Dan Graham: Conceptualist Colloquium
Artist Dan Graham
It’s been a terrific couple of weeks for art talks in Canada. Last week iconic artist Judy Chicago, classic critic Lucy Lippard, sculptural innovator Jessica Stockholder and influential curator Polly Staple were a few of the from-awayers giving lectures across the nation. This week American conceptualist Dan Graham hits the stage as well, with an afternoon talk October 31 at Emily Carr University and an evening lecture and reception November 1 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Any visit from these types of in-demand figures takes considerable coordination, and Graham’s appearance is no different. It helps that Anthony Kiendl, director of Winnipeg’s Plug In and organizer of the talk, has been working with Graham for a few years, including him in a 2004 symposium and 2007 exhibition called “Informal Architectures.” The exhibition, which showed at Kiendl’s former haunt, the Banff Centre, as well as at Plug In, riffed on some of Graham’s key themes like spatial culture, built environments and social interactions in public space. For it, Graham made a video based on 1986 and 2005 filming sessions at the West Edmonton Mall.
Overall, Graham’s talk promises to expand away from his gallery shows (which he himself has called “usually really bad”) and instead span his decades-long career, from his influence as a pioneering video artist at NSCAD in the mid-1960s to his more recent projects in documenting housing design. And who knows? If you have to miss the lecture, maybe you’ll catch him unawares at Polo Park. (300 Memorial Blvd, Winnipeg MB)
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Dan Graham Death by Chocolate: West Edmonton Shopping Mall (1986–2005) 2005 Video still |
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