She Wore Gold

The Library Re-Visit

A little something I wrote for school : )

The Library Re-Visit

Exhibition Review of Jason McLean’s Hugh Display Case at the Landon Public Library; London Ontario

“there are no barriers in art” bpNichol[1][1]

The public library is a gem in any community. It is a place of thought, reading and reflection. It is a place of calm and quiet. The library is a place that builds community and accepts those from all walks of life. We seem to have forgotten about the library in our information crazed world. To find information on any subject is as easy as a click of the mousepad. Which is why I believe the curatorial project The Hugh Display Case, (Fig. 1) by London Ontario Artist Jason McLean is extremely important as a reconnection to London’s cultural heritage and to the sense of learning the library offers. The Hugh Display Case, (Fig. 2)deals primarily with how the artistic community of London praises the artists that have been involved in creating the diverse and interesting framework of art practice in the city. McLean has also shown works by international artists and the like, regardless of his large network, he continues to return to the community in London.

The Hugh Display Case is named after McLean’s childhood librarian and original bass player for The Nihilist Spasm Band Hugh McIntyre.[2][2]McLean recently moved back to London, Ontario after a very productive time away, in Toronto, New York and Vancouver. Upon his return McLean came to see that the great arts community is still vibrant in London, and wanted to up the ante and hopefully inspire others to do the same. Living in the community of Wortley Village McLean decided to create an exhibition space within the community that honours the great art practice from the past and the space of which those artists lived. The significance of the London Public Library on his own practice he credits to the gentle bear of a librarian, Hugh McIntyre (1936-2004)[3][3]. As a child McLean did not realize the contributions to the arts McIntyre involved himself with, he considered him only to be his dear librarian. It wasn’t until McLean was a teenager and attended a Nihilist Spasm Band concert that he saw McIntyre on stage with the other very prominent artists from London Ontario, such as Murray Favro and Greg Curnoe, amongst others. This is when he realized that his dear librarian would be too, his mentor. Perhaps, McIntyre was always McLean’s mentor, through his visits to the library as a child I wonder if McIntyre saw his artistic spirit and guided him in learning and shaping this spirit. After reading the numerous memorials to Hugh, I believe that this indeed is the case.

The current exhibition features two components, the first, is the ephemeral poetic practice by bpNichol (1944-1988) and bits of works on display as a reminder when he had come to visit London and his connection with Greg Curnoe.

Barrie Philip Nichol was born in Vancouver in 1944.[4][4] His art practice was extremely ephemeral and dealt primarily with blending and collapsing boundaries of what language and words signify. bpNichol’s practice was what he described as “borderblur.”[5][5] Throughout his lifetime he used words in many different formations from children’s novels to concrete and sound poetry. His sense of narration was how the actual letters and words sounded when attached to others. His concrete poetry first took on pictorial shapes created by the typewriter (fig.4) and when computers first came into popular use he was excited to see how they could define his art practice in more graphically sound ways. bpNichol visited London in the 1970’s and was a dear friend to Greg and Sheila Curnoe, with a friendship that lasted up to his death in 1988. bpNichol and Curnoe would trade artworks constantly throughout the years of their interactions. The works on display in the Hugh Display case have been donated to Jason McLean by Sheila Curnoe. Curnoe and Nichol were also involved in group art projects such as The Cosmic Chef [6][6]of 1970, a boxed set of concrete poetry.

The second component to the exhibit is the display of The 20cents magazine.(Fig. 2)This magazine was the primary artist publication in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, created by influential artists from the area of London. 20cents offered a forum for other artists to discuss the arts community through exhibition reviews, artist and musician interviews, as well as printed artworks by various Canadian artists. As a publication of the 20/20 art gallery, which later was to take shape as the current Forest City Gallery, the magazine was an important aspect in the success of the artists involved. Unfortunately after a long extensive search in databases and online I am unable to find anything substantial that describes the 20cents magazine, and how it relates to the success London and Canadian artists achieved by being showcased in their pages. If you do an online search you can find numerous artists cv’s that reference the magazine, yet specific description on its influence is seemingly unavailable. This discovery further highlights the need for McLean’s exhibition of the magazine itself. It also highlights the need for scholarship surrounding the publication. Entering into the library and seeing the old publications with their stained and rusted bindings, shows how the materiality of such an item can be a conservators nightmare. Before issues of the magazine become something completely ephemeral, and disappeared because of deterioration, the magazine should definitely be catalogued in an online format. More importantly, I would love to see students in Library studies or the like take on its depth in scholarship, and write very informative essays on its influence. Perhaps, this has been done, yet it is a difficult task to find.

To conclude I wish to state that I believe that Jason McLean is an extremely important artist. He returns to his childhood home town and revisits its cultural heritage. So as not to allow for London to lose its significance in the art world, McLean has made sure, through curatorial projects and international exhibitions that London is still on the map. His work is tough, and we as a community of London need to see his effort and match it. London, Ontario is creatively great and through a revisit to the library system and in recognizing the spirit of Hugh McIntyre, we can show that the spark of the 1970’s, London’s golden years, can be reignited.

Bibliography:

McLean, Jason. Interview with Jennifer Lorrain Fraser, January 31 2012

Nichol, Ellie. And artmob, Collective of students from York University; on line archive for bpNichol http://bpnichol.ca/ accessed January 31 2012

Nihilist Spasm Band. http://www3.sympatico.ca/pratten/NSB/ accessed February 7 2012

For More Information:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-HUGH-display-case/109353129154124

http://artistsbooksandmultiples.blogspot.com/2012/01/bpnichol-at-hugh-gallery.html

http://bpnichol.ca/about

To watch Ron Mann’s footage of The Four Horsemen( bp nichol’s sound poetry collective), from his documentary Poetry In Motion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahUdQd_YtwM

http://www.metronews.ca/london/comment/article/1106500—art-taking-over-the-library