“Anthropocene” refers specifically to the geological period since the Industrial Revolution, a time when humans have made a deeper imprint on the earth than ever before. Near King west of Yonge and Bay south of Richmond, artistic ruminations on our impact on the planet, programmed by Kitchener-based curators Ivan Jurakic and Crystal Mowry, probe tensions between urban environments and the natural world.
Hengeveld’s plastic nature is a howl
Local artist pokes fun at humankind’s ludicrous attempts to ape the natural world
ROBERT HENGEVELD: HOWL Alley behind Bay and Richmond (enter from Richmond or Temperance west of Bay)
In his Bloordale studio, Robert Hengeveld’s fine-tuning the roller coaster for Howl, his latest Rube Goldberg installation that uses intentionally exposed mechanical elements and thrift store materials to send up our garish, silly or futile attempts to mimic nature. The two-storey-high steel track is a cartoonish amusement park ride for a coyote and a rabbit.
“The two chase each other,” he says, “but it’s kind of unclear which will be chasing which.”
Hengeveld’s fascinated by decoys. “They all have very particular uses,” he says. “The coyote scares off birds, while the battery-operated rabbit attracts coyotes and wolves so we can shoot them. The ducks bring around their peers, and a doe attracts a mate. We create these things to stand in for the natural, and yet they don’t quite succeed.”
A bunch of animals – including mechanical songbirds from Chinatown, remote-controlled ducks, three dancing deer, a head-swivelling owl and a swarm of LED fireflies – will watch the chase. The hyper-real yet slightly off-kilter landscape will have a pond, waterfall and misting machine, with sweaters and carpets that act as grass, a Christmas tree forest and cardboard rocks, plus a musical soundtrack that echoes the stop-and-start rhythms of the roller coaster.
He hopes Howl’s comedic, spectacle aspects will engage those with Nuit Blanche-induced ADD while also offering a more reflective approach for those who slow down to appreciate the details.
Though he says he’s not a hardcore environmentalist, his work fits in with the theme of Romancing The Anthropocene (a human-dominated geological era that began with the Industrial Revolution). He cites concepts like “natural deficit disorder,” which especially afflicts children who grow up in cities.
“The work intentionally has a subtle humour but at the same time explores serious concerns about our relationship with our surrounding environments,” he says.
He’s particularly interested in how we express this. “We create artificial lumber but stamp wood grain in it. We make an inflatable palm tree why not make it pink? But there are good reasons we don’t make it pink. It’s a very complex relationship: we want to control nature, but at the same time we have a deep attraction to it.”
FRAN SCHECHTER
Mariner 9
Who Kelly Richardson
Where Commerce Court, 25 King West
Why Richardson’s video installation depicting the future surface of M ars is even more detailed than her previous efforts, which is saying a lot. Examining years of Martian probe data with astrophysical topologists at NASA let Richardson painstakingly piece together a hyper-real recreation of the red planet pixel by pixel. The result is as close to standing on the Martian surface as most of us will ever get. It took 10 months of 10-hour days to complete and is considered so obsessively accurate, it’s now used by NASA in simulations. It’s also a wild, wild piece of landscape. Go see Mars.
DAVID JAGER
The Anthropocene
Who Caledon Dance Curry, aka Swoon
Where Bay Adelaide Centre, 26 Temperance
Why Swoon’s pieces add delicacy and sensitivity to street art. The exquisite draughtswoman and fine art printer’s murals are actually giant prints converted into intricate paper cutouts that are then wheat-pasted onto walls. Her visually staggering work draws on a mix of influences, from German expressionist woodcuts to Balinese shadow puppetry, refined with gorgeous bits of Jugendstil filigree and flourishes. Swoon delivers the visceral punch of urban imagery with a deeply poetic sensibility.
DAVID JAGER
Burrman
Who Simon Frank
Where Various locations (itinerary on Twitter @Burrman13)
Why The Scottish-born, Hamilton-based artist/poet silently wanders the financial district completely covered in Velcro-like hooked burdock seedpods, accompanied by two assistants and a docent. No one in the Scottish town where a man dons a similar outfit at a summer fair remembers exactly what the ancient tradition means, but Frank hopes his incarnation of the Burrman will have a transformative effect both on him and on those he encounters.
FRAN SCHECHTER
