation between the art, creator and the person experiencing it.
“The museum, the library, those are kind of the few spaces left that you can congregate to talk about ideas, or to engage in ideas. And I think that specifically within the university, we should be having an engaging conversation around art and ideas … I wanted to take a collection that was maybe more historic but bring it into the 21st century.”
The MMA holds a unique position compared to other galleries and museums in Hamilton. Situated on McMaster’s campus, the MMA has a responsibility to the students, staff and community members who live, work and study here. Edmonds wants students to feel comfortable coming through the front doors. The rules and etiquette of galleries-past do not need to deter visitors. No longer should art spaces exist as stuffy and exclusive places, they should exist for everyone, equally. At the MMA, the quiet is welcome, but not mandatory. As long as you don’t touch it, the art is yours to engage with however you like.
As the world moves faster and public spaces are closed, the museum is one of the last few spaces that exist for the public good. It is one of the few places that are quiet, free of charge and open for all.
Museum goers can expect to see historic works alongside yarn-like sculptures and red squares. If the viewer finds themselves frustrated, then Edmonds says: good. She wants to set up questions without answers and evoke feelings from viewers. Even negative emotional reactions are good, because it means the art is speaking to someone.
For students, the MMA could be a space to decompress or learn something new — but it’s up to you. Edmonds encourages on-lookers to take what they want from the exhibit, even if there isn’t any further engagement beyond viewership.
Visiting it is from here that the world unfolds, time periods and emotions collide. Looking at the giant canvas of Wailing Women (1990) by Ken Currie along with Sun Ra’s chaotic jazz accompaniment, there is a confrontation of eras and aesthetics. The interplay is jarring, and be advised, so is Currie’s painting of a mob of dismembered women. But it is also a reminder of the non-linearity of the exhibit.
Just around the corner from Currie’s work is a set of 16th century religious icons beside a mid-dentury mixed-media piece that is almost erotic and references a variety of eras. The exhibit is jarringly ahistorical, but purposefully so.
Museums are places for the free flow of ideas and dialogue around art and the world in which it is created. The MMA is a place to see important works from the European art canon, but it also gives students, staff and community the opportunity to think about dominant narratives in the art world. Levy’s legacy is held in trust for present and future generations, and will continue to spur creativity and criticism for years to come.
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As you enter the McMaster Museum of Art (MMA) and begin to explore the exhibition About the Mind, you are encountered with a dilemma similar to the one faced by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix: will you choose the blue pill and stay within a fabricated reality or instead take the red pill and escape the Matrix into the “real world”? About the Mind features the work of five internationally acclaimed visual artists and incorporates the continuing debate on theories of the mind including philosophical, psychoanalytical and forensic approaches. Each work in the exhibition poses a different question about the concepts of reality, truth and existence, deliberately taking the viewer into an uncomfortable place within his or her own mind.
Are we living inside a fake reality?
In creating Platon’s Mirror, artist Mischa Kuball was influenced by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Kuball encourages us to consider the reality of the things we see and to acknowledge our feelings about the things we cannot see. Within the philosophical environment of Platon’s Mirror, the viewer attempts to distinguish tangible images from among dancing layers of light. But the images are unclear and blurred, challenging the viewer to expand their mind beyond their definition of reality.
What is truth?
Trained and licensed in lie detector operation, Paulette Phillips conducted over 230 interviews in an attempt to archive the art world for her work entitled The Directed Lie. Prior to viewing each interview, we are made aware that participants are untruthful when answering certain questions, many of which are deeply personal. But we aren’t told which questions are answered truthfully and which are lies. We are left intrigued, attempting to read each participant’s body language, listening for a quiver of uncertainty, searching for the truth.
How many of us really want to know what’s going on inside our head?
Shaun Gladwell’s Endoscopic Vanitas incorporates a live endoscopic camera which probes a rotating human skull and projects the image onto a video screen. In viewing the piece, we are provided with the opportunity to witness the inner-workings of a vacant skull, a place in which memories, thoughts and ideas once resided. Once the site of our consciousness, the skull is now empty, placed on display to be looked at and analyzed. Vanitas, as a genre of still-life painting, is symbolic of the inevitability of death and the vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures. Not only are we faced with the loss of consciousness – this work also challenges our understanding of death and morality.
How do we conjure memories?
Wyn Geleynse’s piece Untitled considers the way in which cultural artifacts such as films and photographs conjure the psychological spaces of memory and evoke a nostalgic response. The work consists of a miniature gallery space, a sort of “modeled experience,” incorporating both film and sound. The viewer is able to physically interact with the work, taking each person beyond the confines of a typical gallery space. For every individual, the sounds and images conjure up different memories, bringing to light how one space can hold multiple meanings and multiple realities.
