March/April 2009
Surface &Symbol March/April 2009 Features:
Not Just a Random Project
Focus: Istvan Lendvay Architectural Artist
Toronto’s Honest Threads
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
Guilty of Laughing
Beam Yourself to a New Universe
Not Just a Random Project
By Andrea Raymond
A two-year community arts initiative, Project Random was launched in the summer of 2007. This multidisciplinary arts project brings together local youth from the Kingston Galloway Orton Park neighbourhood and professional artists in an exciting art-making and mentorship process. To date, over 40 youth from the community have taken part in Project Random.
Over the past 18 months, local youth have taken part in skill-building activities covering a variety of artistic disciplines including: face painting, mask making, stilt dancing, mosaic, mural painting, photography, drumming and spoken word. Initially, Project Random was rooted in the festival arts tradition – an accessible, vibrant and colourful art form that spans diverse artistic disciplines and cultures and has the potential to engage everyone. The project continues to nourish these roots, and has grown to include other art forms that local youth have expressed an interest in learning. Project Random is about building skills, apprenticeships and arts engagement.
The project continues this year with additional workshops, apprenticeships, performances and community leadership opportunities for youth. Project Random is currently running at three sites: East Scarborough Storefront, 4301 Kingston Rd. and 90 Mornelle Court. Four artists have been engaged to offer apprenticeships and arts programs at these sites. Por Amor’s Tanika Riley will be doing poetry, spoken word and hip hop at 4301. Meghan Deere and Rob Matejka are offering theatre and visual arts at Mornelle Court. Brescia Nember offers story collection and telling at the Storefront. Workshops will run at these sites through May, with culminating performances and events at each location.
Project Random is a partnership initiative between Toronto Community Housing (TCHC), West Hill Community Services and City of Toronto Cultural Services.
“In general, in community services, we provide a lot of sports programs. But kids need something to plug into, something that can be theirs – for some, that’s art. And the kids in Kingston Galloway weren’t getting any,” said Janet Fitzsimmons, Health Promoter from West Hill Community Services. A partnership was forged to address the needs of the community.
“Arts and culture is integral to Toronto’s success as a city. Being able to experience the arts in one’s neighbourhood is an indicator of a safe and healthy community. Cultural Services uses the arts in projects like this to create and support environments for success for youth in underserved areas–to provide opportunities for youth to express themselves, to be mentored by professional artists and develop tangible skills that can potentially lead to employment. It is a process that empowers youth, allows less commonly heard voices to be heard, and enhances a sense of belonging and community pride”, said Susan Kohler, Senior Arts Consultant for the City of Toronto.
Since the inception of the project, there have been many successes. Some are visual manifestations in the community. Project Random participants worked on a vibrant community mural at the East Scarborough Storefront. A mosaic created with artists from Red Pepper Spectacle Arts and youth is installed at 4301 Kingston Rd. At community events like Cedar Ridge Creative Centre’s 30th anniversary celebrations and the Community Festival Market at St. Margarets-in-the Pines Church, stilt dancers were present, seemingly as tall as the trees, gracefully enlivening the space. But what of the impact on the community that is not quite as easily seen?
“I’ve seen amazing things – kids have been exposed to art forms that they have made theirs. They have discovered new talents. Through art, the kids involved in Random have gained confidence in themselves, and in their voices. They have become engaged in other parts of the community,” said Fitzsimmons.
“There have been many memorable moments since Project Random started. It’s been gratifying to see youth grow and develop in their artistic skills and leadership abilities and become more engaged in their community.” Said Kohler. “One of the early highlights was an exhibition at Cedar Ridge Gallery that showcased the project and displayed some of the stunning artistic results. It was wonderful to see the excitement and pride shared by the youth and a large crowd of community residents who came to celebrate their achievements.”
Project Random runs through May 2009 in the Kingston Galloway Orton Park community. During the workshops starting this March, over 30 youth will be engaged in a variety of art forms. In addition, six youth ages 16 – 19 will be mentored by lead artists, developing leadership and creative thinking skills as well as an arts portfolio.
For more information on Project Random, call 416.396.7043.
