Release party for Prefix Photo 29 and
opening reception for False Fronts:
Thursday, May 8, 2014, 7–10pm
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5V 3A8
Hours: Wednesday–Saturday noon–5pm
Admission is free.
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the release of the twenty-ninth issue of Prefix Photo magazine. On the subject of improbable architecture, editor Scott McLeod writes: “Photography has the versatility, perhaps unique to the medium, to be able to represent the everyday and the extraordinary in equal measure. Where architectural subjects are concerned, photography may be used to draw attention to vernacular styles hitherto overlooked, as well as to depict buildings so extraordinary that, were it not for the photographic evidence, one could scarcely believe they exist. Crucial to the allure of such images is the viewer’s willingness to believe that the subject of the photograph is, or could be, real.”
Contributors to the magazine include the following:
Bruce Johnson reflects on the photographic work of Steve Payne, ruminating on the uniqueness of both Newfoundland and photography. As a documentarian, Payne is drawn to subjects that are nearing their end in the physical and cultural landscape: the small, independent taxi stands that once littered downtown St. John’s, Toronto’s vanishing lakeshore motels, Newfoundland’s architectural manifestations of the western facade, or false front. Photographing buildings as a portraitist would people, Payne articulates those visual narratives and peculiarities that constitute “place” by making visible structures generally ignored or overlooked.
Kenneth Hayes, Srimoyee Mitra and Lee Rodney explore works by artists Rodney Graham, Amar Kanwar and Pedro Reyes presented at the Carnegie International, one of the largest and, certainly, most venerable perennial exhibitions of contemporary art in North America. In the fall of 2013, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh launched the 56th iteration of this exhibition under the curatorship of Daniel Baumann, Dan Byers and Tina Kukielski. Eschewing a dominant theme, the exhibition featured a broad spectrum of artistic sensibilities and approaches.
Scott McLeod examines three video installations by Montréal artist Myriam Yates, each of which is a unique meditation on the Hippodrome de Montréal, formerly a popular horse racetrack and now a vacant site awaiting its inevitable redevelopment. Yates’s work conveys how the evolution of culture is marked by changes in the architectural infrastructure that supports cultural activities, and mines the possibilities afforded by transitional spaces to remember the past, inhabit the present and imagine the future.
cheyanne turions, in her literary feature, meditates upon a photograph, taken in 1973, of two Aboriginal men who stride purposefully, their rifles readied, toward an altercation at Wounded Knee. Within North American culture, the militancy of the Aboriginal Peoples who have taken up arms against the oppressors is given a certain weight and importance. But, as a young Aboriginal women distanced from these men by time and space, turions struggles with this weight, acknowledging the ways in which her own actions are aligned with yet different from those of her ancestors.
Other contributors include Linda-Marlena Bucholtz Ross, Filip Dujardin, Isabelle Hayeur, Sarah Anne Johnson and Janice Kerbel, with book reviews by Peggy Gale, Shaun Pett, Andréa Picard and Matthew Ryan Smith.
On the occasion of the release of the magazine, Prefix ICA is proud to present False Fronts, an exhibition curated by Scott McLeod and featuring the work of Steve Payne. The release party for the magazine and the opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Thursday, May 8, from 7 to 10pm at Prefix ICA, located at 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124, Toronto. Admission is free. The exhibition continues until July 26. Co-presented with the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, this exhibition is supported by the Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Prefix Photo is published by Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Inc., a registered charitable organization that fosters the appreciation and understanding of contemporary photographic, media and digital arts. Prefix Photo is available by subscription and in fine bookstores and newsstands in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Prefix Photo acknowledges its Supporting Sponsor Steam Whistle Brewing, its Official Catering Sponsor à la Carte Kitchen and its Official Hotel Sponsor Hotel Le Germain for their assistance with the release party held for Prefix Photo 29 in Toronto.
Prefix Photo gratefully acknowledges the assistance of its staff, volunteers and patrons, as well as the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
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