Art's Birthday!

It's approaching Art's Birthday again! January 17th of each year.

What is Art's Birthday you ask? Read on...

In 1963, French artist, Robert Filliou declared "One million years ago, on January 17, Art was born...when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Modest beginnings, but look at us now. Close the schools and the factories! Let them eat cake and make art! And the next year let it be two days of holiday, then three days, then four, five, six and so on, until everyday is art's birthday, at which point we can all get on with life".The point Filliou was making concerns the making of art as an everyday activity accessible to everyone, not a rarefied object.Since then, a loose network of artists and organizations has celebrated Art's Birthday honouring the Fluxus spirit of art being made not to be bought, sold or traded as a commodity, but given "freely" as a gift.














Robert Filliou (b. January 17, 1926, Sauve, France d. 1987, Les Eyzies) a member of Fluxus, the 1960's performance group that specialized in esthetic non-events, believed that art didn't have to express itself in the form of objects. He saw it as a form of play that could even occur as unrealized notions. His minimal-impact works are apt to be made of string, cardboard and wood, the vehicles for stray, vaguely poetic ideas and images. Filliou's ephemeral works undermine heavy notions of what art is or should be.


How Mississauga will be celebrating Art's Birthday?

ART'S BIRTHDAY
January 17, 2009
Noon to 8pm
Erin Meadows Community Centre & Library
2800 Erin Centre Blvd. Mississauga
Tel: 905-615-4750

The Art Gallery of Mississauga is participating in the Art's Birthday celebration presented by the Office of Arts and Culture, City of Mississauga. This year, Art's Birthday is an ecology-themed celebration. Activities include a Mississauga sound map, sound installation, underground garage sale, art trading-card craft, sound art listening gallery, art-on-air live, radio DJ demos, soundwalks, puppet musicians, underwater (pool) soundtrack, artist performances, open mic, children's workshops, happy birthday choral performance and birthday cake.

The Art Gallery of Mississauga will be presenting the work of Mississauga artists Alison S.M. Kobayashi and Gintas Tirilis who have both created dynamic site specific installations for the event.

Alison S. M. Kobayashi will be presenting two installations on the birthday theme. Her first installation can be viewed in an Erin Meadows Public Library book case beginning January 6th. The second, in the entrance of the Community Centre, is a playful multi-media installation inspired by the Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot music video Comic Strip. Kobayshi combines a retro future aesthetic, celebratory accoutrements and her own performance in a tribute to Art's Birthday.

Utilizing an unexpected combination of water and sound, Gintas Tirilis creates a site specific, participatory installation at the Erin Meadows Community Centre. Tirilis's Drip Machine allows visitors to the Centre to trigger and tune unique audio patterns and rhythms by adjusting the flow of water faucets. Each participant's faucet adjustment becomes an original "remix" which includes samples from varying radio stations and pre recorded audio.

View Art's Birthday flyer

Summer photo album

Summer in Mississauga was packed full of fun thanks to the Art Gallery of Mississauga. I've got the photos to prove it!

Craftification on Canada Day
The Toronto Church of Craft and the Spinners and Weavers Guild work with participants to transform the street into a work of craft.

Grace N Style + Jessica Thompson + LAL

Kareem from Grace N Style works with the audience to demonstrate Jessica Thompson's wearable art, the Freestyle SoundKit.

Toronto collective LAL perform, delivering futuristic rhythms melting into warm basslines with hints of South Asian roots and hip hop formations.

Clothing Swap
Mississauga welcomed Syracuse, New York artist, Christina Kolizsavary with a clothing swap. Particpants got to clean out their closets and take home great new wardrobe pieces!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Lunch, a tour and discussion with curators and artists on Sunday, July 27. Here participants are enjoying coversation inside Adrian Blackwell's Model for a Public Space.

Inside the Coil

Visitors to the Gallery, during Adrian Blackwell's Models for Public Spaces exhibition, interacted with Monster Coil. Radiant City was screened during the exhibition with the Coil as a comfy seating arrangment.

History in a Box: Diorama making

Saturday, August 9th
Noon to 2pm
3pm to 5pm, at the Art Gallery of Mississauga
Ages 8-12 yrs
FREE pre registration suggested to ensure a spot
Register at info.agm@mississauga.ca or call 905 896 5506

History in a Box: Diorama making
A diorama is an imaginary mini-world or a scene in a box. Dioramas can incorporate cut outs, figures, models and drawings.

During the exhibition, Explorers and Dandies in an open letter to Canada Post: Frederick Hagan & Kent Monkman, Educator, Shaun Dacey will work with children ages 8 to 12 to explore how our official version of history is recorded. Through the creation of colourful dioramas, based on the works of Frederick Hagan and Kent Monkman, children will have the opportunity re-imagine history’s events with themselves as the authors.

Frederick Hagan’s (b. 1918, d. 2003) works have had the honour of being sanctioned to represent Canadian history. Issued from 1986-89, the Explorations of Canada postage stamp series was commissioned by Canada Post as a tribute to select explorers.

The current practice of artist Kent Monkman shares a similarity, in that history is regarded. However, it is an unsanctioned history which the artist constructs from the mined personal accounts of George Catlin, the traditions of 19th century landscape painting and the experiences of indigenous and two spirited people.

Explorers and Dandies in an open letter to Canada Post: Frederick Hagan & Kent Monkman will be on view at the Art Gallery of Mississauga until September 7, 2008.