Diane Borsato

A vibrant, illustrated guide to over 100 common and charismatic mushrooms, with storytelling that explores the connection between humans, fungi, and contemporary art.

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In this charming and colourful illustrated guide, everyone from beginner mushroomers to advanced mycophiles can learn about the edible, the poisonous, and the strange: mushrooms named after fairies and demons, phallic specimens prized as aphrodisiacs, and mushrooms the color of precious jewels. Discover mushrooms that look so much like woodland birds they are shot at by hunters, mushrooms that glow in the dark, and so much more.

Author Diane Borsato also sees mushrooms as a lens for examining human interaction with nature. Her engaging stories show readers how artists use mushrooms to explore the unexpected wilderness of cities, what happens to our bodies after we die, and how we perceive the world and ourselves.

Mushrooming inspires readers to find the joy of the “quiet hunt” anywhere: in the forest, city park, market, and even the museum.

Reviews

"I want to live in Diane Borsato’s brain. What a joy it is to experience the fruiting bodies of her deep wide intellect in this book about mushrooms, art, forests, feminism, poison, pasta, and so much more. This is my favourite kind of fence jumping, perspective shifting, deliciously illustrated, eloquently enquiring, radically alive book." ― Kyo Maclear, author of Birds Art Life

"A delightful, eclectic and enjoyable tour of mushrooms and their place in our world…This is a book that isn't afraid to mix the personal with the practical and will thrill many readers because of that." ― Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator

"Fungi are an order so mysterious they push our wonder and horror buttons simultaneously. In Mushrooming, Diane Borsato uses her radical curiosity to consider what they have to teach us about interconnection, the diversity of life, and the wildly creative possibilities of risk and attention." ― Shary Boyle, Artist

"Absolutely terrific. This is a volume that, at first glance, is a field guide. But peering closer, as every mycologist knows, brings reward. Borsato’s species descriptions are bright and lyrical; accompanying caps and stems rendered lovingly by Oseid. From art to culture to food, Mushrooming is a celebration of the human relationship with fungi." ― Jonathan C. Slaght, author of Owls of the Eastern Ice

"Mushrooming is as much about identification as it is about finding wonder in all that surrounds us. Borsato frames the silent hunt through art, ecology, spirituality, ethics, and access. A guide unlike any other, this book is a must for artists, nature lovers, and anyone looking to find more magic in the world around them." ― Jen Delos Reyes, author of Open Engagement

"Mushrooming is, in every way, a delightful book." ― Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms

"There is a worldwide resurgence of interest in fungi, so Mushrooming arrives at a perfect time...Diane Borsato's tales of mushroom hunters, the gouache renditions by Kelly Oseid and yes, the culinary side of mushrooms (choose them carefully!) combine to make this book a delightful adventure from beginning to end." ― Jay Ingram, author of The Science of Everyday Life

"Every turn of the page in Mushrooming reveals surprising delights, between the eye-catching illustrations, cleverly quippy commentary and insightful background information. Whether you're the sort to dig in the dirt in search of mushrooms, are considering your next gastronomic adventure, or are simply eager to learn more about the natural history of our fungal friends—this book will speak to the mycologist in everyone." ― Emily Graslie, creator of The Brain Scoop and ART LAB on YouTube, and host/writer of Prehistoric Road Trip on PBS

About the Author

Diane Borsato is an artist, naturalist and educator. She is an associate professor of Experimental Studio at the University of Guelph. She has exhibited her work involving mushrooms, bees, raptors, orchards and tea in galleries and museums around the world and was the co-editor and a contributor to the book Outdoor School: Contemporary Environmental Art (D&M, 2021). She lives in Toronto, ON.

Kelsey Oseid is an illustrator, author and amateur naturalist based in Minneapolis, MN. Her gouache illustrations focus on natural history subjects like taxonomy, biodiversity and taxidermy, as well as related subjects like astronomy and the ways humans connect to the natural world. She is the author and illustrator of three books with Ten Speed Press.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Douglas & McIntyre (Sept. 10 2022)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1771623373

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1771623377

Item weight ‏ : ‎ 788 g

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.05 x 2.26 x 23.5 cm

Performance/Walking Tour

2017

A practical workshop to teach skills at identifying clouds and other atmospheric effects in the museum. Discarding the official art historical narratives presented at ordinary tours, I guided participants through the Canadian galleries on the second floor of the Art Gallery of Ontario to discuss cloud types, their supplementary features, and other optical environmental phenomena.

In this hour-long meteorological tour we walked among cumulus clouds, observed rare nacreous and diamond dust, checked out halos and crepuscular rays, discussed tiny rainbows and the shocking lack of rain in the Canadian galleries.  We learned new words in several languages (English common and scientific, latin, French and Inuktitut), witnessed a total solar eclipse, and talked about why the sky is blue and full of water - and how we are all in it together.

Field guides for cloud identification and the weather were provided for participants.

A new site-specific version of this performance can be produced for any major museum with a collection of historic/modern works in various media - for inquiries contact Diane Borsato: dianeborsato@gmail.com

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Creative Time Summit - Of Homelands and Revolution, CLOUD PARTY (Museum tour and cloud identification workshop) Sept. 28-30th. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2017.

Also see the new publication made in collaboration with the Owens Gallery - CLOUD COLLECTION

Video, 25 minutes

2018

See this link for Gems and Minerals on VIMEO

In Gems and Minerals, museum guides discuss the hidden worlds of rock and mineral specimens in the Teck Suite: Earth’s Treasures galleries at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.  

 With expressive performances in American Sign Language (ASL) and site-responsive dance, the performers use their bodies to enact the origins of the earth’s oldest materials, surprising quirks of chemistry and geology, and tell fantastical stories – about the hydro-geologist who keeps accidentally swallowing pearls, the guard who relieves his arthritis against the copper exhibit, the silver ore that attracts bats, and the asteroid on an ominous trajectory toward our future descendants.

Amid the emotional, sometimes comical gesturing in the busy public gallery, performers also embody some of the most controversial and disturbing social, environmental and economic impacts of mining. They evoke the untold stories of violence produced by the global corporations that extract geological resources and specimens, and sponsor museum exhibitions.

Write to the artist for screening and exhibition details: dianeborsato@gmail.com

Produced, written and directed by: Diane Borsato, 2018

Performances: Lukas Malkowski, Ralista Rodriguez, Valerie Calam and Sage Lovell.

 Camera and post-production: Jason Tan

The artist would like to acknowledge the support of the Royal Ontario Museum Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth’s Treasures, Josslyn Johnstone (ROM Communications), Catherine Dunnell (ROM Minerology Technician in the Department of Natural History), Deaf Spectrum (Consulation and captioning), Amanda Cachia (Commissioning curator for the Owens Art Gallery), Jacqueline Bell (Curator of the Walter Philips Gallery at the Banff Centre for the Arts), Toronto Dance Theatre, and the Canada Council for the Arts. And finally acknowledgments to the performers and crew: Lukas Malkowski, Ralista Rodriguez, Valerie Calam, Sage Lovell and Jason Tan – who brought tremendous knowledge, insight and expression to the final work.

This work is in the permanent collection of the Walter Philips Gallery, at the Banff Centre for the arts. Acquired in 2020.

Exhibition History:

Walter Philips Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, If The River Ran Upwards, group show curated by Jacylyn Bell, Summer 2018.

Automatisme Ambulatoire: Hysteria, Imitation, Performance, with Diane Borsato, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Claire Cunningham, the collective My Barbarian, consisting of Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade, Brendan Fernandes, and Emily Roysdon. Owens Art Gallery, 61 York Street, Sackville, New Brunswick, and Tangled Arts, Toronto, Canada. Fall 2019.

 ARFF Amsterdam/Around Films Festival, Gems and Minerals screened and selected as a Finalist in the Experimental Film category, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May, 2019.

Upcoming: Walter Philips Gallery, Automatisme Ambulatoire: Hysteria, Imitation, Performance, with Diane Borsato, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Claire Cunningham, the collective My Barbarian, consisting of Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade, Brendan Fernandes, and Emily Roysdon, Banff, Alberta, 2020.

