sculpture, 2001, OTTAWA.  I was bleeding the other day about Culture. i keep hearing all  over the place, particularly from some community newspapers. The lack of culture, upbringing existing in the youth of today.

at the same time we have people telling their kids not to go into the arts. So the big question. Where does this culture come from?

 Ideas such as what we as a group of people find aesthetically pleasing. what stories  about our past do we want to bring forward. what is our ideas of morality, ethics. all these things are transported through our art. think of art as culture making,culture providing.  of course there are several levels, the commercial level is mainly concerned with maintaining the status quo and entertaining folks. but it is still an extremely effective cultural marker. its just not a great cultural critic, or a champion of progress

New Directions.

I was sitting in the funk, as My inspiration Cornel West says. my problem? Figuring what to do what to do how to make work that is exciting for me and at the same time does something other than occupy space as Art. Its not enough for me to be an artist a theatre maker although all good but these are not just jobs i like. and it is one of the most annoying things. have artist also fallen into the Marxist alienation trap, creating for the sake of creating. and not having any connection with the process or understanding of the commodification of it.

If i have a artist statement it would be ( and i thank you, Ms. Lacharite. I will explain in her new post after this one.) I want to visually occupy space with African images, which is difficult to find these days. images that are non commodified. in Canada There is anon presence of black artists and black images. So I continue with the my old way but I have narrowed down the scope of my work.

This turn is trying to paint tight extreme closeups of black gestures, arms, hands doing mundane things. close. trying to take away generalizations of race and bring it to close action of individuals who are racialized.

Dzian Lacharite

I had a chance to speak with |Dzian last week . She is an Artist who lives and works in Montreal, but really travels the world. her art is equally eclectic working in ceramics, fabrics, music (playing and building instruments) puppetry and set design and did a mention she also makes jewellery. So we headed up to the mountain watched the sun set and talked art. I recorded some of the conversation and i have decided to break it up into two or three parts

here is part One:

Bryan: What do you do for Art?

Dzian: I’m actually constantly thinking in the art form. That’s the part I would describe as the art form ,it’s the way of thinking about it. Everyday , wether it’s my hands that are moving it, the material or my mind is moving in the material, that’s my art form, and it could be material, words, it could be anything. Its like recomposing reality all the time that’s what it is for me. In your mind

Bryan : and how does it manifest itself.

Dzian: How does what manifest itself?

Bryan : Your Art. I mean how does it,,,

Dzian: Its kind of the pieces of past present and future, put together in the same place. Like memories of the past. Known factors. Present like the action of moving these factors. And the future is what the interaction with people, what it will give to those factors, as impression.

Bryan:Ooohhhhh, and your hope for your work

Dzian; is to,, open different ways of thinking about things, give new angles to ways of thinking. Any matter that I meet I always try to find the furthest point that’s been done with that piece. Like when I did ceramics for three years I wanted to know big you can construct something before it smash down, how long it dries, what will happen when you go further than the known limit, the prescribed limit.

Bryan: beyond the limits of it’s materiality?

Dzian: yes, of any material. The same when I was working with felt. This is what I like to do sculptures with right now. a lot, I want to do mixtures of felt and wires. Creating "personage" that you can see through and at the same time they have a density where they are themselves and there is so much to know about that part. So there’s the transparency of the beings and at the same time the density, the plasticity that holds you from going any further than what they decided they want you to go.

Bryan: so with all your work wether its painting sculpture puppets spoken work. Is there a theme, besides moving beyond it’s own limitations

Dzian: well you mentioned spoken word. Even when I look at what I write, I am already talking about going beyond limits there also. All the time. What is the furthest point that you know and how far can you go? In your own mind, if nothing else. Like this ten year old kid I was teaching ceramics to years ago. He asked me “what is the limit point?”

I will contiinue with the rest in a day or two stay tuned.

better late than never.

Ah, blogs, especially this one. Seems to take too much time to think about and i wish there were more obvious artist who are black and living in Canada to write about. I thin also I'm a tad lazy, not digging deep enough ,also a bit of a recluse. last week I was watching a documentary and found this amazing painter who is an African american by the name of Charles Alston.Wonderful work and fuck it if he doesn't work into my tight requirements i like his work.

Art is tough and gets tougher the moment I feel like i like what i"m saying, things tend to switch around and get catch in the brushes. images rush past the hand and escape the mind when you try to capture them. Especially when I think I can finesse them with technique. I long for the days when i liked what i wrote and what I painted

Art/not art part 3

I was inspired to do photo collage because of Romare Bearden. An amazing artist and academic from the Harlem renaissance. This piece has no title, finished in the mid 1990's in Toronto, i have been hauling it around with me now i want to rid myself of it's gravity. A pull it has on me, so i copied a few and set it out on the streets of Montreal, in the N.D.G. area, I think I will work to send stuff into the plateau. I'll be in that location tonight to see "I'm Still Here," A play by Margarita Romero. this is also one of two posting of the same image.

After so many years the inspiration to create this remains the same. and it's like Margarita's play. it is telling people, especially those who wish to pretend all is good in their world, that those who suffer are watching , can see us. as the hippies would say"the whole world is watching."

This goes out to the Montreal Police who last week shot and killed two men, One who obviously had mental health issues, he was downtown ripping apart garbage bags with a knife and throwing the contents around while screaming. The other victim was on his way to work and was hit by a stray bullet discharged by the police. One week after the shooting, The Investigators have not questioned the police involved. We are watching.

#2

I started with flowers a bit ago, i can't seem to justify their place, but they come up so I went with it. so here it is. This is in a strange part of Montreal like an intersection of N.D.G. hamstead and Cote des Neige?? speaking of which I will in a few days post my video which is shot in a park in Cote st. Catherine. stay tuned.

I am still on the search for the greatest black Canadian artist. I have proclaimed myself as this. I am hoping someone can throw out other names, I am looking for visual artist. so it narrows the field, any takers?

#1 of the art not art

Cote Saint Luc in montreal. a beautiful day a still life portrait called "scarfs and nuts"

hope you find it and give it a good home, for those who wish to relocate other work please send me an address. Oh a big congratulations to Dionne Brand who has won the griffin poetry prize.well done .