Emily Lawrence & Kylie Dyment. Still from Mouthfeel. Photo: Erica Flake

Artists Kyle Alden Martens and Emily Lawrence both create playful work that subtly destabilizes traditionally heteronormative arenas—sports for Martens and mainstream porn and Martha Stewart cooking demonstrations for Lawrence—while making their audiences laugh through any discomfort of not knowing the new rules of the game.

For Martens, humour has always provided a way of “bringing people to subject matter that’s maybe more touchy or emotional,” he explains. Visual Arts News’ podcast host David Dahms chats with Martens about subjects ranging from where he finds creative inspiration to why it’s important to respect some people’s decisions to keep their sexual orientation a secret. The artist discusses how his own experiences growing up in “a painfully small town in Saskatchewan where the reality of queer people is something that’s hidden to make their lives easier” continues to inform the work he does today. “Within my practice there’s an underlying theme of being closeted or a hidden sexuality, or this repression out of necessity. Humour is kind of a way to bring that topic up without kind of being a downer.”

Emily Lawrence discusses topics ranging from the divide between art and life (or lack thereof) to the role of seduction as a powerful tool in her work. “I think initially people are drawn into the type of work that I make and very seduced, but once they’re there, there’s a lot that happens,” explains Lawrence. “When they’re in, people are maybe surprised or disgusted and there’s a flipping of [the seductive elements].” Lawrence employs a maximalist aesthetic in much of her work, “pulling people in with excess and spectacle,” while ultimately destabilizing constructs related to one’s identity and role in society. She takes on multiple identities when she creates work, playfully embracing a plurality of self.  “I think that even when I’m present in my work, I’m creating a character and wearing a costume.”

Emily Lawrence, installation view of Hodgepodge. Courtesy of the artist

Emily Lawrence & Kylie Dyment. Still from Mouthfeel. Photo: Erica Flake

Emily Lawrence & Kylie Dyment. Still from Mouthfeel. Photo: Erica Flake

Kyle Alden Martens, performance still of SOFT PLAYERS. Via: kylealdenmartens.com

Kyle Alden Martens, performance still of SOFT PLAYERS. Via: kylealdenmartens.com

Installation detail of Equipment. Documentation by Jordan Blackburn & Brandon Brookbank. Via kylealdenmartens.com

Kyle Alden Martens, performance still of SOFT PLAYERS. Via: kylealdenmartens.com

Kyle Alden Martens, performance still of SOFT PLAYERS. Via: kylealdenmartens.com

Moccasin vamps by by Elena Abel, Photo via Walking With Our Sisters

More than 1,180 Indigenous women and girls were reported murdered or missing in the past three decades. Walking With Our Sisters pays homage to these lives lost with a commemorative art project, featuring over 1,700 pairs of moccasin vamps (tops)and over 100 pairs of children’s vamps.

Community members created and donated each of the vamps, to honour each individual life lost. “They are sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters, cousins, grandmothers, wives and partners. They have been cared for, they have been loved, they are missing and they are not forgotten,” writes Walking With Our Sisters.

David Dahms sits down with Catherine Martin, the Nancy’s Chair in Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University, and Michelle Graveline, a Halifax Regional School Board Aboriginal Student Support Worker, both of whom are key players in the touring exhibition’s stop at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery (January 14-February 1). They discuss the impact of these lives lost on communities, the lack of justice for many of these victims and why it’s about time Canadians start taking the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women more seriously.

Moccasin vamps by Dolly Assinewe. Image via Walking With Our Sisters

Moccasin vamps by Sharon Angeconeb. Image via Walking With Our Sisters

Image: Bridget Moser, Asking for a friend (still), 2013. HD video, 9 minutes, 56 seconds

In this installation of the Visual Arts News Podcast, our new host David Dahms picks our Fall 2015 cover artist Bridget Moser’s brain about her latest show at MSVU Art Gallery in Halifax, Bridget Moser: Is This Thing On. Moser tells Dahms about her explorations into the worlds of experimental theatre, comedy and performance art. Have a listen:

https://soundcloud.com/vanpodcast/bridget-moser-interview

Bridget Moser, a still from her 2015 short film Memory Foam, shot on location at MSVU Art Gallery by Tim Tracey

Chris Myhr, installation view of Approaches to Erg, 2014. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Chris Myhr is captivated by the destructive power of water. In this Visual Arts News podcast, Veronica Simmonds chats with the Ontario-based artist  about his exploration of the Halifax Harbour and the ships wrecked beneath its surface. For Myhr’s Approaches to Erg—part of a larger body work, Point Line Intersection: In and Around Urban Waters—Myhr recorded the haunting deep-water sounds lurking just above these wrecks. Myhr’s multi-speaker audio installation is immersing viewers in the disorienting world of underwater sounds at the Khyber Centre for the Arts  (May 20-29, 2014).

Photo of Chris Myhr recording by Sandy Saunders

Installation detail of Chris Myhr’s Approaches to Erg, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist.

Double exposure of archival images from DEW Line station on Hershel Island, 1953. Image courtesy of Michael McCormack.

In this podcast for Visual Arts News, Veronica Simmonds chats with Halifax-based artist Michael McCormack about his explorations into shortwave radio. McCormack discusses revisiting the medium in his upcoming show at New Brunswick’s Galerie Sans Nom (February 28-April 4), Station, and his use of short-wave artifacts collected by his grandfather, a communications expert and avid collector.

Includes music from:
Apparat
Onra & Quetzal

Images below courtesy of Lisa Lipton. Stills from her upcoming feature film, THE  IMPOSSIBLE BLUE ROSE, 2013.

Artist Annie Macmillan takes the public swimming at Halifax’s “Little Lakes” during her Fieldwork residency. Photo: Katie McKay

This summer as part of the Fieldwork residency project—a series of residencies in the HRM this summer for artists who “employ research methodologies and fieldwork practices generally associated with the natural and social sciences”—artist Annie Macmillan is seeking out every lake in the Halifax Regional Municipality with the name “Little Lake” and swimming its perimeter. Her plan is to turn those maps into drawings that tell the story of each swim. In this interview for Visual Arts News, Veronica Simmonds catches up with her to talk about her underwater adventures, her artistic process and her exploration of a city’s edges.

Join Macmillan as she leads her next public swim, Wednesday August 7.

Photos by Katie McKay
Podcast Music:

Apparat- Sayulita
Air- Alone in Kyoto
Yann Tiersen – Till the End

Kate Walchuk, work from GOOD SHAPE, A show of personal souvenirs. Seeds Gallery April 17 – May 18 2013. Photo: Katie McKay

Kate Walchuk is in the business of memory preservation. In this podcast for Visual Arts News, Veronica Simmonds chats with the Halifax-based artist and curator about her recent show at Seeds Gallery, GOOD SHAPE, and her new understanding of nostalgia.

Artist Eleanor King in her Banff studio. Photo: Doug Tewksbury

Eleanor King is truly an interdisciplinary artist—her work spans from audio installations to drawings and, of course, to her fascination with sculptural stacking. Her artistic practice in its various forms addresses issues of excess, technological obsolescence and environmental degradation. On a snowy day in Halifax, Veronica Simmonds sat down with the Halifax-based artist to discuss her experience being shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award, her recent exhibition, Stacks, at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (until January 27) and her oscillation between different media.

Featured music is by King’s band, Wet Denim.