Quick Draw Artist Interview #32: Margie Kelk

Quick Draw Artist Interviews are a series of interviews conducted by Otino Corsano using Facebook's IM Chat feature. Spontaneous conversations with international artists are recorded and documented specifically for publication on this blog.

Quick: Prize. It's all very exciting. Just writing to say my opinion mean$ way more. After seeing all of them in person and meeting everyone I genuinely feel I couldn't have made a better selection. Don’t kid yourself. Well no one's pretending in this world. We all know it and I'm just happy to have been able to benefit. Seriously, the work in person was craaaaazy different from what it looked like online. Floored me a little when I walked in the room. Just thinkin'bout my future is all. I'll have you know I'm mid-painting as I type this. In the studio, sweatin' away... Painting your perspiration... Draw: art about art.

Margie Kelk (Toronto, ON) has been exhibiting her artwork in Canada since 2000. Her artistic practice reflects contemporary concerns about cultural history and politics. Kelk takes an exploratory and experimental approach as she appropriates and reconstructs visual fragments of ideas through diverse artistic media that includes ceramic sculpture, installation, drawing and painting, video and photography. She was on the Board of the Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts (Toronto, Ontario) for eight years, and was Chair for six of them. Since 2009, Kelk has been exhibiting she has been an active member of Red Head Gallery (Toronto), and she is now gallery Chair. Her China-based books and drawings were represented by Headbones Gallery (Toronto) in 2006-7. She was a member of Gallery 1313, also in Toronto, from 2003 until 2007. She has received prizes for several of her works, and has been awarded grants by the Ontario Arts Council. Margie is a graduate of Wellesley College, The Johns Hopkins University (PhD.), and the Toronto School of Art degree program.

http://www.margiekelk.com

http://www.redheadgallery.org

http://www.redheadgallery.org/redrospective2013

Margie Kelk

Chat Conversation Start

Today

3 minutes ago

Otino

7:31pm

Hi Margie

All ready to start?

Margie

7:31pm

Sure!

Otino

7:32pm

Should I call you Dr. Kelk?

Margie

7:33pm

No way! The doctorate came from Johns Hopkins University in Italian and French literature, and I taught both of those languages for a while before pursuing Visual Art. I do not use the Dr. title.

Otino

7:36pm

Was it your earlier studies at Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris which inspired your transition to practice visual art?

Margie

7:37pm

I always drew as a child, but I stopped making art in high school. I did not start drawing again until I was a graduate student at Hopkins, and then it was just for fun. I taught languages when I first came to Toronto, then stopped and decided to take some art courses "for real”. They led to my present situation.

Otino

7:40pm

I understand you studied with Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Max Ernst, Sonia Delauney, Jean Dubuffet and Victor Vasarely while attending Ecole des Hautes Etudes.

Margie

7:40pm

I was actually studying literature when I was in France; yet the program was very unusual as our professors were professionals who were active in the Paris cultural community. Jean-Louis Ferrier, who taught Art History, was also the art editor of L'Express magazine at the time, and he got us into the art studios of famous artists. We also frequented the public galleries on Tuesdays when they were closed to the public! We were a very spoiled bunch!

Otino

7:42pm

When did you first meet cyberspace theorist Alan Sondheim?

Margie

7:44pm

Alan is actually my brother! He and I have had our ups and downs, often in regards to his writing or my work, but for the most part, we talk often and get along well. He is very inspiring! He often sees things in my work I am not immediately aware of which I can then recognize and expand upon.

Otino

7:45pm

Wow! That's awesome!

Margie

7:46pm

We have often talked about literary theories, and theoretical criticism.

Otino

7:47pm

His introduction to your current show at the Red Head Gallery sets up a dichotomy between the mechanistic and the human body. Was this inspired or a return to your early academic work alongside Roland Barthes?

Margie

7:51pm

It is interesting you mention Barthes. He was my professor in France for a year, and I studied his work. At the time, I did not appreciate his reliance on the text as object and only as object; however, now I see this objectification actually pertains to my drawing of machinery and its rapport to the human body rather well. The human is rendered "object," and the object is rendered "human."

Otino

7:52pm

In his prelude Mr. Sondheim  , your bro, also states you spent a lot of time in a machine shop. I'm wondering if you can provide more insight into this personal context.

