Artistic Licence Bureau A Performative Installation by Glen Johnson

• Exhibition 04-26 August 2011

• Opening Reception Thursday 04 August, 7PM

• Hours Tuesday-Saturday, Noon-5PM

PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts is relatively pleased to announce the opening of the performative installation, Artistic Licence Bureau, by Glen Johnson. In a parody of the bureaucratization of the art world, and the seemingly endless ways artistic practices have become systemized, Johnson has created an office where artistic licences are dispensed.

Visitors to the Artistic Licence Bureau [ALB] will be able to experience all the fun that comes with a trip to a government office: waiting in line, filling in forms and having an unflattering photograph taken.

The ALB also offers a veritable potpourri (pronounced potpourri) of information pamphlets intended to demystify the various artistic practices one might endeavour to pursue: "It's Nothing Really, a Guide to Making Conceptual Art"; "ME, ME, ME, Turn Your Self-Obsession Into a Career as a Performance Artist"; and "How Long is This Thing? A Guide to Video Art" etc. Visitors to the ALB will be able to apply for (and possibly receive) a provisional Artistic Licence in order to finally have proof that they are not dilettantes but actual artists.

Please join us for the opening reception Thursday the 04th of August beginning at 7PM. Refreshments will be served (well, they will be there, out on a table - no one is going to actually serve them to you).

Since graduating from the University of Winnipeg with a BA in classics in 1993, Glen Johnson has produced a large body of writing that has been distributed in the form of brochures, novellas, and insertions within various catalogues and books. His performances, invariably involving text, and that take the form of storytelling segments or lectures accompanied by projected images, have been performed at The National Gallery of Canada (2008), the University of Winnipeg's Gallery 1C03 (2007), Winnipeg Art Gallery (2006), Mount Saint Vincent University (2005), PLATFORM, Winnipeg (2005), aceartinc (2009, 2005, 2003), and The Annex (2004). Among other strategies, Johnson incorporates humour in almost every (guess which ones!) artwork he produces.

PLATFORM wishes to acknowledge the support of its membership, board of directors, volunteers, and staff. Operating funding for PLATFORM exhibitions and projects is received from Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council.

For more information about this exhibition or other PLATFORM programming, please contact the Centre directly: PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org

• Curator's Tour: Saturday July 23 @ 3PM

• Please join us at PLATFORM for a unique look at the current exhibition, Haven't We Been Here Before? as Kegan McFadden hosts an intimate discussion.

• Haven't We Been Here Before?

PLATFORM THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITIONS! Until 23 July 2011

Recently Reviewed by Allison Gilmore for The Winnipeg Free Press

So Many Letdowns Before We Get Up... // Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

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In celebration of PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts' Thirtieth Anniversary, The Centre will be presenting two exhibitions simultaneously: So Many Letdowns Before We Get Up... featuring work in sculpture, drawings, installation and video by: Jo-Anne Balcaen, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Maura Doyle, Glen Fogel, Alex Kisilevich, Kelly Mark, Ashley Neese, Ryan Peter, and Jim Verburg, with J.J. Kegan McFadden as curator; and Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Aleesa Cohene, Alex Da Corte, Jon Pylypchuk, and Markus Vater with Kim Nguyen as curator. As an anniversary project, we have opted to invite a roster of emerging and mid-career artists who have not yet exhibited with PLATFORM. Together, these exhibits offer insights and ruminations on failed love and thwarted dreams, as well as an overall malaise and melancholy stemming from our current climate steeped in popular culture. Stay tuned for the forthcoming publication featuring artist pages from all involved, as well as curatorial texts and essays by invited contributors.