Upcoming: ARFF Paris/Around Films Festival, Gems and Minerals screened and selected as a Finalist in the Experimental Film category, Paris, France, 2020. 

Upcoming: Walter Philips Gallery, Automatisme Ambulatoire: Hysteria, Imitation, Performance, with Diane Borsato, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Claire Cunningham, the collective My Barbarian, consisting of Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade, Brendan Fernandes, and Emily Roysdon, Banff, Alberta, 2020.

Video, 8 minutes

2021

See the low-res link here:

*Contact the artist for exhibition and screening version

Birds of prey are non-social animals, highly attuned to sound, vibration, and movement, and single-mindedly focused on hunting and survival. They are particularly interesting because they are at once, powerful apex predators, and sensitive animals whose populations are vulnerable to environmental threats.

With the collaboration of the dancers, we explored aspects of movement in association with live birds. Questions included: What is their unique anatomy, and vocabulary of movement? How do they sense and experience the world? What is a safe range of movement one might explore while handling one of these animals? How do environmental conditions – wind, weather, light etc. affect movement and expression in the birds?

Helen MacDonald describes a hawk as “half-dragon/ half-leopard,” referring to both its uncanny otherness, and potential for deadly violence. What can we glean from a choreography of falconry – which is in itself an ancient partnership between people and animals? With this new choreographic research, we explored not just the physical space between hawk and dancer, but also the psychological space between the human and the non-human.

Concept and Choreography: Diane Borsato and Valerie Calam

Dancers: Christopher Valentini and Sasha Ludavicius

Music composition and scoring: Paul Shepherd/ Fantastical Realms

Recording and post production: Raj Nandy

Produced by Proartedanza

Exhibition history:

Premiered in the fall of 2021 during Virtual TO Dances

We are happy to announce it's here! Our book Outdoor School, edited by Diane Borsato and Amish Morrell, is available anywhere fine books are sold. (From May 1st in Canada, or from Indigo around the world).

If you are in the Toronto area - order from our friends at Flying Books for free delivery!

The book includes work of contemporary environmental art by Alana Bartol, Jacqueline Bell, Diane Borsato, Bill Burns, Carolina Caycedo, Jen Delos Reyes, Sameer Farooq, Fastwurms, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Ayumi Goto, Maggie Groat, Karen Houle, Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed, Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill, Ann MacDonald, Rita McKeough, Peter Morin, Amish Morrell, Public Studio, Genevieve Robertson, Jamie Ross, Aislinn Thomas, Vibrant Matter, Georgiana Uhlyarik, Jay White, Tania Willard, Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson, and D'Arcy Wilson.

See some recent reviews of the book here:

Femme Art Review, By Ashley Culver

Event/Performance

2019

To inaugurate my ongoing public art project ORCHARD, I invited the public to taste and learn about unusual and historic apples, and community orchards. 

Some of the apples tasted included Pink Pearl, Hornburger Pancake, White Winter, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Seek No Further, Tolman Sweet, Virginia Crab, Rambo, Pink Princess, Baxter, Opalesence, Starsong, Winter Banana, Maiden Blush, Snow, Belle de Boskoop… and many more.

See ORCHARD: https://www.dianeborsato.net/#/orchard/

The event included an extensive heritage apple tasting, with orchardist and historic apple collector Bill O’Keefe, and other partners – including Toronto’s first urban orchardist Susan Poizner of Orchard People.  More than 40 unique and rare apple varietals were available to taste and discuss, and free Syrian Apple Cake was served – catered by Newcomer Kitchen, a non-profit organization that hires Syrian refugee women to cook and share food together.  

The project was co-presented by the Toronto Biennial of Art and Ontario Culture Days.

Sunday September 29th, 2019, Small Arms Inspection Building, Mississauga, ON

Public Project by Diane Borsato

Curated by Dave Dyment, with Ontario Culture Days and Toronto Biennial of Art.

Thank you to O’Keefe Grange, Newcomer Kitchen, Orchard People, SAIB, Mississauga Public Art, Mississauga Parks and Forestry, the University of Guelph Orchard at Vineland, Culture Days, Day Milman, Hiba Abdallah, Amish Morrell and the Toronto Biennial of Art.

Series of six new videos in performance/dance

2017/18

In an effort to respond to artworks and the context of an international art fair, I created several monologues on motifs critical to visual and dance arts - including Nature, Gesture, Touch, Tension and Space.

Working with interpretations of the texts in American Sign Language (ASL) and the features of specific works - we developed a unique choreographic vocabulary to respond to artworks and the context of the fair. 

The project was made together with dancer Lukas Malkowski, Deaf Artist Ralista Rodgriguez, choreographer Valerie Calam and cinematographer Jason Tan.

Produced at ART TORONTO commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Canada Council for the Arts. 

To see more videos in the series intended for gallery exhibition write to dianeborsato@gmail.com

Public Project and Edition

2017

Based on sensory-mapping tools developed by UK artist Kate McLean - Diane Borsato, JP King and Amish Morrell led a group of artists and tea-sommeliers from the Toronto Tea Guild in a walk along Sterling Road, Toronto. Together we recorded smells in a commissary kitchen, a brewery, a chocolate factory, a publisher, a government employment office, former aluminum manufacturing sites, a railpath and more - to make a portrait of a gentrifying industrial neighbourhood at a transitional moment in its development.

Field materials and Olfactory Map of Sterling Road designed and printed by Paper Pusher/JP King. 

Images by Hiba Abdallah and Diane Borsato. 

Thank you to the Mia Nielson for curating the project, to head Commissary chef Jonas Grupiljonas for the generous hospitality, and to Victoria Taylor of ====\\DeRAIL for contextual references. 

EXHIBITION HISTORY:

Drake Commissary, (Olfactory Mapping) Sterling Road, curated by Mia Nielson, public project and edition with JP King, Amish Morrell, Victoria Taylor and Kate MacLean, Toronto, 2017.

Project supported in part by the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.

Videos

2017 (ongoing series)

I have been working with contemporary dancers responding on-site to works of public sculpture in Toronto. The performances are approached as duets – between dancer and sculpture, to respond in the moment to the unstable event of an artwork – instead of to a heavy, permanent object.

A number of artists have recently been working with dancers in art galleries, exploring the possibilities generated by virtuosic movers, liveness, duration, and the relationships between visual art and contemporary dance.

Taking on some of the most significant heroic, male-authoured works in public space – the performances of the dancers produce surprising, embodied and critical responses to the iconic sculptural themes of space, volume, mass, surface and time – in a present historical moment.

Choreography in the works was developed by the artist with the assistance of Valerie Calam, and the individual performers.

Videos in the series include responses to Three Discs by Menashe Kadishman (1967), Large Two Forms by Henry Moore (1966), untitled (Mountain) by Anish Kapoor, 1995, and Oculus by Alan Crossley (1969).

Performers in the series include: Valerie Calam, Pulga Mochochama, Justin de Luna, and James Philips. 

Short excerpts of the video with Valerie Calam performing with Large Two Forms by Henry Moore (1966) can be seen here. 

The videos are being produced for gallery exhibition – to be projected in tandem with one another in a large immersive video installation.

Contact the artist for details: dianeborsato@gmail.com

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Art Toronto, AGO commissioned project - part of the series A DANCER IS NOT A SCULPTURE BUT A SCULPTURE IS A DANCE for the Opening Night Preview, Toronto, Fall 2017.

Social Practice (For annual repetition)

2018 - ongoing

At the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, various groups from across disciplines gather to attend conferences, focus on research, and create new works.

In an effort to bring artists on creation residencies together with a seemingly unreachable and unknowable group of distinguished professionals from the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) - I postered the station, e-mailed and called administrators, and solicited mathematicians at lunch, with an invitation to swim together with artists.

On the hottest, clearest evening in July - more than 40 people, including mathematicians, artists and friends - showed up to swim together in the Bow River’s cold glacial waters. Despite our different professional and personal worlds, our different vocabularies and references - we could all share a conscious moment together - as bodies experiencing a sensorially intense, and uniquely beautiful environment.

The event was so surprising and well-attended, I have proposed it as a playful annual event to be stewarded by the Walter Philips Gallery - to continue as long as there are artists and mathematicians working in their separate worlds at the centre.

