Langer’s life-like sculptural works of resin, fibreglass, styrofoam, string, and oil paint depicted birds and other animals atop glinting false snow, hanging on thin wire from the ceiling, or [...]]]> Christy Langer’s Reprise exhibit ran from October 17 – November 14, 2009 at Christopher Cutts Gallery, 21 Morrow Avenue, in Toronto’s Roncesvalles / Dundas West neighbourhood.

Langer’s life-like sculptural works of resin, fibreglass, styrofoam, string, and oil paint depicted birds and other animals atop glinting false snow, hanging on thin wire from the ceiling, or affixed to the wall with metal rods or string and horseshoe nails.

Langer’s Reprise installation was shown in conjunction with Insurrectos (Rebels), a collection of Matias Sanchez paintings.

For more information & to see more works by Christy Langer and Matias Sanchez, visit the Christopher Cutts Gallery at http://www.cuttsgallery.com/
Christy Langer: http://www.cuttsgallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=53
Matias Sanchez: http://www.cuttsgallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=41

The five houses slated for demolition, 9, 11, 15, 17 and 19 Leona Drive, were transformed and open to the public free [...]]]> Running from October 22-31 in Toronto as part of the Toronto International Art Fair, The Leona Drive Project took place on five properties in Willowdale, a northern suburb adjoined with Sheppard Station.

The five houses slated for demolition, 9, 11, 15, 17 and 19 Leona Drive, were transformed and open to the public free of charge for one week. The exhibit also included a public forum on urban planning, film projections, and daily artist talks.

The Leona Drive Project featured a life-sized green ‘Monopoly’ house, a car smashed through the window of 17 Leona Drive, make-shift shelters in the backyards, red lipstick coating every surface of an upstairs bathroom, a room of white pennies nailed to the wall (after the saying ‘a penny saved is a penny earned’), and more.

For more information, see the Leona Drive Project’s brochure:

or visit http://www.leonadrive.ca/

Interview with Californian band Former Ghosts (members of Xiu Xiu, Zola Jesus, and This Song is a Mess But So Am I) conducted before their (canceled) show on October 16, 2009 in Toronto, Canada.

Present Ghosts of Freddy Ruppert: A Sighting of Former Ghosts

IT³ met up with Freddy Ruppert and Jamie Stewart over hot chocolate [...]]]>

Interview with Californian band Former Ghosts (members of Xiu Xiu, Zola Jesus, and This Song is a Mess But So Am I) conducted before their (canceled) show on October 16, 2009 in Toronto, Canada.

Present Ghosts of Freddy Ruppert: A Sighting of Former Ghosts

IT³ met up with Freddy Ruppert and Jamie Stewart over hot chocolate at a small coffee shop on Queen St. in Toronto, hoping to find out more about their new project Former Ghosts, and their haunting synth-pop debut album Fleurs. It began to appear as if we would end up talking mainly about Ruppert’s personal life – which seems to be an inevitable topic when discussing the art of Freddy Ruppert.

There came a point where Ruppert leaned back in his chair and said, “I don’t know how far I want to go into this,” which, though understandable, seems ironic considering how far he goes into it in his music. Ruppert openly admitted that he struggles, as is a common dilemma in our blogging, social networking age, with justifying what is private and what is public – but that hasn’t stopped him from laying himself out there completely in his music.

Ruppert’s first recording project, This Song Is a Mess But So Am I, began in 2003 as a means to deal with his mother’s death, and in 2004 he released Church Point, L.A. an album of extremely personal laments buried in noise and electronics. He supported the album by touring, and his stage shows were a spectacle of gut-wrenching antics not unlike an exorcism; a memorable performance, whether disturbing or otherwise. It was clear Freddy Ruppert was sincere.

But Ruppert found himself coming to terms with the issues he reflected upon with This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, and decided it was time to move on. “A time came when it just wasn’t cathartic anymore,” Ruppert told us, and, staying true to his original intentions, he decided to quit music. He sold all his gear, and spent two years estranged from recording. This diversion, inevitably, didn’t last.

Former Ghosts, Ruppert said, was born out of songs created for a specific person. The songs from Fleurs were originally created and posted on his personal blog as a means to exclusively communicate with this someone.

“I’d post songs when we weren’t communicating; it was an effective way to reach her – I knew she was checking my blog (http://freddyruppert.blogspot.com/). Then, once she heard it, I would take it down,” Ruppert told us.

Ruppert’s fans from his This Song is a Mess But So Am I days were privy to the songs as well – as were some contacts from the music industry, and Ruppert seems almost serious when he claims to have found a label for Former Ghosts because of a Talking Heads cover he posted, among other positive feedback from old fans.

This exaltation seems to be carrying over to the project’s finished product. Ruppert’s official return to music, Former Ghosts’ Fleurs, has been getting favourable reviews in the blog world since its release – partly due, of course, to its ties to two other highly praised indie acts. So, how did Freddy Ruppert join forces with the inimitable Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, and the enigmatic Nika Roza of Zola Jesus?