Focus: Istvan Lendvay Architectural Artist
By Libby Peters
His studio is overflowing with paintings: massive canvases, abstracts and sketches, oil and acrylic, landscapes of far off places, portraits of beautiful women, canvases that fit in the palm of your hand, paintings by other artists which he rescued from the trash.
Istvan Lendvay has about as many paintings as one might expect for a career that spans decades.
In one area there is a work-in-progress: a lavender-pink skyline from the artist’s Hungarian homeland – each building rendered with detail only an architect could reproduce. Like many of his works, the piece is both abstract and realistic. This painting has an air of ease about it, but black inky outlines add a layer of precision to the shapes.
“I think I’m an impressionist painter,” says Lendvay, “But a bit abstract too. There could be lots of little detailing, but I simplify the colour and forms.”
The 80-year-old artist works out of a cozy backyard studio, a space that doubles as an office for Lendvay and his wife, both members of the Ontario Association of Architects.
He holds several degrees : one in Architectural Engineering which he earned in Hungary, a Master of Architecture from the University of Toronto, and a PH.D in Architectural Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest.
But Lendvay prefers to call himself an “architectural artist.”
“My designs, what I did in the world, are always reflecting my artistic impression… and (they) have a different kind of appearance than the standard building,” he says. “Definitely the functional layouts are reflecting my artistic feeling: ‘Where should be the window? Where should be (the door)…’”
But Lendvay isn’t planning to design a building any time soon, preferring to shift his focus toward other fine arts: “If someone would come around and ask me to (design a building), I might not take it,” he smiles.
For the past 10 years, Lendvay has chosen to focus on other art forms, although, he says, he has no preference in subject or media, from watercolour to acrylic, pencil, ink and oil.
Considering his early beginning it is no surprise that Lendvay would come to assume a long artistic career. Raised in Sopron, a town near the edge of the Hungarian/Austrian border, as a 9-year old schoolboy Lendvay was recruited to design and create a backdrop for the local theatre group. His first project, a landscape including the lake and nearby religious convent, was such a hit that young Lendvay soon had more work with the theatre.
In school, Lendvay explains, Hungarian students face heavy requirements in the area of art. His sketches and obvious artistic skill were noticed by his teachers, and after high school it was a clear path to the architectural art department at university.
Along with studying and practicing his art, Lendvay’s youth and early adulthood included a stint in World War II (where he was a prisoner of war for 9 months) and the Hungarian Revolution, when Lendvay left his home country – details he only mentions in passing.
Sometime after arriving in Canada in 1957, Lendvay took up painting and drawing; when he discovered the finished products “looked alright,” his artistic career was officially born. Soon his work was on display at Eaton’s Fine Art Galleries in Toronto… and selling too.
That, according to Lendvay, is when he “became more painter than architect,” selling work to friends, neighbours and strangers alike, until eventually he was approached by an agent.
“From there,” says Lendvay, “I had no time for rest.”
And rest he does not: so far, Lendvay has traveled to 86 countries across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Papua New Guinea, North, South and Central America, Asia, the Caribbean, Indonesia, Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic.
He has sold more than 3200 paintings – 3275 exactly – the specifics of which are recorded meticulously in a notebook that dates back to the first piece he ever sold in 1958.
“How I ended up like (this) is I started to travel in 1969,” says Lendvay. “My (Hungarian) background gave me a foundation, training, techniques, but my subjects reflect my travel experiences… (Without travel) my artwork wouldn’t be what it is today.”
Hungary was under communist regime until 1989.
“Your work would be so limited to inside the boarders of Hungary,” he says. “It is a small country. Your mind doesn’t open up the same way it does here.”
Lendvay is not necessarily modest about his accomplishments, but he is down-to-earth about his talent: “The way you develop (a painting) changes during the process. Sometimes it isn’t coming out the way it should, so you keep going. I don’t know if it’s luck, or accidental, but it comes out the way you want it.” He continues, “Just like we are cooking, adding spices to make it better and better.” In this way, Lendvay feels each painting is a deep expression of his soul, painful to part with.
