Review: Missing Links

Krystina Plante's deeply personal work, Missing Links regarding her broken family tree is beautiful and haunting.

- Jessica Cappuccitti: XPACE Cultural Centre

XPACE Summer Resident - Krystina Plante - Interview

XPACE Summer Resident - Krystina Plante

Thursday, 2 August 2012

Krystina Plante’s experience completing a 4 year art program at Central Technical School helped to give her a head start for her printmaking career at OCAD U.  She enjoys photography and sculpture, but printmaking is the one thing she “craves doing.”  I was fortunate enough to witness her passion for print while she completed her residency here at XPACE.

 Jessica Cappuccitti:  What about printmaking do you love the most?

 Krystina Plante:  I think it’s a little bit of a couple of things – the fact that it is so technical, it’s a skill that you have to learn – there’re so many steps and there’s a lot of chemistry, you have to follow things like a recipe.  I like that it’s not just something you do on a whim; you really have to study and practice at it and then you become good and then it’s easy. But I like that it challenges you. There are so many things you can do in printmaking – you can combine it with so many other art forms, so it’s very versatile. 

 JC:  What method of printmaking do you use most often?

 KP:  My favourite printmaking mediums are lithography and intaglio and most recently I got into book-binding which was something new for me that I learned at OCAD.  My entire thesis was miniature books filled with prints.  There were over 400 prints in all these books and it was on hoarding and collecting.  Something else that I only learned recently that draws me to printmaking is the multiple.  The fact that you can have so many of one thing... I think as my practice continues that is something that is recurring in my work.  For example, in my thesis it was about excess and bulk.  Now with the project that I am working on here I am realizing that it is about multiples again.  A single thing takes on a whole new meaning when it is multiplied.

 JC:  Tell me more about the project that you are working on here at XPACE.

 KP:  I brought my blue print to show you (see photo).  I am mapping my genealogy – it’s like a family tree.  The reason I’m doing it is because a lot of my family has been adopted or displaced so most of them I haven’t met, or I know very little about them.  For example, I just found out that my grandfather has 4 siblings and I just found out his mother’s name... Because he fled Latvia because of the war when he was 9 and he hasn’t seen his family since so it’s not something he ever wants to talk about.  There’s so much I don’t know... my grandmother has 15 brothers and sisters who all live in England, most of whom I haven’t even seen photos of...  My mom, my uncle and my aunt were all adopted from different families... There’s just a lot of unknowns so that’s why I’ve wanted to tackle this for a while.

KP:  So the work is going to have lighting around the core.  That will be my immediate family unit which is small. This part which will be a combination of portraits and text for the names and is going to be backlit so it will be brighter. It will recede to darkness for the people that I don’t know. Because I am left in the dark with the rest of it...

JC:  How long has this been something that you have wanted to do?

KP:  I’ve wanted to touch on the subject matter for a while, but I only really thought of this idea after I got this residency which gave me the opportunity to make this big body of work that is funded and exhibited.  By the time I came to my orientation for the residency I had this idea in mind and got started on it.  I’ve been really strapped for time though because it’s been a lot of trouble-shooting.  For example, I started making all of the boxes in wood and had completed 14 of them before realizing that it wasn’t going to work because I was using 1 x 6’s which people usually buy for making fences and don’t care if the wood is warped.  I went through the entire bin and their new shipment - they were all warped, so unless I wanted to spend about 20.00 on one plank of pine (which I wouldn’t have been able to afford) I had to change my materials.

JC:  Did you construct each of the 14 wooden boxes yourself?

KP:  Yes, I made them at my dad’s house and used his tools... he hovered for a bit just to make sure I wasn’t going to break anything!  So the construction of those really set me back in my timeline.  I think I’ve tried to tackle something pretty big and budgeting time is always kind of hard.

 JC:  I think it’s almost poetic that the project you are working on is about family and here are your mom and dad, helping you put it together.  Does that make it mean more to you?

 KP:  I think it does because as much as it disappoints me that there’s so much about my family that I don’t know, I’m really lucky with the central core group that I have because we’re so close.  So I think it does reinforce that even more – having that help and knowing that these people are there for me.

 JC:  How do you see this residency affecting your future work?  Is this a project that you plan on building on? 

 KP:  I think that it might be a project that I will revisit down the road when I have unlimited time to maybe do some tweaks just to further it even more and maybe contacting those people that I don’t know and building those relationships and including that in the body of work.  But I think for now, this is a good opportunity for me to gain some exposure and interact with the people here at XPACE who are such an asset to me because they are trying to help out.  As opposed to a lot of other places that don’t see students as artists but as “artists in training,” which is really frustrating.  I think it’s great to have people that are supporting those of us that other people don’t want to.  It’s a really great opportunity to network and explore new things.

JC:  What are you going to take away from this residency?

