Open Corridor Performance Installation Events
September 16th, 2009, 7:45 pm
Open Corridor
Performance Installation Events
Sept. 23, 2009, 3-6pm
Huron Church Rd and Millen St.
Interdisciplinary performance installations will take place earlier in the day on Wednesday, September 23, from 3 p.m. –to- 6 p.m. as part of the on going Open Corridor festival.
InsideOut: Laboratory Ecologies
International artist and School of Visual Arts Professor, Jennifer Willet will conduct ongoing laboratory research and hold a workshop with the general public in the presentation of her work InsideOut: Laboratory Ecologies. This piece explores the laboratory removed from its sterilized artificial setting and placed in an outside world full of environmental organisms and ecologies. The public is invited to join Willet for controlled lab experiments, on the grassy area at the west corner of Huron Church Rd. and Millen Street from 3- 6 p.m.
The Border Bookmobile
As part of the Open Corridor festival events, internationally published critic, theorist and School of Visual Arts Professor, Lee Rodney will launch her project The Border Bookmobile; a two year traveling exhibition of books, artist projects, photographs and ephemera about the urban history of the Windsor-Detroit region and other border cities around the world.
The collection will fit into a 1993 Plymouth Voyager minivan, produced in the Chrysler Minivan Assembly Plant in Windsor Ontario. The Border Bookmobile will then travel throughout the Windsor-Detroit region, acting as a symbol of the economic cycles of the region and manufacturing/ trade that constitute local history. The general public is invited to read and engage with the exhibition materials housed within the minivan while on display from 3- 6 p.m. on Millen Street, just off of Huron Church Rd.
Green Corridor would like to thankfully acknowledge the support of its project sponsors.
Drive Thru Symphony – Schedule of Events
September 14th, 2009, 7:44 pm
September 23, 2009
WINDSOR, ONTARIO
1:00 – 2:30 – Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council
Integrated Arts Programs Information Session
Room 115 LeBel Building, University of Windsor
3:00 – 6:00 – Border Bookmobile, Lee Rodney
InsideOut: Labratory Ecologies, Jennifer Willet
8:00 – 9:30 – Drive thru Sympony Performance
Nature Bridge Pedestrian Overpass,
Huron Church Rd. at Millen St.
Drive Thru Symphony Concept
September 14th, 2009, 7:41 pm
Drive Thru Symphony is a site-specific, real time installation and performance work that incorporates sight and sound while integrating vehicle traffic and drivers into a collaborative event. An amalgamation of disciplines creatively responding the Huron Church roadway with a physical and sensual transformation that is participatory with the public.
The concept is a spatial and temporal theater as a transformative conceptualization of urban landscape. The staging area is a traffic corridor and pedestrian overpass, directed at movement and controlled passage through time. It is in response to this context that Drive Thru Symphony aims its composition.
The presences of shifting-time stems from the site and is found in the delay algorithms built into the project design: the time it takes for sound to travel long distances, the mobile audience, and the streaming delay to the FM signal. This concept will also be reflected in the design of the visual components: shifting light at sunset, moving image projections, roadway signage and moving text.
The audience includes pedestrian and automobile traffic. Pedestrian audience members will be invited to walk along Huron Church Road in either direction and across the pedestrian overpass. The vehicle audience can listen as they move through the vicinity or to a live broadcast of the performance over CJAM FM radio. Depending on their location at any given moment, the audience will hear different musical passages and see different installations and projections.
Contributing artists and ensembles will construct pieces/ improvisational works that in some way address the themes of environment, traffic, transportation and shifting time (all site-specific).
The aim of Drive-Thru Symphony is to create a public performance event that challenges artistic traditions and engages the local community in a discussion of environment and urban infrastructure. The over all event poetically proposes a ‘sensorial’ approach to urbanism that explores how we use sight and sound, as a means of navigating the city and understanding our surroundings.
Performed: 8PM, September 23, 2009
Huron Church Road at Millen St
Iain Baxter& makes a statement with ECOLOGY
June 16th, 2009, 7:53 pm
When the Open Corridor Festival opens on June 18, one project will literally convey one of the overall themes the contributing artists want to project. Giant, bright green letters nestled on the grassy berms of the University of Windsor stadium will emphasize one word to Huron Church Road truckers, commuters and pedestrians alike: ECOLOGY.
Internationally acclaimed Canadian artist Iain Baxter& is the creator of ECOLOGY. He says he wanted to focus on a word that would make people think about the theme of the Green Corridor area and the Open Corridor Festival.
“It’s actually all about ecology,” says Baxter&, one of nearly a dozen artists whose artistic contributions promise to draw the attention of passersby along Huron Church Road from June 18 to September 29.
Baxter& has been teaching at the University of Windsor since 1988 and is currently Professor Emeritus. He has seen the Green Corridor project and class develop since their inception in 2004. The first degree he earned was in zoology. He says that though ecology is a popular word today, it was virtually unknown in the 1950s. He explains ecology as a functional harmony between mankind, plants and animals and sees Green Corridor as a mechanism to learn about ecology, urbanization and environmental issues.
“We’ve got to get a hold of what ecology means and address it as a major issue,” says Baxter&. “We’re lucky the university has supported the Green Corridor program because ecology is a really important knowledge area. It’s doubly important to address environmental issues here because we have the (Ambassador) bridge, which is one of the most active bridges in Canada.”
Baxter&’s artistic practice involves a wide range of media, including photography, painting, video, installation and performance. His latest piece, ECOLOGY, is part of the Open Corridor Artists Projects exhibition, which runs the entire length of the festival.
Local artist contributes ten-foot Ear to highway art festival
June 16th, 2009, 7:49 pm
When a tree falls in a forest, Robert Wiens hears.
Known for his creative focus on nature, the Leamington-born artist has been working with Green Corridor students to complete an original piece, Ear, for the Open Corridor Festival. The larger-than-life ear is an intricately woven sculptural installation made from twigs and branches. Situated on Huron Church Road, against the LeBel (Visual Arts) building, Ear, is part of the summer-long exhibition Artists Projects. Wiens says the piece has an ecological theme.
“I’m looking at material that’s readily available and is actually even cast off,” says Wiens, who expressed appreciation for the countless bundles of brush and twigs collected by students for the project. Because the material was cast off, it was not only free, but leaves a fairly low ecological footprint.
“The material is temporary and can break down. That’s another aspect of it,” he adds. After the piece is taken down, Wiens says it can be potentially composted and find another natural use as soil.
Robert Wiens’ Ear will be featured in the Open Corridor Artists Projects Exhibition, which runs from June 18 to September 29. Wiens, whose practice covers all areas of production, including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and performance, says the festival is an interesting way to address important aspects of ecology.
Spending his first 18 years of his life growing up in Essex County, Wiens developed a love for the native Carolinian forest. He says he would like to see the forest revived in the Windsor area, with its unique tree and plant species. His interest in the Carolinian forest is behind his choice of materials for Ear. Wiens has created other works from twigs, namely Log ll – but why did he choose an ear as the subject of this latest piece?
“It’s a part of the anatomy that listens or that observes,” he explains. “It is part of our recognizing and understanding the world that we live in. So that’s very much a part of this piece.”
Wiens has been impressed with the enthusiasm he has seen in the Green Corridor students this intersession. Many have spent countless hours contributing to Ear, in preparation for the Open Corridor launch party on June 18.
“It’s been very enjoyable having these people around and contributing something,” says Wiens. “I hope they’ve learned something and appreciated the experience as well.”
OPEN CORRIDOR ART FESTIVAL LAUNCH PARTY JUNE 18
June 16th, 2009, 7:48 pm
Noel Harding’s Galileo
Canada’s busiest international border corridor is being transformed into a drive-through art gallery this summer by the University of Windsor’s Green Corridor. From June 18 to September 29, the Open Corridor Festival will feature outdoor public art exhibitions, events and performances along the area identified as “the Green Corridor,” on Huron Church Road between College Avenue and Assumption High School.
Please join the 2009 Green Corridor intersession class in celebrating
the opening of the Open Corridor Festival on June 18, 2009.
· Guided walking tours of the artwork will be available from 3:00-4:00 p.m.
· A short ceremony will commence at 4:30 p.m.
· Green Corridor students, professors and artists will be on hand to discuss the Green Corridor class and initiative, as well as the festival and artwork
· All events will take place at the University of Windsor LeBel (Visual Arts) building, located at the southwest corner of Huron Church Road and College Avenue.
“We have the potential to actually engage the city of Windsor in a different way of thinking about itself,” says Green Corridor co-founder and professor Rod Strickland, who is also contributing an original piece to the exhibition.
“We are creating a strong narrative which will challenge the community to think about ecology, transportation, this corridor and what they mean. I think this Open Corridor Festival will be one of the first manifestations of something quite amazing that hopefully the community will enjoy.”
Kim Adams and the Auto-Lamp
June 9th, 2009, 6:23 pm
An internationally renowned artist visited students of the Green Corridor class in May to talk about drilling “millions” of holes in a gutted-out Dodge van. Kim Adams is one of the contributing artists to the Open Corridor festival, which opens June 18. His piece— auto-lamp – will be featured in the Artists Projects exhibition, which runs throughout the summer until the end of September.
To help with the task of drilling an intricate network of lines of varying hole sizes, he has enlisted and trained several of the 60 students currently taking the Green Corridor class this intersession. Teams of drillers have been working on the 1986 Dodge 250 van, perforating it with intermingling designs. It will undergo deburring, sanding and painting before being installed along Huron Church Road, while a lighting system will be set up within the van to create the visual effect of a large lamp.
“This Dodge van will become a projector, basically, with all of its holes,” explains Adams. “We’re trying to do it in an environmentally friendly way that the sunlight can produce this light and pump the light out of the vehicle.”
Adams’ work focuses primarily on interactive public art, street culture and the nomadic conditions of modern life. He incorporates found, industrial and automobile components in his work. It is his fascination for the automotive that attracts him to Windsor.
“I’ve always been working with cars,” says Adams, who currently lives in Orangeville, Ontario. “Windsor’s definitely one of the places (to be for this industry).”
Adams is involved with the Open Corridor initiative because he sees it as an opportunity to interact with the public on one of Canada’s busiest border corridors. As for the message he’s hoping to convey with auto- lamp, he says he leaves that for individual viewers to decide.
“I don’t even tell them it’s art because I want them to have their own freedom to (interpret) it,” says Adams. “As soon as it enters into a conversation of it being art, I lose them. That’s just sort of the nature of the beast. When you say it’s art, they just shut down.”
Green Corridor Intersession Class
June 4th, 2009, 6:24 pm
For the first time this spring, the Green Corridor course is being offered during intersession. Headed by professors Rod Strickland, Justin Langlois and artist Noel Harding, the course gives students the opportunity to be a part of an ongoing initiative to raise environmental and ecological awareness of North America’s busiest international corridor.
With approximately 60 students, this is the largest class in the course’s five-year history. Students from all disciplines, including business, engineering, visual art, drama, communications, social work and others, contribute their knowledge and experiences in a practical, hands-on way.
Students are working in teams according to their interests and specialties. With coursework involving tasks that range from planning, researching, and writing, to working with a range of regional, national, and international artists as part of the Open Corridor Festival. Involvement in the Green Corridor for the students is often more like working for a non-profit organization than being in a traditional class.
The intersession course lasts only six weeks, however students meet at the LeBel building on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The June 18 opening of the Open Corridor Festival marks the end of the semester and many students are putting in numerous hours outside of class time in order to prepare.
The Green Corridor class will carry on in the fall semester and will require a new creative and energetic batch of students to continue the work started by this intersession class and the students who came before. It is open to students enrolled in semester five and above, as well as graduate students, and can be found in the SIS menu under Visual Arts. For more information, contact Professor Rod Strickland at strickl@uwindsor.ca.
ecohouse is moving!
June 4th, 2009, 6:00 pm
The ecohouse is currently in the process of moving from its original location on Sunset Avenue, to two new houses located at 362-372 California Ave. The new space will provide a range of exciting opportunities for research and community collaboration.
Students are currently transplanting native vegetation from the former site as part of a 100-year sustainable garden plan. These plants will be able to flourish naturally, benefitting from other projects, such as storm water filtration through the implementation of a small-scale urban wetland.
To help fund some of the upcoming initiatives, students from the Green Corridor course held a garage sale at the new ecohouse on May 31, 2009. The funds raised from the sale will go towards the maintenance and further development of the ecohouse project.
Garage Sale
June 4th, 2009, 5:49 pm
Students from the Green Corridor intersession course hosted a garage sale Sunday, May 31, which attracted attention from the media and local shoppers. The event was organized to promote the ecohouse, which has recently moved from Sunset Avenue to a new location at 362-372 California Ave. Funds raised will be directed towards various costs associated with the move and preparing the sites for future research. Many of the donated items were sold, from baskets, to sheets, clothing, shelves, toys and even a television.
Students arrived at 7 a.m. to set up for the 8 a.m. sale. Many visitors were inquisitive about the Green Corridor course and the ecohouse, including a reporter from CBC radio, who interviewed students.
The event was a great opportunity to raise awareness about the ecohouse and future Green Corridor initiatives.
