Curated by Su-Ying Lee and Suzanne Carte-Blanchenot
XPACE
58 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
June 26 – July 25, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, June 26, 7 – 10 PM
Panel Discussion: Saturday July 4, 2009
Closing Yard Sale: July 25th, 2009
XPACE
PRESS RELEASE
MOTEL
Alison S. M. Kobayashi and Gintas Tirilis
Curated by Su-Ying Lee and Suzanne Carte-Blanchenot
XPACE
58 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
June 26 – July 25, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, June 26, 7 – 10 PM
Panel Discussion: Saturday July 4, 2009
Closing Yard Sale: July 25th, 2009
In the cold winter of 2008 Gintas Tirilis and Alison S. M. Kobayashi explored the Mississauga, Etobicoke suburbs desperately in search a warm place where they could smoke cigarettes. What the pair discovered was a strip of motels along Lakeshore Blvd, just on the edge of Toronto, abandoned. Further exploration into these dilapidated structures became a nightly routine as they dared to gain greater access and eventually decided to remove some of the discarded vestiges for preservation.
Motel is a collection that archives these salvaged objects and includes documentary photography, carefully-constructed dioramas, artist multiples, and a narrative video installation, all inspired by their “break and enter†experiences. It is at once a faithful, if sometimes humorous, record of the illicit navigation and an attempt to deal with the disappearance of these largely family-run establishments.
Motel does not claim to be a complete investigation or a particularly reliable document. It cannot help, however, but speak loudly to the decline of independent businesses, the deterioration of border towns, and to failed attempts to revitalize business zones. And while the beauty and strangeness of the ruin arouses nostalgia for a simpler time, the delinquent artist’s also have a sense of satire and play in their preservation. It’s a memorial, but it’s also the opening of an adventure.
Alison S. M. Kobayashi is a Toronto based visual artist working in video, performance, installation and print. A recent graduate of the University of Toronto at Mississauga, Kobayashi has also shown her videos internationally at the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival in Washington, The Flaherty International Film Seminar and the Hong Kong Independent Short Film Festival.
Gintas Tirilis is a Mississauga based visual artist working in video, installation and sound. He graduated from the University of Toronto at Mississauga in 2008 and is studying early childhood education at Nippising University. His sound sculptures and video installations have been exhibited in the Young and Restless at Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Toronto) and Lennox Contemporary (Toronto).
If you are interested in renting a table at the Closing Yard Sale on Saturday 25 July, from 8:00 am – 12:00 pm please contact suzy@artlitwell.com. Space is limited.
XPACE
58 Ossington Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M6J 2Y7 Canada
Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 12 – 6PM
416.849.2864
serena@xpace.info
www.xpace.info