MERCER

PAST EXHIBITION

A Dirtier New Year’s Eve Party

31 December 2004

Many thanks to all for making A Dirtier New Year’s Eve Party a HUGE success and the party to be at in Toronto this New Year’s Eve! Next-day reviews posted on www.tribemagazine.com: “Had a great time, just got home. The Dukes were solid (and awesome), SuperPeakNick was great, and Ayres / Cosmo Baker were great […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Goll & Nielsen, Niagara Falls Artist Host Program

2 December 2004 - 18 December 2004
Opening Reception 6 April 2023 12am

Goll & Nielsen Niagara Falls Artist Host Program Opening night Artist Talk by Goll & Nielsen, 7 PM Niagara Falls Artist Host Program is a community interactive art project developed specifically for Mercer Union by the Copenhagen and Los Angeles-based artist-curator collective, Goll & Nielsen. In light of the challenges posed by migration in the […]

PAST EVENT

Platform Performance: AWP, Friday 12 November, 8:30 PM

Join us at Mercer Union where Atelier Wundershön Peplum (AWP) and guest musicians Martin Arnold and Matthias Delplanque will perform live, followed by a discussion forum to launch their Spring 2005 TorontoTroll project at Mercer Union. AWP is a Paris-based interdisciplinary collective whose practice integrates visual arts, design, music, architecture, and landscape design. AWP has […]

PAST EVENT

Trip to Havana Biennial, Cuba

Thursday October 30 – Friday November 7, 2003 SOLD OUT! Join us at the opening of the Havana Biennial for an insiders look at contemporary Cuban culture through a special program of studio visits, gallery tours and events customized by MU. SOLD OUT! Airfare (Lacsa Air), entrance tourist card, accommodation at a local casa particular […]

PAST EXHIBITION

ISLAND, BAR, AND ABATTOIR

Allison Hrabluik

21 October 2004 - 27 November 2004
Opening Reception 21 October 2004 8pm

Front Gallery: Island, Bar, and Abattoir Hrabluik photographs her locations on site then takes her images back to the studio where she uses them to make miniature sets. Filming her characters’ silent pantomimed action within the confines of her studio, she selects every few frames from the shot footage, cuts out the individual characters by […]

PAST EXHIBITION

CURIOUS ABOUT EXISTENCE

Cooper Battersby and Emily Vey Duke

21 October 2004 - 27 November 2004
Opening Reception 21 October 2004 8pm

Back Gallery: Curious About Existence Episodic in nature, Curious About Existence reacts ultimately against an uninspired but prevailing acceptance of moral terms. It begins with a song of worship, an ode to the looming nastiness of our organic existence. A celebration of disorder and entropy, the opening song seems borne of a curiosity about the […]

PAST EVENT

Platform: Lecture: Lise Nellemann (Director, Sparwasser HQ / Berlin)

Thursday, October 7, 7 PM (FREE) Lise Nellemann (Director, Sparwasser HQ / Berlin) Offensive für zeitgenössische Kunst und Kommunikation, Berlin and other artist curatorial projects. The Danish artist Lise Nellemann will give a presentation on Sparwasser HQ, a leading Berlin venue for emerging Nordic and International artists. Based on a collaborative process and linked to […]

PAST EVENT

Platform: Video Screening curated by Lise Nellemann

Tuesday, October 5, 6:30 – 8:00 PM (FREE) “a complete guide to rewriting one’s own history” Curated by Lise Nellemann (Director, Sparwasser HQ / Berlin) It is uninteresting to think about art; we must instead think through it. Both the work itself and the common exhibition project are thinking machines. Through them, we reflect upon […]

PAST EXHIBITION

International Meeting Between Autonomous Cultural Centers

25 September 2004 - 27 September 2004

Mercer Union in Shanghai, China, presents: Daniel Barrow, A Miracle Kevin Schmidt, Long Beach Led Zep Allison Hrabluik, Lofoten Islands, Norway, and Niagara Street, Toronto Kevin Schmidt, Long Beach Led Zep @ the International Video Screening in Fuxing Park International Meeting Between Autonomous Cultural Centers Stemming from Citizen and Artistic Initiatives September 25th – 27th […]

PAST EXHIBITION

DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN

Daniel Barrow

9 September 2004 - 16 October 2004
Opening Reception 9 September 2004 8pm

Front Gallery: Don’t Let This Happen With fairytale images and outmoded techniques, Daniel Barrow narrates intimate stories of growing up, love, loss and transition. Using an overhead projector, he manually animates signature illustrations by layering and maneuvering transparencies as he recites an interrelated story. Recently, he performed Every Time I See Your Picture I Crya […]

