THE LAND OF

ODD

Nicole Ensing

Byron Johnston

Kelsie BalehowskyElysse BujoldGeoffrey BuntingGerard CadgerCeilidh EvansSheena GibsonPilar GuineaKevin JesuinoAsher KlassenMaryAnn LawrenchukHanss LujanMichelle MacKay

Jason Negreiff

Shed Simas

Elke Lange

Curator

Facilitator

Artists

Cover Illustration

Catalogue Layout

Staff

Nicole Ensing

Byron Johnston

Tristan MacKinlayMolly McChesneyMalcom McCormickTanatswa PfendeAlison PopovichCale ShannonDarren SimShed SimasAmanda SpearmanCorie WaughNicole Young

Jason Negreiff

Shed Simas

Andrea Patterson

MAD HATTER· IN ·

THE LAND OF

ODD

ELKE

ARTSCO

In the Land of Odd is a collaborative art exhibition to bridge artistic learning opportunities between Centre for Arts and Technology (CATO) Students, University of British Columbia – Okanagan (UBC-O) students, and local artists, which provides students opportunity to develop new artistic expression through the Peer Coaching and Professional Mentoring.

The Mad Hatter provides young people the opportunity to work in collaboration with others for a common cause.

Each annual Mad Hatter event is unique and provides an educational experience, which helps to foster an interest in and a greater understanding of the artistic process and the place it has in all our lives.

ARTSCO would like to thank Nicole Ensing for Curating, Professor Byron Johnston, UBC-O, CCS Students, the students and educators from CATO, and participating for their artistic contributions and all the volunteers that have helped make this great event possible.

A special thank you goes to Whitworth Holdings Ltd, Kelowna, which kindly donated this year’s event site and thank you to all our sponsors for their generous support.

To learn more about ARTSCO visit our website: www.artsco.ca

Elke Lange, Executive DirectorArts Council of the Central Okanagan

NICOLE

CURATORSo what is it about the Land of Odd? Odd can be defined as deviating from

what is ordinary or expected. It can be strange or peculiar, occasional, incidental or random. The Land of Odd is a location for the public to experience and engage themselves in art through involvement that is not always possible in a gallery setting. The formal aura surrounding an art gallery can feel intimidating and unnatural, but the Land of Odd enables the community to experience art in a familiar, but altered environment.

There are twenty-three artists participating in this event including one student from Center for Arts and Technology (CATO), twenty students in the Visual Arts program in Creative and Critical Studies (CCS) at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus (UBCO) and two emerging artists who have recently graduated from UBCO. This group of artists has shown determination by taking on the challenge to generate, share and inspire the community of the Okanagan through their creativity. The challenge given was to employ the viewer, enticing them to participate and to think critically about their experience.

The artists confront the viewer and encourage them to question their role in society through kinetic sculptures, installation, photography, drawing and performance art. Are we a passive society? Are we responsible for our actions? The viewer may find challenges put forward that question everyday mundane activities. Some viewers may be surprised to find out that they have already become a participant in the work just by viewing it.

A visit to the Land of Odd will result in an experience not likely to be forgotten. The Land of Odd is full of playful and inspiring oddities. It is a secure abode for the public to explore the imagination, the movement, the surreal, the possible and even a bit of reality. This is great for the cultural community in Kelowna! Art has the power to alter perception and encourage positive debate. I encourage the public to explore and reflect on their encounters within the oddities of the Land of Odd.

I congratulate all the artists for their hard work and taking up the challenge to exhibit their art in this extraordinary community event. This event would not be possible without the creative talents and contributions from the artists. Thank you! A big thank you to Byron Johnston, Associate Professor from the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies for his participation, never ending encouragement and support of his students and everything surrounding this exhibition! I would also like to thank the all the priceless behind the scenes contributions that were made, including the donation of the space (Whitworth Holdings Ltd), the people behind the creation of the posters and catalogues, and of course a big thank you to all the volunteers. Finally, a special thank you to the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan (ARTSCO) and their Executive Director, Elke Lange for creating such a great community event and giving me the opportunity to curate it!

Nicole Ensing, B.F.A.Photographer / ArtistDirector, Arts Council of the Central Okanagan

My desire is to create sculptures of my thoughts and passions. Most of my work is influenced and driven by my frustration with society and the selfish and materialistic lifestyle some people choose to live.