How does technology help shape our individual realities?
David Harris Smith, an artist and assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia at McMaster University created a non-intrusive robot called my kulturBOT 1.0 for the exhibition. The robot quietly glides through the gallery space, reviewing each work and relaying text-captioned photos of its point of view on the displayed works via Facebook and Twitter. This work not only mimics our social media driven culture, but also questions the relationship between humans and technology. Each of our realties is now entrenched in technology, driven and shaped by it – a result of our thirst for innovation. But what happens when technology begins to mimic our behaviour, when a robot tweets about this exhibition instead of us?
Written by: Dominika Jakubiec
Dominika Jakubiec
Upon viewing the two current exhibitions at the McMaster Museum of Art (MMA), Liminal Disturbance and Unfallen, I was immediately filled with wonder at the ideas posed by Canadian artists Greg Staats and Ramona Ramlochand. Both exhibitions are an artful array of photographs and interactive
pieces that comment on the complexities and wonders of our society.
Greg Staats is a photographer and video artist whose work focuses on the concepts of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) culture. Despite having Mohawk heritage, Staat’s wasn’t raised in the Mohawk culture, and has always felt disconnected from its traditions and rituals. His art expresses this disconnect through the haunting portrayal of the indigenous ritual ceremony of condolence and repair; a ceremony which focuses on the loss of a loved one.
Liminal Disturbance is framed by two series of photographs: “Auto Mnemonic Six Nations” and “Six Nations Condolence,” as well as an installation entitled “Dark String Repeat.” These photographs represent the artist’s internal memory; images he’s seen, places he’s been, and the objects that represent his culture.
“Auto Mnemonic Six Nations” is made up of abstract photographs including a chair, trees, a forest and a wall. These black and white images are eerie, like images out of a horror movie, yet manage to express why the artist feels disconnected from his culture; the photographs bring with them a sense of loneliness. By viewing these photographs, the artist encourages us to interpret, experience, and respond to his work.
During his “Artist’s Talk” on November 24 at the MMA, Staats spoke of his displayed pieces. He expressed the importance of allowing people to experience the condolence ceremony through his work, even if they know very little about its history and rituals. Staats explained the significance in coming together to take part in an exhibition of works that display a culture that has witnessed so much change and loss.
The second exhibition is that of Ramona Ramlochand, whose work reflects the rapidly changing environment in which we live. Unfallen centres around a new kinetic work titled “Élan Vital.” This unusual piece is a tornado contained within a fishbowl, which holds a swirl of colourful hand-painted miniature figures including different people, a fire hydrant, bicycles, street signs, a variety of different animals, as well as many other figurines. This is by far my favourite piece of work from the exhibition. The swirling figures are mesmerizing, and instill a sense of tranquility in viewers. “Élan Vital” is whimsical, a child-like projection of the world.
“Élan Vital” is surrounded by a cluster of photographs taken by the artist over a long period of work and travel. Rather than representing a single place, the photographs represent movement, space, and
displacement. One of the main images, titled “unfallen (boys)” depicts two young boys attempting to do headstands on the beach. When turned upside-down, the boys appear to be holding up the world. When looking at the work, I imaged the young boys struggling to rise above the responsibilities put on us by society; the effect of this image is very powerful.
Ramlochand uses various techniques to re-order space by placing the photographs upside-down, and playing with the natural way of viewing images. In doing this, the artist explores the experience of simultaneously belonging to nowhere and everywhere. By this, I mean, that although there are people present in the photographs, the place itself almost becomes more significant, more important. I had to adjust the way in which I viewed the images, and rather than paying attention to the people in the photograph, I began to focus more on how distorted the world looks upside-down. Through the manipulation of space, the artist identifies with multiple geographic and ethnic sites, commenting on globalization and our technologically enhanced world.
As a student, I would highly recommend this exhibition to anyone who is interested in viewing the world from a slightly different angle. Liminal Disturbance forced me think of how isolated we can be, specifically living in Canada – a country so diverse without one particular cultural way of life. For me, this also translated to the feeling of isolation we can feel in foreign places, or in groups of people we do not necessarily know.
Ramona Ramlochand’s Unfallen reminded me of my own childhood - a point in my life during which I had no responsibilities and the world was as colourful and bright as I wanted it to be. As suggested by Haema Sivanesan, the Executive Director of Centre A in Vancouver, Ramlochand’s work can only be described as “toy-like, playful and hypnotic.”
Liminal Disturbance and Unfallen– despite being separate – complement one another, making this one of the most interactive museum exhibitions I have seen in quite some time.
Liminal Disturbance and Unfallen are on view at the McMaster Museum of Art (MMA) until January 28, 2012.