This work is in the permanent collection of the Walter Philips Gallery, at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Acquired in 2020.

Exhibition History:

The event took place first in 2018 at the Banff Centre for the Arts at Banff National Park in the Bow River.

With thanks to administrators Linda and Danny, and researchers from the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS)

Thanks also for support from the Banff Centre for the Arts, Visual Arts Director Brandy Dahrouge, Walter Philips Gallery Acting Curator Jacqueline Bell, Tyler Los Jones, Amish Morrell, and artists participating in the OUTDOOR SCHOOL residency, and the Beyond Anthropocene: Banff Centre Research in Culture residency.

Public Art Project

2016 - ongoing

Orchard is an ongoing public art project aiming to plant rare, historic or eccentric apple varietals in various locations.

Unusual apple varieties include apples with black skin, or with beet-red flesh. There are apples shaped like stars and sheep-noses, and apples that taste like butterscotch, oranges, or roses. There are apples as large as a melon, apples that last just a few hours, and apples that look gashed across the skin by a wolf. There are historic Canadian apples that hardly anyone knows the taste of, as well as two-thousand year old apples, cultivated since the Roman empire. 

Apple Trees Planted to date:

Arkansas Black, White Winter Pearmain, Private Toronto residence (2018)

2 Glowing Hearts, (2018) Private Nova Scotia residence

1 White Winter Pearmain, at the Alexander Wilson Memorial Garden in Toronto. (2019)

12 Trees planted as a community orchard in 2019 at the Small Arms Inspection Building in Mississauga, varietals planted include: Pink Pearl, Tolman Sweet, White Winter Pearmain, Kandil Sinap, Black Giliflower, Hewe’s Crab, Pineapple Reinette, Belle de Boskoop, Pedro, Baxter, Williams Pride, and Sleeping Beauty. This project was commissioned by Mississauga Public Art Division. It was accompanied by the apple tasting event YOU ARE A GOOD APPLE. The trees were selected by Diane Borsato and are accompanied by a poster with descriptions of the varietals designed by JP King.

In addition to learning grafting, I have been developing relationships with orchard professionals and researching uncommon apples. Many of these and other varietals are available in Ontario, in orchards operated by apple collectors – in sites that are essentially living museums.  Many apple varietals are not planted commercially, and require enthusiastic and curious orchardists to grow them in order for them to continue to exist for future generations.

Participating in the work requires a special commitment on behalf of a hosting institution, to properly maintain the trees on an annual basis and sustain them for their natural lifespan. And the orchard grows, it would be a flexible, ongoing programmable site of interest to a wide public outside of the museum.  In contrast to the “white cube” of the gallery, trees in Orchard could be activated by artists and naturalists in various ways according to season and weather, with grafting workshops in spring, picnic symposia in the summer, cider making and apple tasting and cooking in the fall.

This ongoing work will be a living, dispersed public art project - one that combines ecological, aesthetic, and gastronomical interests - while challenging traditions of public sculpture, and contributing to urban life.

For information about how you can have a young tree and be a part of Orchard contact the artist directly: dianeborsato@gmail.com

Exhibition History:

Small Arms Inspection Building, City of Mississauga, ORCHARD project and YOU ARE A GOOD APPLE event 2019 - Ongoing.

In partnership with Public Art Mississauga and Mississauga Parks and Forestry Division.

Walk/Performance

 2017

ALL THE NAMES FOR EVERYTHING was a walk on Mount Nemo with diverse outdoor education leaders bringing various scientific and cultural perspectives on naming flora and fauna along the Bruce Trail in Ontario, Canada.

The popular nature educator Richard Aaron spoke of scientific botanical and common English naming, while Melanie Gray of wolf clan from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory discussed spiritual and medicinal connections to plants in addition to some of their names in Mohawk, and Jon Johnson, a community-based Indigenous scholar discussed place names and the history and ongoing presence of Indigenous peoples in the Toronto region.

Together we considered the origins and meanings of botanical names, numerous common names, and names in different languages of many of the places, plants and animals encountered along our walk.

I had been thinking about the colonial histories that are conspicuously silent (or worse, the violence and erasure still being perpetuated) whenever I study nature, take workshops, read field guides, or lead students and others in the woods. With this project - I hoped to expand the terms of nature-education, by bringing together a diverse crowd of knowledgeable community members interested in plants, ecological relationships, and land.

We discussed names that give evocative descriptions, that tell of our many relationships to plants and other creatures, to languages and names that were absent and lost to Indigenous peoples, and to racist names – that speak to our often difficult relationships with each other.

ALL THE NAMES FOR EVERYTHING is part of an ongoing commitment to developing relationships with Indigenous elders, artists, researchers, and educators - and including Indigenous perspectives in my own work and teaching. 

The piece was part of a larger project by Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatsky of Public Studio called New Field: Tracing Decolonisation.

Photos here by Emily Moriarty, Amish Morrell, Richard Aaron and Diane Borsato. 

Performance  (5-hours)

2013

One hundred regional beekeepers performed a collective meditation in the AGO’s Walker Court. While exploring the tangible effect of collective meditation, the work created a public platform upon which to reflect on the health and temper of bees and their keepers, and on the policies and environmental conditions that affect our shared future. The work featured periods of guided silent meditation, walking meditation, and sonic accompaniment.

The work was performed for five hours for Nuit Blanche Toronto 2013.

A 5-minute video document of Your Temper, My Weather can be see here.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Art Gallery of Ontario, Artist in Residence, Artist residency and projects, Summer - Fall 2013, Toronto, Canada

Art Gallery of Ontario, Your Temper, My Weather, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Fall 2013, Toronto, Canada

Video (10 minute loop)

2013

In an effort to create the appearance that beekeepers everywhere are simultaneously exercising their focus, their calm, and their consideration for bees – Apiary Videos cycles through images of beekeepers meditating in eight different regional apiaries.

On rooftops, in backyards, in public parks, botanical gardens and in industrial wastelands – the beekeepers are attempting to transform environmental conditions that affect the future of the bees, and of all of us.

Duration: 10 minutes (looped)

Grateful acknowledgements for the participation of many beekeepers and organizations, including Kuldip Jassal, Gurushabd Khalsa, Mario Borsato, the Toronto Botanical Gardens, the Toronto Beekeepers Co-op, the Toronto Urban Beekeepers, U of T BEES, and the Royal York Hotel.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Apiary Videos is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. 

Eric Harvie Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, Improvise Everything, Curated by Jacqueline Bell and Justin Wadell, Fall 2016, Banff, Alberta

L'Oeil de Poisson, Diane Borsato, Joe Hambleton, Yam Lau, Installation of Apiary Videos, curated by Alexandre David, 2014, Quebec City, Canada

Clint Roenisch Gallery, Agency of Acquaintances, Apiary Videos in group show curated by Catherine Dean, 2015, Toronto, Canada

Art Gallery of Ontario, Artist in Residence, Artist residency and projects, Summer - Fall 2013, Toronto, Canada

Centre Clark, Apiary Videos, Solo exhibition, Spring 2014, Montreal, Quebec

Video (single channel) - Made in collaboration with Rita McKeough

2018

In this one-shot video, a musician performs a drum-solo in an expansive valley with a mountain vista. Despite the acoustic potential of the site - the sound of the drums is surprisingly at par with - or sometimes even quieter than the surrounding ambience and birdsong.

In this perceptually confusing work, the actual sound of drumming is second to a visual spectacle of noise, and to the expression of energy and joy in performance.

Conceived and directed by Diane Borsato and Rita McKeough

Inspired by conversations with, and dedicated to Aislinn Thomas.

Performer: Rita McKeough

Audio Engineering: Ed Renzi

The video was produced at the Banff Centre for the Arts, 2018.

For a private Vimeo link, contact the artists for details.

Owens Gallery, Struts Gallery in conjunction with Sappy Fest, Screening of BIG ROCK QUIET by Diane Borsato and Rita McKeough. Near and Far program also includes video works by Colin Campbell, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Rita McKeough & Diane Borsato, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Daniel Barrow and Jeremy Dutcher + will feature projected performances by Wares and Lido Pimienta, curated by Emily Falvey, Sackville NB, Summer 2020.

