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SWn ýky ýns edrie.sday, April 15.1998 Festival displays musical talents The band trom Cobourg West, listens while adjudicator Don, Coakely (front) gives his professional comments on their -performance. By Kevin Copping This year's Senior Band Festival was hosted-by Clarke H.S. on April 9th. The festival showcased a wide array of tal- ent from local high schools. The concert went off without a hitch due to the time and The Real Mackay April9 to June5, 1998 The Visuai Arts Centre of Ciarington is opening on Sunday, April 19, 2 -4 p.m. Housed in the Cream of Barley Mil. the Visuai Arts Centre of Clarington, Itseif, is the focus for six new multi- media, slte-specffic installa- tions. The seven artists in "The Real Mac kay" include three from Durhamn Region - Rowena Dykins, Bake Fttzpatrick and Gary Greenwood - and four from Toronto - Gwen MacGregor, Penelope Stewart and Milite Chen in collaboration with Evelyn Von Michaiofski. Responding tothe historic ambience of the miii, their indoor and -outdoor artworks explore the evolution of thils site, addressing its history from personal, social, cultur- ai and geographlc perspec- tives. Developed with minimal physicâi intervention, the installations create temporary documents which resurrect private and coilectively held narratives, making visible these repositories of memory. Buit by John Mackay in 1905 and active until the 1950's, the miii is a surviving example of l9th and 2th century industry in the Soper Creek area of Bowmanviiie. The exhibition ile, -fThe Real Mackay," derives from the slo- gan appearing on the original packaging of Mackay's cream of barley cereal. Blake Fitzpatrcks series, Window Treatments, traces the image of the miii through photographs and rubbings taken from various parts of the building. WIhie manifest- ing the effects of time, bis pro- ject documents the narratives - the dates, names and anec- dotai marklngs - scratched effort put forth by Mr. Sharpe, Clarke's music teacher and con- ductor. Adjudicator, Don Coakely worked with each band, giving pointers afier their performance. Overall, Coakely was impressed into the miil's architecturai surfaces. Housed within abandoned window frames from the building, these col- laged a d fragmentary views of the mhili's past and present describe the changing histo- ry of the site. The frames themseives, are instaiied where windows once existed. Placed overtop of the concrete and, board, they draw atten- tion to the half-blind nature of the building and the false- ly promised view from the window. As the artist com- ments, "Photographs have been referred to as 'windows onto the world,' but like this window treatment, they are as open as they are ciosed." Gwen MacGregor's instal- lation, I was neyer here, Bowmanville, incorporates physical elements of the miil with personal reminiscences. Working with the entire third floor attlc - a raw, unused space - the artist covers the exposed floor beams and pink insulation with plastic. The effect recalls the gridded pat- temning of the prairie land- scapes she remembers from her youth. In the accompany- ing video projection, the wind- milis from a farmn in south- east Aberta move slowiy forward and back at a barely perceptible speed. Stiling to discemn their movement, we hear the audio comportent. Amblent sounds from the attic space mix with that of a train heard from a great dis- tance, intermingiing the expe- rience of the site with the places of memory referenced by the artist. Situated between indoor and out, past and present, here and some- where else, I was neyer here, Bowmanvilie, acknowledges the complexity of what con-' stitutes being present. Millie Chen and Evelyn with the quality of work he had heard. Bands participating were fromn Courtice, Port Hope, East Northumnberland, Cobourg East and West, Bowmanville, and Clarke, high schools. Von Michalofski's collabora- tive project, Millery, millery, dustipoîl, takes its titie from the oid popular rhyme of the thieving miller. Like MacGregor's installation, tbts work juxtaposes various real- ities. A video projects onto three adjacent walls of a stair- well ieadmng to the basement of the mili - the home of the Soper'ValleyModel Rallroad Club, cloistered away, from public dispiay. The simple narrative structure of the vldeo follows the artists walk- ing along a barren train track ti the Junction neighbour- hood of Toronto. Freight trains travelling to Bowmanviiie siowiy pass. Scenarios of varlous "run-of- the mifi" activities - such as swimming, reading, sleeping, cooking - operate as poetic interruptions of the storyline, identifying the mundane activities