 KP:  This residency has really acted as a learning curve for me. Learning how to think on my feet and how to quickly recover when something doesn't work as planned (it's been trial and error almost every step of the way for me so I've gotten better at troubleshooting), budget money, and more importantly budgetting time! One month is not a long time at all if you have ambitious plans and I know now more than ever that if you give yourself one day to do something it's going to take two!

 JC:  Any future plans or projects?

 K:  Yes, I do have a project that I am going to be starting soon.  It’s stemming from my thesis body of work which was, Life In Bulk.  At our thesis show and at the grad show I had a tall drawer unit where people could add to my collection by leaving whatever they wanted.  Some people would come back with something to leave; some people would just leave whatever they had in their pockets.  It is completely full now.  I am going to be working on a really long body of work which is a book and it’s going to be binding the narratives in all of those objects – my own narrative about who each of the objects came from and what purpose it served... So it’s going to be a long, ongoing body of work.

http://xpaceculturalcentre.blogspot.ca/2012/08/xpace-summer-resident-krystina-plante.html

A very special thank you to XPACE for this opportunity, and to Jessica Cappuccitti for the wonderful interview and documentation.

XPACE Closing Reception

XPACE Summer Residency & The Beat and the Chorus at the Same Time - CLOSING RECEPTION

The XPACE Summer Residency came to an end this past Friday July 27th.  After a month of hard work our Residents got to show off what they created during their time here at XPACE. 

Krystina Plante's deeply personal work, Missing Links regarding her broken family tree is beautiful and haunting.

 Lee Aaron Wiesblatt Let's Hope We Don't Have Another Solaris Situation on Our Hands Here turned XBASE into a technological cave of wonder.

Mason Mummery's art slingshot had visitor's slinging paint-covered sculptures at canvases collaged in the artist's own drawings.

The Summer Resicency Show will be up until Saturday August 3rd. 

Hanna Hur's The Beat and the Chorus at the Same Time, in Window Space will be up until Saturday August 3rd.

- http://xpaceculturalcentre.blogspot.ca/2012/07/xpace-summer-residency-beat-and-chorus.html

Selling In Kensington Market Tomorrow!

All Plante. All handmade. All day.

Come visit my mother, Lynda Plante, and myself, as we participate in our first Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market tomorrow, Sunday July 29th, from 12-6pm. We will be located on lower Augusta in the "Art Market", selling handmade tote bags and repurposed denim bags from With A Y Designs, as well as jewellery, prints, cards and zines.

The weather is going to be beautiful, so come on out and enjoy all the food, culture, and artisans that Kensington Market has to offer!

XPACE RESIDENCY

XPACE RESIDENCY

XPACE Cultural Centre - 58 Ossington Avenue, Toronto

July 27th - August 4th, 2012

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday   12 - 6pm

Opening Reception July 27th, 2012  7 - 11pm

Artists in Residence: Krystina Plante, Mason Mummery, Lee Aaron Wiesblatt

 

New Body of Work: Missing Links, Krystina Plante

Drawing from personal experience and emotional tension, I look to find narratives within mundane objects or the events of everyday life. My most recent work has centered on the surrounding notions of collecting, the mundane, and the book as an art form. This residency has created an opportunity to divert from these themes and instead explore a topic which has been in suspension for some time. As much of my family has been adopted or displaced, I am left with a very small family core, which then dissipates into a vast area of unknowns, like dead nerve endings. It is this tremendous sense of anonymity and these evidently lost connections which has me longing for answers, resolution, and acceptance. It is vital to my artistic practice to remain emotionally vulnerable, as I feel it is crucial to express humanity through art.

Feature: Upcoming at XPACE

Feature:

Upcoming at XPACE

XPACE is housing a Residency for three recent OCADU grads for the month of July, we are very excited to see what these talented artists will come up with! Krystina and Lee are both Printmaking grads, and Mason is a Sculpture/Installation grad. They are using both the Main Space, as well as XBASE as their studios, and have been given 24/7 access. On the 27th they will be showing some of the work they've come up with in their time here. Rumor has it that there will be an art catapult!

Krystina Plante is actively involved in craft and zine culture, and works as the event coordinator for OCAD University's Annual Book Arts Fair. Her most recent work centres on the surrounding notions of collecting, the mundane, and the book as an art form.

Mason Mummery's figurative caricature sculptures are inspired by cartoons, satire and farce. Through explorations and axaggerations of the human subject, the caricature figures become a malleable portrait of humanity.

Lee Aaron Wiesblatt's interdisciplinary work is informed by narrative, the multiple, process, and experimentation. Dual interests in fine and vernacular art inform his developing practice.

Get all the latest Residency and XPACE updates on their Blog

Camp Nano feat. Carl Wagan Bookmobile

OCADU Student Gallery – 285 Dundas Street West, Toronto

June 28th – July 20th, 2012

Opening Reception Thurs. June 28th, 2012

Summer Camp / Camp Nano Workshops 12 – 2pm

Gallery Opening 6 – 11pm

Carl Wagan Bookmobile & Campfire After Sunset 

(Located in the parking lot beside Butterfield Park / South side of OCAD University – 100 McCaul Street)

Featuring zines and artist multiples by Shannon Gerard’s diverse Nanopublishing students, this years theme revolves around the great outdoors, keener culture, and the prolific Carl Sagan. Helping to kick off the Student Gallery’s annual Summer Camp program, us Camp Nano scouts will be holding workshops at the gallery on June 28th, from 12-2pm, where you can earn all your scout badges!

