LOKi design/Trust&Co. is moving out of the kitchen studio, and into a brand-spanking new (temporary) office space at 210b Mozart Ave. West. Friendly neighbours include Catbird Productions and Parabola Films. Come by and say hi! More details soon…
A year ago yesterday, the great american poet F.A. Nettelbeck passed away. You’re in my thoughts brother…
Eric Drooker for Artist Against Apartheid (Montreal) from Trust&Co on Vimeo.
I’m very excited to showcase this short film of Eric Drooker‘s performance at Artists Against Apartheid 17 last October in Montreal. As part of the Howl! Arts collective, I helped to organise the event, which I’d like to think was one of the highlights of the year for those interested in art and activism in this city.
The video is produced by Trust & Co., a new venture I am starting up with film maker/interactive producer (and all round amazing person) Isabella Salas. It marks our first project together!
I also conducted a short interview with Eric, where he speaks about the importance of artists using the streets as a canvas to express ideas. It can be seen on the Howl! Arts website here.
In the context of Patrice Loubier’s “furtive practices” residency at Skol, I designed the door-front signage for the gallery. Skol will be hosting Artivistic’s exhibition in March (some teaser images to come soon), so I was happy to help out and get a chance to test the detail of their vinyl lettering. Yum!
ink&paper from Ben Proudfoot on Vimeo.
A beautiful mini-documentary directed by Ben Proudfoot about the last letterpress and paper shops in Los Angeles. I really appreciate how the precarious situation of these traditional crafts is highlighted, counterpointed by the interviewees obvious love for them. If you’re in Los Angeles, please support these stores!
The above photograph, taken just prior to Eric Drooker’s performance at the mighty Sala Rossa, does a pretty good job of summarising my feelings on the year that’s been, and my outlook for the one to come. The anticipation of an empty stage, the co-mingling of art, music and politics, and that damn nagging fear that people won’t show up, no matter how much work you put into something. In the end, that night was a beautiful night, but also a striking reminder of how much work still needs to be done.
2011 was an eventful, tumultuous year, personally, professionally, and obviously in the world all around us, filled with equal parts inspiration and tragedy. It was a year of transition for me, from full-time work to self-employment, from the world of corporate advertising and design to a renewed commitment to art and activism, from a long, grey heartbreak to finally feeling good about myself again, from Montréal to Europe (Berlin, how I miss you…) and back again.
Over the course of the year, I completed many design projects of which I am genuinely proud (e.g. see Cinema Politica, Comme des machines, Vox Versus, Bloom, and Cosmodome). With the Howl! Arts Collective, I helped to bring challenging new music to the community, putting on a series of concerts that I hope will become an integral part of the fabric of the independent arts scene here in Montreal for years to come.
We don’t often do this on here, but I wanted to share with you a recent poem by Vincent Tinguely, a long-standing ally and friend. It beautifully captures where my heart and mind are at these slow, wintery, Montréal days…
ONE
The swing dance of
The car plants
Bodies interpose themselves
Between arc welded parts
Crashing crushing
Crescendos of consciousness
Swinging through feverish
Interlocking machinery
Electronics and tooled machine parts
Send signals in syncopation
Audience receives the shock wave
And dances
Pyramid schemes
Men at the top
Control a few men who
Control a few more men who
Control a few more men who
Control a few more men who
Know nothing but what they are told
So they invade your country
Or they break your arm
With a police baton
Something in me wouldn’t click
The grain of sand in the gears
Never pulling my weight
I could never fit
In the clack clack machine racket
Flowing through
Work and
War
I’ve been working with the Artivistic crew for some time now on an exciting exhibition project that will be taking place in March at le Centre des arts actuels Skol. The second phase of our Promiscuous Infrastructures publishing project, it’s too early to unveil the full scope of the exhibition, but I wanted to share a couple of images that I’m currently working on.
This is such an amazing initiative, I wish I was in Toronto to take part. For our readers in Toronto, please check it out and report back, as I’m now thinking of (slowly) working on something like this for Montreal. For readers in Montreal, get in touch and let’s make this happen!
