Notes on a Little Chat with Steve Farmer

Many different characters work in the NSCAD photo department; Steve Farmer is one of those characters. This animated man can be found dashing about the department with photo gear tucked under his arm, trailing students full of questions he tries to answer while on the way to his next class.

Steve is very approachable, he seems always more than happy to stop and help out with any problem a student may have--including, say, the need to write and post a brief article on the photo department. A recognizeable figure in his trademark glasses, beard and running shoes, Steve is an energetic and caring person invested in his students. But he also has a private life--hes'a appily married man and father of two boys.

After graduating from NSCAD in 1989, Steve came back to teach at NSCAD in 1999. The three classes Steve teaches at the moment are "Colour Photo," "Digital Photography" and the "Lighting Studio Workshop". In addition to his teaching, Steve is also a commercial photographer.

When I stopped Steve in the hall to see if I could ask him a couple questions for this piece, he invited me into his office for a chat. In our conversation about photography at NSCAD and photography in general, Steve stressed the importance of a strong technical base in supporting conceptual works. We talked about analog photography; Steve said that he thinks we are losing some of the tactile qualities of the medium. He wonders if some of the magic of photography is slipping now that darkrooms are virtually a thing of the past. --Yet he probably can’t remember the last time he shot a real old fashioned roll of film.

Our discussion on photography was long and winding and could have gone on for hours. I got the feeling that Steve, as both teacher and practitioner, strives to find a balance or artistry and technique in the medium of photography. As student-artists, he advocates that we learn to use all of the tools at our disposal. When asked about how the department has changed, his answer was simple: the technology has changed. Drastically.

I also asked him about his favorite memories from his time as a student at NSCAD and he had three. One was bringing his Mom to his studio where he shared a space with the late Mark Deberov. Deberov was watching a porn flick just as Steve brought his mom into the studio for her tour. He also remembered when Robert Del Tredici spoke on his series “In the Field of the Atom Bomb” and sitting beside Robert Frank during the screening of “Cock Sucker Blues.” As a final question I wanted to know, what was the NSCAD Photography Department like when Steve Farmer was still a student? He answered, “Students were edgier, more conceptual and more international.”
Guess that raises the bar for US now.

by Andrew Farrugia

David Askevold and the Projects Class

REMOVALS HALFWAY BETWEEN THE EQUATOR AND THE NORTH POLE
The extent of and documentation (if any) of the removals is completely in the domain of the students.
- Project concept, submitted by Lawrence Weiner, for David Askevold's Project Class


David Askevold came to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in the fall of 1968. This is where he would come to develop his idea of the Projects Class, which ran from 1969-1972. Originally hired as a sculpture teacher in the Foundation Program, Askevold’s invention of the his Projects Class quickly changed the focus of Foundation, and the nature of his job. Experimentation as a way of teaching and learning became the rule; the idea was to engage students with problems and questions, rather than to train them in fine arts techniques. The Projects Class helped to put NSCAD on the map in the early days and its innovative approach to teaching made people question whether NSCAD was 'the best art school in North America'.

Askevold recruited a number of New York-based and international conceptual artists to write and submit proposals for projects to be completed by the students. These artists included: Robert Barry, Mel Bochner, Jan Dibbets, Sol Lewitt, N E Thing Company, James Lee Byars, Robert Smithson, Doug Huebler, Dan Graham, Lucy Lippard, Joseph Kosuth, and Lawrence Weiner. Some of the artists would come to see the projects progress and became involved with the students collaborative processes.

The projects were submitted on typed or handwritten cards, which would then be given to the students. This sort of exchange—between artists and students---opened up to the idea that teaching or engaging with a class could become a work of art in itself. Often artists who collaborated in the Projects Class would also show their own works in the College galleries. Askevold claimed merely to be the monitor of the process, a sort of midwife. Summer semesters were times during which many openings were set aside for visiting artists that would come to teach classes. In the early days, sometimes a visiting artist would stay for full fall or winter semesters, or the whole year.

Although David Askevold passed away in January of 2008, he leaves behind a remarkable legacy. His work in the Projects Class and elsewhere inspires us to look and to think outside of ourselves, and to seek and find guidance from those artists around us.

Askevold said, of his Projects Class:
" My idea at the time, as an instructor of art, was to bring students closer to the sensibilities of practicing contemporary artists by engaging them directly with the work. Most of the artists involved visited the school to discuss this project as well as their general concepts to the student body. This project helped to initiate a very extensive visiting program."



October 2008 Kristen Sharpe


Works Referenced


Artnet. (2008). David Askevold. Retrieved September 28th, 2008 from http://www.artnet.com/awc/david- askevold.html

Barber, Bruce, ed. Conceptual Art: The NSCAD Connection 1967-1973. Halifax, NS: Anna Leonowens Gallery, NSCAD University, 2001.

