Critical Writing Index

Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto

by Luis Jacob

Toronto: Art Museum, 2020

ISBN 9781912165278

Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto is a three-part project including a research-oriented conference, an exhibition, and a book, curated by Luis Jacob. The book documents the artworks included in the exhibition along with essays tracing patterns between the artworks and offering context. Together the art and essays address the physical, cultural, and social construction and re-constructions of the city of Toronto. They attend to the history of the city, as well as, the histories that have been suppressed in the processes of colonial placemaking. The book takes a close look at artistic production in Toronto in order to create a portrait of the city while simultaneously unsettling colonial relations to this place.

Content:

Director's Preface by Barbara Fischer;

Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto by Luis Jacob;

When Fictions Become Form;

Inhabitants of A Vacant Lot;

Views From the 6ix;

Borderline Cases;

This is Paradise;

List of Exhibited and Illustrated Works;

List of Quotations;

Artist Bios.

ITEM 2020.017 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Premises for Self-Rule – Robert Houle

Work in Progress – Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge

Miss Canadiana's Heritage and Culture Walking Tour: the hidden Black History of the Grange – Camille Turner

Birthday Suit - with scars and defects – Lisa Steele

The Double Voice – Margaret Atwood

Reading – Will Kwan

In Memory of the Toronto Scene, List of Names of Boys I Grew Up With – Greg Curnoe

Casting Glances – Adrian Blackwell

The Mr. Peanut Issue of FILE vol. 1 no.1 – General Idea

Painters Eleven, Group Portrait on top of Park Plaza – Tess Boudreau Taconic

Metropolis – Harold Town

Dreamscape Street Car Dundas Street, Seize This Space – Jeff Thomas

Them – Ho Tam

Figuration of Places – Bonnie Devine

Get Hold of This Space – Gordon Lebredt

Ground Outline – Peter Kolisnyk

Undergrowth – Arthur Lismer

Car Pool – Adrian Blackwell

Reserved Parking – Carlo Cesta

Farewell Oak Street – Grant McLean

Anticipating the Eventual Emergence of Form, Part 1 and 2 – Renée Van Halm

Demolition Site, King and Bathurst – Peter MacCallum

The Rip – Robert Wien

Conditions of Competition: City Hall and Square – Unknown

The Toronto Purchase – Unknown

The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion Letterhead – General Idea

Plan of the harbour of Toronto with the proposed town and settlement – John Collins

Plan for the enlargement of York – Sir David William Smith

Jorge Zontal (General Idea) poses as a construction worker on site outside the General Idea studio – Isobel Harry

The Upright Dot – Tom Dean

Teperman – David Anderson

Sunrise – Rita Letendre

Rita Letendre's Sunrise mural – Duane Linklater

Bear Portraits: Samuel de Champlain Monument – Jeff Thomas

Toronto Purchase – Public Studio

The Page, The man with a hole in his throat – Margaret Atwood

Museum of Found Objects: Toronto – Sameer Farooq and Mirjam Linschooten

Track it Around – David Armstrong Six

Melted Tin – Karen Henderson

Mobile Ink Factory – The Toronto Ink Company

Microbes Swabbed From a Palette Used by Tom Thomson – Jon Sasaki

EG Series – Jaan Poldaas

Audition Tape – Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay

We Can't Compete and We Won't Compete – Deirdre Logue and Allyson Mitchell

Swamp – Paraskeva Clark

Toronto – Armstrong, Beere and Hime

2004 Toronto Skyline – Scott Dickson

2016 Future Rendering (proposed 2020 skyline) – Scott Dickson and Robert Koopman

Melted Tin – Karen Henderson

Temples of Commerce – Robert Gagen

Broken Building – Shirley Wiitasalo

The Rosedale Kiss – Charles Pachter

Relief – James Carl

Weather Girl – Peter Bowyer

Michael Buckland is a Minor Artist – Michael Buckland

Famous Artstars, Untitled Star – Mitch Robertson

Jane Jacobs and Northrop Frye – Arnaud Maggs

SHE/SHE – Kim Adams

Poster for the 1971 Miss General Idea Pagent – General Idea

See the Sights – John Marriott

Canadian Painting – Frederick Hagan

Enemy – Denis Villeneuve

Wendy Sage Being Compared – Ian Carr-Harris

Walking Woman in Toronto Subway, Authorization, and Beach-Hcaeb – Michael Snow

Interior at Night – Christiane Pflug

Dopplekopf – Roula Partheniou

Light on (Double Mirror) – General Idea

A Genuine Simulation of.... – Suzy Lake

Self-portrait in My Christian Dior Bathing-Suit – Carl Beam

The Magic of Sao Paulo – Joanne Tod

The Emergence of a Legend – Kent Monkman

2 colossi for YYZ – Gordon Lebredt

Showcard 1-001, 2-001, 3-001, 1-071, 2-072, 2-073, 2-074, 2-025,2-026, 2-030 – General Idea

Ross Street Tapes – Lisa Steele

Self-portrait, Union Station – Michael Lambeth

Self-Portrait with Jorge Zontal – Rodney Werden

Water Sark, Facing North-Self Impression – Joyce Wieland

Time – Kwan Tse

Women's Committee Members – Unknown

But she taught me more – Ian Carr-Harris

The Tangled Garden – JEH MacDonald

Summer Night, Toronto – Yvonne McKague Housser

Untitled, 2012 – Annie MacDonell

John in the Studio – Frederick Varley

The Mirror has Two Faces – Bridget Moser

This Land is Mime Land – Shelley Niro

My Summer Vacation – David Buchan

Reflections – Nobuo Kubota

ChromaZone/Chromatique – Oliver Girling

Free Dance Lessons – Paige Gratland and Day Milman

Night Gathering – Ed Pien

Underground Space Station – Charlie Murray and Thom Van der Vaag

untitled (Don Blanche) – Olia Mishchenko

Wall Installation by Tom Dean, Front Room of the Cameron Tavern, Queen Street West – Peter MacCallum

Children's Video Collective, Little Monkeys – Steve Reinke

Bag Girls – Colin Campbell

Feral Science, After Harry Harlow – Wendy Coburn

sum of the parts, what can be named – Deanna Bowen

Masks: Artists and Curators – Arthur Renwick

Credits – Daniel Olson