Produced in conjunction with the 2002 exhibition by the same title.
47 Pages, black-and-white, softcover, 14cm x 21cm
ISBN 0-7727-8207-5
out of print
Curator-in-Residence at the time of this publication, Luis Jacob has produced a 47-page publication that documents and contextualizes the works in his 2002 exhibition Golden Streams: Artists' Collaboration and Exchange in the 1970s. Luis Jacob's essay is interspersed with many quotes by the artists and their critics. The publication also includes a detailed exhibition list, a historical timeline, and 51 black-and-white illustrations.
Golden Streams: Artists' Collaboration and Exchange in the 1970s features the work of four artist groups that worked in Vancouver and Toronto during that decade: Image Bank, General Idea, Banal Beauty Inc., and the New York Corres Sponge Dance School of Vancouver.
The 1970s were a time of remarkably energetic and innovative artistic activity in Canada. Many artists explored new models of production and dissemination that diverged in significant ways from the traditions associated with the artist's studio and the art gallery. Particularly active in these explorations were artists working in Vancouver, Victoria, and Toronto, including Dana Atchley, Anna Banana, Warren Knetchel, and John Jack Baylin. These artists drew inspiration from the examples of Ray Johnson, who formed the New York Correspondence School in 1962, [1] the fluxus artists, particularly Robert Filliou, Dick Higgins, Emmett Williams, Geoff Hendricks, Dieter Roth, and Daniel Spoerri, [2] and the arts organization Intermedia, founded in Vancouver in 1966, and active until 1972. [3]
While their work needs to be considered in the context of mutual exchange and collaboration with many other artists, Image Bank, General Idea, Banal Beauty Inc., and the New York Corres Sponge Dance School of Vancouver were in several ways exemplary for redefining the artist's role in Canada during the 1970s. They worked collectively as groups and collaboratively between groups, often engaging in mutual appropriation of each other's imagery — thereby challenging inherited ideas of originality and conceptions of visual-art production as individual, solitary work. They assumed artistic personae, elaborated mythological narratives, wore costumes, used props and other identifying devices — putting into question ideas of authorship, authenticity, and self-representation. They also engaged with alternative media and artistic forms such as correspondence art, artists' publications, performance art, Super-8 film,and video. Exploring the potential in marginal art forms, new technical and 'non-artistic' media, they engaged with society and mass culture as a whole.
1. Johnson began corresponding with Michael Morris of Image Bank in 1968.
2. Dana Atchley had been in contact with Roth and Spoerri at Yale University
3. “The collaborative nature of [our] projects goes back a long way, coming out of a willingness to experiment that developed at Intermedia. All this activity evolved from a discourse that questioned how Art is made, and the criteria that define it. We wanted to expand our activities to include participation by anyone willing to give some input!” Michael Morris, in correspondence with Luis Jacob, September 20, 2002.
Golden Streams: Artists' Collaboration and Exchange in the 1970s (essay) p.1
By Luis Jacob
Golden Streams: Works in the Exhibition p.12
By Image Bank, General Idea, Banal Beauty Inc., and New York Corres Sponge Dance School of Vancouver
Collaboration and Exchange p. 32
(quotations from various artists and critics)
Vancouver and Toronto p.34
By Michael Morris (2002)
Community and Infrastructure 36
By AA Bronson (2002)
Life and Art p.38
Michael Morris in conversation with Luis Jacob (2002)
Golden Streams Chronology p.40
Bibliography p.45
AA Bronson
Banal Beauty Inc.
General Idea
Image Bank
Luis Jacob
Michael Morris
New York Corres Sponge Dance School of Vancouver
This publication is no longer available. For research purposes, please check www.worldcat.org for the library holding of this title closest to you.
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