Seen 7:53pm

Margie

7:55pm

Sure! My husband was CEO of an engineering company for over 35 years. The company manufactured load cells, which are measuring apparatus used in the rolling of metals such as steel in a hot mill, always under extreme heat. The company manufactured the load cells on site. I found the machine shop fascinating.

Otino

7:57pm

Can we talk about one of the works in your "SWARF" solo exhibition - let's say "Metaphorical Machine" as a way to bring this personal context to the realm of your current practice?

Margie

8:02pm

"Metaphorical Machine" is a drawing of a computer which drives one of the machines in the machine shop. I found the idea of a computer controlling machinery analogous in a way to the human beings who set the computer controls for the whole machining process. The mechanical takes over the human.

Otino

8:06pm

I find this topic of the analogue viewed through the lens of contemporary culture a fascinating topic although it appears to be well covered in the field of current visual interest. Through this new body of work, what is your take on how these processes are playing out in both external visual art discourses as well as within the specific processes you employ in your own practice?

Margie

8:07pm

The fuzzy details in the background of "Metaphorical Machine" have an almost organic softness about them. There is a distance between hard-edged drawing and an expressionistic style produced by human gestures.

The mechanical versus the "breathing” or “gestural" is the melding of the gritty, mechanical with the human body and its own processes of growth and decay.

Contemporary artists in London use taxidermy in installations devoid of sentimentality: the body is rendered object. My work shows no sentimentality, and hopefully there is no surfacing of emotion. Still, there is a sense of unpredictability in the lines. I do not draw with a ruler, and I hope the drawings show a certain lack of rigidity despite the subject manner they are dealing with.

Otino

8:21pm

How is the work, "Angel on the Rails" specifically concerned with these same industrial-meets-organic interests and working process?

Margie

8:27pm

The drawing is of a deep hole drilling machine - also called a gun drill.

The cups on the bottom left denote human presence, and the drawing on the far right might be conceived as a human head. The organic mixes with the sterile and the mechanical here; nevertheless, the coils on the top third of the picture plane seem to dissolve and disperse, much like the human body over time. The drawing melds the organic with the rigidity of machinery and both dissolve into gestures of non-permanence.

Otino

8:28pm

This is theoretically intense and spectacular work Margie.

Margie

8:28pm

I didn't conceive it as such, yet I guess this is what developed along the way!

Otino

8:30pm

As mentioned in our recent and earlier telephone conservation, I would like to talk about the Red Head Gallery as a significant Visual Art centre.

I thank you in advance for agreeing to extend this conversation into this more collaborative field of collective discourse.

Margie

8:31pm

I would love to talk about Red Head. I feel the gallery has a very strong presence on the Toronto Art Scene.

Otino

8:32pm

I think it is time to talk more in depth about Red Head Gallery as an artist-run organization for a number of reasons:

It is nearing its 25th year history as a premiere cutting edge gallery.

It is about to embark on some important events and initiatives.

I just learned a day ago Red Head alumni Kartz Ucci has passed away.

I’m reminded of Kartz’s important presence. She was influential in securing the new and current space at 401 Richmond and organizing the move from the original location - the Darling Building at 96 Spadina in Toronto.

My first and only solo exhibition as a Red Head member was the inaugural show in the 401 Richmond location and it would have never happened without her help. She even donated her computer to the ‘new’ gallery.

Margie

8:39pm

Red Head is organizing a fund-raising sale of fine art prints by alumni who have now become well known artists on the Canadian scene. The artists had donated the prints to the gallery years ago. The sale will happen on December 17 of this year. We have been in contact with most of the Red Head alumni who produced these prints.

Otino

8:40pm

Yes, My friend and current Red Head member Teri Donovan sent me information about this gallery fundraiser. It was awesome to see work by Tony Wilson in the show.

Margie

8:41pm

I find Red Head artists are often very helpful with various problems. The nice part about being in a collective is the amount of information individual members may offer to others.

Otino

8:41pm

I was reading Andy Fabo's tribute to Tony in "Tony Wilson: Three Fables and a Shadow Biography" since he was one of the original founding members of the gallery.

Margie

8:42pm

Yes, Tony Wilson will be exhibited alongside Julie Voyce, Ed Pien, and others. It will be a good show. We have quite a number of illustrious alumni to celebrate here!

