orange peeler at mount royal tennis club inc.

orange peel stuffed into the crack of the wooden plank found at the base of the fence surrounding the club.

the private club.

orange dream

j’ai rêvé que j’achetais trois grandes oranges vertes dans chinatown

i dreamt i bought three large green oranges in chinatown.

jack peels orange

today my friend jack accompanied me. i took photos while jack peeled his orange.

this is an organic orange, close to tangerine size. thin skinned, tangy and juicy.

reflections on “eating oranges in public”

i do agree. it seems banal, simple. but for me it is not so easy. when i am alone i feel a slight unease in assuming a place, in taking up a place. it is subtle, but i feel it. i have a certain anxiety about occupying public space when there is no sanctioned reason behind it. and in this “performance” i eat an orange in public for the sake of eating an orange in public. i am not watching my kids in the park, i am not on a break from work, i have no real reason to be where i am doing what i am doing.

and then there is the intimacy of eating in public. the orange is moist, juicy and somehow slightly sensual, the peeling of the skin, the sectioning of the orange, this leisure in taking time to nourish oneself. all this further complicated by my deliberate placing of the peel and taking of the photograph. and then i walk away. leaving the peel behind as “evidence” that refuses to be put in its allotted space.

small acts of intentionality

i am working (again) with oranges. slowly.

i sit alone in public. i slowly peel an orange. i place the peels on the surface i am sitting on. then i slowly eat the orange. recently i started making little “arrangements” with the orange peels and photographing them.

urban sculptures.

newly added bread-bed photos on the bread-bed page.

orange in palm of hand

dear sophie,

today i bought a large orange for 75 cents  at the iranian butcher/grocery store on ontario street. i carried the orange to the belgo building on sainte catherine street. i held the orange in my right hand, my arm close to my body, with the orange held out …a bit like i was holding my hand out asking for money…except my hand was filled with the bright orange. i slowly rotated the orange in my hand conscious of the weight and texture of it. i walked deliberately slightly slower than usual. when i got to the belgo building i walked up the stairs to optica, where suzanne caines was exhibiting a video document of a performance she did in a grocery store inviting people to share a bowl of soup with her. i sat on the bench between the two video projections with my orange on my knee. i had intended to ask someone if they wanted to share my orange with me…but after fifteen minutes when no-one came into the room i left the projection room and gave the orange to suzanne.

sincerely,

karen elaine spencer

the independant study group curates an exhibition in göteborg, sweden..and i’m a part of it!

May 2009 —
What Happens when Nothing Happens : Unrealised ideas from Montreal
at Gallery Rotor 1, Göteborg, Sweden
Vernissage May 28th 2009

September 2009
What Happens When Nothing Happens
will travel to FOFA Galllery, Montreal, Canada

The Independant Study Group will present an exhibition by Montreal based artists at Gallery Rotor 1 in Göteborg, Sweden in May 2009.

The exhibition will present Montreal based artists exploring media ranging from performance to drawing, to new media installation, to video and sculpture.

A reflection on the process that takes place in preparation of
making, what happens before an object of art is conceived, unedited ideas, processes, everything and all that comes before the final production.

It will be about searching, classifying, studying, memorializing, categorizing and the archiving of a grand idea.

The importance does not lie in what will be but in what is.

Showing the development of ideas for something that can not or
perhaps will not ever be conceived.

i dream a dream

i dream a dream

upon waking i write the dream

and mail it to you

you are a stranger to me

this dream is for you

ottawa- 1,179 homeless children