Outdoor School is an ongoing series of activities that link contemporary art with outdoor education practices by Diane Borsato and Amish Morrell in collaboration with various other practitioners.

2010 - ongoing

Projects have included University courses, gallery exhibitions, mushroom forays for artists, outdoor performances, forest teas, plant walks, outdoor lectures on radical camping, museum interventions and more. 

See the BLOG for documentation of various research, practices and related outdoor education activities. 

Performance/Action

2012

I invited 24 participants to wear a highly fragrant gardenia boutonniere to the opening reception of a new commercial gallery. The volunteers mingled throughout the party, and the extravagant scent quickly overwhelmed the space. The “cloud” of fragrance hung in the air for approximately one hour, after which time the performers and their flowers left the building.

Participants:
1. Diane Borsato
2. Daniel Barrow
3. Annie MacDonell
4. Sarah Lazarovic
5. Ben Errett
6. Day Milman
7. Stephanie Springgay
8. Julia Kennedy
9. Jessica Bradley
10. Logan MacDonald
11. Nikki Rotas
12. Hazel Meyer
13. Jennifer Murphy
14. Jeff Borsato
15. Melissa Boffo
16. Lanie Chalmers
17. Helen Reed
18. Theresa Gastaldini
19. Neil Brochu
20. Derek Sullivan
21. Maurya Shah
22. Jim Verburg
23. Ryan Crouchman
24. Marla Hlady

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Jessica Bradley Annex, Cloud, Fall 2012, Toronto, Canada

Cotton and plastic cap, polyester embroidered patches, 8”x10”x6"

2017

A wearable collection of patches referring to the various naturalist practices the artist has participated in, and organizations she has belonged to. "Things" include: mushrooms, birds of prey, apples, tea, flowers, ikebana, bees, reptiles and clouds.

Project supported by the Toronto Arts Council.

Sculpture/Social Practice/Photography

2015 - ongoing

An ongoing series of arrangements of flowers, plants, food and other objects collected in various international cities. Some of the works are exhibited as live sculptures in museums using found and locally available materials, and some are arranged for photography.

The Arrangements series traces several years of my study of the modern school of Sogetsu Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging). The flower arrangements respond variously to the sites, seasons, and specific historical moments in which they are made. The developing works are also artifacts of this ongoing research, practice and learning.

Images in this collection include sculptures made in collaboration with Terrarea at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and with members of the Vancouver Ikebana Association including Kuniko Yamamoto, Judie Glick, Naomi Sawada and others at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. 

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Hart House, University of Toronto, Leaf Arrangments - Objects Banquet, Part of Animate Entities: Objects in Performance curated by Gabriel Levine (Jackman Humanities Institute), 2016, Toronto, Canada

Open Studio, Å la recherche, Exhibition and publication edited by Barbara Balfour, 2016, Toronto, Canada

Contemporary Art Gallery, CAG Field House Residency, Curated by Shaun Dacey, 2016, Vancouver, Canada

Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum Arrangements, Exhibition of 7 new sculptures from the Arrangements series, Curated by Su-Ying Lee, during Q.W.Y.C., 2015, Toronto, Canada

Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Drake Hotel Public Collection, works from the Arrangements series as part of the Permanent Collection of Drake Hotel, 2015, Toronto

TPW, TPW Photorama, Group exhibition including new work from the Arrangements series, 2015, Toronto, Canada

Division Gallery, Division Gallery - C Auction 2015, Group show, presentation of six works from the series Arrangements. Curated by C Magazine Auction Board members, 2015, Toronto, Canada

THE DINNER PARTY, Drake Commissary group project/dinner with chefs and artists, Toronto, 2017.

Photographs/Drawings

An ongoing series of images of Ikebana-learning in photography, artist multiples, and ink on paper.

2015 - ongoing

Performance/Action

2013

Early 19th Century teacups were temporarily removed from the museum collection in order to be used for tea tastings by museum staff. Together, a group of conservators, a registrar, an interpretive planner, a curator, an artist, and an art critic drank out of the re-animated cups, experiencing them through all of their senses, and through shared conversation.

Three types of tea were served: Bai Hao Yin Zhen white tea (China), Tung Ting oolong (Taiwan), and a dark, 2001 Lahu Wild Trees 1000 years old Pu-erh (China).

Before and after the action, a museum conservator washed the dishes.

A blog post about the intervention written by AGO conservator Sherry Phillips can be found here.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Justina M Barnike Gallery, University of Toronto, Objects Lie on a Table, curated by Emelie Chhangur, Group exhibition including new work from the Arrangements series, and Tea Service (Conservators will wash the dishes), 2016, Toronto, Canada

Art Gallery of Ontario, Artist in Residence, Artist residency and projects, Summer - Fall 2013, Toronto, Canada

Performance/Event

2016

Five Toronto chefs and five Toronto-area beekeepers were paired together to share bread and honey at the Drake Hotel.

Participants tasted honey made on the Toronto Islands, in Scarborough, Little Italy, Pearson Airport, right downtown and more - including some 905 honey made by the bees in the apiary of artist Diane Borsato and her father Mario Borsato. Chefs and Beekeepers were present to talk about working with honey and urban apiaries.

Beekeepers:
Kuldip Jassal: Pearson Airport honey
Melanie Coates: Royal York Hotel rooftop honey
Brian Hamlin: Honey from all over, Portlands, Little Italy, Toronto Islands
Tom Nolan and Sonja Rojas: Scarborough Bluffs honey
Mario Borsato and Diane Borsato: Mississauga, Credit River valley honey

Chefs:
Wayne Morris (head chef/co-owner), Boralia
Matt Duffy (bread baker), independent (formerly Cafe Boulud)
Merrin McHugh, Actinolite
Lesley Georgee (chef/owner), OMG Baked Goodness
Dave Mattachioni (chef/owner), Mattachioni

ALL OUR FLOURISHING IS MUTUAL(1) is a work by Diane Borsato created forMMMMM...Gendai Kitchen and part of 86’d, a series of Monday night tasting events at the Drake Hotel organized by chef Ivy Knight.

NOTES
[1] Title adapted from a sentiment by Robin Wall-Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.

For the duration of Nuit Blanche Calgary, eight performers gave away 20,000 snowdrop bulbs to individual Calgary residents and community organizations.

Performance/Action

2014

Snowdrops are planted in the fall and are the first flowers to bloom at the end of winter. Since they naturalize well and spread readily the massive quantity of white flowers will create a dispersed urban snowdrop garden.

The flowers are expected to return every year, marking time and changing temperatures indefinitely.

Exhibition History

Calgary Nuit Blanche, curated by Wayne Baerwaldt, 2014.

*Final two images of snowdrops - internet sourced

Series of Images, variable dimensions

2014

A series of images taken with a portable, underwater sport camera of attempts to teach a child to swim. The shots were taken in various public and natural thermal pools across western Iceland. 

The images are taken from perspectives not normally witnessed - under water and very close to semi-nude entwined bodies, during intense moments of anxiety and sensation. And while foregrounding the desperate physical dependency, intimacy, and emotional complexity of the relationships between parents and children, the series also explores  the unique cultural and geological conditions in the region - during a period where climate change is transforming the landscape of Iceland at a rate perceptible in a human lifetime.

Pools documented in the project include: Vesturbæjarlaug, Holmavik, Bjarnarfjörður, Laugardalslaug, Nauthólsvík,  Laugarvatn, kvika, Hveregerdi-River Varma, Árbæjarlaug, Seljavallalaug, Krosslaug, Blue Lagoon, and Sundholin.

There are over 60 images in the series. Publication and exhibition enquiries: dianeborsato@gmail.com

Exhibition History:

University of Toronto Art Museum, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Learning from the Lake, group show curated by Katie Lawson, 2018.

C Magazine, #123 Wet Issue, (Online) Archive of Bathing images

“Pools” centerfold image from the series by Diane Borsato, MOTHER MOTHER, Vol. 2, (Artist publication presented by Angela Meleca Gallery for Repeat Pressure Until) Edited by Sheilah Wilson, 2017.

