Young and Restless - Performance Projects 
Image right: Ila Kavanagh, performance, Hart House, University of Toronto, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.
Image left: Risa Kusumoto, Japanese Cultural Lessons, performance, Hart House, University of Toronto, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.
Performance Night: Thursday, March 5, 2009
Time: 7 pm - 10:30 pm
Hart House, University of Toronto
7 Hart House Circle
Toronto, ON
In 2007, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery initiated a yearly performance art program dedicated to artists currently in or having recently graduated from art school/university. Now in its third year, Young and Restless is premised on creating a trans-institutional dialogue between young artists at this critical transitory period in their development. Curated by Tejpal S. Ajji (Adjunct Curator of Outreach), with the assistance of the Hart House Art Committee's Outreach sub-committee, the program was developed through meetings and studio visits held at the University of Toronto's three campuses (St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough), the University of Guelph, the Ontario College of Art & Design, and with recent graduates.
Using Hart House as the set for performative works, invited artists expand on their practices, presenting a new work developed for this event, situated in this unique, historical building. Completed after World War I by architect Henry Sproatt, and advocated by Vincent Massey, Hart House was initially sanctioned as a male-only environment, a decision overturned in 1972 (after co-ed lobbying begun in the 1950s). In light of this history, the building softly emits the many paradigmatic shifts of its development as a cultural centre. Though the building's exterior is fixed in neo-Gothic finery, the interior is routinely reworked, adjusted to host the needs of many student clubs, religious groups, lectures, and activities. It is in this milieu of rearrangement, and in the histories of gender division and humanistic desires, to the now convivial environment- these young artists are asked to intervene.
Young and Restless inserts itself in a history of student-focused initiatives, attempting to work between institutional boundaries, flooding the building with content experienced through the reworking of spaces. If in being young there comes a sense of restlessness, it is this optimistic and anxious energy that propels this project to investigate the early years of artistic development.
Artists: Allen Huynh, Neelam Kler, Johnson Ngo, Violeta Par De Moya, Petrina Ng, Mariuxi Zambrano
Curated by Tejpal S. Ajji, Adjunct Curator of Outreach (Justina M. Barnicke Gallery)
Program:
Johnson Ngo recently began writing and collecting haiku. The subject matter of this short stanza poem is often a reflection of his self-image. His interests lie in investigating cultural forms (such as Anime and haiku), which may be misread as representing a ‘Pan-Asian' identity.
Space: Debates Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 7:15 pm
Allen Huynh, mediating on the uncomfortable intimacies of being picked up at a bar, he engaged in a conversation with a gentleman who projected a series of stereotypes onto the artist. Taking the sexual descriptions from this conversation-including descriptions of smooth skin of a youthful body-Huynh's performance examines these articulations of his identity as a queer Vietnamese-Canadian.
Space: Debates Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 7:30 pm
Mariuxi Zambrano emigrated from Ecuador to the United States, where she found herself working ‘under the table'. Now residing in Canada, Zambrano considers the various informal work arrangements that have characterised her recent life: from waitressing in restaurants, to cleaning homes with a distant relative.
Space: Meeting Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 7:50 pm
Violeta Parra De Moya is currently writing a story on the life of her grandmother, now suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Par De Moya's collection of stories trace her grandmother's life from Lebanon to Colombia, where she was abandoned by her father, her involvement in the Colombian Communist Party, and her sojourn in the USSR.
Space: Meeting Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 8:15 pm
Petrina Ng's work traces her maternal history from Hong Kong to the diasporic spaces of Vancouver, Toronto, and London, UK. Often using the kitchen as a site of convergence, Ng's work traces history, through meetings in such vernacular spaces. For this series, she considers the intimate relationship between her mother and the now deceased family dog-who which came to represent a childlike presence now gone from the home.
Space: Debates Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 8:00 pm - onwards
Neelam Kler investigates the histories of labour in her immediate family. Working closely with her mother, an expert seamstress, the artist acknowledges the generational shift in the conception of factory work.
Space: South Sitting Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 8:00 pm - onwards
As part of Young and Restless (2009), young curator and Chair of the Hart House Art Committee's Outreach sub-committee Bonny Poon, organized the presentation of two performative music projects.
The Element Choir is an improvising choir from Toronto led by vocalist Christine Duncan. The group works with both structured and non-structured elements, based primarily on a system of directional cues.
Space: Music Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 8:50 pm - 9:20 pm
AWESOME is a Toronto area noise band with an interest in Primitivism.
Space: Music Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 9:30 pm - 10:00 pm
This project was made possible with support from the Canada Council for the
Arts, the Hart House Art Committee, and New College (University of Toronto).
For information related to this program and other Gallery programming please contact:
Justina M. Barnicke Gallery
Hart House, University of Toronto
7 Hart House Circle
Toronto, ON
M5S 3H3
Canada
Tel: + 1 (416) 978-8398
Fax: + 1 (416) 978-8387
Email: jmb.gallery@utoronto.ca
Web: www.jmbgallery.ca
Gallery Hours
Monday to Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday to Friday 11am - 7pm
Saturday to Sunday 1pm - 5pm
The Gallery is closed on statutory holidays.
The Gallery is wheelchair accessible.
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