Carl Wagan Bookmobile, a vintage Volkswagen Van which has been converted into a gloriously wood panelled gallery space, will be parked in the parking lot beside Butterfield Park the evening of June 28th. Bring your friends, your neighbors, your lovers, and your dogs after sunset for a faux campfire, ukelele session, s’mores, and some all-around good quality camp-time in the heart of the city. Something like this will only happen once!

This will also be the release of my long-awaited  

Wood Panel That Shit zine! Be there!

Beaute Brut

Beaute Brut

Showcasing work by Canadian Artist Jean Romano-Ferderber

Opening Reception Thursday June 28th, 2012    7-10pm

Exhibition June 28th - July 15th, 2012

The Art Bar 1st Floor - Gladstone Hotel - 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

Poster design by Krystina Plante

Planet Palmerston - TMRW!

Planet Palmerston - Saturday June 9th (moves to the 10th if it rains) 10-3pm-ish

There's going to be a HUGE street-wide yard sale on Palmerston tomorrow.

(stretching north from College to Bloor)

There's probably going to be some wicked stuff! I'm hoping to make it down there in time. Check it out!

COPYRIGHT!!!

I have some pretty awesome ideas...once in a while!

Sound Wave Killing Machine...I'm sure they already have a machine that does this: detects sound waves in the air and zaps them, diminishing them instantly. They must! But if not...Copyright!

Chicken Bully...In chicken coops the "pecking order" is a really big problem. There are always chickens that pick on the weaker ones; attacking, trampling and eventually killing them. I suggest that a new occupation be introduced into the equation: Chicken Bully. Someone dressed as a huge chicken who picks on these chicken bullies and puts them in their place, thus saving the weaker ones from attack and solving the pecking order issue. It would create new jobs...? Copyright!

Lastly, Toothpaste Honey...You know how when you get down to the last bit of honey left in the container it takes forever for it reach the nozzle? You have to stand there for ten minutes smacking it on the counter upside down just to get a little bit of honey. It's horribly annoying! Well, what if honey came in a tube instead? Like toothpaste. Then you could just keep rolling the end as you use it up, and you would always be able to get the honey out. Every last bit of it! Pretty clever eh? Copyright!!!

Sneak Peek - Carl Wagan

Sneak Peek!

Yesterday we started getting "Carl Wagan", Shannon's VW bus, ready for Nanopublishing's Bookmobile Event/Gallery Opening coming up in 2 weeks, by woodpanelling the hell outta him! The entire interior. All cupboards. The kitchenette. Everything! I'm even reupholstering the interior with woodgrain fabrics! Wood Panel That Shit!!!

                                        BEFORE                                                      AFTER

More BEFORE photos.

You will have to attend the event to see the reveal!!



KEEP CHECKING IN THIS WEEK FOR SHOW UPDATES

Tomek Baginski - Fallen Art

Tomek Baginski - Fallen Art (2004)

I was introduced to this short film during my first year of University, but I couldn't remember the title so I had been unable to find it until now. It's a dark piece, and quite vulgar, but beautifully done.

Mural @ OCAD

This mural in the upper design level at OCAD was the only pop of colour or interest in that place a few months ago! Koodos to the artist(s) who painted this beaute!

Pure Photoshop Magic!

My bestie Melissa Cormier made this little

photoshop gem for me. Its pure genius!

  

I'm totally coming back in my next life as the

 rare white squirrel of Trinity Bellwoods Park.

Papermaking with Remnants




Kitchen set-up.

For the Remnants volume of thesis books, I collected all of my paper waste over a 6 month period, including TTC transfers, receipts, coupons, post-it notes, sketches, bank statements, etc. I then made sheets of paper out of these remnants and bound this volume of books with it; bringing the concept full circle!










Tore all remnants into 1" squares.

Blended until pulp was even.

Strained excess water.

Put all strained pulp to the side.

Added sizing to pulp before adding it to the vat of water.

Long format sheets on the pelan, ready to be pressed and dried.

Hot Lead

Our Intertype machine in the Printmaking department came in really handy for making the titles for the spines of my thesis books. It would have taken me countless hours to handset the type for all 28 books, not to mention all of the patience I had left at that point. It's such an intimidating machine at first, but once you start using it it's kind of addictive! Your jaw can't help but drop while you marvel at the complexity of it's construction and what an incredible machine it is!
Who designed this thing?! Hats off to ya!

Special thank you to George Walker for teaching me how to use the Intertype machine, and for defending its presence in the department all of these years. It's a real asset to the studio!