Artist Talk by FASTWÜRMS

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Artist Talk by FASTWÜRMS

Stages Speaker Series Tuesday, April 11th, 2017 | 7pm Artist Talk by FASTWÜRMS

393 Portage Ave, former Globe Cinema, 3rd floor, Portage Place Shopping Centre 

On Tuesday, April 11th at 7pm, Plug In ICA presents an artist talk by Ontario-based artist-duo FASTWÜRMS.

FASTWÜRM’S artwork is characterized by a self-described “determined DIY sensibility, Witch Nation identity politics, and a keen allegiance towards working class, queer alliance, and artist collaborations”. They are mainstays within the Canadian art scene and have a long relationship of working with Plug In ICA, including their

2008 exhibition Donky@Ninja@Witch.

Their Interdisciplinary practice takes on many forms including video, installation, performance and public art. Interweaving punk aesthetics with ancient symbol-ology their immersive installations act as stages for performance and audience interaction. They embrace the lexicon of popular culture witchcraft as a tool to look at issues of identity politics and social interaction.

Formed in 1979 by multidisciplinary artists Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse, FASTWÜRMS is known for their diverse immersive practice that explores identity, humour, magic and social exchange. Their practice takes the form of public commissions, installation, video, performance, and drawing. Together they teach studio art at the University of Guelph, Ontario. Their work has been shown extensively in North America and Internationally at venues including the Power Plant (Toronto), Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), Ontario Art Gallery (Toronto), CIAC (Montréal), Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff), SEQUENCES Festival (Reykjavik, Iceland), Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea) Leokonig Projekte (New York) and the 2006 São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. FASTWÜRMS is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto. 

FASTWÜRMS will present their work as it relates to the upcoming public art project, STAGES: Drawing the Curtain - a constellation of site- specific public artworks to be launched throughout Winnipeg in August 2017. This large-scale public art project asks artists to locate a site within the city of Winnipeg from which to contemplate the stage - its function as a platform; its meaning as a point of attention; and its physical design. Directed by their individual interests and material preferences, the artists will build sculptural ‘stages’ ranging in shape and form, connected as platforms for audiences to occupy, physically engage with, and contemplate.

In keeping with the drive of Stages to bring art beyond our walls, all talks for Stages Speaker Series will be held at an off-site location: 393 Portage Ave, former Globe Cinema, 3rd floor, Portage Place Shopping Centre

*Artists for Stages: Drawing the Curtain include: Abbas Akhavan (Toronto), Pablo Bronstein (London, UK), FASTWÜRMS (Toronto), Toril Johannessen (Tromsø, Norway), Kara Hamilton (Toronto), Frederico Herrero (San José, Costa Rica), Divya Mehra (Winnipeg), and Krista Belle Stewart (Vancouver).