Ruppert and Stewart, having toured together in the past, had been planning on working together for some time already. They had become friends seven years prior to Former Ghosts when, following the death of his mother and after reading Stewart had, similarly, just experienced the loss of his father, Ruppert emailed the front man of the experimental pop group. The two toured together, and have been sharing music with each other for a long time since then. When Ruppert found himself with new songs, they began an official collaboration, still mainly over the internet. As for Nika Roza: Ruppert, a fan of Zola Jesus, simply asked if she wanted to sing. (Though Nika was not available to tour this fall, her haunting vocals on Fleurs are a key element to the album’s mournful power).

While elements of both Stewart’s Xiu Xiu and Roza’s Zola Jesus are plainly heard on Fleurs, Ruppert acknowledges that Former Ghosts’ sound is quite different from the abstract electro-industrial noise of his last project. “I’ve always been a fan of pop music, and I wanted to do something different.” says Ruppert.

The sound isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Where the This Song Is A Mess’ primary means was as a place for Ruppert to reflect on his past, Former Ghosts’ songs were created as the issue (or romance) progressed – and the songs themselves were an actual means for communication of the messages and feelings that the songs were about. Ruppert is quick to clarify that that doesn’t mean Former Ghosts is just a one-off project. “I have new songs already, and will be going back to work on them after the tour.”

Stewart reinstated the projects longevity, calling Former Ghosts “a long-lasting regular band”. Ruppert seemed excited about the future, especially for a not-too-distant time when all three of the band’s members would be in the same room together once the band wraps up their hectic 30-day tour.

The tour itself seems like it’s been a trying experience, as Ruppert says, “it hasn’t been fun”. Amid venue confusion, long drives, and busted shows, this may or may not also have to do with the fact that the relationship with the mystery girl (the catalyst for many, if not all of the album’s songs) ended right before the tour – and the subject matter he has to deal with every night when performing. Nevertheless, Stewart pipes up with a smile on his face when asked about some tour experiences: a man running in during one of their sets with his face cut, screaming “they’re going to kill me!”, the force feeding of chocolate bars in the van, or one instance, apparently un-chocolate bar related, of Rupert puking on an exotic dancer.

Stewart goes on, explaining a new band the two of them are working on. The plan is to be sponsored by Hummer and Blue Shield Health Insurance, and, instead of playing actual music, they will tour with a band of their choosing – and proceed, each night, to beat said band up until they can’t play, in order to “quell the rotten music genre pool”. After urging Stewart to disclose some of the bands they’ll be targeting with this new project (which they claim will be called Guan(u)o; they couldn’t decide on the number of ‘u’s), he decides, laughing into his tea, that it would be better to give us an exclusive some time in the future, so the bands can’t prepare for the attack.

As for Former Ghosts, what does the future hold? Will there be more songs for this mystery girl? When asked how Ruppert communicates with this special person now that he is on tour and all the songs have been made into a full length album, he replies, “insane text messaging.” A recent entry on Ruppert’s blog makes reference to an “insane text war” on private property in where, after being approached by security, Ruppert implores, “”I’m in the middle of an insane text conversation with the girl I was insanely in love with! What do you want me to do?!”

The security guard answers, “Oh o.k., it’s cool man. I understand. Do what you need to do. It’s alright”.

Which is exactly what Freddy Ruppert has been doing with his art, and graciously has shared with us on Fleurs.

Former Ghosts: http://formerghosts.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/formerghostssleep

On Friday the 13th, In My Bed Magazine will team up with Gallery 1313 for Is Your Love Supernatural?, a live edition of the magazine’s seventh publication, and the gallery’s first fundraiser.

Rosanna Ciulla, In My Bed’s editor, sat down over tea with us in a Spadina coffee bar to talk about the upcoming show, [...]]]>

On Friday the 13th, In My Bed Magazine will team up with Gallery 1313 for Is Your Love Supernatural?, a live edition of the magazine’s seventh publication, and the gallery’s first fundraiser.

Rosanna Ciulla, In My Bed’s editor, sat down over tea with us in a Spadina coffee bar to talk about the upcoming show, and the magazine itself.

In My Bed Magazine (inmybedmagazine.com/) is a two-year old online magazine that appears quarterly in the inboxes of about seven hundred and fifty people. These brightly coloured and professionally slick PDFs deliver literary and illustrative content that Ciulla and her team hope is a different approach to sex in the Canadian scene.

The sweet-faced editor explains that while the concept of a sex-themed publication is not new, IMB is unique in that it lists contributors and staff from all over the world, distributes for free (readers subscribe by entering their email address on the magazine’s website), and strives to approach sex, or sexual topics, through art – as the intriguing pictures and layouts of her magazine imply.

Ciulla hasn’t been alone in her IMB endeavours. IMB currently boasts a “dynamic and passionate” team of volunteers: four designers, two foreign editors, a photo editor, cover designer, and a Toronto-based graphic design firm. “My team is essential”, Ciulla confides, “they define (In My Bed)”.

Ciulla reveals that an online magazine was never her intention, but for now, she’s found the internet to be an ideal method of getting her publication to readers, as well as finding contributors and staff. Once Ciulla settled on the simple and catchy title ‘In My Bed’, she put together her team of editors, artists, and designers; finding her staff exclusively through Craigslist.

