Artsy Fartsy News: Sculpture that farts visits Montreal

Cloaca No. 5, a sculpture that farts and poops, by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye, opened Friday in Montreal at the Universite du Quebec's art gallery. The installation, containing a series of tubes, vats, elctronic and structural parts, resembles a mini brewery more than anything.

According to this story on CBC, the sculpture is on exhibit courtesy of a $30,000 travel grant from the Canada Council.

This seems to be yet another chapter in the ongoing story of how the only way to get the art into the news in Canada is to do something controversial.

Better Place Strikes Deal with Ontario

An electric vehicle infrastructure venture company, Better Place, will be setting up a head office for Canada in Ontario.

Ontario, the largest vehicle producing state or province in North America, will in turn conduct a comprehensive study, which will look at:

* ways to speed up the introduction and adoption of electric vehicles
* possibility of preferred access to roadways for electric vehicles
* giving incentives for purchasing electric vehicles (evs)
* enabling accelerated government fleet conversion to evs
* providing public education on the topic

The study is scheduled for release in May 2009. At the same time, Better Place (BP) will be developing an electric car charging network plan and timeline.

Better Place's business model calls for something similar to the cell phone model.

i.e. - instead of just plugging in to any outlet whenever you want, you not only have to use BP's exclusive outlets, you will also have to pay a monthly bill. Anyone who gets a monthly phone bill is already familiar with the creative bogus add-ons and line items that this implies...

“With today’s announcement, Ontario is taking a system-wide approach to retooling its economy for growth and environmental leadership,” said Shai Agassi, BP's founder and CEO. “Our partnership will move Ontario toward a new era in personal transportation – from the current Car 1.0 model centered on the internal combustion engine to a Car 2.0 model of electric cars powered by renewable energy. This announcement is the all-important first step in an expected electric car charging network rollout for Canada, and we look forward to working in partnership with the Ontario government on it.”

How much room is there for different electric car charging projects in Canada?

To what extent does this announcement imply potential monopoly down the road?

How will this project impact other EV projects in the works?

Will there still be a possibility of other electric cars that you can simply plug into the grid anywhere?

BP justifies using an exclusive green electricity provider (Bullfrog Power) because grid electric power would hardly be any greener than gasoline in Ontario. OK but what about other provinces where electricity is already emission free? How does this fit with an "electric car charging network rollout for Canada"?

Good questions - let's get them answered before this new concept rolls out of the showroom...

In any event, kudos to Ontario for doing something!

The role of the artist as an individual who is actively seeking solutions to improve our world

Alan Sonfist nails it in this interview by John Grande with the RSA Arts & Ecology Magazine. The artist needs to actively seek solutions to improve the world. Yep it seems that society needs artists more than ever before - and it's about time the artists realized it!

John Grande:
So you would recommend as a strategy for young land and earth artists involved in the public sphere, to try venues outside the art world, natural history museums, botanical gardens and so on and so forth?

Alan Sonfist:
All my art involves a clear understanding of environmental issues and their unique relationship with the local community. Within the 21st century we have to redefine the role of the artist as an individual who is actively seeking solutions to improve our world.

$23,000: Average artist earnings in Canada

There is a nice series in the Toronto Star by Bruce Demara that explores the economic situation of artists in Canada. Some of the statistics quoted are shown below:

Artists' earnings

$23,500: Average yearly earnings nationally – 26 per cent less than the average among other workers.
41: Percentage of artists with a university degree, certificate or diploma, compared to 22 per cent in the overall workforce.
29: Percentage growth in the number of artists between 1991 and 2001, compared to 10 per cent in the overall workforce.
67: Percentage of artists who work at other jobs to survive economically.

Sources: Artists in Large Canadian Cities, 2006, Hill Strategies Research Inc.; The Status of the Artist in Ontario Report

Actors' earnings

Income figures from Sept. 2007 to Sept. 2008 for the 20,000-plus members of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists:

54: Percentage of members who reported income from performing, with 46 per cent reporting zero income from performing.
$6,127: Average income for all members.
$11,269: Average income for members with performance income.
$5,850/$4,85: Average earnings for actors aged 21 to 30 (for women and men respectively).

Income figures for the most recent year for the 4,120 live performance and theatre artists in the Canadian Actors' Equity Association:

1,207: Number of members working across Canada in an average week.
$12,226: Average yearly income for all members.
$11,481: Average yearly income for members with less than three years of membership.

Sources: ACTRA, CAEA

This is all fine and good. It can be very difficult to work as an artist full time in Canada. That much we know. Unfortunately, very little is ever done to address the core reason for this problem: that is, that Canadian art is under-valued the world over.

And what is the reason for that? Simple, the "PR / promotion machines" for visual art in many other countries are miles ahead of Canada.

Although it's really nice to see artist interviews in the Toronto Star, this does not even scratch the surface.

Promotion of Canadian art needs to occur at the global level.