Mobile Studio/Field Lab

2012 - ongoing

Walking Studio is an 11’x18’ building that functions as a mobile field-study space that can be installed in urban or wilderness sites. Assembled or dismantled in a few days, one part of the structure consists of a screened-in study room with shelves and worktable, and the other part is a cylindrical space that functions as both a small sauna and a secure sleeping area.

The artist-in-residence can gather local materials and work on site-responsive research in the study room. The worktable allows for examining objects and natural specimens, reading, drawing, and hosting guests for tea and discussion.

The sauna can be fired by wood from the surrounding site, and can use local stones for radiating heat. The private space allows for recovering from fieldwork, and for further reflection.

The studio is a place for research, teaching, and learning. It serves and gives material form to artistic practices that are site-responsive, peripatetic, and relational. The building allows for a processing of local materials, ideas, and relationships and, like an industrial machine, it releases the by-products of this work as steam and smoke back into the surrounding environment.

The first residents in the studio were artists Janis Demkiw, Emily Hogg, and Olia Mishchenko of Tererrea while the studio was installed in Reddickville, Ontario, on the rural property of Don Miller.

The structure was designed in consultation with Adrian Blackwell and Jane Hutton for the Art Gallery of York University in Toronto, 2011.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

AGYU, Terrestrial / Celestial and Walking Studio, curated by Emelie Chhangur , Spring 2012, Toronto

Performance/Action

2012

I worked with six contemporary dancers dressed as ordinary, elegant party guests, to infiltrate a benefit gala party at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The dancers each staged a range of “accidental” falls – some discreet and some theatrical. The performers were meant to look as if they lost their balance, and to give the general impression that the museum was somehow dangerously slippery, and unstable. More than 100 staged falls were witnessed by many of the approximately 2000 people that attended the event.

Dancers:
Cara Spooner
Michael Caldwell
Evan Webber
Alicia Grant
Keon Mohajeri
Matthew Romantini

Photographs taken by Diane Borsato, Swintak, Amish Morrell, and AGO staff photographers.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

National Arts Centre / AXENE07, Falling Piece, Part of Open Scene 2015. Presentation of the performance Falling Piece, curated by Stefan St. Laurent, 2015, Ottawa, Canada

Vancouver Art Gallery, Everything Everyday, Curated by Bruce Grenville and Vanessa Kwan, Fall 2010, Vancouver, Canada

Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Falling Piece, Massive Party Benefit event, Spring 2010, Toronto

Choreography/Dance

2016

A 7-minute solo choreographed for dancer Valerie Calam. Starting with the dancer chewing a large wad of gum, the piece consisted of a restrained set of gestures using the face, tongue, and body. spitpop was a literal exploration gum’s weird materiality, including its tension and stickiness. And as the dancer tasted, chewed and stretched the gum – it appeared to chew her – distorting her body in ways that were variously playful, humorous and rude.

For a video document of the performance click here

spitpop was produced and performed in Singular Bodies, a series of solos choreographed by contemporary visual artists for company dancers at the Toronto Dance Theatre. Artists included Stephen Andrews, Jon Sasaki, Bridget Moser, Johanna Householder, Chris Curreri, Jim Verberg, JP King and Walter Scott. The Artistic Director of TDT and curator of Singular Bodies is Christopher House.

Rehearsal direction: Rosemary James
Costumes and decor: Cheryl Lalonde
Stage Management: Kaitlin Cheel (Metcalf Foundation Intern)
Lighting: Simon Rossiter

EXHIBITION HISTORY

 Winchester Street Theatre, Singular Bodies, Choreography/performance for Singular Bodies, Artistic Director: Christopher House, Toronto Dance Theatre, 2016, Toronto

Performance/Action

2008/2015

Members of the University community were invited to attend a public lecture by Diane Borsato. Instead of delivering an artist talk, the artist hired an Argentine Tango instructor to lead a dance lesson for the audience. 

Upon arrival to the lecture hall, students and teachers alike are swept up into an Argentine Tango lesson. They practice walking together, communicating with their bodies, and a series of increasingly intimate embraces with one another. The artist participates in the class like everyone else, and remains silent throughout the "talk".

The work was first performed at the University of Windsor in 2008, and repeated again at the University of Toronto at Scarborough in association with the Doris McCarthy Gallery in 2015. The work was also presented in the gallery as a slide show documenting the event.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Doris McCarthy Gallery, You Speak, I Dance, University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Group show curated by Nam In Kim, 2015, Toronto, Canada

Actions/Photographs/Artifacts

2009-2011

I have always found conventional language courses to be tedious. I decided to try to study a second language indirectly, while trying to learn something else. I arranged to have lessons in various practical subjects, including ping-pong, salsa dancing, basic first aid, and beekeeping, entirely in Italian.

I invited a graduating physics student to give me an intensive lesson on the subject of primordial black holes, entirely in Italian.

Based on the beekeeping research, I created the performance How to Keep Bees in Italian, where I discussed everything from modern agriculture, chemicals, climate change, pests, social life, the division of labour, democratic decision making, ideas of home, the monarchy, sex, and dancing - all in Italian (with English subtitles). The performance was held at Art Metropole in 2012, curated by Emelie Chhangur of the AGYU. 

Special thanks to Riccardo Borsato, Claudio Nasato, Andre Gastaldini, Sebastiano DiPrima, Alessandro Leone, and Pipo Privitera for lessons, and to Amish Morrell, Edoardo and Alessandra Borsato for photographic assistance.

The lessons took place in various locations, including Mississauga, Toronto, Treviso, and Zafferana Etnea, Italy from 2009-2011.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Doris McCarthy Gallery, You Speak, I Dance, University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Group show curated by Nam In Kim, 2015, Toronto, Canada

AGYU, Terrestrial / Celestial and Walking Studio, curated by Emelie Chhangur , Spring 2012, Toronto

Articule Gallery, Terrestrial/Celestial, Presented as part of Mois de la Photo, curated by Anne-Marie Ninacs, Fall 2011, Montreal, Canada

Mercer Union, The Chinatown Foray, Solo exhibition, main space, Fall 2009, Toronto

Video, 5 minutes (loop)

2016

A woman is seen crying in a rose garden in summer. 

Performer: Liz Knox

EXHIBTION HISTORY:

Contemporary Art Gallery, The Moon Is Often Referred To As A Dead And Barren World But I Think This Is Not Necessarily The Case, solo show in collaboration with the Vancouver Ikebana Society, curated by Shaun Dacey, Vancouver, 2016/17.

Video

2015

A woman is in a cemetery in spring. In a single shot, she is seen eating an entire ice cream cone from start to finish.

Duration: 10 minutes, with sound
Camera: Yuula Benivolski

For a link to the video: click here

EXHIBITION HISTORY

San Diego Art Institute, Sweet Gongs Vibrating, Group show curated by Amanda Cachia, Spring 2016, San Diego, California

Performance/Action

2010

I coordinated an exchange of terrestrial knowledge for celestial knowledge between amateur mycologists and astronomers. First the mushroomers hosted the astronomers on an afternoon foray to collect and identify fungus species. In the evening, the astronomers hosted the mushroomers to look through telescopes at the sun, stars, planets, and satellites. The exchange took place first at a personal scale in Toronto in 2009, and then as a major event in Maple Ridge BC, with the participation of the Vancouver Mycological Society and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Vancouver Centre) in May 2010.

Mycology is visceral, it relies on all our immediate and proximal senses, and it is concerned with the fecund and ephemeral. It exists in a time scale of seasons, and of hours, as things can decay and dissolve before you even empty your basket. The practice of astronomy requires amazing feats of conceptualization and imagination. It’s concerned with the elemental and the other worldly, and things exist at distances, in numbers, and in time scales that exceed comprehension. Both practices are much assisted by a range of technical devices from microscopes to telescopes, and by enthusiastic teachers who can animate everything from tiny spores to a speck of distant light.

Thank you to Kirith and Xavier Borsato for lessons in astronomy in Toronto in 2009. Thank you also to Howard Trottier, Wayne Lyons, Daryl Thompson, Juliet Pendray and the participating members of the Vancouver Mycological Society and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Vancouver Centre).

