Two Tales of a City

March 9th – May 4th, 2012

Opening Friday March 9 6:30-8pm

Two Tales of a City aims to examine a range of social, economic, cultural, and political dualities tracked throughout Hamilton’s past, present, and future. Gathered from archival research, interviews, and pop-up surveys and timelines, Two Tales of a City will present competing, intertwining, and parallel narratives of Hamilton through a large-scale fabric banner, oversized bunting, a workshop, and forthcoming publication.

The fabric banner installed along the side of HAI’s new building will feature a rotating series of call-and-response dualities over a six week period, while the oversized bunting will span 135 feet hung across the roofline and act as a timeline of collapsed and thriving industries, experiences, struggles, and victories of the city.

While created by drawing on stories, experiences, and data from Francophone and Anglophone communities in Hamilton, the project will culminate in a re-distribution of the timeline bunting to the community by allowing gallery visitors to take pieces with them at the close of the exhibition.

Featuring documentation of the projects, essays, and a collectively written story, the publication will be created from activities at the upcoming workshop, and will be available in print at the close of the installation, April 27, 2012. The Tales of a Timeline: Hamilton’s Stories Workshop will take place on Friday, March 8th at 3:30pm at Hamilton Farmer’s Market, with the exhibition officially opening later that night from 6:30-8:00pm at the Inc.

CLICK HERE to view the first phase research process of Broken City Lab in Hamilton

CLICK HERE to view prep of the second phase research of BCL in Hamilton

CLICK HERE to view the second phase research of BCL’s project in Hamilton

CLICK HERE to view the creation process of BCL’s project in Hamilton

Deux Contes d’une Ville
9 Mars – 4 Mai, 2012
Ouverture Vendredi le 9 mars de 6;30-8pm
155 rue James N. Hamilton L8R 2K9
Ouvert ce vendredi « Artcrawl » le 9 mars jusqu’à 11pm.

Deux Contes d’une Ville vise à examiner une gamme de dualités sociales, économiques, culturelles et politiques soulignant le passé, le présent et le futur de la Ville de Hamilton. À partir de la recherche amassée des archives et de l’histoire chronologique de la ville, d’interviews et de questionnaires, Deux contes d’une ville nous présente des narrations de Hamilton en conflit, entremêlées et parallèles en utilisant une bannière à grande échelle, une série de fanions surdimensionnés, un atelier et une publication rétrospective vers la fin de l’exposition.

La bannière de tissu installée sur du côté du nouvel édifice de « Hamilton Artists Inc. » affiche une série de phrases contenant des dualités, extraite du questionnaire. Cette bannière changera au cours de la durée de l’exposition, soit huit semaines. La série de fanions géants mesure 135 pieds de longueur et est suspendue au long du toit. Ces fanions représentent l’histoire chronologique des industries disparues et celles toujours existantes et des expériences, défis et victoires de la ville.

Créer à partir des histories, expériences et de l’information accumulée au sujet des communautés francophone et anglophone de la Ville de Hamilton, le projet culmine avec la redistribution des fanions à la communauté en permettant aux visiteurs de la galerie d’en prendre des échantillons, à la fin de l’exposition.

Mettant en vedette la documentation du projet, des ouvrages littéraires et une histoire écrite collectivement, la publication sera créée des activités de l’atelier à venir et sera disponible vers la fin de l’installation, vers le 27 avril.

L’atelier : « Les Fables d’une Chronologie : Histoires de Hamilton », prendra place Vendredi le 9 mars, 2012 au Marché Fermier d’Hamilton (35 boul. York, Hamilton), dans la cuisine communautaire à 3:30pm, avec l’ouverture officielle de l’exposition plus tard le même soir de 6:30 à 8:00pm à « Hamilton Artists Inc. »
(155 rue James N. Hamilton).

(installation image – Lenka Novak)

Have I been here before?

An interactive video installation by Lenka Novak

Exhibition dates: Thurs Feb 9 – Sat Mar 17, 2012

Reception: Thurs Feb 9th    7 – 10 pm  the artist will be in atttendance   

Art Crawl: Fri Feb 10th  7-11 pm

Performances by Karijn de Jong: 

Thurs Feb 9 at 7:30 and Fri Feb 10th at 8 pm

DOWNLOAD Exhibition Brochure

Lenka Novak’s interactive video installation invites the viewer/participant to contemplate the nature of his/her own being through the act of self-reflection within the space. The play of shadows, light, reflected, and refracted image and the repetition of the infinite leads to a contemplative state of mind and projection of one’s own self within the personal as well as larger concept of time and space.

