Category: concepts

Lost

Squared

Wordplay

Made

Etching

Listen

Cork popping, bottle opening, glass on glass, droplet landing, key in lock, doorknob, closing door, light switch, lamp switch, page turn, zipper, button, cough, knock, paper cut, pepper grind, ice cube crack, ice in glass, Velcro, drawer, footfall, etc.

Novel

Write a novel not to be actually read but just to take a picture of the stacked pages that constitute it’s bulk. A years work that would be unknowable to anyone except myself because I’d destroy the pages and the … Continue reading →

Residencies

Residencies look like a possible opportunity. I’ll research these in 2013 and propose the works explained below for a single exhibition somewhere in the world. The thought is to call the actual show Labyrinth. Why not dream big. I’ll apply … Continue reading →

Vogel Napkins

When I visit someone’s house, go to a family function, attend art openings or go anywhere that food is served I utilize the napkins. It’s polite and I was taught that good manners meant being able to dab at the corner of … Continue reading →

Perfection

Drugs

Maquette

Constructions

I came upon the idea for Constructions as I rode my bike to work and thought about an image I had taken on Monday of this week (previous post) . As soon as I arrived at work and locked my … Continue reading →

Beauty

I was thinking about beauty or the idea of beauty on the weekend and about the statement that I’m interested in stuff that other people are not that interested in. In one sense this is a crock. Other people do … Continue reading →

Cheek to Cheek

Select a portion of the cheek and take a macro photograph. Shoot a self portrait then shoot different people I know creating 20 or so images that show the individual pores of everyone’s skin, the hair/beard detail, skin tone and … Continue reading →

Late

This is an older thought, but one that has stayed with me. Arrange to meet people I know in secluded architecturally interesting locations at times when the possibility of other people being there is minimal. Arrive early and somehow setup … Continue reading →

Street Art

The first thought was about basketball nets. I saw an advert on the sides of several Rocesvalles shops that depicted a person playing basketball. Create hyper realist paintings or maybe stickers. Maybe actual photographs done to scale of things from … Continue reading →

Urbanity

Search the Google Maps satellite view of Toronto for groups of buildings that resemble letters. Isolate each into a rectangular unit that can then be assembled to create words.

Labour Day

A simplified, final installment of The Task. The title speaks about commitment and work ethic. Take one skid of standard 8″ concrete block and move the contents to an opposing skid a short distance away. Continue back and forth at … Continue reading →

Instructions

Learning to Smile Look for instructions on line on how to get models to look natural for portraiture…teach myself to do it and keep a running photogrpahic record of the process. Self portraits and a commentary of the new knowledge base and disintegration of personal contact … Continue reading →

Gallery

Two Thoughts 1. When the AGO is turning over, or –dream of all dreams– Tate Modern, get access to film. Spend 8 hours repeatedly walking a preconceived route through the transitioning space and film a continuos journey showing tear down … Continue reading →

Jewelry

Geyser

Using pressure and pneumatic principles create a participatory kinetic sculpture based on the principles use in an air gun or nerf water pistol. Stationary Bike Fountain System Adjustable Water Aperture The public gets on the bike, pedals to compress air … Continue reading →

Skulls

Ahhh the ubiquitous skull. Symbol of otherness and individuality appropriated by Pirates, Damien Hirst, Keith Richards, Misfits, bikers, Hans Holbein, Cyprus Hill, and 100s other proponents of evil. It’s a sad overused and cliched symbol of the alternative. Take all … Continue reading →

Holi

It seems that 2012 is the year that Holi makes it to the masses. the Festival of colour. I’ve seen some spectacular images in the past few months. Take businessmen on their way to work in full suit and tie … Continue reading →

Ghetto Christo

Buy five or six tarps of various primary colors. After a heavy snow fall venture out into the wintery freshness and wrap objects with the tarps and take pictures. With the preponderance of white background the created colour sculptures should … Continue reading →

In Translation

I read a lot of books. nothing serious, but none the less I read a lot. Right now I’m reading yet another Swedish crime novel. Yes I’m one of those people that has trouble with non-fiction. It strikes me that … Continue reading →

Flemingdon Lemonade

Create a lemonade stand and set it up for a day in the Flemingdon Park power corridor. Statement about the misconceptions of lower income housing. It is NOT dangerous and you’re not going to get killed. There’s probably more crime … Continue reading →

Pain

Portraits I was going to start taking some crazy injectable drugs they call Biologicals at one point to treat my Arthritis. I’d been pre approved by my health insurance provider and had been in several times for preliminary tests. The … Continue reading →

Silence

Silent Rock Band This was a direct offshoot of the Seeing concept. In this proposal I’d like to make something for the hearing impaired community and by researching, learn about that specific demographic and figure out more art to be … Continue reading →

Commute

A dance performance filmed in TTC Subway cars or buses in which the dancers represent commuters personalities action and thought. This could be linear and narrative based…so she might not be super interested. 100 years ago I saw a dance … Continue reading →

Plates

I think the practice of taking average everyday kitchen items and making them into commemorative decoration and objects de art is crazy. I’m talking about plates, spoons, tea towels, tea pots, salt and pepper shakers, etc. The plan is to … Continue reading →

Flattening

I had written this up under the title Demolition. I think flattening is better. This project could be thought of as a form of deconstruction or the act of taking a 3 dimensional building and flattening it out into 2 … Continue reading →

24 Hours

24 Hour Conceptualization Marathon Could I sit and think of worthwhile and compelling new concepts if I did it as a performance piece in and of itself? Even if I didn’t add to the library it could be a statement … Continue reading →

Jacob’s Ladder

Could you make 2 flagpoles into a giant Jacob’s Ladder? I saw the ones in front of the ambulance station at Pape and and figured it might be worth a try.