PAST EXHIBITION

FAVORITE PLACES

Samantha Rees

9 September 2004 - 16 October 2004
Opening Reception 9 September 2004 8pm

Back Gallery Favourite Places Artist Talk by Samantha Rees, Saturday Oct. 16 5pm “When we look up at the sky sometimes we can recognize faces and images in the clouds. We use our past experiences to tell us these images look familiar. After this narratives come quickly and we fill in the blanks the best […]

PAST EVENT

Curator Lecture: Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda (Havana, Cuba)

The Power Plant and Mercer Union Present >>CURATOR LECTURE: Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda (Havana, Cuba) Friday, September 3rd, 2004, 7PM [Free] Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda will discuss contemporary Cuban art, digitally-based art, as well as a recasting of Cuban art history as it is based in her recent exhibition in Havana. Dannys Montes […]

PAST EVENT

Carnivale

Brad Brace OCTOBER 9 Screening: “Arrival”, 16 mm film at Funnel, Experimental Film Theatre. Painting, Sticks, Photography Canadian Artist, Halifax

PAST EVENT

The Young Man :Performance

October 27, 1981, 9pm Fred Gaysek

PAST EVENT

Three on 23: Performance

March 23, 1980, 2pm Wendy Knox-Leet: How to Get to Heaven Ted Weir: #2,1980 Missing Associates (Peter Dudar, Lily Eng, Corinne Palmer): Resistance

PAST EVENT

Beyond the Surface:Performance

September 16, 1980, 8pm. Il Gruppo Di Ricerca Materialistica PRESS RELEASE Extracted from notes by Giancarlo Pagliasso …” The performance deals with the connections between architecture and painting in the 18th century. The most important themes developed concern Neo-classicism, Romanticism and HegeIian dialectics, but there are references to many other cultural “subjects”. (For example, to […]

PAST EXHIBITION

2005 OF THE TOP 3000

Olia Mishchenko

1 July 2004 - 7 August 2004
Opening Reception 1 July 2004 8pm

Back Gallery: 2005 of the Top 3000 “If certain portions of equipment cannot be observed these sections of property are understood to be complex. A worker’s ignorance of one of these machines will not exempt them from the general act of work. (Work will not be confined to expertise or the specific execution of a […]

PAST EXHIBITION

37A LISGAR STREET: A FEW SITUATIONS

Isabelle Pauwels

1 July 2004 - 7 August 2004
Opening Reception 1 July 2004 8pm

Front Gallery: 37A Lisgar Street: A Few Situations Opening night Artist Talk by Isabelle Pauwels, 7PM Pauwels mixes language and architecture, linking them structurally as well as by method of usage. Language is an existing structure that we use to define and present personal intent, and on which we are dependent in order to define […]

PAST EXHIBITION

BORBORYGME

Matt Killen

1 July 2004 - 7 August 2004
Opening Reception 1 July 2004 8pm

PeepHole: Borborygme Matt Killen’s Borborygme extends out of the PeepHole, infiltrating the gallery structurally and through a sound. The sculpture, a twist of pvc piping, is used to filter an already digitally filtered soundtrack, distancing the viewer from the sound source and the original recorded sound.

PAST EVENT

CURATORIAL DISCUSSION: Thursday, June 12th

An informal presentation by Kim Simon followed by a directed discussion with select panelists (tba).

PAST EVENT

Platform Lecture by Xandra Eden

Tuesday, 8 June, 7PM @ Mercer Union [FREE] Xandra Eden will discuss her recent projects in relation to accepted conceptions of art history, mutations in popular culture, and the question of reciprocity between artistic and curatorial practice in exhibitions. Xandra Eden is assistant curator for The Power Plant, Toronto. Her recent exhibitions include The Cave […]

PAST EXHIBITION

ETHER & GROUNDED

An Te Lie and Michael Meredith

27 May 2004 - 26 June 2004
Opening Reception 27 May 2004 8pm

Front Gallery: Ether (An Te Liu) Grounded (Michael Meredith) “It is fitting that the first study of the North American Chinatown is reconfigured in Ether in a large panorama, the most appropriate form to carry historical narratives of military conquest.” (excerpt from brochure essay by Janine Marchessault). Using suburban ‘satellite’ chinese malls as the graphic bases […]