KELSIE

BALEHOWSKY

Clothing Installation2011

Less of Me, More of You2011

belowfacing

Working through this installation was very important to me on many different levels. After experiencing what felt much like an artist block earlier in my artistic practice, this piece became something that luckily brought me out of a creative block. My installations were therapeutic and have a direct connection to my experience growing up as a bilingual student with a learning disability. Everyone learns differently, and in my case, I learn kinetically. These pieces are meant to simulate the mind of a dyslexic child while they are attempting to learn for to read and write. There was never any clarity as a child with a learning disability. I had to do everything differently and often felt very separated from the rest of my peers.

ELYSSE

BUJOLD

1994-20082012

Geoffrey Bunting was born in Vancouver and grew up in the South Okanagan, British Columbia. Always fond of creative thinking and technology, he decided to pursue an education in filmmaking at the Centre for Arts and Technology, Kelowna. Upon graduation from their digital filmmaking program in January 2011, he has kept busy doing contract editing work and directing independent film. Geoffrey has been the highlight editor for the Kelowna Rockets Hockey Club of the Western Hockey League for the 2011-2012 season and has also edited interactive video applications for local company, Hustream. Geoffrey has also done video work at events such as: Center of Gravity, Deadmau5 Unhooked Tour, and Benny Benassi Electroman Tour. His biggest accomplishment to date is directing and co-producing an independent short film “The Jamboree” which screened at The Paramount theatre in Kelowna.

GEOFFREY

BUNTING

My interest lies in the creation of objects or environments that are of a different scale than what we are used to, perhaps bringing attention to human faculties that are ignored in the average day-to-day life. Too often we assume that things cannot be changed and that the role we play in society is passive.

GERARD

CADGER

facing below

The Web2011

The Hive2011

My work is grounded in narrative; it is greatly influenced by legends from both European and First Nations traditions, which connect us to the land. I like to play with the symmetry of opposites in my subject mater and materials; body and mind, flesh and stone, earth and sky.

CEILIDH

EVANS

A polar bear is trying to protrude from within the soapstone carving, yet is enclosed by two bird like creatures. The interaction between the three figures; eagle headed person, a goose, and the bear are interacting on separate levels. There is a physical interaction, one that I became aware of as the process continued. The process where the different creatures somehow become a single form involves juggling those different shapes and spaces to fit.

There is also a psychological level of interaction that exists inside this piece. This is the level where I want the viewer to be. By observing its physical features, combined with audio, the piece evokes an experience reflecting the cultural significance of the Inuit.

SHEENA

GIBSON

belowfacingListen and Beheld

(viewer inteaction)2011

Listen and Beheld2011

Art for me is a medium for getting to know the world through expressions and feelings (events capsulated in a work that motivate us to grow as people) even if we share a different perspective of the world through different cultures. For me it is important to recognize my past and where I came from and to find a more stable self image in the search for myself.

Nationalism is not all about loving one’s home country but embracing that sense of belonging as an element of one’s personality and self. My installation for me was a stepping stone where I was able to find myself as I uncovered the things that scare me about my country. It was about finding a passion in my work, searching for it in that scary place in a deep realm of my subconscious. You don’t realize how important something is until you digest it, in my case through art. It is a hard thing to do, almost cathartic but at the end rewarding, especially when you know people reacted to it learning more about things they might not have known living in Canada. For me the fact that I might have taught someone something made it even better. The feeling of doing something Guatemalan also made it special, putting those incredible words that once won a Guatemalan man the Nobel Prize up on the wall validated my work and made me feel like I was making a difference. This installation and sculptures also made me explore techniques new to me in my art. I got to work with an entire space for the first time in my life, and it made me realize that art is about more than the five senses, but about impact and change.

PILAR

GUINEA

below

Cage2011

Kevin Jesuino is a performance artist/ theatre deviser/ media designer. He was the Artist Director of New City Collective (2007-10), a Bangkok based multi-disciplinary art collective dedicated to physically devising theatre pieces for non-traditional theatre spaces. Kevin was the recipient of the Bangkok Bob Best Director Award presented by the Bangkok Theatre Society in 2010 for his directing of “Savage/Love” (Sheppard/Chaikin) and also won for Best Performance at the Alternator Art Gallery’s Wearable Art Gala 2011. Kevin has been published with NeWest Press for his devised theatre piece “Grumplestock’s” collaboratively created by Jon Stewart, Trish Lorenz and himself. He presented his piece “Dee/Dum” (Jesuino/Mendonca) at the Mad Hatter in 2010 and spent this past summer touring with Inner Fish Performance Co. throughout Europe with the Sound Can Tour. Kevin is currently completing the Interdisciplinary Performance program at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus where his research interests lie in questioning how a physical body, within a performance, both as performer and viewer, reacts, interacts, and is effected by technology, and how this translates into ordinary life. He admits that he also is addicted to screen culture and knows, but yet does not accept, that it is exponentially getting worse.