PLATFORM acknowledges the support of its membership, Board of Directors, staff, and partners in presentation. Operating and project assistance for PLATFORM programming is provided by: Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, The Winnipeg Foundation, and The W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation. Seemed Like a Good Idea the Time was originally curated by Kim Nguyen for Or Gallery (Vancouver) in September 2010; we extend our gratitude to Or and their staff for their assistance in re-presenting this exhibit. Special thanks to the artists and their representatives, including: Paul Petro Contemporary Art (Toronto), Fleisher/Ollman Gallery (Philadelphia), China Art Objects (Los Angeles), Friedrich Petzel Gallery (New York City). For more information about this exhibition or other PLATFORM programming, please contact the Centre directly: PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org

CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF ENROLLMENT [stay tuned for rescheduling this Fall]: Photography Walk with Duncan McNairnay

• Thursday 21 July 2011, 7PM (Meet at PLATFORM at 6:45PM
• $20 members, $35 non members (including membership)
• Toy cameras provided for those who do not have one
• 1 roll of film included
• No photography experience necessary

Join us for a unique take on the popular 'photo walk' experience. This is a social photography event where lo-fi shooters will be touring the exchange district while photographing with toy cameras. We will seek to create a unique perspective on this city using the plastic lenses, minimal controls and film based images that these cameras are so well known for, and at the same time mingle and have fun with other photographers. If you've never shot with a toy camera before, now's your opportunity!

Duncan McNairnay has been in love with film for five years. He enjoys street photography, the snapshot, and unusual results. He is also an instructor at PrairieView School of Photography and has exhibited works in various group shows within Winnipeg.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanmcnairnay

PLATFORM off-site Exhibition: WORKING TITLE

Saturday 16 - Sunday 24 of July @ New Icelandic Heritage Museum in The Waterfront Centre:

94 - 1st Avenue, Gimli, MB. Gallery hours are 10AM - 4PM Daily.

Public Reception: Friday 22 July, 5PM - 7PM.

Karen Asher, The Birthday Boy

PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts is very pleased to announce the next iteration in our off-site and sporadic series of projects and exhibits structured loosely under the designation, f_l_o_a_t_i_n_g, in honour of our antecedent, The Floating Gallery (1981 - 2003). WORKING TITLE is curated by J.J. Kegan McFadden, organized by platform and co-presented by The New Icelandic Heritage Museum in conjunction with The Gimli Film Festival 2011.

WORKING TITLE will include photographs that exhibit cinematic qualities, or offer visuals closely linked to film by three photo-based artists from Winnipeg. Stemming from diverse approaches to their subjects and subject matter, Karen Asher, Sarah Crawley, and Lisa Stinner-Kun, are among a group of artists whose photographs share a similar aesthetic based on the understanding that their work, individually and collectively, is heavily influenced by cinematic language. As a group, the images presented offer a cast of characters (Asher), a setting or location (Stinner-Kun), as well as the impression of an event or plot (Crawley). Bringing in award-winning film maker, Danishka Esterhazy, to offer excerpts from her film scripts to dialogue with the still photographs in a manner informed by narration, but not overly determined, linear, or even in response to the actual photographs, is meant to reinforce the idea of film in these works as well as to further ground the project in the surrounding context of the Gimli Film Festival. The title, WORKING TITLE, references the creative processes involved in making movies, as well as much artistic output (such as visual and literary arts), but also points to an insider's perspective often driving festival-type initiatives.

WORKING TITLE will be on view from Saturday 16 - Sunday 24 of July @ New Icelandic Heritage Museum in The Waterfront Centre: 94 - 1st Avenue (Gimli, Manitoba). Gallery hours are 10 AM - 4 PM, daily.

About the Artists:

Karen Asher is a lens-based artist living and working in Winnipeg. She received her BFA Thesis in Photography from the University of Manitoba in 2009. Asher is the recipient of numerous grants and awards and is featured in the Magenta Foundation Book, Flash Forward 2010 - Emerging Photographers from Canada, United Kingdom and the United States. She had her first solo show exhibition last year at Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts and was written up in several publications including The National Post, Canadian Art, BlackFlash, and Border Crossings Magazine. Ashe Recently exhibited work at Toronto's Contact Photography Festival and is currently preparing for the 2011 Pingyao International Photography Festival in Beijing and her upcoming solo show at Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary. www.karenasher.ca

Sarah Crawley is a visual artist who has exhibited across Canada in solo and group exhibitions as well as internationally. By using multiple processes, she creates images that reveal the photographic technologies she employs in her work. Sarah’s art practice explores aspects of memory, identity, and communication. She is interested in how memory has an impact on identity and the non-verbal ways that identity is communicated. As an active member of the visual art community in Winnipeg Sarah enjoys sharing her passion for photography. She has worked as an arts administrator and teacher, has volunteered on several boards, and is currently involved in a community art project through Winnipeg Arts Council’s With Art program.