Otino

8:44pm

In my mind Red Head is not only a Canadian collective entity. I think it rivals other significant global artists collectives in regards to its ability to remain poignant and continually challenging outside the confines of other art contexts: commercial or otherwise.

The Kitchen in New York - also known as an art star incubator and raw testing ground for bleeding edge work – is also on par in my view.

Margie

8:46pm

That is a lovely tribute, Otino! One thing we stress is the ability of Red Head artists to create work they feel is pertinent and strong. There is no need to sell.

Otino

8:47pm

I agree there is no need to sell Red Head as an artistic heart yet I do think financial support could make it more visible to the broader public and international stage.

Red Head alumni have been consistently influential in keeping the Toronto scene alive and kicking for decades even though not as popularly spotlighted as the Kitchen’s Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Charles Atlas, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, and Kiki Smith.

Well, there is Ed Pien as mentioned, Lorna Mills and other alumni of more cross-border prominence.

Margie

8:49pm

Sometimes we rue the fact we do not try to be a commercial gallery; surely sales would help finance Red Head. (20% of all sales go to the running of the gallery.) But we rely on our artists' integrity, to themselves and their practices, which in fact are often based on social or political concerns. I think artistic integrity is first and foremost in our interests!

Otino

8:50pm

When I was living in Los Angeles, the community took great pride in their local histories with LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) holding centre court through key generations and art evolutions there.

I had the privilege of meeting and studying with many LACE alumni like: John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Mike Kelley, Martin Kersels, Barbara Kruger, Jorge Pardo, Ed Ruscha, Jim Shaw, Diana Thater, and especially Bruce and Normon Yonemoto.

Margie

8:52pm

You had a fantastic opportunity, meeting so many artists in LA!

Perhaps Toronto is not as art-centric as some of the American cities. I feel we cannot compare ourselves with places like LA or New York; we might have done so in the 80s. I think commercialization has influenced much of the Toronto art scene, unfortunately.

Otino

8:54pm

Yet it is many of the Red Head artists who I had the fortune to develop alongside who still remain influential to my art practice today.

I just ran into Gordon Hicks at ESP Gallery last night at Jesse Groome's slick and fantastic painting show. I remember how much work Gordon took on to renovate the current space.

Margie

8:56pm

It is fantastic that so many Red Headers are still out there producing fine art. And we do appreciate their work in renovating our current space. We really like the gallery and its interesting shape!

Otino

8:56pm

Pete Smith and I developed a collaborative practice after our introduction through Red Head.

Michelle Bellemare is still creating sophisticated work of pristine production quality and significant scales.

Margie

8:58pm

I am not familiar with Michelle's work. I shall have to look her up!

We recently sent a traveling show to Blink Gallery in Ottawa, and this summer, Red Head will show the same exhibition at ARC Gallery in Chicago.

Otino

8:59pm

As the active Chair of the gallery, can you provide a view into the future vision current members have for Red Head?

Margie

9:05pm

I think we are feeling more and more confident in the gallery's position as a strong presence on the Canadian art scene. We successfully participated in Art Toronto two years ago, and this year, four of us are representing Red Head in the Art Fair again. We are mounting traveling shows in addition to the monthly show schedule we present every year in Toronto. Our shows consistently get press coverage, in publications like Canadian Art, the Globe and Mail, and various art blogs both Toronto and Canada-wide. I feel we are doing well and will continue to exhibit good work in the future.

Otino

9:06pm

Has the gallery enabled programs or exhibitions geared to developing the talents and experiments of younger artists of promise?

Margie

9:10pm

We have had some younger artist members like Sam Mogelonsky exhibit with us. Unfortunately, however, financial pressures preclude our being able to offer exhibition space to younger artists who are not members of the collective.

Otino

9:10pm

What are some of the current challenges Red Head Gallery is facing?

Margie

9:12pm

We are always dealing with financial pressures and membership issues. Unfortunately, we had two members leave this past summer and now we are mounting a membership drive to replace them.

We do not depend on grants to pay our running costs; membership fees and a yearly fund-raising initiative are what pay our bills.

Otino

9:14pm

I think it would be great if a significant Canadian Art benefactor could step in and offer Red Head help with the resources they need. Although I am aware of how such endowment could challenge the gallery’s mandate to preserve an ideal creative status via its rare non-partisan environment.