Part of Fall 2009
Guest-curated by Iris Fraser-Gudrunas
This guest-curated programme is comprised of four works that employ an amateur aesthetic, either accidentally or strategically, by artists that could not be considered amateurs themselves. Making use of our ingrained belief that an outsider’s perspective is more honest than a conspicuously mediated effort, these four insiders use the semblance of clumsiness to relay a tangible candidness. Live performance by Los Angeles artist John Kilduff of Let’s Paint TV with videos by Carlos Gonzales, Mat Laporte and Don Miller.
Crystal Ball, Carlos Gonzales, video 2008, 47:00 min (Providence RI)
Dance With Me Vendetta, Mat Laporte video 2002, 3:00 min (Toronto)
History in Action, Don Miller, video 2007, 11:30 min (Redickville, ON) ***
Intermissiom
Let’s Paint TV, John Kilduff, Live Performance (Los Angeles, CA)
Crystal Ball is a home made psycho-drama about a public access TV show host and his dedicated fan, turned enemy. With lo-fidelity aesthetic as direct reflection of the video’s content, Crystal Ball pulls you into madness with a style that acts as a visceral metaphor for the unpolished and intuitive psyche. Made in Providence, RI by Carlos Gonzalez, Robert Pickle, and Sasha Wiseman.
Dance with Me Vendetta is the introductory letter to a teen-jocks-discover-fine-art story, with the prospective plot lost by the wayside of an unruly night in an unfinished north-Ontarian cabin. Vendetta was edited in camera on VHS and shows a group of young men’s virginal thrust into the thrills of video-art.
History in Action is Don’s attempt to bridge a chasm between what he does to generate income and his artistic practice. The machines are ancient, but active. Like art these machines are not to be polished and put on pedestals, but have to be experienced and put to use. Don is not a ‘video artist’, but an artist who uses video to get an experience across to the viewer. He says of the idea of amateurism: “We are inundated by specialization and expertise. We have to allow room for the amateur/generalist. The more specialized we become the less we see of the space between and between is where the humour resides. Let’s all take five and blow some bubbles.”
*** Please wear the earplugs provided for this video.
Let’s Paint TV started as a straight forward cable access how-to paint show but over time, turned into a chaotic attempt to add more creativity to the painting process for your average new painter. Host John Kilduff found, in the cable access audience and the show’s expanded format, a way to sincerely convey the importance of effort in creative pursuits. Let’s Paint TV’s youtube channel is now a cult favourite.
Carlos Gonzalez lives and works in Providence as a musician, comic artist, no-budget moviemaker, and terror group showman. He is a member of the band Russian Tsarlag and his comics have appeared in “Kramer’s Ergot 6,” and “Nazi Knife.”
Mat Laporte is a screenwriter, poet and filmmaker now living in Toronto via Montreal, Edmonton and Sault-Ste. Marie.
Don Miller works with stone, steel and wood in an income generating capacity, including timber frame construction, stone fireplaces and foundations and steel manufacture. He graduated from NSCAD in 2002. His artistic practice is idea based, wherein the necessary materials are gathered and worked together to enhance or inform that which is being materialized. His search is for a creative strategy for living.
John Kilduff got a BFA in Painting at Otis Art Institute and a MFA in Painting at UCLA. He started Let’s Paint TV in 2001 on local Public Access TV in Los Angles. The show became popular on the internet via youtube in 2005. The show is now being seen daily on the internet and the show is performed live at various venues around the world.