KEVIN

JESUINO

below

plast[i]kos2011

This has been an eventful year for me as an artist; I’ve been busy embracing what one might call my “inner geek”. Yes, that’s right, I’m one of those. But don’t worry, I’ll spare you the lectures on Tolkien’s genius and the historical magnitude of comic books. In these last several months of schooling I’ve finally nailed down my artistic mission. I’m a storyteller. I have no great urge to create controversy, no desire to make people “think” by shocking them with images and then accusing them of being intolerant when they object. I find these modes of operation amusing; I want people to enjoy my art, to be swept up in it and carried off on a gently smoking train of thought. That’s what good stories do: they take us on journeys and when we come back, we are never quite the same person as when we left. And so you will not find my work to be revolutionary, I’m afraid. It does not fit the bill for the avante-garde. Perhaps, though, you will find it to be work filled with wonder. Maybe you’ll even allow yourself to step into whatever world you find there and wander awhile. That’s all I’m here for. I’m the guy who tells the story and hopes in the meantime that you aren’t too proud or busy or stressed to take a moment and listen. Heck, you might even end up enjoying yourself.

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” [Bilbo] used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

ASHER

KLASSEN

below

Ignition2011

With my artwork I try and create objects that make the viewer aware of their own body within the designated art space. I try to involve a lure in each of my pieces to initiate participation with it. I try to create something that is multi-sensory so the viewer feels that engagement with my art object is worthwhile. Working on a large scale is important for my practice, because with large pieces it is easier to affect the body of the viewer by using the physical presence of the piece as a starting point.

For this exhibition my piece is meant to persuade audience members to become encompassed within the art space and start participating with the art objects. The piece is intentionally left in a constant state of potential flux. The paper will move and shuffle, slip and distort the shape as participants add their own pages to the pile. The book pages that make up the bulk of the piece are, in the main, the type of trashy novel one can pick up at a grocery store. I hope to juxtapose these dime store quality novels, most with the same plots and motifs, with the spontaneous creativity of the participants.

MARYANN

LAWRENCHUK

belowBallgame

2011Photo by Yuri Akuney

Hanss is a portrait photographer and visual arts student at UBC-Okanagan interested in creating images that surpass our conditioned conceptions of reality, focusing on theatrical, majestic and surreal. His body of work consists of diverse expressions and excursions in dream-like settings based from everyday happenstances.

HANSS

LUJAN

facing below

Rabbit Hearted Girl2011

Glitter in the Air2012

Michelle MacKay has always been drawn to fun, colourful art. Using interesting forms and exploring different media has allowed her to express herself through her pieces. Themes like technology and fantasy come through in most of her art, including her paintings and photography.

MICHELLE

MACKAY

facing below

Steampunk2011

Goretana2011

“If you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you.”

The Gospel of Thomas

My work is inspired by memories, figures of speech, cultural archetypes, and literary sources.

TRISTAN

MACKINLAY

facing belowThe Glass Ark,

based on the poem by Yusef Komunyakaa2011

No Smoking2011

While inspired by the raw nature of the space that we had received for the Odd Collective, it encouraged me to play with the theme of anticipation. To me, anticipation is created out of desire and the curiosity of one’s mind; it is those words that I feel emulate from my work. The sculptures took form from these words and represent the feelings one experiences while in anticipation.

MOLLY

MCCHESNEY

facing below

Turn Me On2011

Untitled2011

I work intuitively and make decisions on the go. I am inspired by the human form as well as the characteristics of raw materials such as wood, steel and certain fabrics and how they can interact with each other. I am interested in symbolism, which is why I chose to experiment with the human hand and arm. I am currently exploring many different methods of creating including painting and drawing, woodworking, metalworking, and printmaking.

