The X factor
Does the ‘X’ in ARTX mean the program is extreme? Perhaps that it has a certain je ne sais quoi? Or, does the X simply put the ‘cross’ in cross-disciplinary?
“ARTX is a group of studio art courses designed for students to explore contemporary art practice with an interdisciplinary approach,” says Jessica MacCormack, an assistant professor in the Department of Studio Arts.
Offered by the department at the undergraduate level, the courses focus not on technical expertise but on the creative potential of questioning the status quo and making art that crosses disciplines, such as studio art, performance, and art theory.
“ARTX is not so much product-driven as concept-driven,” says student Ramona Benveniste. “It’s about general themes and how we’ll approach them.”
Benveniste is in one of the two ARTX classes taught by MacCormack that will mount spring shows in April.
First up, from April 2 to 9, is the exhibition It Matters How You Got Here. The title reflects the students’ interest in both place and process, asking at once ‘where is here?’ and ‘how did you get here?’ Adds MacCormack, “it also speaks to the decontextualized nature of the Internet, and the disconnect of place from history and community.”
Since a major component of the course is creating for, in and with specific sites – reaching beyond the confines of the gallery – students had to find appropriate locations for their individual and collective creations. They found them in Saint-Henri. Residents of the central Montreal neighbourhood can expect to see installations and performances in parks, swimming pool change rooms, on bulletin boards, and in multiple areas throughout the Saint-Zotique sport, recreation and cultural centre.
“We looked at how our work integrates with a space, and navigates ideas,” explains student Sves Yeung, who is creating a work about how identity shifts in relation to a space. “What I like about ARTX is that it’s a process.”
Not your garden-variety garden shed
The outcome of the SHED: Models for a Qualitative Society course will be at the FOFA (Faculty of Fine Arts) Gallery courtyard on Friday, April 12. It’s better known as the shed course, because students build a garden shed early in the course and then use it as a base throughout the year from which to create the installations, videos and performances. The course is structured to engage with ideas of public space, urban planning, suburbia and global politics around boundaries, borders and policing.
“The shed class really opened my eyes to the fact art does not have to be an object,” says Levi Bruce, who took the course last year.
Since some of the materials and processes the students studied this year include utopia, tools and manifestos, visitors to the show might expect to see those topics reflected in the work on view in the shed.
A visitor never quite knows what to expect at an exhibition from either of these cross-disciplinary art classes. And that puts the X factor in ARTX.
What: It Matters How You Get Here
When: Friday, April 2, to Friday, April 9, 2013
Where: Quartier Saint-Henri (see related link to exhibition for more details)
What: SHED event: performances, videos and installations
When: Friday, April 12, 2013, from noon to 7 p.m.
Where: Courtyard of FOFA Gallery, Room EV-1.715, Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (1515 Ste-Catherine St. W.), Sir George Williams Campus
Admission to both is free of charge and open to the public.
Related links:
• Spring Shows 2103
• ARTX
• It Matters How You Get Here
• Shed 2013 on Tumblr
• Department of Studio Arts
• Faculty of Fine Arts