The “Iridescence of Contemporary Aesthetics” is a gathering for reciprocal study of visual legacies and lived theories. With visiting faculty: Gabrielle Moser, HaeAhn Kwon, Jaclyn Bruneau and Daisy Atterbury. Facilitated by Anastasia Kolas.
April 29 - May 13, 2019. Gibraltar Point, Toronto. Deadline to apply: December 18, 2018
How does the circulation of contemporary aesthetics partake in the ideas of post- ? The residency will be set at an intensive pace and is centered around the subject of postcolonial analysis of the term Anthropocene as it plays out in looking and making of contemporary art and design. The residency will be composed of presentations by guest speakers, screenings, discussions of the texts and group critiques. This program is aimed at emerging artists, designers, writers and curators. Emerging, here, is defined loosely as within first 7 years of their practice.
Through the lens of their varied fields, a group of interdisciplinary practitioners will be invited to engage with provided theoretical texts, programmed lectures, and presentations. The main goal of the residency is expansion. “Iridescence of Contemporary Aesthetics” will provide a forum for idea exchange with an opportunity to take personal time out to process and digest the conversations at the studios or amidst the natural setting of the Toronto Island and Lake Ontario.
The “Iridescence of Contemporary Aesthetics” application has no age restriction. Applicants self-identifying as persons of hybrid identities and/or historically disadvantaged or minority groups are particularly encouraged to apply. Residency prices include sleeping quarters, large shared studio, programming and friday night gatherings around firepit on the beach. Other facilities are: fully equipped communal kitchen, shared bathrooms, on-site laundry and wireless Internet. The Toronto city core is a 15-minute ferry ride away.
Arrivals are on April 29 from 1pm to 3pm, and departures on May 13 before 11am.
Facilitator
Born in Minsk, Belarus (former USSR), Anastasia Kolas currently lives and works in Toronto. She holds an MFA in Film/Video from Bard, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts and a BA in Fashion Design from Ryerson University.
Prior to art practice, Anastasia spent a decade working internationally as a fashion designer. With time, her past occupation became the foundation and location of critique in her current work. Touching on racialized experiences, class, colonialism and environmental issues entwined with economics, through commercial work at design houses and corporations, Anastasia gained invaluable insight into what constitutes globalized aesthetic production. The themes she works on can be united under the umbrella she describes as iridescence. Iridescence, here, is a process of being that shifts and reconfigures, as related to identity, to perception and to the physical state of the ecosystem. Rather than seeking dystopian relief, she think of her work as a fermenting pool. Anastasia is guided by interest in images and objects as infectious organisms, or framed sediments of materiality and its pedigree.
For more information please see www.anastasiakolas.com
Guest faculty
Gabrielle Moser is a writer, educator and independent curator. She is the author of Projecting Citizenship: Photography and Belonging in the British Empire (Penn State UP, 2019) and her writing appears in Artforum.com, Canadian Art, Journal of Visual Culture, Photography & Culture, and Prefix Photo. Her current research project, “Visualizing the Capitalocene,” examines how contemporary artists illuminate the colonial origins of climate change and offer us tools to imagine the future differently. Moser has held fellowships at the Paul Mellon Centre for the Study of British Art, the Ryerson Image Centre, the University of British Columbia and was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Brown University in 2017. She holds a PhD from the art history and visual culture program at York University in Toronto, Canada and is an Assistant Professor in art history at OCAD University.
For more information please see gabriellemoser.com
HaeAhn Kwon mainly works in drawing, sculpture and installation. Her current research interest in strategies of the makeshift has led to a body of works that recombines and transforms everyday objects. Her assemblage and installations are informed by the vernacular architecture and object arrangements found in the urban environment of her native South Korea. Kwon's recent crude ink drawings depict women pissing near vehicles or in communal environments, which she describes in relation to urgency, shame, absurdity and jouissance. Kwon received her BFA from the Cooper Union and MFA from the University of Guelph. She has participated in exhibitions in Canada (Support, ESP), the US (The Hand, Michael Benevento) and South Korea (Samuso, Sempio Space, Okin Theater).
For more information please see www.haeahnkwon.com
Jaclyn Bruneau is a writer, editor and organizer based in Toronto. She's the Editor of C magazine and a member of the Board of Directors at Images Festival. She is currently underway on an inconspicuous, year-long, Kijiji publishing project with Untitled Art Society called please teach me how to swim. In 2018, she participated in the Oberhausen Seminar and the Images Festival Research Forum. She undertook an extensive survey of contemporary cultural criticism in 2017, made possible by the British Columbia Arts Council’s Early Career Development Grant. That year, she took part in a Close Workshop, facilitated by Fan Wu, focused on the relationship between writing and mourning; Art Metropole will publish an anthology of these writings in late 2018. In 2016, she was a resident in The Banff Centre's Critical Art Writing Ensemble and in 2015, was awarded the Editorial Residency at Canadian Art.
For more information please see www.jacbruneau.net
Daisy Atterbury is a poet, educator and an artist and a current PHD candidate at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She’s currently working on a project that considers U.S. settler colonial dynamics, soundscapes and the built environment in New Mexico (which includes Outer Space). She co-directs an annual seminar program founded in 2010 to support conversation around aesthetics and politics in northern NM. Her work has engaged audiences through various media formats including film, installation and performance as well as more traditional outlets of production and publication. She received her MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College and she teaches creative writing at Queens College, CUNY.
For more information please see https://daisyatterbury.com/
Duration of Residency
Two Weeks
Disciplines, Work Equipment and Assistance
This residency is aimed at emerging artists, designers, writers and curators
Accommodation
Private or Shared
Studio/ Workspace
Shared, furnished, large studio space provided
Fees and Support
Regrettably financial aid is unavailable for this program. We encourage applicants to pursue funding opportunities afforded them by their national, regional, local and departmental funding agencies. Upon confirmation of participation in the program, the letter of acceptance for those seeking funding will be provided.
Expectations towards the Artist
Artists should plan to attend all scheduled activities and actively partake in conversation in considered yet rigorous spirit. Due to the relatively short duration of this residency, the reading material will be provided a few months ahead of the residency and the participants should arrive have completed the reading, with their notes. On arrival each artists will be expected to make a short presentation of their practice (choice of Keynote/Powerpoint/PDF lecture 5 min each). Applicants for this residency should be seeking community exchange and be prepared and desiring to open their studio for group discussions towards the end of their stay (individual slots to be scheduled before arrival).
Language
English
To apply:
Please fill out an application at www.artscapegibraltarpoint.ca. Please indicate you are applying for “Iridescence of Contemporary Aesthetics”. Please provide a short statement about your work and interests and indicate why this residency is important for your to undertake at this point in time. ***** In the slot where it says upload CV****: upload a PDF with CV and 10 images of your work for artists (with a caption for year/title/materials inside) or several writing and design work examples for curators/writers and designers. Maximum image size 500 KB.