Contributors, too, are sought after almost exclusively over the internet, as she and her staff post calls on sites such as Craigslist, Akimbo, and Places for Writers – “all free places”, add Ciulla. “We have submissions from Germany, France… everywhere!” says Ciulla, who clearly finds interacting with her artists rewarding.

Ciulla, a Toronto resident of only three years, has previously lived in Vancouver and the Czech Republic, and confesses she is a born wanderer. She is an artist herself, with a background in performance art, but thus far she has not submitted anything to her magazine – “besides energy”, she amends – though she hints she may one day do so anonymously. Ciulla seems wholehearted in her position as editor: “I like to see our contributors excited, and develop a rapport with the artists”.

Ciulla is quick to add, though, that she may soon have more on her plate than just editing IMB. She has spoken to a television producer in the past about bringing her concepts to the screen, and, though her first priority is finding a way to edit and organize events for In My Bed full time, she has plans for books, and dreams of having her own space, or artist community, with which to create further. Though these ambitions could easily overpower a less determined artist, Ciulla has the secrets to literary and artistic success in a firm grasp.

“You have to pick one project to engage you completely”, she said, “and establish a system. Then you can gradually build on things over time… it’s all about time management. Putting (projects) on the back burner is just abusing them – you have to maintain your relationship with your project to get something done. You have to keep the fire lit.”

How will In My Bed keep the fire lit, post Is Your Love Supernatural?? Ciulla tells us that this winter may bring the magazine’s first print issue, which she hopes will be an amalgamation of all of the art and performances from their live edition at Gallery 1313, with a few additional pieces. (If not, this issue will appear, as expected, as a PDF in the inboxes of In My Bed’s subscribers, as Ciulla and her team plot the future).

The future is much on Ciulla’s mind with In My Bed. She plans that IMB will be publishing each issue in print within the next two years, and hopes to team up with another group to release a double issue in the near future.

In My Bed will also become a biannual, rather than a quarterly, magazine in 2010. “My team is getting too busy to handle more than two issues per year”, Ciulla says, adding that she also hopes to organize at least one show per year in the future.

For now, you can interact with In My Bed this Friday at Gallery 1313. Is Your Love Supernatural? will begin at 7pm (the show is $10 in advance (call 416-536-6778) and $15 at the door – funds go to Parkdale’s famed Gallery 1313), and will feature spoken word performances including poetry, video, and editor Ciulla presenting a welcoming speech as a live table of contents. The show will also feature visual artworks, a cash bar, finger food, and, Ciulla says, possibly some body painting.

Check the Facebook group for a unique event that will actually live up to it’s boast of “erotic party”, and we’ll see you Friday the 13th.

In My Bed Magazine : http://inmybedmagazine.com
Gallery 1313: http://www.g1313.org/
Is Your Love Supernatural on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=163762954297&ref=ts

Photos from Liz Magor’s Storage Facilities, which ran from September 16 – October 25, 2009. The exhibition took place at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, located within the University of Toronto, Scarborough campus, to which 401 Richmond ran a charter school bus on September 29th.

The Winnipeg born, British Columbia based artist [...]]]>

Photos from Liz Magor’s Storage Facilities, which ran from September 16 – October 25, 2009. The exhibition took place at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, located within the University of Toronto, Scarborough campus, to which 401 Richmond ran a charter school bus on September 29th.

The Winnipeg born, British Columbia based artist presented an introduction before the viewing of the exhibition. Not wanting to over-anticipate the installation by focusing on it in discussion, she retraced her history: from her beginnings as an artist, photographing her back-to-the-land, aboriginal-impersonating hippy classmates in Vancouver, to her later installations of tiny cabins in caged rooms of false snow, or hiding place-creations within casts of hollow trees.

She spoke at length about the oral joy of the cigarette (though she does not smoke), and gave a detailed explanation of her favoured artistic process. Magor described the meticulous making of casts of everyday objects such as towels, serving trays, and elements from nature, and, while showing slides of works both in the exhibition and from earlier installations, revealed that, except for the occasional detail, she does not paint her objects, but instead mixes the colour of her creations directly into the model.

Once in the exhibition room, one of the most striking elements of the show were the haunting casts of folded jackets, lovingly matched to an almost perfect realism in shape and colour, with cold looking cigarettes (or in one case, a Toblerone bar) emerging from them; often juxtaposed next to, or wrapped around, honey-coloured liquor bottles.

Magor’s casts of tiny candy wrappers were another extraordinary feature. The most eerie detail, however, lay in Magor’s casts of animals (which she finds dead before making moulds of them). Upon close examination, tiny stray hairs could be found on the casts – elements of life where life seemed somehow the least likely.

In Storage Facilities Magor continued what was obviously her life’s work, investigating our compulsive behaviour, our yearning for an impossible, but somehow enchanting, return to nature, and our constant striving for safe places.

Apologies again for camera difficulties, on behalf of The State of the Arts in Canada.

More on Liz Magor
Doris McCarthy Gallery