Millwood Valley

Paint in oils half spheres of green representing the tree canopy. Giant pointillism using a series of monochromatic bubbles. It would be like random Braille spots of colour

Material

Create furniture, rugs, columns, etc out of atypical materials. A column made of nails. A rug made of broken glass, a chair of brambles

Mapping

Note every place in the city that I remember having an interaction with and mark it on a city map, with flag pins Sort of weird description of my life.

Visiting

Urban exploration of a very different type. Walk on a familiar street and enter and photograph the interior of places I’ve never been in. Endless opportunity

Reflections

Make these a series of seemingly simple portraits. They could be of Bill, Lorissa, Danny, Dan, Sarah…or better yet professional actors. Take the pics in the G44 studio using the blasted light effect. Ask each actor to imagine a scene … Continue reading →

Butchers

Take the butcher’s window in Kensington we shop at and add human entrails, heads and tongue. Photograph.

ESP

Gather a selection of people together. In individual portrait sittings ask the subject to close their eyes and concentrate very hard on sending me a mental image. Take their picture. Ask them what they were trying to communicate and use … Continue reading →

Playing

Collect tennis, soccer, golf, football, squash-balls, etc. found over the course of what might have to be years. In parks, from side streets, get donations. Take the spoils of the collection and then create a giant adult ball room.

Pharmacy

Editing

Could you physically manipulate a vinyl LP to play a certain way by adjusting the grooves? This would create a dance of sorts via the tone arm and the resulting audio might be something of a remix. Labyrinth Vinyl 2. … Continue reading →

Blindness

Create an elaborate light-proof set. Populate it with sighted people and get them to perform tasks in that darkness. Every now and then shoot with the flash, the light willgive them glimpses of what they are doing and allow them … Continue reading →

Lumber

Use a chisel and slowly scroll away from a common piece of lumber as many wood curls as possible that remain attached to the board. This technique executed on a 2 x 4 might work nicely. Inspired by trying to … Continue reading →

Exercise for Listening

Record myself murmuring various different manufactured stories and intermix those narratives in a composition that has to be listened to carefully to follow all the various stories at the same time. It will become a coded narrative of seemingly unrelated … Continue reading →

Subliminal

Was the 60s and 70s ice cube subliminal message scare a hoax? Did companies really resort to hidden images of people having sex and naked women to sell stuff? Recreate famous images that resulted in laws being made to make … Continue reading →

Photographers

Contact friend photographers and see if they’d be willing to let me take macro shots of their eyes, or one eye. The idea to create a show of these images in super large size, show the differences and title them … Continue reading →

Social Media

I’m interested in words and logos. Taking something that exists and turning it into thoughts or maybe opening up conversation. It might also be a statement of my personal disillusionment with current brands and business. these are not necessarily cynical, … Continue reading →

Pirate Radio

Take over the audio tour at the AGO. Not to cause a stir or for malicious purposes but to interject into the “rapture” of the audience and maybe start other discussions about the work everyone is looking at.

Solace

Create a recording of different moments of silence and weave them together in some mixing software creating a poem of silence that is inaudible yet truly composed and strangely more than the sum of its parts

Bible Reading

Take pictures of people’s hands as they read bibles on the subway. Close cropped to capture just the hand and text details. initially this was about Christians and the bible, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be about any faith … Continue reading →

Art Work

Since the execution of The Task I’ve dreamed up a bunch of other similar performances based around labour and construction. These are all variations on the theme; 1. Hole – dig a hole and then fill it in over a … Continue reading →

Mothers Day

Film people returning home from the florist in the city. Predominantly men with coffee or other perishable Sunday morning gifts for mothers. Your browser does not support the video tag

Tennis

Make a glass cube or use an exiting squash court with a glass viewing wall. Mount four automatic tennis ball canons on a mechanism that’s robotically programmed to rotate and built into the roof of the cube/court. Create a false … Continue reading →

Picasso AGO

Jill and I went to Picasso last night. It was a bit overwhelming and I think there may be too many works. I left feeling more interested in the way the gallery was set up and how people moved through … Continue reading →

Cubism

Somehow take pictures of people naked in a glass cube surrounded by green screen. Have them strain to push against as much of the cube as possible, which will in turn give their image a sense of the invisible cube. … Continue reading →

Watcher

Secure a vacant store front in a busy part of town close to existing art galleries. Maybe on Queen. If possiblesome place “vintage” and under renovation/abandoned. Put an old office desk and chair in the vacant mess facing a large … Continue reading →

Fountain

Fountain Create a fountain that’s powered by manual labour and gravity. A geyser that’s worked by a bicycle for 12 hours straight storing energy then releasing it in a explosive pillar of water. Check if it’s possible.

Book of Concepts

365 ideas, concepts, opportunities, photos, finds, opinions and more Your browser does not support the video tag

Camera Dolly

Take a toy car apart and cut a circular hole on the frame to fit the lens of my slr. Use the contraption as a dolly to smoothly film the inside of vacant stores.

Seeing

Paths

Storm Drains

Take the existing storm drain grate design and modify to resemble a leafed tree.

Stairs

Make a set of floating stairs on a metal rail with rubber resonators so that when used it becomes a xylophone under people’s feet.

Sleep

There’s a huge apartment complex on Overlea at Thorncliff Park Drive. Two towers with thousands of people and tons of daily trash. Photograph the perpetual deposit of mattresses.

The Art of Exclusion

The art novel once again. Take the “Gallery” concept and rewrite it as the beginning of a supernatural, art mystery.