EXHIBITION HISTORY

AGYU, Terrestrial / Celestial and Walking Studio, curated by Emelie Chhangur , Spring 2012, Toronto

Articule Gallery, Terrestrial/Celestial, Presented as part of Mois de la Photo, curated by Anne-Marie Ninacs, Fall 2011, Montreal, Canada

Access Gallery, Field Work, Terrestrial / Celestial event with the Vancouver Mycological Society, and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Vancover)., Curated by Shaun Dacey, Spring 2010, Vancouver

Mercer Union, The Chinatown Foray, Solo exhibition, main space, Fall 2009, Toronto.

Intervention and photographs

2008 - 2010

I invited the Mycological Association of Toronto (an amateur mushroom hunting club) to go on a mycological foray in “Chinatown” or, the Chinese supermarkets and medicinal shops in Markham, Toronto. With field guides and magnifying glasses, we debated Latin species names and toured the suburban marketplace in the same manner that we would research and identify Ontario fungi in the forest or field.

Special thanks for the work and expertise of Alan Gan, and the participating members of the Mycological Society of Toronto.

The event took place in various locations in Markham, Toronto, in the summer of 2008. In 2010, the urban forage was repeated in New York City, with the collaboration of the New York Mycological Society. Special thanks to guest mycologists Paul Sadowski and Gary Lincoff.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

AGYU, Terrestrial / Celestial and Walking Studio, curated by Emelie Chhangur , Spring 2012, Toronto

Articule Gallery, Terrestrial/Celestial, Presented as part of Mois de la Photo, curated by Anne-Marie Ninacs, Fall 2011, Montreal, Canada

Umami Festival Performance, The New York Foray, Urban foraging events with the New York Mycological Society. Curated by Yael Raviv, Spring 2010, New York City

Mercer Union, The Chinatown Foray, Solo exhibition, main space, Fall 2009, Toronto

Museum intervention/ Display case and personal objects

2013

On-site quote by Fredrick B. Houser at the Art Gallery of Ontario: `The new type of artist puts on the outfit of the bushwacker and prospector, closes with his environment, paddles, portages, and makes camp, sleeps in the out of doors, under the stars, climbs mountains with his sketch box on his back.”

As a contemporary artist who collaborates with naturalists and often works in the woods, I filled a museum display case in the Canadian Galleries with a selection of objects from my field pack, including my mushroom identification notebook, tea wares for eight people, and my toddler’s sun hat.

In contrast to Fredrick Houser’s defining of the Group of Seven, the alternative artist persona presented is not alone or a painter, or a master of an untouched landscape. She is an amateur taking notes, getting lost, applying salve, and eating chocolate. The objects in the case also point to contemporary artistic practices that are research-intensive, site-responsive and social.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Art Gallery of Ontario, Artist in Residence, Artist residency and projects, Summer - Fall 2013, Toronto, Canada

Live performance

2009

I hired reptile educator and herpetologist Blair Watson to deliver an adult oriented talk on the AGYU Performance Bus. In a series of new works, I have been inviting substitute educators and performers to convey ideas and experiences at stake in my work. A crocodile, turtle, skink, and two snakes were available to touch and hold in the enclosed space of the school bus for the duration of the 1-hour trip from downtown to York University.

This work was performed in the winter of 2009 in Toronto.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

AGYU (Art Gallery of York University), Performance Bus, Snakebus, Solo performance project curated by Emilie Changeur, Winter 2009, Toronto

Intervention, photographs and sculptures

2006-ongoing

In response to instructions by The Critical Art Ensemble to “commit a crime with a humanitarian outcome”, I decided to steal flowers from neighbours’ gardens and give the entirely stolen bouquet as a surprise gift to my mother. She was delighted.

SInce making the first version of this work, I have made 8 different vase arrangements for gallery exhibitions, and intend to continue repeating the intervention. The stolen bouquets are now part of an ongoing series of sculptures.

The project was initially curated for ‘Do Me’; bouquet versions #2, and #3 were exhibited in CAFKA in 2007; versions #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, and #9 were created for the Power Ball, 2008 (see exhibition history for details). The work has been ongoing in Toronto and the surrounding region since 2006.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

AGYU, Terrestrial / Celestial and Walking Studio, curated by Emelie Chhangur , Spring 2012, Toronto

Mercer Union, The Chinatown Foray, Solo exhibition, main space, Fall 2009, Toronto

The Power Plant, subversive party decorations created for the Power Ball fundraiser party, 2008, Toronto

Cambridge Galleries, University of Waterloo School of Architecture, Neighbourhood, exhibited as part of CAFKA, curated by Ivan Jurakic, 2007, Waterloo, Ontario

7a11d festival of Performance Art, curated by Jim Drobnick, Jennifer Fisher, Dave Dyment and Roula Partheniou for the online exhibition 'Do Me', 2006, Toronto

Relational intervention / performance

2005

In response to an invitation to create a community art intervention, I attempted to create a collaborative feat that accomplished as little as possible. More than 20 volunteers including myself, dug up weeds from neighbourhoods across Halifax. We traded and mixed up the weeds, and then re-planted them randomly all over the city.

The intervention was enacted in various locations for an entire day across the city of Halifax in 2005.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Vu, How To Draw Winter, Solo Exhibition, with catalogue essay by Amish Morrell, Winter 2006, Quebec City

Artcite, The Moon in my Mouth, Solo Exhibition and Visiting Artist Talk at University of Windsor, Spring 2006, Windsor, Ontario

Eye Level Gallery, 2005, Halifax

Relational intervention/ photographs/ video

2007

I was asked to create a project in collaboration with performers from another discipline, so I decided to work with dancers. Working with my own conceptual art instructions, and the notion that non-virtuosic everyday movements can be dance, I led a large group of dancers to move a snowbank in white pails across the city – by foot, by subway and by bus – up to the Art Gallery of York University. The absurd and heroic feat was accompanied by periodic outbursts of experimental trumpet music, composed and performed by Emilie Le Bel.

Participants:
Emilie Le Bel, Janina Piva, Ryan Gibson, Amber Landgeaff, Kristen Kellerm, Sarah Douglas, Alex Thompson, Alison Smith, Sky Fairchild-Waller, Danny Jordon, Allison Peacock, Julie Grant, Day Milman, Riaz Mehmood, Nadia Kurd, Liz Knox, Serena Lee, Alicia Grant, Cara Spooner, Nadia Halim, Andrea Roberts, Rhonda Corvese, Diane Borsato, Amish Morrell

The work was created in the winter of 2007 in Toronto.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

AGYU (Art Gallery of York University), curated by Rhonda Corvese for the exhibition 'In There', Spring 2007, Toronto

Slide show

Ongoing since 2006

After I moved to Toronto from New York, I started photographing the iconic CN Tower from hundreds of points of view from all over the city. Every time I happen to see the tower, I take a snapshot with my hand blocking it out – compulsively imagining it gone.

The work consists of hundreds of still images presented as a slideshow – that disorients the local Toronto viewer in a similar way that the absence of the World Trade Centre towers disoriented New Yorkers for several years after their destruction.

I have been taking photographs in various Toronto locations since 2006.

Photograph/Billboard

2007

I created a billboard image to contribute to an exhibition of sculpture commemorating Montreal’s expo ’67. In the image, two women are posing in front of a giant snowball that appears to eclipse what is now the Montreal Biosphere, or the iconic Buckminster Fuller Dome created for the American Pavillion in 1967.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), Little Pavillions and other Follies, ARTEFACT group satellite exhibition, Summer 2007, Montreal

ARTEFACT - Montreal Sculpture Biennale, curated by Nicolas Mavrikakis, 2007, Ile Ste. Heléne/Montreal

Sculpture kit and performance instructions

2006

I was invited to create an installation or kit in a box and mail it to an exhibition in Paris. I packaged a dozen fresh snowballs and the necessary tools and instructions for their reconstitution in France. The piece was made during the suburban Paris riots of 2006. The instructions suggested the Canadian snowballs should be thrown at people, children, animals and property – thus initiating a transcontinental snowball fight.

