Wiz Kudowor - The Black Stars of Ghana - Art District

Out in the backwoods.

Rural living at one time, about 100 years ago was the place that most people lived. as the Industrial revolution kicked in there was a giant shift from rural to city.  For people of colour especially in the united states the end of the slave trade  and the begining of jim crow saw the "great migration" millions moving north from the south. i imagine in Canada the shift from rural to city happened because of the lack of ownership of land and the Canadian Jim Crow.  blah blah.. so the Artists black artist, me artist always working in urban centres. except for outsider artist like Thornton Dial. the Geez bends women. Or Bill Traylor.
 I have moved to this small town with next to no people of colour, as a matter of fact there was a bylaw that forbade non whites to  sleep in the town after sundown.(they no longer have that law) it's crazy up here there are very few rural areas with a community of people of colour.  Can i still be a black artist, and what does that mean?

looking at my work (above)  I wonder if it will be transformed by moving from a city like Montreal. to a backwater( as my mother called this place) will i lose my black search, as i think thats what my work was all about. it was a search not for a definative "Blackness" but an acceptance of that which resides in me.

Art as life

Clutter, Hoarding, keeping stuff. I'm in the art as reduction world. I have in a short period of time, I have moved all my stuff out of my apartment in Montreal and moved to Meaford to help my mother move out of her house and downsize. things i know; All those handy space saving devices on sale? they are really enablers for hoarders. every clutterer will buy these units to organize their junk, see that sliegh of hand? organize instead of get rid of. Hide, tuck away instead of giving away. its part of our ridiculous consumerist life , instead of cutting back buy more to organize the stuff. One industry that is growing is the storage industry.

the ancestors

I was directing a play a fantastic work by a very talented actor writer, Cassandre mentor.  it was called "Blue colored girl" ( yes we know in Canada and other British places we spell it coloUred )  in it she mentions being called by the ancestors, even though she cannot identify them, she knows they are constantly in her consciousness.  There are many similarities between  her play and the one i wrote a decade and a half ago. and i was and have been for the past two years constructing these ancestor pieces, they have gone from one large piece of wood to three  imagine if you will the painting is the "house" i'm going to have to reconstruct the pieces as one in another crazy assembly, i will meanwhile here is the new ancestors of montreal.

this time i spread them out. harder to destroy.

very late

NEW LIGHT

Whats good about blogs and journals,or any writing of a personal nature? Realizing when I'm stuck in a loop. Is creativity linked to a Mania ? Because every so often I find I'm going back to the same point starting over again. relearning, being scared,getting over fear, creating then falling back into the process. That's it! It's my process. it too damn  tiring. Time to ( yes, i'm gonna say it) start again, with a new light. Audre Lorde said (I'm paraphrasing) the difference between pain and suffering ; Pain is going through trauma and unsing the experience to change, knowing that you have been through the experience. Suffering is not using the experience for change,but repeating the trauma over again and again.

Thanks to; the nice poster folks who glued my work up rather than tear it down(which happened to the other work i put up if you go to grumpy's on Mckay in Montreal.
and big big thanks to Cassandre Mentor and Rabbit, who are performing "short and sweet" at the end of the month. Cassandre is a great actor  Rabbit is a wonderful writer with a fantastic reading voice.

moving and moving on.

It occurs to me the more i think i know the less i most likely do. this doesn't even stop me from thinking i do know more. Its age or something , the idea that i lived this long it has to be skill and not just by the grace of god, luck or other unquantifiable experiences. I have a new collection of work. some of it a repeat. like for instance back in the day in ottawa i set up some work in the parks and on the street one group that i was really happy with was called the "ancestors" large pieces,  four sculptural bits which called me to daughters of the dust and  recollection of seeing African scultpures( thank you Althea knight, who always is an inspiration and motivator) so once again i set them out on the lawn so to speak this time in montreal along the lachine canal. and paintings on St. Antoine,( they were quickly removed by poster people,, damn you ! don't you know art man!

i still am figuring the documentation bit. theses are the inside versions.