PAST EXHIBITION

OASIS

Fabrizio Rivola

27 May 2004 - 26 June 2004
Opening Reception 27 May 2004 8pm

Back Gallery: Oasis Special Reception Saturday, 29 May, 2 pm – 4 pm for Oasis a public intervention by Fabrizio Rivola at Historic Fort York, Toronto. “Like many artists of his generation who broke onto the Italian and international scenes in the mid-nineties, Fabrizio Rivola has developed a personal strategy of thought and action, which […]

PAST EVENT

Mercer Living 04….. Better Living

www.mercerunion.org/ml Exhibition: Wednesday, 12 May to Thursday, 20 May, Free Auction: Thursday, 20 May, $25 Location: 129 Spadina, 2nd Floor Better Living is an optimistic exhibition in which we ask artists, designers and architects to share their visions of contemporary urban style and their insights of new models for how we live. The responses will […]

PAST EVENT

Reviews: Talk with Tom Folland and Natalie Olanick

February 24, 1996, 3pm

PAST EVENT

Platform Artist Talk: Morten Goll and Tone Nielson (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Tuesday, 13 April, 2004, 7PM FREE Morten Goll and Tone Nielson will be participating in a residency at Mercer Union in December 2004, when they will present a community-based project. Goll and Nielson will be in Toronto April 7th to 18th for a preliminary research visit to establish contacts and conceptualize their project. For their […]

PAST EXHIBITION

WORKING

Emmanuelle Léonard

8 April 2004 - 15 May 2004
Opening Reception 8 April 2004 6pm

Front Gallery Working “Emmanuelle Léonard‘s project Statistical Landscape (in the eye of the worker) utilises the real estate, infrastructure, labour and audience of Mercer Union to perform a critical political project: clarify the image of the local working mass.” Kika Thorne — excerpt from brochure essay Leonard is a Montreal-based documentary photographer. Her work in […]

PAST EXHIBITION

TWO DOGS

Shaan Syed

8 April 2004 - 15 May 2004
Opening Reception 8 April 2004 6pm

Peephole: Two Dogs Shaan Syed, who works primarily as a painter, for his exhibition at Mercer Union has produced Two Dogs, a hand-drawn animated short film showing two dogs in an ongoing and repeated dance of play and seduction. The film will constantly loop on a monitor through the PeepHole, acting as a tiny voyeuristic […]

PAST EXHIBITION

WE HAVE A SPECIAL PLAN FOR THIS WORLD

Internationale Virologie Numismatique

8 April 2004 - 15 May 2004
Opening Reception 8 April 2004 8pm

Back Gallery We Have A Special Plan for this World “Tick. Tick. Tick. The sound of both bomb and clock, an irony only if one believes a distinction was ever possible. Especially since time and space begin solely when they are measured, and that is where struggle begins, too. Another possible irony.” IVN— excerpt from […]

PAST EVENT

A CURATORIAL DISCUSSION: Dave Dyment, Barbara Fischer, Ben Portis, Michael Meredith

Saturday, March 27th, 4pm @ Mercer Union [FREE] A short and informal presentation by Dave Dyment (board member and programme committee member, Mercer Union) followed by a directed discussion with select panelists, including: Barbara Fischer (director/curator, Blackwood Gallery), Ben Portis (associate curator of contemporary art, Art Gallery of Ontario), and Michael Meredith (board member, Mercer […]

PAST EVENT

Cocktail/Catalogue Hour 5-8 pm Ghostwriter Launch

Come Savour the Phantasmagoric Tempo of A Sonic Marguerita Launch Thursday January 28, 1999 Ghostwriter essays by Andy Patton, Jamelie Hassan, Mary Anne Barkhouse, Gerald McMaster, Andy Fabo, Millie Chen. Edited by Lorraine Johnson Artists include: Shirin Neshat, John Abrams, Faye HeavyShield, Veronica Verkley, Don Hall, Robert Houle, Charline Boudrewau & Anne Golden, Brent Cehan, […]