The work was made in Toronto in the winter of 2006.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Mercer Union, The Chinatown Foray, Solo exhibition, main space, Fall 2009, Toronto

Musée du Temps/Museum of Time, Psscchht, Group exhibition, Collection 05, and satellite exhibition/auction, Spring 2006, Paris, France

Discreet public acts and slide show (collaboration with Stacey Sproule)

2007

Collaborator Stacey Sproule and I faked several minor accidents in public. We spilled, smashed, and ruptured various containers in restaurants, shopping malls, on the street, on the streetcar, and in supermarkets. The deliberate “accidents” were documented and exhibited as a slide-show of 49 images.

The gestures were enacted in various locations in Toronto in 2006-2007.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

FADO Performing Art Centre, exhibited as a part of 'Vivencia Poetica', curated by Erika DeFreitas, 2007, Toronto

Video

2005

I came across a soccer ball designed to look like a globe. My father is an avid soccer player and fan. I asked him to perform for a video – to see how long he could keep the ball up in the air by “juggling” it with his knees, feet and head.

In the video we are heard negotiating everything from the terms of the performance art to international relations. I pushed him relentlessly to continue “keeping up the world”, until he quit, exhausted and dripping with sweat.

The video was shot in my parents’ Mississauga, Ontario driveway in 2005.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

FOFA Gallery, Concordia University Alumni Show, Summer 2007, Montreal

Art Mûr, ARTEFACT - Montreal Sculpture Biennale, Summer 2007, Montreal

Ramfoundation, Summer 2006, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

This Neck of the Woods, Dwelling for Intervals, Summer 2006, Rotterdam, The Netherland

TRAFIC, Inter/nationale d'art actuel en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Spring 2005, Québec

Video

2009

In this work, a woman attempts to sing a song with her husband’s breath. In the following scene, he sings with her breath. Each singer draws air from the other’s lungs (as in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation) in order to perform the 1938 song “You Go To My Head” by J.Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. While the song describes the experience of love to be like drunkenness, they increasingly struggle to remember the words, the camera, or produce a musical sound at all. Her partner’s breath simultaneously supports her, and depletes her as the piece evolves, and vice versa. She looks exhausted and upset, he looks drunk and in moments, at the brink of a blackout. The tension builds in each scene as the challenges of the feat affect both of the performers’ bodies, and amplifies the gestures of attentiveness, trust, and dependence.

Performers: Eric and Loretta
Technical Production: Nathan Salowonchyk

The work was created in Burlington, Ontario at the home of the performers, and edited in Toronto in 2009.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

AXENEO7, Amour Anarchie, group exhibition curated by Jennifer Lefort, Fall 2012, Gatineau, Canada

University of Cincinnati DAAP Galleries, Intimacy Issues, Curated by Ryan Mulligan, Fall 2010, Cincinnati, USA

National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec and Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val-de-Marne, Emporte Moi, Curated by Nathalie de Blois and Frank Lamy, Fall 2009 - Spring 2010, Quebec City, and Paris (Val-de-Marne)

Deep Leap Microcinema, Sign Languages, curated by Jesse Malmed, 2009, Portland, Oregon

Live 12-hour performance

2006

I created a live performance for the all-night public art festival Nuit Blanche in Toronto. For 12-hours, dancers dressed as Toronto Police officers, were seen dancing an intimate tango to music that blasted from parked cars.

Performers
Tatiana Melnyk and Lisandro Gomez, Mario Bruyere and Lisa Romaine, Toni Thrivnak and Joseph Baronka, Diane Borsato and Igor Rasic, Jennifer Leung and Robert Horvatek, and Sergio Smilovich.

The work was performed in 2006 in Toronto.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Nuit Blanche, 2010, Presenting documentation from the 2006 performance of How To Respond in an Emergency, Fall 2010, Toronto, Canada

Nuit Blanche International Contemporary Art Event, curated by Kim Simon, produced by and for The City of Toronto 'Nuit Blanche' International Contemporary Art Event, Fall 2006, Toront

Audio Guide

2006

The Road Out is an audio guided walk made specifically for The Tree Museum site in Gravenhurst Ontario.

The narrator leads visitors along the dirt road away from the Tree Museum. She describes flora and fauna, and invokes tango music to keep away bears. There are humourous interludes and mysterious presences in the woods, and the listener is immersed in a subtly hallucinatory scoundscape.

The walk is a free downloadable MP3 file, that can be played on portable MP3 players or burned and played on portable CD players. Download the file, and bring your own listening device to the Tree Museum at any time. The walk begins at the mailbox in front of the Tree Museum gallery, and takes place along the dirt road that leads out of the grounds. The walk takes approximately 16 minutes, and ends at the beaver pond.

This piece was curated by David Liss of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, for the permanent collection of the Tree Museum, in Gravenhurst, Ontario, 2006.

Sound Producer
Joel Silver

Performers
Hillary Black, Diane Borsato, Amish Morrell, Joel Silver

Special thanks to Joel Silver, Amish Morrell, Hillary Black, Anne O’Callaghan, E.J. Lightman, and David Liss.

Performance/ drawing/ sculpture/ photographs

2005

As part of a community intervention project organized by the Saidye Bronfman Centre, I worked at several neighbourhood schools directing the students to enact various conceptual instructions for sketchbook projects.

The resulting works such as The Winter Drawings – where students ripped drawing paper into small pieces and tossed them into the air like snow, and The Kilometre Drawings – where students cut and taped strips of drawing paper to form a ball consisting of one continuous kilometre; manifested themselves in various performances and sculptures. The actions and objects were finally documented and exhibited as a comprehensive series of large framed photo-text works.

The work was enacted at Marymount Academy and Lower Canada College in Montreal in 2005.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Vu, How To Draw Winter, Solo Exhibition, with catalogue essay by Amish Morrell, Winter 2006, Quebec City

Saidye Bronfman Centre, Decarie, part of the group exhibition curated by John Zeppetelli, 2005, Montreal

Intervention and photographs

2003

I visited several old graves in France, and left warm, succulent things from bakeries, rotisseries, and restaurants for the dead.

The intervention was enacted without permission at various cemeteries in Nice, France in 2003.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, Sleeping with Cake, in ‘Mountain Standard Time: Festival of Performative Art’, Fall 2005, Calgary

Mois de la Photo, How to Eat light, Solo Exhibition curated by Martha Langford at ‘Occurrence’, Fall 2005, Montreal

CAFKA - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, Solo Exhibition as part of ‘Peace of Mind’, 2005, Kitchener, Ontario

Gallery TPW, Warm Things To Chew For The Dead, (Solo Exhibition), during Contact 2004: Toronto

Discreet performance and photographs

2003

I was on a residency at a Quebec seminary, and I couldn’t communicate with anyone. I discovered a hall garden maintained by one of the priests, and decided to spend a day with the plants. I tried to sit as still as the ferns, the philodendrons, and the palms, in an effort to emulate their grace.

I stayed by the window from dawn until dusk, and attempted to eat nothing but light.

The performance was enacted at the Seminary of Ste. Hyacinthe, in Ste. Hyacinthe, Quebec in 2003.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Articule Gallery, Terrestrial/Celestial, Presented as part of Mois de la Photo, curated by Anne-Marie Ninacs, Fall 2011, Montreal, Canada

Vu, How To Draw Winter, Solo Exhibition, with catalogue essay by Amish Morrell, Winter 2006, Quebec City

Artcite, The Moon in my Mouth, Solo Exhibiton and Visiting Artist Talk at University of Windsor, Spring 2006, Windsor, Ontario

Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, Sleeping with Cake, in ‘Mountain Standard Time: Festival of Performative Art’, Fall 2005, Calgary

Mois de la Photo, How to Eat light, Solo Exhibition curated by Martha Langford at ‘Occurrence’, Fall 2005, Montreal

CAFKA - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, Solo Exhibition as part of ‘Peace of Mind’, 2005, Kitchener, Ontario

Gallery TPW, Warm Things To Chew For The Dead, (Solo Exhibition), during Contact 2004: Toronto

Expression Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe, Sleeping with Cake Series, curated by Patrice Loubier, for 'Orange: Saint Hyacinthe', 2003, Quebec

Performance/ intervention and photographs

 2003

I was given permission to put museum artifacts in my mouth. I opened the vitrines with the technician, and was allowed to experience the objects, with my tongue, lips, and sense of smell. I was permitted to put a peacock’s head, an Egyptian statuette, a lasso, an unknown bone, and a model of the moon into my mouth for a brief period.