MALCOM

MCCORMICK

facing below

Untitled2011

Untitled2011

My art practice is one that centers on two things: my observations of the society around me as well as how my personal conflicts and thoughts relate to this society. I am often interested in creating or showing alternate views towards a subject or a topic. But at the same time I am interested in work that requires viewer participation. It is something that is often in my work because I believe it to be a great way to really engage with art. Also I have realized that viewer participation can create personal connections between artist and participants and can more easily allow for much needed discussion and debate about art.

TANATSWA

PFENDE

facing below

Reinventing the (water) wheel2011

Who’s eating who2010

The ways that people interact in their surroundings intrigue me. The effect we have on the environment and others around us keeps me inspired to create work to make people think about the way they are treating this planet. So much is taken for granted and is unappreciated. Stop and think. Are you making this world a better place to live in?

ALISON

POPOVICH

facing below

Depletion of the Ozone2011

Rocking Chair2011

Currently I’m exploring the possibilities of folded paper to create engaging objects and present visually arresting sculptures. In previous works such as “Okanagan Lake Rocket Pop” I combine my love of the Okanagan (of which I have been a resident for all my formative years) and the nostalgia brought on by the old ‘Rocket Popsicles’ you could only buy from the ice cream truck; the purpose of this project was to engage with geographical information and manipulate it into a personal sculpture.

CALE

SHANNON

facing below

Bacon Box2011

The Chess Game2011

Controvesy: 1. The action of disputing or contending one with another; dispute, debate, contention.”

I want to explore the concept of a controversy within the context of religion within today’s society. What is it that makes such a subject taboo? And why are we forbidden to represent certain images or say certain things? I find Religion is a subject worth criticizing in a generation defined by the bombing of the twin towers on September 11 2001. Not only has society been shown the real dangers of a religion taken too seriously, but the rise of the atheist movement has shown that people are being fed up of tolerating such beliefs.

DARREN

SIM

below

I Blow Up For Your Sins2011

The fantastical fascinates me, especially imaginary and mythical animals. So does science, particularly biology and evolution. In my practice, I try to put the two together. I look at imaginary creatures and see realism in them. Sometimes I am satisfied with a realistic rendering of an impossible hybrid, as in “The Merlion,“ where the fish-lion splice is clear. But often I look at its physical features and its behaviour, and account for the evolutionary function of every body part, as in “Orkers.“ Inventing is my passion. Validating my inventions is my goal.

SHED

SIMAS

facing below

Orkers2012

The Merlion2012

Reverse was designed using primarily cement, papier-mâché, plaster, mylar, and glass. It is a piece about opposites. The body form has both indications of female and male body parts. The base represents nature while the upper half represents man made material such as glass and mirrored material. The mirror is also a reference of opposites as it reverses your reflection instead of how you would normally view yourself in a mirror.

Bad Media is constructed using a variety of items such as papier-mâché, photos, dolls, and a rotating base. The piece relates to the media and the impact the media has on young women, it rotates in a circular motion with image examples of the sort of negative media that is impacting the way young girls see themselves.

AMANDA

SPEARMAN

Throughout my sculptures I have tried to experiment with the different aspects of time and space. The abstracted human ideas of the terms and the terms applied to me specifically was the aspect I wished to explore. The Odd Collective project is a really pared down representation of my confusion and struggle with the idea of time. It seems that this concept, while having been explained to me in a few different ways, has always seemed to leave me disoriented. I worked with the idea (of time and its relation to a ‘reality’) peering into the idea that time is suspended as it enters a black whole, this pushed my confusion even further as it made the concept of ‘time’ as tangible thing that could be effected like so. The idea of time is abstracted and misunderstood within my surroundings and that confusion will continue to alter my experience with it.

CORIE

WAUGH

facing below

Twig House2011

Wood Series2011

Last semester my focus was creating sculptures that were useful. I decided to build furniture that was not only functional, but also had an interesting element of design to them. I especially love working with textiles, which was a big part of the pieces that I made.

My projects for this upcoming show deal with the theme of food production. It seems as though a lot of the food that our society eats is mass produced and not always in a healthy way, but I find that not many people seem to question where their food is coming from, or really care. I wanted to approach this idea in kind of a silly way, because I feel that the idea of people not caring what they put into their bodies is simply ludicrous.

NICOLE

YOUNG

facing below

Bench I2011

Bus Comfort2011

T

THANK YOUThank you to all the artists, donors, sponsors,

volunteers and attendees.