Presented by FADO Performance Art Centre
MONOMYTHS: Stage 3
February 5, 2016
Photo credit: Henry Chan
The Exquisite Course with the Feminist Art Gallery (FAG) and
Guest speakers:
Tamyka Bullen (Toronto)
Eliza Chandler (Toronto)
Johnson Ngo (Toronto)
Ariel Smith (Ottawa)
Dainty Smith (Toronto)
LIVE DRAWINGS by Zanette Singh (Toronto)
Performed in English / ASL interpreted by Amanda Hyde and Christopher Desloges
The Exquisite Course, presented by the Feminist Art Gallery (FAG), is an evening of short lectures by feminist and/or queer artists and creative folks from a variety of disciplines, interests, and positions. A mixture of fiction and non-fiction, The Exquisite Course collages real-life stories and performance mythologies around the microphone campfire to stitch together tales of meeting real-life mentors.
The Feminist Art Gallery is–a response, a process, a site, a protest, an outcry, an exhibition, a performance, an economy, a conceptual framework, a place, and an opportunity. We host we fund we advocate we support we claim. The Feminist Art Gallery (FAG) is our geographical footprint located in Toronto and is run by Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue.
three for a dollar
know the meaning of struggle
I eat like a king
between plastic sheets
devoid of fresh air, I will
save another day
Stories Told is a group exhibition of Toronto-based artists of distinct backgrounds invited to contribute to the Vector Artist's Journal: A collection of essays written by these artists with each volume focusing on a different city. From New York to Oslo, Berlin and now Toronto, the Journal occupies a territory as suggested by Nicholas Bourriaud: "of global and decentralized negotiations, of multiple discussions among participants from different cultures engaging in heterogeneous discourses located within a translation-oriented modernity."
As an exhibition, Stories Told seeks not only to create a dialogue revolving around the singularity of the art works displayed, but also to forge a connection with the accumulation of texts represented in the journal itself. With innovation rooted native conditions and conversations, the works in the exhibition respond to local and global, social and political circumstances, drawing upon a range of material and discursive resources. The practices of these participating artists hinge not upon their roots, but upon the trajectories of those on the move that combine narrative, form, sign, and symbol in the telling of their stories.
Self-Portrait in Rice Paper, acquired by the Feminist Art Collection and exhibited as part of WE WON'T COMPETE, at the Art Gallery of Windsor (April 23 – September 21, 2014).
Artists included: Abstract Random, Sonja Ahlers, Eleanor Bond, Allyson Clay, Erika DeFreitas, Servulo Esmeraldo, Andrew Harwood, Jesi The Elder, Hannah Jickling, Margaret Lawrence, Rita Letendre, Johnson Ngo, Bodo Pfeifer, Adee Roberson, Arthur Secunda, Fiona Smyth
What FAG is:
FAG is a response, a process, a site, a protest, an outcry, an exhibition platform, an economy, a framework, and an opportunity. We host, we fund, we advocate, we support and we claim. FAG is located in Toronto, Canada and is run by artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue.
WE WON'T COMPETE is the second articulation of FAG's Feminist Art Collection and is comprised of collected art works as well as materials and documentation from social sculptures and happenings at the FAG over the past four years.
WE CAN'T COMPETE/WE WON'T COMPETE
WE CAN'T KEEP UP/WE WON'T KEEP DOWN
These statements are an acknowledgement of the dilemmas of feminist and queer cultural participation and describe the all too familiar push/pull of working across discourses and converging dialogues. - Deirdre Logue and Allyson Mitchell (excerpted from their curatorial text. For more, click here).
Installation images by Frank Piccolo
monoprint, 2013
The economy of asian pastries is generally 3 for $1! This monoprint is based on an hourly wage; 30 pastries equals $10 dollars, plus the cost of paper, and luckily I had the paint. I could have had my fill, but I made this instead.
c-print, series, 2012
Inspired by Greek classical sculpture, edible rice paper drapes along my body creating a toga and conceals my face. The translucency of the rice paper highlights my yellow skin and contrasts against my black hair. I am a part of the canon.
included as part of Troubling Masculinities, an exhibition curated by Ken Moffatt with Heather Bain, at Videofag (2013) and at Ryerson University (2014).
Artists included: Keith Cole, Patrick Decoste, Will Munro, Fastwurms, Andrew Harwood, Charlie Hunger, Peter Kingstone, Daryl Vocat, Kalup Linzy, Shaun Leonardo, Melissa, Levin, Paul Marlow, Tara Mateik, Johnson Ngo, Lex Vaughan, RM Vaughan, Chase Joynt, Nina Arsenault, Adonis Volanakis.