“I’d like to have them all,” he says about his paintings. “Anything which goes away, I feel not very happy about it… Some dollar figure is attached to it, but I lost a painting.”
But Lendvay paints every day – his studio is overflowing with these pieces of him, canvases and sketchbooks.
“If I live long enough, I’m going to make mini paintings on canvas in oil, probably very close to the photographic impression – natural. Size not bigger than five centimeters,” he says.
But first, commissions and commitments wait. Lendvay is delivering a selection of canvases to Hungary this spring, to be sold as “souvenirs” for travelers or locals.
Prepared to “never retire,” Lendvay is on schedule for more travels (and more paintings, no doubt) over the next year: Hong Kong, Spain and Scotland. Then, on to new destinations. Perhaps India, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan… (“All the –stans,” Lendvay says.)
And a second trip to Antarctica may be in the works beyond this, to explore and appreciate. Lendvay says: “I missed a few things there the first time.”
Toronto’s Honest Threads
By Sarah Aranha
It was a slightly surreal scene. As I walked up the stairs to the second floor of Honest Ed’s, I was faced with a sea of sweatpants, dress shirts, men’s shorts and jackets. Red and yellow signs hung from the ceiling advertising incredible deals with multiple exclamation points. And a line of people snaked through the clothing bins from the tailor’s shop at the far corner of the floor to the stairs at the opposite end, where I stood. Venturing further into the space, I quickly saw what I was looking for: a carefully decorated alcove next to the hair salon. This was the opening night of Iris Häussler’s project Honest Threads, and it also happened to be the night David Mirvish was handing out dozens of eggs for a quarter. That explained the 60-person lineup.
Honest Threads uses clothes as a conduit for memory and storytelling. A participatory artwork, it allows us glimpses into the lives of Torontonians. The installation is set up as a vintage second-hand store, furnished in deep reds and gold, and is invitingly lit. In the middle of the small room are racks of assorted clothing items, donated by people who responded to a call for submissions. Along the walls are photographs of each item of clothing and a narrative written by its owner on its significance. The participatory aspect of the project is hinted at by the presence of two curtained change rooms – visitors are welcome to try on the clothes or even borrow them for up to five days, and are encouraged to write about the experience in a notebook inside the space.
Perusing the exhibition, we see a chef’s jacket from Jamie Kennedy, grey cargo pants from Häussler herself, an assortment of shoes and suits from Ed Mirvish, all alongside a mother’s raincoat, an African dress, a hippie shirt, a school uniform and a pink sequined tank top just to name a few. The narratives are written candidly; some are short and to the point, some paint a picture of faraway countries and long lost friends. The many anecdotes and remembrances are absorbing, and it is easy to become lost in the stories that line the walls.
What prevents the project from being solely a trip down memory lane is the fact that the items that we read about are physically there to be felt, smelled, and even tried on if one may so desire. Häussler sees this as a “haptic experience”, in which something intangible or distant is made immediate and alive. By presenting the clothes alongside the stories, each piece of clothing oscillates between being a precious artifact of a life lived and a utilitarian object which still has potential for further use. Reading the story behind the piece of clothing, and then perhaps wearing it as you go about your life, you not only get to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”, but add meaning of your own to that piece of clothing.
As I leave the exhibition, I realize the strength of the work has a lot to do with its location. The first in a series of off-site installations while the Koffler Gallery’s home (the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre) undergoes renovation, Honest Ed’s provides unique parameters for artists to work with and respond to. Häussler admits that the work would not have been as interesting had it been held at a conventional ‘white-cube’ gallery space. A Toronto landmark, Honest Ed’s is a beacon for newcomers to the city, and a reminder of Ed Mirvish’s inspiring story of success, himself a son of Jewish immigrants from Austria and Russia.
It is all these layers that contribute to the depth of Honest Threads. Honest Ed’s continues to serve as a literal and psychological meeting point for people of the city, and the clothes in the red room on the second floor allow for their stories to be exchanged. The embroidered jackets, knitted ponchos, hockey jerseys and christening gowns are special items from our collective wardrobe, markers of times and places past, while remaining open to the endless possibilities of the day.