Lenka Novak was born in the Czech Republic and lives and works in Canada. In 2010 she completed her MFA at Concordia University, Montreal. Recent residencies include the Kunstnarhuset Messen, Alvik, Norway and the Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has exhibited throughout Canada and internationally, including exhibitions at Bain Saint-Michel, Montreal, QC, ‘Aqua Ephemere’ and at the 11th DMZ Art Festival, Seokjang-Ri Art Gallery, Republic of Korea.

Karijn de Jong is a Hamilton-based  artist who started showing her work locally in 2005.  Not formerly trained in any particular medium she enjoys variety working with: installation, written word, has recently taken interest in performance art and music. She draws from a history working in picture framing, the use of found objects, contemplations of society, obscurity and synchronicity, often touching on environmental/social and philosophical themes.

In the James St. North gallery
Kareem Abbas and Abdelhamid Mosbah

Thurs. Jan 9th – Sat. Mar 3rd, 2012
Reception: Thursday, Feb 9th 7-10 pm
Art Crawl open house: Friday, Feb 10th 7-11pm

Kareem Abbas (born 1963) arrived in Canada in 2004. He is a graduate of the Baghdad University of Fine Arts (1988). He employs various painting techniques in oil and watercolours, and uses graphic design, abstraction, realism, and theoretical, practical, and art historical knowledge as a point of departure in his paintings. He has exhibited internationally, including Baghdad, Jordan, Egypt, U.A.E, Tunis, Qatar, USA, Indonesia, France, Denmark, Poland and Turkey. In Canada, he has exhibited in Montreal, Calgary, Mississauga and Hamilton in solo and group exhibitions. Abbas has been a member of the Immigrant Culture and Art Association, the Hamilton Arts Council, Iraq Federal Artists in Canada, and UNESCO, Paris, France.

Abdelhamid Mosbah came to Canada from Tunisia (North Africa) in December 2001. He is a graduate of the School of Art, Tunis, Tunisia, and studied drawing and painting at the School Universal, Paris France. He received a certificate in Art Education from York University. Before becoming a professional artist, he worked in the field of education in Tunisia, both as a director than as a teacher of visual art, and has created commissioned works throughout his artistic career. His body of work explores paintings of Mediterranean living, landscapes and he works with modern and abstracted imagery. Mosbah works in oil, acrylic, watercolor, and charcoal. He has participated in several international art exhibitions and festivals in the GTA and surrounding area. He is an active member of Hamilton Artists Inc.. and has been a member of CARFAC and Hamilton Arts and Pastel Artists Canada. He has also volunteered as an artist working in local schools and community centers with children and young people.

DOWNLOAD Four From Six Catalogue

Exhibition dates: Jan 6 – Feb 4, 2012
Download Exhibition Catalogue (PDF)

Reception: Friday Jan 6th  7 – 10 pm (the artist will be in attendance)

Art Crawl: Friday Jan 13th  7-11 pm

Sunday, Jan 8th  1-4 pm  - Artist talk/workshop with Jeff Nye – an introduction to the use of charcoal drawing in stop motion animation, please RSVP to irene@hamiltonartistsinc.on.ca

Irene 905 529 3355 www.theinc.ca

Abandon, by the old dirt road is an installation involving a layered interplay between painting, video projection and sound.  Abandon investigates rural spaces, lost and recovered memory, and the painter’s studio itself.

This installation appears courtesy of the Saskatchewan Arts Board’s permanent collection.  The viewing of this work in Hamilton is made possible through the Canada Council for the Arts, Visual Arts Section.

Jeff Nye is a Master of Fine Arts Graduate of the University of Regina. His interests include contemporary painting, interactivity, the social roles of artists, and the phenomenology of painting. He has exhibited his paintings and site-specific installations in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. He has received awards from the Saskatchewan Arts Board, and the Ontario Arts Council, and is a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship in 2005-06. He was a recipient of the University of Regina Scholarly Research Award, and the Canada Life Graduate Award in 2004. He is currently working on an on-line painting experiment located at www.livestudio.ca.