Workparty collective:
The Little People
Multimedia installation
kinder toys, plasticine, cardboard, lights; exhibited in Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2013, curated by Ami Barak; version 2 exhibited as part of Pop Up Downtown, Regina, 2016
In 2011, in Barnaul, Russian activists unhappy with the corruption in a recent election were banned from organizing a public protest. In response they substituted kinder toys (a plastic toy that comes inside a chocolate egg) for themselves and staged a demonstration. Unfortunately the kinder toy protest was also banned by authorities who stated that inanimate playthings can’t assemble for public political gatherings. In honour of these imaginative activists Workparty staged a Kinder Toy protest inside Toronto City Hall (a site legally off-limits to human protesters), highlighting issues that matter to the Toronto public.
In 2016 the installation was reimagined for Pop Up Downtown in Regina. The collective worked with indigenous activists who had set camp on the grounds of the Indian Affairs Building in downtown Regina. The messages on the signs were written by the protesters.
ccca.concordia.ca: Nuit Blanche 2013
cargocollective.com: Workparty
reginadowntown.ca: Pop Up Downtown
kinder toys, plasticine, cardboard, lights; exhibited in Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2013, curated by Ami Barak; version 2 exhibited as part of Pop Up Downtown, Regina, 2016
In 2011, in Barnaul, Russian activists unhappy with the corruption in a recent election were banned from organizing a public protest. In response they substituted kinder toys (a plastic toy that comes inside a chocolate egg) for themselves and staged a demonstration. Unfortunately the kinder toy protest was also banned by authorities who stated that inanimate playthings can’t assemble for public political gatherings. In honour of these imaginative activists Workparty staged a Kinder Toy protest inside Toronto City Hall (a site legally off-limits to human protesters), highlighting issues that matter to the Toronto public.
In 2016 the installation was reimagined for Pop Up Downtown in Regina. The collective worked with indigenous activists who had set camp on the grounds of the Indian Affairs Building in downtown Regina. The messages on the signs were written by the protesters.
ccca.concordia.ca: Nuit Blanche 2013
cargocollective.com: Workparty
reginadowntown.ca: Pop Up Downtown
Workparty collective: Dire-Rama
Multimedia installation
exhibited as part of ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche, Toronto, 2012
Duke’s Cycle was the site of an old fashioned, 3D diorama, shop window display that engages with these pertinent Toronto issues placed within a broader Canadian and global context. The shop window provided a suitably iconic and ironic setting for both a seductive aesthetic and subtle but subversive political agenda.
Topics addressed by the diorama include land redevelopment, gentrification, the corporatisation of public space, OCCUPY, G20, Tar Sands, climate change, the effects of the “905” voters on the political landscape of Toronto, our “out of step” mayor, threats to cultural funding and support, cuts to social programs, issues of transportation, energy production and use, and public health.
workparty.work: Dire-Rama
exhibited as part of ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche, Toronto, 2012
Duke’s Cycle was the site of an old fashioned, 3D diorama, shop window display that engages with these pertinent Toronto issues placed within a broader Canadian and global context. The shop window provided a suitably iconic and ironic setting for both a seductive aesthetic and subtle but subversive political agenda.
Topics addressed by the diorama include land redevelopment, gentrification, the corporatisation of public space, OCCUPY, G20, Tar Sands, climate change, the effects of the “905” voters on the political landscape of Toronto, our “out of step” mayor, threats to cultural funding and support, cuts to social programs, issues of transportation, energy production and use, and public health.
workparty.work: Dire-Rama
Flywheel collective
Flywheel was a Toronto–London UK based artists’ collective whose members included Michael Buchanan, Tim Etchells, Hugo Glendinning, Karen Henderson, Marla Hlady, Lewis Nicholson and Gwen MacGregor. Flywheel organized two exhibitions, one at The Nunnery Gallery, London UK, in 1999 and a second at York Quay Gallery in Toronto in 2002.
Sandra Rechico collaborations
Collaborations with Sandra Rechico
Since 2008 I have been collaborating with Sandra Rechico on a series of installations, drawings and videos. Exhibitions include Maps in Doubt at Mercer Union, Toronto, in 2008, and Galerie B-312 in Montreal in 2009, Backtrack at A trans Pavilion, Berlin in 2011 and inclusion in PlaceMarkers at Dalhousie Gallery in Halifax curated by Peter Dykhuis in 2012.
Map It Out
cargocollective.com: MacGregor Rechico Projects
Since 2008 I have been collaborating with Sandra Rechico on a series of installations, drawings and videos. Exhibitions include Maps in Doubt at Mercer Union, Toronto, in 2008, and Galerie B-312 in Montreal in 2009, Backtrack at A trans Pavilion, Berlin in 2011 and inclusion in PlaceMarkers at Dalhousie Gallery in Halifax curated by Peter Dykhuis in 2012.
Map It Out
cargocollective.com: MacGregor Rechico Projects