For more information on Iris Häussler and the Koffler Gallery, visit www.haeussler.ca and www.kofflerarts.org.
Details: Honest Threads is a project by Iris Häussler and is curated by Mona Filip. Presented by the Koffler Gallery, it runs until March 29 on the second floor of Honest Ed’s, 581 Bloor Street West.
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
By Althea Manasan
Don’t judge a book by its cover.
That’s the idea behind the Living Library, an innovative program that turns people into living “books” that “readers” can sign out. Each book has a title—for example, Ex-gang member, Vegan, Mental health specialist—and represents a particular social group or an area of expertise. The topics can often be sensitive or controversial, but that is the point of the exercise. The program’s goal is to foster open and honest conversations between diverse individuals and, in the process, challenge people’s stereotypes, biases, and preconceived notions.
The Living Library was founded in 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark by a youth organization called “Stop the Violence” as a way to fight prejudice and discrimination through mutual understanding. Since then, the program has become a global phenomenon with events hosted all over the world, including Canada. The Toronto Public Library hopes to launch its own Living Library pilot project this summer where Torontonians will get the chance to meet and chat with living books on a variety of subjects.
“Toronto is a fantastic place to do this because we have so many people from so many places with so many different viewpoints,” says Linda Hazzan, the public library’s Director of Marketing and Communications. “Here, [the Living Library] might not be so much about prejudices, but about sharing something with each other. This is a perfect city for that sort of thing.”
The library is still in the early stages of exploring potential book titles and topics. Organizers plan to center some of the discussion around the themes of the public library’s strategic plan: engaging diverse communities, addressing the growing income gap, expanding access to technology, encouraging creativity and culture, and supporting sustainability. Whatever the subject, Hazzan says that, like books on a shelf, she wants the living books to provide multiple and diverse perspectives.
She adds that the Living Library will be a natural extension of the public library’s services and commitment to offering information, exploration, and knowledge. “With 99 branches, we have a reach and relationship with people throughout the city. We can engage Torontonians in a way that’s relevant.”
Guilty of Laughing
A Skull in Connemara
Written by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Lucy Carabine
Produced by Toronto Irish Players
Runs at the Alumnae Theatre – 11 performances to March 7th
By Nora Ohanjanians
There used to be a time when the things we laughed at were totally different from the things by which we were shocked or saddened. But nowadays some entertainment invokes all three contradictory feelings at once. When movies about poverty-stricken abused orphans (Slumdog Millionaire) and the holocaust (Life is Beautiful) are classified as comedies we are getting used to mixing genres without flinching.
A Skull in Connemara is an example of such genre-mixing. The second play in the Leeane Trilogy, it has the usual Martin McDonagh ingredients: foul language, shock, blood, murder, grossness and black humour. The components somehow garner a lot of laughs, but unlike some of McDonagh’s other plays, this one doesn’t have much substance to it.
As always, McDonagh’s humour is dark, but he pushes the envelope on this one. He makes you laugh, but it’s a guilty laughter. You feel uncomfortable because what you’re laughing at is no laughing matter. Smashing skulls, stealing from dead bodies or throwing them into the sewer are not funny acts. But when McDonagh is telling it, you can’t help but laugh.
Mick Dowd, who lives in an Irish village, has a part time job — exhuming bodies buried more than seven years ago to make room for the new arrivals. What does he do with the bodies? He says he’s sworn to secrecy by the church. How did his wife die? He says it was a drinking and driving accident. But the village gossip mill churns out different versions of his story, which infuriates him. When the time comes for Mick to exhume his dead wife’s bones, a lot of dirty laundry and not only Mick’s gets aired.
McDonagh is a British-born Irish writer who’s been meteorically successful since the beginning of his career. He’s been nominated for numerous awards of which he’s won quite a few. Among them are the Critic’s Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising playwright in 1996, the Laurence Olivier Award for best new play for The Pillowman in 2004, the Academy Award for live-action short film for Six Shooter in 2005, and the British Independent Film Award for best screenplay for In Bruges in 2008.
