A Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Independent Project
(Toronto—September 4, 2012) Hungry for great art? OCAD University invites you to pull up to the tabletop for Night Kitchen, part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche starting at 7:03 p.m. on Saturday, September 29, 2012, and continuing until sunrise.
Curated by OCAD U alumna Lisa Myers, Night Kitchen is inspired by the children's story written by the late Maurice Sendak, where a boy dreams of surreal, late-night experiences inside a bakery kitchen.
Night Kitchen welcomes the audience into OCAD University after dark, where artists Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Christina Zeidler and Sean Procyk create works that playfully feed the audience through the systems of the institution and its architecture. Using cooking and digestion as metaphors, Night Kitchen invites a reflection on institutional processes, hierarchy and identities.
"We're looking forward to challenging our visitors this year with these incredibly provocative and engaging works by our graduates and faculty," said Dr. Sara Diamond, President of OCAD University and Chair of the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Advisory Committee. "OCAD University has been a proud independent project partner since Scotiabank Nuit Blanche's inception. We invite Torontonians to come to Night Kitchen to broaden their palate for contemporary art."
L'Hirondelle presents her treatycard.ca net.art project, a work that explores treaty relations by re-examining the intent of the Canadian government's Certificate of Indian Status. With bureaucratic flare, L'Hirondelle's participatory work invites visitors to question classification and colonialism as they are processed and issued their own treatycard.
Zeidler reverses the roles of audience and performer by taking over OCAD U's auditorium seating with her video and live performance as American feminist writer Valerie Solanas. Filling the auditorium balcony, the Turd Choir joins in with lyrics inspired by Solanas' infamous SCUM Manifesto, suggesting we all create a little world of our own and question the status quo.
Responding to the unintentional soundscape of OCAD U's heating, ventilation and air conditioning infrastructure, Procyk creates an immersive installation with light, water and vibration, amplifying and making visible the ubiquitous hums often ignored in our built environment.
Plan your night:
Onsite at OCAD U will remain open until 11 p.m. with its current exhibition, Letter Rip! Art, Words and Toronto, featuring work by Andy Callahan, Hyang Cho, Michelle Gay, and Gary Taxali with an anchoring contribution from Monkey's Paw proprietor Stephen Fowler (230 Richmond Street West, ground floor).
OCAD U's Student Gallery will remain open until 2 a.m. with its exhibition Astral Plane, a collaborative installation project by Nicholas Robins and Christopher Benjamin Speck.
Visitors are also encouraged to check out Museum for the End of the World at Nathan Phillips Square and City Hall, commissioned by the City of Toronto and curated by Janine Marchessault and OCAD U Liberal Arts & Sciences Associate Professor Michael Prokopow.
For more Scotiabank Nuit Blanche events featuring OCAD U students, alumni and faculty, visit OCAD U's online events calendar.
Biographies:
An award-winning singer/songwriter, interdisciplinary artist and curator, Cheryl L'Hirondelle devotes her creative practice to investigating a Cree worldview (nêhiyawin) in contemporary time and space. She is also an active arts advisor, programmer, director/producer, cultural strategist and activist. Her performance works have been documented in Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women (2001, YYZ Books) and Making a Noise: Aboriginal Perspectives on Art, Art History, Critical Writing and Community (2006, Banff Centre Press). In 2004, L'Hirondelle was one of the first Canadian Aboriginal artists to be invited to present at the Dakar Biennale for Contemporary African Art (Senegal). L'Hirondelle has been recognized with awards such as the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards (2006, 2007), the imagineNATIVE New Media Award (2005, 2006) and as a Webby Awards Official Honoree (2009). L'Hirondelle has contributed as an advisor to the Banff New Media Institute and the Canada Council. She is a past Smartlab Researcher, KIDS FROM KANATA On-line Aboriginal Liaison, and was a member of the Drum Beats to Drum Bytes Thinktank. She is a member of OCAD University's Aboriginal Education Council, and teaches in OCAD U's Integrated Media program.
In addition to being an independent curator, Lisa Myers is an artist, musician and chef. These disciplines inform her various practices. Myers cooked for many years satisfying hungry stomachs at Enaahtig Healing Lodge and Learning Centre. Her community work included co-ordinating and editing This Food is Good for You, the Enaahtig community cookbook, and designing and facilitating an art and food program for youth at the Georgian Bay Native Friendship Centre. Musical projects include bands Chicken Milk, Venus Cures All and Adaptor 45. Myers' recent research interests include Indigenous North American art practice, geography and food studies related to colonialism. Her MFA research in Criticism and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University investigated cultural agency and the encoding of food from diverse Indigenous perspectives, and resulted in the exhibition entitled Best Before. Myers has curated exhibitions at the MacLaren Art Centre, York Quay Centre and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her writing has been published in C Magazine, Fuse, and Senses and Society. She lives and works between Toronto and Port Severn, Ontario.
Sean Procyk holds a degree in Fine Arts from McMaster University, a Bachelor of Architecture from Carleton University and a Master's of Fine Arts from OCAD University. He is currently employed as the Sculpture Facilitator for The Banff Centre's Visual Arts Department, where he advises artists about fabrication processes, project planning and installation design. Drawing inspiration from construction processes, audiovisual light shows, interactive electronics and computer intelligence, he creates immersive artworks that evoke a multisensory experience.
OCAD U alumna Christina Zeidler (Integrated Media, 1997) is a Toronto-based artist who creates short films, gallery installations and collaborative film projects. She is also President and Developer of The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, where her community-based approach to the redevelopment of the building and business, and the integration of artist-designed rooms has earned her a respected reputation within Toronto's cultural community. Zeidler is also a member of the euro-electronica-pop-diva sensation ina unt ina, and part of the newly formed band Mintz. She has been recognized as one of Toronto's 10 best filmmakers by Toronto International Film Festival Co-Director Cameron Bailey, and was awarded the Best Canadian Media Award at the 2004 Images Film Festival.
About OCAD University (OCAD U)
OCAD University is Canada's "university of imagination." The University, founded in 1876, is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. OCAD University is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD University community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.
- 30 -
Download this release as a PDF document.
Media are invited to attend. To RSVP or for more information, please contact:
Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Officer
416-977-6000 x327 (mobile x1327)