Opening Reception

ASHLEY GUINDON | A GREAT MYSTERY

A Great Mystery, is a continuation of Ashley Guindon’s one night show that took at The Factory: Hamilton Media Art center on July 9, 2010. The installation consists of a collection of single-channel videos shot at the artist’s childhood church in southwestern Ontario. The clips capture the ritualistic, repetitive motions of a Sunday service in extreme close-ups, reflections or shadows. The camera remains stationary while action move in and our of the picture plane; information is withheld by the edges of the image and the viewer is almost teased by movement and sound that fades in and out. The shots are treated like paintings thrust into the dimension of time: a careful study, an artist’s means of guiding the eye. Guindon experiments with the relationship between traditional forms of art and new mediums, which add the dimension of time.

ASHLEY GUINDON received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with specialization in Studio Arts from the University of Western Ontario in 2008. She participated in both the Independent Studio Residency at Toronto School of Art and in the Vermont Studio Residency in Johnson, Vermont. Guindon was a recipient of an Emerging Artist’s Grant from Toronto Arts Council in 2009, as well as a 2010 recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant. She is currently based in Toronto, Ontario

A Great Mystery is generously funded by Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.

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ALEXANDRE DAVID | MOVING AROUND

In this extended YYreZidency, Alexandre David will develop a new site-specific work for YYZ over the span of two months. Our everyday architectural sensations are a necessary background for his work in sculpture. Architecture is not referenced as a subject, rather, it relies on the way we as humans walk with ease through doorways, walk alongside walls, turn corners and sit on benches. David works with standard heights of ceilings, tables, benches and steps. Often, he attempts to create an architectural sense of space through the experience of a self-contained object. Some of his work also attempts to blur the boundaries between public and intimate spaces or between a space one can only look at and a space in which one can move around. The intention of David’s work is to reorganize a space only for a short period of time

ALEXANDRE DAVID received his Masters of Fine art from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London in 1990. David’s work has been exhibited internationally throughout museums and galleries in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France. He has held solo exhibitions at Optica and Dare-Dare in Montral and La Chambre Blanche in Qubec City (2007) and at Aceartinc in Winnipeg and Grunt in Vancouver (2009). David currently lives and works in Montral.

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DAVID COURT+JOSH THORPE| AROUND YYZ

YYZUNLIMITED invites artists to imagine and reinvent YYZ as a site of opportunity through a series of interventions. These interventions engage potential sites outside of YYZ’s regular programming. YYZ is pleased to introduce an audio intervention by David Court and Josh Thorpe.

This is the second in a series of five audio tours of the area surrounding YYZ. It features a conversation with Michael McClelland and Phillip Evans from ERA Architects, starting at 401 Richmond, heading east to the business district, and then back to Spadina. The conversation focuses on contemporary and historical aspects of Toronto’s built environment.

This walk is part of the year-long project, Around YYZ, for the YYZUNLIMITED programme. These audio walks are informal, meandering conversations, offering a casual but analytic inquiry, beginning at YYZ and moving out from there. Each lasts approximately an hour and can be encountered in three ways: 1) on an MP3 player borrowed from YYZ (allows the listener to walk the tour while listening), 2) over a set of speakers at the threshold to YYZ, and 3) on the YYZ website. Taking YYZ as the point of departure, the walks extend the mode of attention of the gallery into its surrounding contexts, seeking to draw attention and add complexity to the experience of public space.

DAVID COURT is an artist and writer living in New York. He has exhibited solo and collaborative projects across Canada and in New York, with current and upcoming projects for Printed Matter (with Josh Thorpe) and the 2011 CAFKA Biennial. David was involved as a contributor for the publication ‘Gordon Lebredt: Nonworks 1975 2008,’ co-published by the Center for Contemporary Canadian Art and Plug In Editions. He has written reviews and catalogue texts for publication in Canada, China and the US, including C Magazine, Fillip, and Art Papers. In 2008 he participated in the residency Making Artistic Inquiry Visible’ at the Banff Center. David holds a Masters in Visual Studies from the University of Toronto (2009) and a BFA from NSCAD University (2006).

JOSH THORPE is an artist and writer living in Toronto. He has a Master’s in Visual Studies from University of Toronto and he teaches at Ontario College of Art and Design and U of T. His work has been shown in Canada, the US, and Europe. His involvement in publishing has produced interviews, articles, and books, including Dan Graham Pavilions: A Guide (Art Metropole) and a monograph on the unrealized proposals of Gordon Lebredt (CCCA and Plug In ICA).

Opening Reception
Friday, January 21, 2011.
8:00 PM 10:00 PM
YYZ