collective reason

Collective creation blog #2

As we move through this creative space, I realize not only are we talking in terms of space we share publicly, we have to think in terms of space in time in space and time. We are a group of people who span many years and have lived in different countries, because of this we see space and time differently. Even on a simple level, in Montreal there is an Anglo space and a French space, As gender we occupy space differently ( take a look at how much space  some men occupy on a bus compared to some women) go to a public event and see the lines of women wanting to utilize the washroom, while  men, So, who is afforded space?  think of People with disabilities who cannot participate in activities because of accessibility. I started thinking of this while listening to CBC this morning, they were talked about the segregated Canada, there were Indian hospitals, towns like Dresden Ontario which would not allow black people to eat in restaurants or use  bowling lanes etc. and who could forget viola Desmond being removed from the cinema in Nova Scotia. I think how older folk look at and use public space, I certainly do look at it differently from the younger participants.  In Quebec  women could not even acquire a bank account, lease a house or get hydro  hook up without the signature of a male.. so an exercise, as marginalized folk, either by gender, race, sexuality,  religion,disability etc;

 Could you jump in a time travel machine and go randomly to anywhere in the past? As for that matter we can never tell what the future has for us. As for the other space, cyberspace, I have to look to the young, I have to look for them because they are too busy texting or tweeting or face booking to look up. In many ways they share public space in a greater way over continents, time zones, semi publicly in places and in languages I can’t even begin to comprehend.  In that sense we have to talk about what is private in cyberspace?  and how can they be so private in public?

I am cheating I think because this will be posted on our collective  site which I urge you to go to

It seems as though every so often, I find myself sitting wondering about value. The word these days seems to be about getting what you're worth. I find the whole thing sad. The market place has now successfully turned us all into commodities. with the commodities in the west actually believing we are of more value, and we who have a degree are more valuable. We are drowning in our self importance. these days its impossible to take a shit without tweeting,fb-ing or blogging about it, to get feedback, affirmation. why? because we think everything we do is important. listen up! its not. there are many things we do that are quotidian at best. but i understand the logic- I just don't want to get into the idea that what I do is easily measured by $$$$'s. How much is your parents love worth? how much is the smile of a child eating an ice cream or singing a song worth? I love making  Art. I love all aspects of it. I love making stories, I love making things, but it pisses me off to no end when someone thinks it needs to be priced. i don't believe "if you don't value your work no one else will." I think seeing mediocre folks making large  coin sets us off, soon we are part of the inflation problem, asking for large sums to do nothing important. yeah why should someone who slaps together shoddy housing get paid large while people who feed and clothe and teach our future generations get comparatively nothing. I do blah alot... anyhooooo. the pictures are some of my newer things set out on the streets of Montreal. theses are free to look at, and if  you really like them you can take them home (be careful of the staples)  they are worth??????

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 .

keep on moving.

Keep on moving. some more things that come out of somewhere. I like the looks of them they seem to have a sorta superflat-ish feel to them, but abstract. I seem to need these energies to work on figurative things. It's hard tyo free up when there is distinct features needed. I wish i had paid attention to the drawing and painting classes.

The works thus far.

I am working towards something. I don't know what it is but its moving in an interesting direction, I'm not getting what is goign on but thats okay , for now but it gets to me always tentative.

I want to give a big hey and congrats to the "Ghetto Biannale" which will take place in Haiti. Karen Miranda Augustine will be there,a big congrats to her.

The greatest living black Canadian artist.

Well I think someone should claim the title. William .Pope.L laid claims to being the "friendliest black artist in America" I really like the title, it adds a certain something, Now i wonder do I have to copyright the title? that way there can be no fools trying to test my crown or is this way too controversial, after all I'm sure you know of others.I bet you can name more than a dozen,right?

If you think I'm fighting way over my weight,please let me know and explain who you think should hold that title. I am a benevolent dictator, after careful consideration I will hand over the title. In the mean while heres some more work and a warning to be on the look out for the ART/NOT ART, exhibition, coming to a street corner near you..

almost there!

I'm almost there, soon to finish my undergrad degree and then, back at it fir the MFA. after a break, I need a year or two of practice to see if it still sounds like a reasonable idea getting more credentials doesn't make me more credible, something I'm slowly finding out. in this last semester I took two studio classes that i should have taken in the first. painting( my first love) and video production, which on a good day is great but the software is a piece of work to wrap the head around but it's great, I feel ready to put all this stuff to good use stay tuned to this site for artist to talk about their work...

again the hommage to N.Lewis

acrylic 6'x4' "for Norman lewis"

this is an salute to Norman Lewis, abstract expressionist, one of the founders of the New York school. he was ignored for a long time.