CAFKA.03
Probing Into the Distance
To mark the 150th anniversary of the Waterloo Region, we chose a theme that related to landscape and modes of looking at the land. Our theme for this year comes from a phrase by Northrop Frye: "The sense of probing into the distance, of fixing the eyes on the skyline, is something that Canadian sensibility has inherited from the voyageurs." Artists were asked to consider landscape, mapping, borders, and ways in which we parcel and understand the very ground that sustains us, that provides us with our home.
The expansion of area suburbs and the encroachment of development upon the region's borders have encouraged people and governments alike to consider the sustainability of the rapid growth of the Grand River Basin. Many of the projects dealt specifically with these issues while others could be termed more as exploration using these ideas as aesthetic starting points.
David Floren - Untitled
The present focus of my artistic practice is with remote events and how they may be elaborated to comment on enduring questions of the human condition. Often these are subtle events which would normally go unseen, or are not easily perceived. This process may be likened to a kind of amplification that permits a rare or cogent view, and in its use of technologies, permits these traffics of kinds to be made present in small machines which remember remote events.
David Floren received a Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal in 2003. He is a sessional instructor and current artist in residence at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. His artistic practice in digital media and photography over the past five years has led to the solo exhibitions Phonomono (2001), Tick and Scion/Sillon (2002) in Montreal, the group exhibitions La Nuit Tombée (2002 Grenoble), Send and Receive (2002 Winnipeg) and Répliques (2003 Algiers).
David Hunsberger - Black Two
Block Two refers to the original tract of land 6 miles east and west of the Grand River, within what is now the Region of Waterloo. This project will be an evolving process over a duration of the 9 day art forum. It will explore land subdivisions and developments using graphic, sculptural, printmaking and painting techniques. The project will map the formative historical divisions of block two between 1800 and 1860.
David Hunsberger was born and raised in the Kitchener area. In 1976 he completed an honours degree in Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. Since then he has maintained a studio in Waterloo, working primarily as a serigraph printmaker.
Ed Video - Triangulation
Triangulation is a series of web based artist projects produced through Ed Video Media Arts Centre in Guelph, Ontario. The development of these projects included intensive workshops, discussion groups and technical support. For most artists this was their first project using databases and scripting.
David Gelbs project Sitestream locates Schneider Creek, which runs through Kitchener but is largely overrun by urban development, through references to everyday and historical placemarkers.
Placelines by Tom Leonhardt allows the viewer to create visual patterns which reflect social behavior by overlaying various map views of Waterloo County.
GoodWater by Rene Meshake, invites the audience to contribute stories about where they travel to find fresh, drinkable water. These locales are then mapped geographically.
North South East West by Graham Thompson uses the Ojibway sweat lodge as an interface metaphor for a meditation on the process of spiritual renewal and healing in his Flash-based project.
