Monday Special Blend
Monday February 19th, 2024 with Nathanael Newton, Maria Hawkins & Chris White
'Crucible'
An Exhibit by Arthur II
in honour of the 50th anniversary of SAW
| Sunwheel dance Bruce Cockburn - Speechless 
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| 'Crucible'
An Exhibit by Arthur II in honour of the 50th anniversary of SAW Opening reception Friday, February 23 7:00 pm – midnight Performances by Bucko and Osita Catering by BanhMiYes Influential Ottawa-based artist Arthur II inaugurates SAW’s new project space with a solo exhibition entitled Crucible. In March 1973, Arthur II was awoken by a raging fire in his shared studio space on Sussex Drive and barely escaped the blaze by running through a burning door. His new series of 12 large paintings looks back at this haunting and surreal moment that catalyzed the creation of SAW, one of Canada’s first artist-run centres. Buck-naked, the artist was able to rip off the cushion of a lobby chair, turning it into a big diaper to greet the firefighters who quickly arrived to extinguish the flames. So began SAW’s storied history, as Arthur II and his studio mates Alyx Jones, John Garner, Brenda Lamb and Peter Lamb scrambled to find a new space to work. It was not long before Le Hibou Coffee House owner Pierre-Paul Lafrenière came to the rescue by offering the artists the second floor of his establishment to run a gallery, printmaking shop and painting studio. Named Sussex Annex Works, the space became the organization now known as SAW. To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2023, SAW commissioned Arthur II to produce all-new works for this exhibition, which will be presented to the public for the first time. Arthur II (pronounced 'two') was born in Ottawa in 1951, where he still lives and works. He is a painter, printmaker, musician and songwriter. In 1973, he and fellow artists John Garner, Alyx Jones, Pierre-Paul Lafreniere, Peter Lamb and Brenda Lamb founded the artist-run centre SAW (originally named Sussex Annex Works), which opened above the legendary Le Hibou Coffee House on Sussex Drive. Arthur has had many exhibitions over the years at SAW. He was a set painter with the Stratford Festival, the National Arts Centre and Landmines Action Canada. He was also a courtroom artist for constitutional hearings at the Supreme Court of Canada and the R. v. Morgentaler case. Arthur II has produced countless posters for bands, solo artists and organizations, notably the National Arts Centre, John Prine, Bruce Cockburn, Valdy and the Hometown Band, the Tuukag Theatre of Greenland, and Le Hibou. He was a fixture in the Ottawa and larger Canadian folk scenes, designing dozens of album covers, including for 'Blackie and the Rodeo King' by Willie P. Bennet, 'Lost & Found' by David Wiffen and 'Sawdust' by Sneezy Waters. For almost two decades, he also facilitated community mural projects at the Ottawa Folk Festival, the Winnipeg Folk Festival and Folk Alliance International in Memphis. ----- SAW Video / DARC History SAW Video (now called DARC) was initiated in 1981 as a project of the Sussex Annex Works (S.A.W.) located at that time in Ottawa’s Byward Market. Highlights of SAW Video Coop’s early years include the Ottawa International Festival of Video Art (1983 & 1986). The JumpstART grant was created in 1985 to assist artists new to video and continues to this day, having supported over 100 productions. In 1988, SAW Video and SAW Gallery moved together to Arts Court, forming the multidisciplinary centre Galerie-SAW-Video. Stability in Arts Court resulted in significant growth for SAW Video in the 1990’s, growing our membership and enhancing our facilities. A youth training program (1997 to 2006), introduced a new generation of video makers to the centre. In 2001, SAW Video officially separated from SAW Gallery, forming SAW Video Association. Specific innovative successes and opportunities for media artists over the years include the development and launch of Mediatheque in 2003, an online streaming platform (beating Youtube by two years) featuring 500 films/videos by Canadian independent media artists; Far Out Locations brings video workshops to priority neighbourhoods across Ottawa since 2007; Public Domain, a national commissioning project in collaboration with Library and Archives Canada (2009-10); Spark Lab, a video training/creation program for Deaf and disabled artists (2017); Knot Projections: Imagining Publics – a large-scale public projection series that took place throughout Ottawa from July to November 2019. DARC is the largest media arts centre in Eastern Ontario and one of the largest in the country. In early 2018, SAW Video moved out of the basement to its new expanded location (expanding from 2000 sq ft to 5000 sq ft), as a result of the Arts Court re-development. The facility is now fully wheelchair accessible and able to provide increased and high-quality services to the media arts community. The new facilities include: Knot project space (Ottawa’s first and only media arts designated presentation space); a state of the art surround sound audio suite and recording studio; purpose-built designated workshop space, tripling our education capacity; and the LOOP, a collaborative and experimental learning- and work-space, available to DARC members, Arts Court tenants and organizational members. |
| Ring of Fire Johny Cash - |
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