Since graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Photography, Lisa Stinner-Kun's work has also been featured in several exhibitions, locally, nationally and internationally among them solo exhibition at Winnipeg's PLATFORM Centre (2007), and Gallery 803 (2008). She has received numerous grants and scholarships, and most recently was awarded a Visual Arts grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Her work has been written about in Border Crossings Magazine, the exhibition monograph vague terrain published by platform, the Winnipeg Free Press, and Warehouse, a journal of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba. Stinner’s photographs have also been highlighted in several juried publications including Carte Blanche (2006) and Flash Forward (2006, 2007). Stinner obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Manitoba where she has been teaching photography as a sessional instructor. www.lisastinnerkun.com

Winnipeg-based filmmaker Danishka Estherhazy is a graduate of the Director's Lab program at the Canadian Film Centre. She has written and directed several short films including the National Screen Institute Drama Prize winner The Snow Queen. In 2008, she was awarded the prestigious Kodak New Vision award and she has recently been shortlisted for the John Hirsch Award for most Promising Manitoba Writer. Black Field, her first feature film, premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival and will play in theatres across Canada this June. www.DanishkaEsterhazy.com

LANGUAGE FORMED IN LIGHT > experimental screening series from May - August 2011 <

Continues Tuesday 12 July 7PM @ The Black Lodge [ARTSPACE]

PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts is excited to announce a new screening series to be presented over the next four months. Language Formed in Light is comprised of four different film screening nights featuring experimental films and video art by four recognized artists from Canada and the United States. The works in this series were selected due to their innovative use of cinematic language. Some of the titles create an entirely new filmic language, while others focus on expanding the established cinematic vocabulary. This screening series will be the part of a serial presentation guest-curated by Clint Enns for PLATFORM and recognizes the work in film and video by note-worthy contributors to the medium.

The third screening in this series will be the work of Michael Robinson. Selections of Robinson’s film will include You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, which was awarded Best International Film at the 2006 Images Festival, And We All Shine On, Light is Waiting, and Victory Over The Sun. With landscape playing a large role in experimental cinema (especially in the prairies) Robinson plays with the traditional readings of landscape films with a perverse misreading of landscape in his film You Don’t Bring My Flowers. In Victory Over the Sun, Robinson explores ruins of modernist design at the dormant sites of past World’s Fairs, in essence emotionally demonstrating the failures of Utopian visions. Most notable in Robinson’s work is the fact that he creates a new cinematic language by forging a narrative arc out of essentially non-narrative materials.

Clint Enns is a video artist and filmmaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba, whose work primarily deals with moving images created with broken and/or outdated technologies. His work has shown both nationally and internationally at festivals, alternative spaces and mircocinemas. He has recently completed a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Manitoba, and will continue his studies in cinema and media at York University.

Please join us TUESDAY 12 July @ 7PM in The Black Lodge / ARTSPACE for the third screening of Language Formed in Light, guest-curated by Clint Enns. All screenings are Free and open to the public. Doors at 7:00 / Screening at 7:30. The artist will be in attendance, and offer a brief Question & Answer session following the screening.

Program:

YOU DON’T BRING ME FLOWERS* (2005, 8 minutes)

AND WE ALL SHINE ON* (2006, 7 minutes)

VICTORY OVER THE SUN* (2007, 13 minutes)

LIGHT IS WAITING (2007, 11 minutes)

ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (2008, 4 minutes)

IF THERE BE THORNS (2009, 13 minutes)

THESE HAMMERS DON’T HURT US (2010, 13 minutes)

*Will be shown on 16mm

PLATFORM wishes to acknowledge the support of its membership, board of directors, volunteers, and staff. Language Formed in Light is made possible with funding received from Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts.