Critical Writing Index

A Space chooses evolution over revolution: New shows a return to roots for artist run centre

by John Bentley Mays

The Globe and Mail, Nov. 26, 1983

This article reviews the inaugral exhbitions of artist-run centre A Space, after it appointed a new board of directors and moved locations. Bentley Mays recounts that the new board of directors pledged itself to a political program that would build links with the politically active people in the community. However, Mays suggests that the first exhibitions, Second Link: Viewpoints on Video in the Eighties and Production/Reproduction, are focused not on the revolutionary potential of art, but on strengthening avant-garde art-world links and discourse. He concludes by saying that the exhibitions end up being about traditional art galleries.

ITEM 1983.047 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Montana – Tanya Mars

Ohio to Giverny: Memory of Light – Lisa Steele

A-Z – Jane Wright

Les Mots/Maux du Silence – Carole Conde

...And Now the Truth (A Parenthesis) – Norman Richmond

City of Angles – Barbara London

City of Angles – Jane Veeder

Industrial Track – Mary Lucier

Sandy Nairne

John Scarlett-Davis

Helen Doyle

Vera Frenkel

Marina Abramovic

Ulay

John Watt