At Least Five Difficulties: A Symposium on Artists' Publishing

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At Least Five Difficulties: A Symposium on Artists' Publishing, 2019

At Least Five Difficulties: A Symposium on Artists' Publishing

Presented by READ Books and the Libby Leshgold Gallery

at Emily Carr University of Art & Design

Free admission

At Least Five Difficulties: A Symposium on Artists’ Publishing is a three-day symposium focused on the real and potential role of artists’ books, zines, and democratic multiples as a social agent in communities at large, and as a force for change within the art world, during an era of rising authoritarian movements internationally.

The symposium features a keynote presentation by Martha Wilson, founder of Franklin Furnace Archive, and an exhibition by Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press presented in the Libby Leshgold Gallery.

Our title refers to Bertolt Brecht’s essay Fünf Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der Wahrheit, or Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth (1934), an essay about the difficulties of using writing to oppose fascism. The problems elucidated by Brecht can be extended to art-making in general, but are particularly relevant to the distribution and selective formation of publics that is characteristic of artists’ publishing. The symposium is intended for artist-publishers, curators, and scholars from Canada and internationally, with special focus on artist-publishers embodying and working with queer, indigenous, disabled, working class, gender equity, and people-of-colour publics and issues within the context of artists’ publishing, but not excluding other types of activist focus.

Schedule (all locations are at Emily Carr University, 520 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver)

Friday, July 12

6:00 pm: Fiona Banner in conversation with Kathy Slade (Rennie Hall)

Followed by a reception for the exhibition Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press (Libby Leshgold Gallery)

Saturday, July 13

1:00 pm: Welcome, followed by “Revisiting Brecht’s Five Difficulties”, a talk by Kay Higgins (Rennie Hall)

2:30 pm: “Publication as a Transformative Strategy”, a talk by Laura Daviña of Publication Studio São Paulo (Rennie Hall)

4:00 pm: a talk by Sebastién Aubin (Rennie Hall)

6:30 pm: Keynote presentation by Martha Wilson (Reliance Theatre) followed by a reception

Sunday, July 14

2:00 pm: “Can Artist Publishers Be Useful?” A group discussion moderated by Marc Fischer Temporary Services/Half Letter Press, followed by a publication exchange and barbeque

Sébastien Aubin has worked for some of the most prestigious graphic design studios in Canada and maintains a career as a freelance graphic artist. Sébastien has designed publications for numerous artists, organizations, and Canadian art galleries including the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Terrance Houle, KC Adams, Vancouver Art Gallery, grunt gallery, Trinity square video, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba. Most recently, he was the Indigenous Designer in Residence, at the School of Art, University of Manitoba. He is a founding member of the ITWÉ Collective, which is dedicated to researching, creating, producing, and educating audiences about Indigenous digital culture, and part of the AM Collective, which creates works that revolve around the imagination, sparking dialogue on subjects that relate to everyday life and emotions. Sébastien Aubin is a proud member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba.

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is an English artist, who lives and works in London. In 2002 she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize and in 2010, she was selected to create the 10th Duveen Hall commission at Tate Britain. Other recent exhibitions include: Runway AW17, De Pont Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands (2017), Buoys Boys, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK (2016), Scroll Down And Keep Scrolling, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2015) and Kunsthalle Nuremberg, Germany (2016), Wp Wp Wp, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2014).

Laura Daviña is a Brazilian designer, graduated in Visual Arts at FAAP (2004) with a postgraduate degree in Graphic Design from USP - Mariantonia (2009). She has worked since 2007 as an art editor, both in the editorial field as well as in independent and experimental projects. Laura was the co-founder of the autonomous art space Aurora in São Paulo, and from 2013 to 2018 she was the art editor and co-manager of the Edições Aurora publishing project. Currently she coordinates Publication Studio São Paulo at Parquinho Gráfico (a studio space at Casa do Povo cultural center), where she organizes workshops and community-based activities with graphic experimentation and collective creations in visual communication.

Temporary Services is Brett Bloom and Marc Fischer. They began working together in Chicago in 1998 as part of a larger group. In 2008, they founded Half Letter Press, a publishing imprint and online store. Temporary Services are currently based in Chicago and Auburn (IN), producing exhibitions, events, projects, and publications. The distinction between art practice and other creative human endeavors is irrelevant to them.

Kay Higgins is an artist, publisher, and cultural worker, and currently is Head of Gallery Publishing at the Libby Leshgold Gallery. Her work has included publications, print works, public inscription, photography, and internet-based projects. Higgins’ exhibitions include: It is difficult to put a painting in the mailbox: Toward new models of artists’ publishing at the Libby Leshgold Gallery, Vancouver (2018); Charrette Roulette: Language: Kathy Slade, Kay Higgins and Publication Studio Vancouver, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2015); Through a Window, SFU Gallery, Burnaby, BC (2015); We Vancouver: 12 Manifestos For the City, Vancouver Art Gallery (2011); and The Property in Question, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver (2006). Higgins is a co-founder of both Artspeak Gallery and the Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres. She is Executive Director of UNIT/PITT Projects. In 2014 Higgins ran for Vancouver City Council.

Kathy Slade is an artist, curator and editor, and the curator of the exhibition Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press. She works across mediums and has produced textile works, prints, sculpture, film, video, performance, music projects, and publications. Recent solo exhibitions include: This is a Chord. This is Another., Surrey Art Gallery (2018); I WANT IT ALL I WANT IT NOW, Walter C. Koerner Library, Vancouver (2018); Blue Monday, 4COSE, London, UK (2017); and (with Lisa Robertson) It was a strange apartment; full of books…, Galerie Au 8 rue saint bon, Paris, FR (2013). Slade’s work has been included in group exhibitions such as: The Ashtray Show West, Belmacz Gallery, London, UK (2018); Beginning with the Seventies: GLUT, Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery (2018); Yesterday was Once Tomorrow (or, A Brick is a Tool), Artexte, Montreal, QC (2016); and Barroco Nova: Neo Baroque Moves in Contemporary Art, Museum London, ON (2011). She is currently completing her MA from European Graduate School in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought.

Martha Wilson is a pioneering feminist artist and gallery director, who over the past four decades created innovative photographic and video works that explore her female subjectivity through role-playing, costume transformations, and “invasions” of other people’s personae. She began making these videos and photo/text works in the early 1970s while in Halifax in Nova Scotia, and further developed her performative and video-based practice after moving in 1974 to New York City, embarking on a long career that would see her gain attention across the U.S. for her provocative appearances and works. In 1976 she also founded and continues to direct Franklin Furnace, an artist-run space that champions the exploration, promotion and preservation of artists’ books, installation art, video, online and performance art, further challenging institutional norms, the roles artists play within society, and expectations about what constitutes acceptable art mediums.