PAST EVENT

Book Launch- Accidental Audiance: Urban Interventions by Artists

April 27, 2000 Cameron House 408 Queen St. West, 7-10pm

PAST EXHIBITION

0.001 PERCENT VOLUME

Ben Woodeson, Levin Haegele, Myfanwy Ashmore

Curated by Dave Dyment

26 February 2004 - 3 April 2004
Opening Reception 26 February 2004 8pm

Front Gallery: Point Blank Ben Woodeson. Back Gallery: Glow Space Levin Haegele. PeepHole: enarmoured euphorbia. Myfanwy Ashmore. With 0.001 PERCENT VOLUME Dave Dyment brings together three solo exhibitions: Ben Woodeson’s Point Blank, Levin Haegele’s, Glow Space and Myfanwy Ashmore’s enarmoured euphorbia. In a discussion that looks at critical art practices from the late sixties and […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Mercer Union: ACTIVATING SOUNDSYSTEM: FILM NIGHT : Feb 19th, 7PM : : ERIC CHENAUX: Feb 20th, 9PM

19 February 2004 - 20 February 2004

THURSDAY, February 19th, 7PM — FILM NIGHT 01. Jack Hazan: A Bigger Splash , 1974. A fictionalised feature film of David Hockney in London on the eve of his departure for Los Angles. 02. Theodoros Bafaloukos: Rockers, 1978. Set in Jamaica, a drummer, played by Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace, starts producing and distributing his own music […]

PAST EVENT

Mercer Union: ACTIVATING SOUNDSYSTEM: Open System

February 13th, 9PM (NOTE TIME CHANGE)–Open System Bring your vinyl, cds, dvds and video tapes to Mercer Union Friday Feb 13th to play on Mark Leckey’s custom-made “Soundsystem”. We’ll have two turntables, dual cd decks, video projector (dvd or vhs) and a mic open to deejays, video artists, mic chatterers and anyone who wants to […]

PAST EVENT

Mercer Union: ACTIVATING SOUNDSYSTEM — Stephen Parkinson and Friends: Little-Sounds Systems

February 6th, 9PM (NOTE TIME CHANGE) [$2.00] — Stephen Parkinson: Little-Sounds Systems Stephen Parkinson’s subtly surreal compositions will be heard through Mark Leckey’s Soundsystem, but just barely. In the first of two resolutely quiet concerts programmed by Martin Arnold (the second will feature Eric Chenaux’s music on Feb. 20), the Soundsystem takes part as a […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Mercer Union: ACTIVATING SOUNDSYSTEM: London Flaneur Films 01.29 & ina unt ina 01.30

29 January 2004

January 29, 7PM [FREE] — FILM NIGHT: A programme of London Flaneur films and videos. Oliver Payne and Nick Relph: “House & Garage”, 2000. A pseudo-documentary of London, UK focusing on its varied subcultures of music. Following video imagery, Payne and Relph use voiceovers to interject their own opinions and narrative experiences. Mark Leckey: “Londonatella”, […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Mercer Union: ACTIVATING SOUNDSYSTEM: Mathieu Beauséjour & Thomas Jonnson

22 January 2004

January 22, 7PM [FREE] — Sound and visual performance by Mathieu Beauséjour, Montreal, Canada. Beauséjour uses the birdcall to explore issues such as heritage and capitalism. Consumer and industrial culture is always careful to align itself with nature – Electronic, birdlike chirps are used to indicate traffic signals to the blind. Most currency contains wildlife […]

PAST EXHIBITION

PLAYTIME & SONGS OF LOVE AND ORNAMENT

Tony Romano

15 January 2004 - 21 February 2004
Opening Reception 15 January 2004 8pm

A functional object can be easily passed around and given to someone else to operate. Although it is the borrower’s knowledge of how to operate that object that may seem to be at issue, a deeper concern exists: the transferal of ownership. A level of trust is implicit in this exchange: because I lend you […]

PAST EXHIBITION

SOUNDSYSTEM

Mark Leckey

15 January 2004 - 21 February 2004
Opening Reception 15 January 2004 8pm

A functional object can be easily passed around and given to someone else to operate. Although it is the borrower’s knowledge of how to operate that object that may seem to be at issue, a deeper concern exists: the transferal of ownership. A level of trust is implicit in this exchange: because I lend you […]

PAST EVENT

ACTIVATING SOUNDSYSTEM: in conjunction with the Soundsystem exhibition is a weekly series of film & video screenings, live & recorded music, and sound-based performances.

January 15, 8PM — Performance by Mark Leckey, London, UK: The Genius of the Church. January 16, 7PM — Screening of video works by Mark Leckey: Fiorucci, Made Me Hardcore, 1999; We are Untitled, 2001; Londonatella, 2002; Parade, 2003. January 22, 7PM — Performance by Mathieu Beauséjour, Montreal, Canada , programmed by Dave Dyment. January […]