which routinely transport'us from the habitu- ai into states of reverie and imagination. While the image of the tramn suggests a vehicle by which to enter other eis- tences, the shunt ing, grunt- ing sounds of industrial trains in the accompanylng audio-track are a continuai reminder of the dirty, noisy reality of the artists' urban lives in the Junction. Penelope Stewart's exte- rior site-work aiso Inter- weaves narratives prefaced by both fact and fiction. Three large iight boxes are recesse d into the ground behind the mil. Sequential colour images illustrate the manual sorting of grains and seeds. Given the unusual ligh ting effects, the photographs appear as if underwater - a reference to the Soper Creek running behind the miii as weli as the high water table of the area. Ind depicting a woman's hand, Stewart sheds light on the unacknowiedged role of Mackay's sisters in success- fuily operatlng the mili for many years after, his death. She aisodistilis elements from the myth of Psyche, who was given a series-of impossi- ble tasks by Venus. the moth- er of Cupid. (Cupid-had fallen in love with Psyche against his mother's wishes.) One of Psyche's labours was to sort a vast heap of grains (barley, wheat, etc.) as penance. On a psychological level, water rep- resents the unconscious mind, with the act of sorting the seeds an extemalization of the inner processes' of ordering sensations, experi- ences and intuitive percep- lions into conscious memory. Rowena Dykins' outdoor project for the grounds of the Visuai Arts Centre of Clarlngton also builds on the significance ofthe adjacent Soper Creek. Continuing the artist's investigations around cairnis, ti this context her projecf becomes a syrnbolic marker of the river currents. Carved from white cedar, indigenous to the area, Rivercairr Is a circular struc- ture, seven feet high'by five feet wide. While the cairn is lnherentiy stationary, its sur- face treatment mirrors the Imprints left by the rapid movements of the river sys- tem, suggestive of the pas- sage of time. Severai methods have been employed by the artist to achieve these mark- ings: sta ining, burning, carv- lng, etching. As such, the smooth wood surface func- tions like a canivas in record- ing the artist's gestures. Placed aiong the river bank, close to the miii. Rivercairn identifies water as a life force and as a critical factor in the survival of the mlii, whiie visualiy acknowledglng the underground waterways which once described this particular terrain. By contrast,, Gary Greenwood emphasizes the unnaturalized setting of Mackay's Creamn of Barley Mill, viewed by the artist as a visual anomaly in the midst of residences ciad ti a pas- tiche of simulated heritage materials. In response to tIs romantîcîzing of the past, Greenwood has created a 65 x 52 x 53 inch replica of the exterior facade of the mil fab- ricated from these ingenuine materials. The ephemerality of bis structure, rýepiete with vinyl siding, stands. in marked contrast to the authenticity and solidity of the stone and brick con- struction of the miii. Whiie citing the ways in which sub- urban communities incorpo- rate historical buildings into their énvironments, the artist's outdoor project, sim- ply iled Home, underscores the tremendous growth of the region's population in recent years, identifying the mil as an- example of a heritage site belng siowiy subsumed by the encroachlng suburbs. Organized by independent Toronto curator/writer Carolyn Bell Farrell and Margaret Rodgers, Director/Curator -of the Visual Arts, Centre of Ciarington, "The Real Mackay" will be on view at the Visual Arts Centre of Ciarington from April 19 through June 5, 1998, open- lng Sunday, April 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. The artists wili be present. Gallery talks by exhlbiting artists are also scheduled for Sunday, May 24 at 2 p.m. Admission is free. The exhibition wili be documented by a catalogue with essays by the co-cura- tors. "The Real Mackay" was deveioped for the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington as a j working model for the Curatorlal Mentoring Project-, an 18 month pilot project mni- tiated by VAC and led by Carolyn Bell Farrell. Thiis pro- ject was impiemented with support from the Ontario Minstry of Culture. MMM_ A Spring Concert Classical, Gershwin, and Nova Scotia Songs MARNIE NIEMI - Flute MERVYN RUSSELL - Banitone MARY CLARE MacKINNON --Piano Saturday, April 18 a 7:30 p.m. Orono United Church - REFRESHMENTS - Tickets $7.00 each available frorn... Joyce Cowan 983-5940 - Eleanor Terril 983-5248 OR any Choir Member Sponsored b>' Or ono United Churdi Choir Visual Arts Centre opening April 19