If you’re Irish or have an affinity for Irish culture, you’ll enjoy the play more. McDonagh has fun with the Irish dialect, and the cast obliges with their Irish accent. The program contains a glossary of the frequently used Irish words in the play “for our Canadian guests,” as Bernie Hunt, the president of the Toronto Irish Players (TIP), puts it.
Lucy Carabine’s direction is dynamic. The set design and the props are creative, and used well to enliven the repetitive dialogue. The digging and filling up of graves, for instance, is meaningful and provides the needed action for the graveyard scene.
The award-winning Mark Whelan is brilliant, and manages to squeeze some depth out of his character, Mick Dowd. This salvages Mick from the caricature-like exaggeration of McDonagh’s character development. ACTCO Award-winning Stephen Farrell is hilarious as Mairtin, Mick’s young grave-digger assistant.
The Irish music is soulful and mood-enhancing, although the sound effects are not always perfectly executed.
TIP was founded 30 years ago and has produced about 60 plays since. A Skull in Connemara is this season’s second production and will be performed 11 times on February 19th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 27th, 28th and March 5th, 6th and 7th at 8 p.m., with two Sunday matinee performances on February 22nd and March 1st.
TIP operates mainly on private donations and is recruiting for next year’s productions. It’s inviting all thespians to a BYOB party at 80 Mill St. on April 11th to celebrate the season. For more information go to www.torontoirishplayers.org.
Beam Yourself to a New Universe
By Benedict Lopes
A portal is an entryway from one realm to another.
Many of us will undoubtedly agree that our lives are ever increasingly divided between the virtual, online realm and the physical, material world. Of course, there are those of us who exist completely independently from any and all matters related to the internet – a clan firmly united by our physical roots.
Conversely, there are those of us who can no longer clearly distinguish between our virtual and our physical selves. Neither way of living can be said to constitute a more meaningful or truthful “reality”; for our social lives, professional selves, and private indulgences are our own – as dramatically varied as the physical bodies that we inhabit.
Naturally, art is a mirror to life. This means that in stride with the nature of communication itself, art too, is changing. Our artwork, as an extension of ourselves, is growing, evolving, and adapting at a feverish pace.
Art as a living organism is a wonderfully formidable force. The question must therefore be acknowledged: How do we contain such a tempest? The answer, excitingly, is that we cannot. Yes, we are certainly responsible for creating this realm, but it is now its own “thing”.
Regardless of the universe in which you feel most comfortable – virtual or physical – the fact is that the two will not remain separated. Enter: the East End Arts Portal.
The East Ends Arts Portal can become many things. An ambitious initiative of the Scarborough Arts Council, it will serves as a bridge between the virtual and the physical realities of art. Scheduled to be up and running in the very near future, it will become a vessel upon which any artist adventurer can float, safely, without fear of drifting (too far) off course. The intention is to create an inclusive, un-intimidating forum for sharing our creativity with one another.
The East End Arts Portal will provide access to user generated content of all media. The Scarborough Arts Council intends to provide the community with a place in which to learn, share and communicate – a place to facilitate, to disseminate and to celebrate the arts.
Scarborough is very densely populated and home to arguably the most diverse population across all of Canada. The variety of artists living here spans the entire spectrum. The arts in this region are alive. There are very well established artists who have lived here for generations, currently enjoying the success of having mastered a classical technique, to very recent immigrants who have brought to Canada with them the intricacies of their native cultures. Of course one must not forget the energy and enthusiasm of Scarborough’s youth, to whom experimentation and exploration are paramount, and an understanding of even the most technologically advanced concepts may astonishingly seem intuitive.
The goal of the East End Arts Portal is to actively connect all members of this community with one another, while developing a meeting place that can be used to collectively share our cultural and artistic resources. The portal can be used as an alternative venue for showcasing almost any form of artwork. It will become a place to make our ideas available, and promote all types of programming. The portal will embrace the increasingly integrated forms of technology, striving to utilize them to address existing access issues, as well as to engage the entire Scarborough community with its own staggering variety of artforms.
There is a catch, however. You are needed to participate.
Get your digital camera out, sign up, log in, and lets see what we can create. Visit www. eastendartsportal.com, and watch it develop!