The work was enacted at the Museum of Ste. Hyacinthe in Ste. Hyacinthe, Quebec in 2003.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Vu, How To Draw Winter, Solo Exhibition, with catalogue essay by Amish Morrell, Winter 2006, Quebec City

Artcite, The Moon in my Mouth, Solo Exhibiton and Visiting Artist Talk at University of Windsor, Spring 2006, Windsor, Ontario

Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, Sleeping with Cake, in ‘Mountain Standard Time: Festival of Performative Art’, Fall 2005, Calgary

Mois de la Photo, How to Eat light, Solo Exhibition curated by Martha Langford at ‘Occurrence’, Fall 2005, Montreal

CAFKA - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, Solo Exhibition as part of ‘Peace of Mind’, 2005, Kitchener, Ontario

Saidye Bronfman Centre, The Winter Drawings, in the ‘Decarie Project’ Panel Discussion: Community Interventions: Commitments, Consensus, Conflict, Spring 2005, Montreal

TRAFIC, Inter/nationale d'art actuel en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Spring 2005, Québec

Gallery TPW, Warm Things To Chew For The Dead, (Solo Exhibition), during Contact 2004: Toronto

Expression Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe, Sleeping with Cake Series, curated by Patrice Loubier, for 'Orange: Saint Hyacinthe', 2003, Quebec

Videos

2002/2003

Videos about Plants are a series of short videos including Teaching a Plant to Locomote, A Plant Teaching Me to Eat Light, Consulting the Plants, and How to Kill a Cactus.

The videos are humorous low-tech explorations on how plants as subjects can challenge the hierarchies among species, perform tricks, and give sage advice.

The videos were created in my apartments in DUMBO and in Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, New York City in 2002 and 2003.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Stadtgalerie Kiel, Gehen Bluehen Fliessen, Curated by Frank Wagner, 2011, Kiel, Germany

Alternator Gallery for Contemporary Art, Featured artist for Annual Video Salon, Curated by David Ross, Spring 2006, Kelowna

Mois de la Photo, How to Eat light, Solo Exhibition curated by Martha Langford at ‘Occurrence’, Fall 2005, Montreal

CAFKA - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, Solo Exhibition as part of ‘Peace of Mind’, 2005, Kitchener, Ontario

Performance intervention and photographs

2003

I read a study that suggested that when people are subtly touched, it can affect their behaviour and well being. For a month I went out of my way to delicately bump, rub past, and tap 1000 strangers in the city. I touched commuters, shoppers, cashiers and taxi cab drivers on the street, on the metro, in shops and in museums. The exercise was like a minimalist performance. I was exploring the smallest possible gesture, and how it could create an effect in public.

The action was performed for one month in various locations in Montreal in 2001, and repeated for ten days across the city of Vancouver in 2003.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Vu, How To Draw Winter, Solo Exhibition, with catalogue essay by Amish Morrell, Winter 2006, Quebec City

Artcite, The Moon in my Mouth, Solo Exhibiton and Visiting Artist Talk at University of Windsor, Spring 2006, Windsor, Ontario

Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, Sleeping with Cake, in ‘Mountain Standard Time: Festival of Performative Art’, Fall 2005, Calgary

Mois de la Photo, How to Eat light, Solo Exhibition curated by Martha Langford at ‘Occurrence’, Fall 2005, Montreal

CAFKA - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, Solo Exhibition as part of ‘Peace of Mind’, 2005, Kitchener, Ontario

Gallery TPW, Warm Things To Chew For The Dead, (Solo Exhibition), during Contact 2004: Toronto

Performance intervention and photograph

2002

I was living alone in New York and anguished about carrying the weight of my life all by myself, all the time. I discovered that if you happen to get out of a taxi in front of a luxury hotel, porters will offer to carry your heavy bags.

I deliberately presented myself in front of the most expensive hotels to have my burdensome knapsack carried for me in, and then promptly carried for me out again. I repeated the intervention in several locations.

The work was enacted at The Park Plaza hotel, The Waldorf Astoria, and various other locations in New York City in 2002.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Vu, How To Draw Winter, Solo Exhibition, with catalogue essay by Amish Morrell, Winter 2006, Quebec City

Artcite, The Moon in my Mouth, Solo Exhibiton and Visiting Artist Talk at University of Windsor, Spring 2006, Windsor, Ontario

Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, Sleeping with Cake, in ‘Mountain Standard Time: Festival of Performative Art’, Fall 2005, Calgary

Mois de la Photo, How to Eat light, Solo Exhibition curated by Martha Langford at ‘Occurrence’, Fall 2005, Montreal

CAFKA - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, Solo Exhibition as part of ‘Peace of Mind’, 2005, Kitchener, Ontario

Gallery TPW, Warm Things To Chew For The Dead, (Solo Exhibition), during Contact 2004: Toronto

Relational performance and sculpture installation

2001

The World’s Longest Paper Clip Chain was the product of a massive effort- open to the public as a performance. 60 people linked more than a tonne and a half of paper clips for 24 continuous hours. After the public performance of constructing the chain, the massive glittering field of paper clips was on display for the duration of the exhibition as a sculpture.

This attempt to enter the Guinness Book of Records in the gallery setting was an effort to invoke the history of performance art involving rigorous, repeated actions, and a test of personal limitations. The large modernist style sculpture addressed the subject of greatness – how it is described, attempted and achieved – in art, in popular culture, and in everyday life.

The work was enacted at Skol gallery in Montreal in 2001.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

SKOL - Centre des Arts Actuel, 2001, Montreal

Performance / intervention and photographs

1999-2000

I was living near the Canadian Centre for Architecture and walked by it every day. I was trying to think of new ways to engage myself with the city, and coming home from work one afternoon, I decided to roll across the entire length of the famous green lawn – instead of just walking by. The lawn struck me as a provocative space, between the museum and the sidewalk. I repeated the action in every season for the following year.

The work was enacted without permission on the lawn of the CCA from 1999-2000 in Montreal.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Vu, How To Draw Winter, Solo Exhibition, with catalogue essay by Amish Morrell, Winter 2006, Quebec City

SKOL - Centre des Arts Actuel, How to make a sculpture in an emergency, 2006, Montreal

Artcite, The Moon in my Mouth, Solo Exhibiton and Visiting Artist Talk at University of Windsor, Spring 2006, Windsor, Ontario

Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, Sleeping with Cake, in ‘Mountain Standard Time: Festival of Performative Art’, Fall 2005, Calgary

Mois de la Photo, How to Eat light, Solo Exhibition curated by Martha Langford at ‘Occurrence’, Fall 2005, Montreal

CAFKA - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, Solo Exhibition as part of ‘Peace of Mind’, 2005, Kitchener, Ontario

Gallery TPW, Warm Things To Chew For The Dead, (Solo Exhibition), during Contact 2004: Toronto

Discreet performance and photographs

1999

I was lonely and wondering if sleeping with comfort food might comfort me. So I baked and bought 10 different cakes and slept with them for an entire night.

The action was one in a series of eccentric experiments seeking the location of comfort in comfort food. Other works in the series included The Broth, where I boiled sentimental objects to make a broth, in an effort to distill the essence of sentiment.

The works were enacted in my Rue du Fort apartment in Montreal, in 1999.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Artcite, The Moon in my Mouth, Solo Exhibiton and Visiting Artist Talk at University of Windsor, Spring 2006, Windsor, Ontario

Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, Sleeping with Cake, in ‘Mountain Standard Time: Festival of Performative Art’, Fall 2005, Calgary

Mois de la Photo, How to Eat light, Solo Exhibition curated by Martha Langford at ‘Occurrence’, Fall 2005, Montreal

CAFKA - Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, Solo Exhibition as part of ‘Peace of Mind’, 2005, Kitchener, Ontario

Gallery TPW, Warm Things To Chew For The Dead, (Solo Exhibition), during Contact 2004: Toronto

Expression Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe, Sleeping with Cake Series, curated by Patrice Loubier, for 'Orange: Saint Hyacinthe', 2003, Quebec