//The Annual// 2012
ANDREW MACDONALD
CECILIA TIBURZIO
JOHNSON NGO
25-28 October 2012
at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Ontario
//The Annual// is the Gladstone's yearly showcase of the best in local art & design. It runs the same week as ArtToronto—the city's international art fair—and offers an alternative to the consumerist experience of wading through a sea of commercial gallery booths in a convention centre. For my part in the event, along with my curatorial collaborator Caoimhe Morgan-Feir, we presented a mini-exhibition subtitled keep it UP, featuring the works of three local emerging artists in one of the Hotel's second-floor guest rooms. Each artist's work lent itself to either abstractly or concretely evincing notions of "support".
Curatorial Statement:
In keep it UP at //The Annual//, three emerging artists offer unique depictions of support, emphasizing its disparate but related forms. In Cecilia Tiburzio's intaglio prints, support is visualized as a psychological system, a precarious and layered composition of identity. For Johnson Ngo, support manifests as a substantial but fragile structure. His pile of rice paper pillows nods to the comfort that support provides, yet their delicacy suggests the constant need to nurture something so easily breakable. In Andrew MacDonald's work, support is an invisible force. The space around his hanging sculptures and yarn installations are as integral to their structure as the materials themselves. Overall, these works beget a larger discussion of intricate relationships and networks—of reliance and interconnectedness. Support is not only a tie that binds these artworks, but the spirit of the entire arts community— specifically the efforts of emerging practitioners
one-on-one performance, Rhubarb Festival, 2012
part-performance, part-cooking show, 2011
"Long and skinny, short and thick, tiny micropenis," I declared while I prepared Vietnamese fresh rolls while discussing sexual experiences and unpacking Asian homosexual stereotypes. There was an exchange of ideas, personal narratives, and skills while I prepared the food with and for others—to break down the barriers between performer and audience. Size, scale, and function are all addressed.
Consumption was part of Eat Sleep Breathe (and Shit) curated by Maggie Flynn at VSVSVS.
"How is a life spent? Some things, biological things, are inevitable. But between the moments of biological necessity, there are infinite possible activities that may fill a day in any given life. Performance is just one of these possibilities, but it is one that may help us reimagine the other activities that shape our lives." - Maggie Flynn (excerpted from Maggie's curatorial text. For more, click here).
durational performance, Nuit Blanche, as part of Leitmotifs, Parkdale BIA,
Unbecoming is a live performance where individual identity is lost; emphasizing my Asian physical characteristics, while challenging ideas of gender. Throughout the performance, I cast my body with edible rice paper, fashioning a new identity; one that is neither male nor female.
Bernie Miller Lighbox Commission, Blackwood Gallery, 2011
"Mining the materials, gestures and traditions of his Vietnamese culture, Johnson Ngo explores physical acceptance and gender identity in his performance-based practice. In Self-portrait in Rice Paper, Ngo adopts traditional poses and wet drapery techniques from Greek sculpture by using layers of rice paper to obscure gendered markings on his body. According to the artist, these masking gestures “create a veil to emphasize the contrast between my exposed ‘yellow’ skin, black hair and the whiteness of the rice paper.” Photographed on the grounds of the UTM campus, the image balances elements of drama, tension and beauty in Ngo’s suggestive portrayal of intimate yet public exposure, made all the more poignant at this monumental scale." - Shannon Anderson
Self-portrait in Rice Paper is part of the exhibition, Viva Voce: 40th Anniversary of the Art & Art History Program, curated by Shannon Anderson (September 14 to October 23, 2011 at the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga).
durational performance, 2012
Edible rice paper becomes my casting material. My gestures are gentle as I carefully dip, ring, and apply the rice paper onto my face. Layer upon layer, I conceal my Vietnamese face: my flat nose, my yellow skin, and my chinky eyes. I become white. I become hidden. My body becomes more feminine as I take poses evocative of Odalisque.
durational performance, 2012
White rice swirls in the bowl as I knead. This action I am familiar with from my childhood, preparing rice for meals for my family. Instead of its intended purpose for consumption, I raise the rice from the bowl, allowing it to fall, fall down to my lap, creating a serene soundscape.
durational performance, February 11, 2011
Matrilineage Symposium, Spark Contemporary Art Space
Edible rice paper becomes my casting material. My gestures are gentle as I carefully dip, ring, and apply the rice paper onto my face. Layer upon layer, I conceal my Vietnamese face: my flat nose, my yellow skin, and my chinky eyes. I become white. I become hidden. My body becomes more feminine as I take poses evocative of Odalisque.
(still), digital video, 14 mins, 2008
This single-channel video documents an excess; a rice mound drowning in soy sauce. As the rice absorbs the soy sauce, features slowly appear, revealing my face. Rice is my body, seasoned by soy sauce to be consumed. Ironically, the rice becomes inedible as the soy sauce petrifies the rice.