Flinn, Sue Carter. (January 31, 2008) Askevold's mystery tour: The death of pioneering artist David Askevold leaves a sense of loss in the art community. Retrieved September 29th, 2008 from http:// www.thecoast.ca/Articles--2008-01-31-151605.113118-19808.113118_Askevolds_mystery_ tour.html#123

Gallery One One One. (2008). David Askevold Cultural Geographies and Other Works. Retrieved September 29th, 2008 from http://www.umanitoba.ca/schools/art/galleryoneoneone/askevol.html

Kitty Scott, and Shaughressy, Jonathan. Art Metropole: The Top 100. Ottawa, ON: National Gallery of Canada, 2006. 54.

Murray, Ian. (March 22, 2008). David Askevold, 1940-2008.(Obituary). Retrieved September 29th, 2008 from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-34204827_ITM

"A New Era." NSCAD Univeristy. Retrieved October 15th, 2008 from .

I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art

John Baldessari and the Lithography Workshop

At NSCAD many students have seen the print I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art by John Baldessari or have heard the phrase used. The 1971 black and white lithograph with the repeated sentence used to hang at the main entrance to the Granville campus.
In the 70s as part of the Lithography Workshop, Baldessari was commissioned to create an original work at the school. The Workshop’s mission was to bring in established artists to visit NSCAD to collaborate with the master printer and students to make limited edition prints. At the time John Baldessari was a prolific artist teaching at the California Institute of the Art; he has has since been termed one of the most influential conceptual artist since the sixties.

Baldessari was not able to make it to NSCAD but he proposed that students write the phrase, “ I will not make any more boring art,” on the Mezzanine Gallery walls as if in collective punishment. This was, in part, his ironic comment on minimalist art of the time. Inspired by the student execution of his suggestion at NSCAD, Baldessari then created a video piece in which he performed the same task, handwriting the phrase "I will not make any more boring art" over and over on a piece of paper. This page was then sent to NSCAD and reproduced in the form of a lithograph. Like the video I Am Making Art attached here, much of Baldessari's output explores art and the creative process in an ironic way or with the use of humour.

In the 1970’s, NSCAD was very innovative in the art world due to its highly experimental conceptual art program and the Lithography Workshop. During this time, works and prints by other artists such as Vito Acconci, Dan Graham, Sol LeWitt, and Michael Snow were created at the school.

The John Baldessari art project has been influential in the school's evolution and has, humorously, shaped its mission. The phrase is now seen as NSCAD’s unofficial motto alongside the formal motto: “Head, Heart, and Hand.” The official alumni ring, designed by Karen Konzuk, incorporates the school colours and is also engraved with the Latin words, “nolo facere insipada,” or, “no boring art.”

Valentyna Onisko





Dykhuis, Peter, Jessica Kerrin, and Dennis Young. Conceptual Art : The NSCAD Connection 1967-1973.

Heiser, Jorg. "John Baldessari." John Baldessari. Sept. 2005.Freize Magazine.26 Sept. 2008 http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/john_baldessari1

I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art. Dir. John Baldessari. Perf. John Baldessari. 1971

I Am Making Art. Dir. John Baldessari. Perf. John Baldessari. 1971

Irwin, Sherri. "Garry Neill Kennedy: No More Boring Art." Garry Neill Kennedy: No More Boring Art. 30 July 2002.Canadian Art.26 Sept. 2008
http://www.canadianart.ca/art/features/2002/07/30/53/

Printed Matter Inc. "I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art ; Lithographs, Publications and Ephemera." Press release. June-July 2006. Printed Matter Inc. 26 Sept. 2008
http://printedmatter.org/news/news.cfm?article_id=227

Western Front Society. Exhibitions. "Between Your Head and My Hand." Press release. 2 Dec. 2007. Western Front. 26 Sept. 2008 http://front.bc.ca/exhibitions/events/3129

Mezzanine File: Vito Acconci

Exhibition Title: ACCESSIBILITIES

Date Of Exhibition: DEC 1st-15th, 1970

Medium(s): Performance/Film/Photos/Sound/ Writing

Vito Acconci’s project “Association Area” was an exercise in the perception of space. First, Acconci paired up with another person. The two blindfolded themselves and moved around a space, trying intuitively to perceive the space and the presence of the other. When viewing this performance, the audience is not to get involved. This creates a very strange situation. On the one hand, spectators feel as if they have been called on to witness a work which only benefits the actors, since intuition can only be experienced in the first person. On the other hand, they feel involved because they are being asked for understanding through deduction. The results of this project and others were shown in the Mezzanine in early December 1971.

by Ryan Taylor

Anna Leonowens' Life Travels

“It is not easy to combine the song of the lark with the jaws of the crocodile.” – John MacNaughton (Mrs. Leonowens)

It is impossible to write an accurate account of Anna Leonowens because most records came from Anna herself and most of what she said about her life was never the exact truth. As a consequence, written here is a collage of her experiences in a generally chronological order.

Anna Leonowens was born on November 6, 1831 in Ahmednugger, India and was named Ann Harriet Emma Edwards, though she would later claim she was born in Wales and went by Anna Harriet Crawford. Her first big adventure happened when she was only fifteen and was caused by her refusal to marry a soldier.

She sailed away from colonized India with her friend Reverend George Percy Badger to study Ancient Egypt and Babylon. When she returned, she married Thomas Leon Owens, whom she called Leon. While it is known that they traveled, where exactly they went is remembered only through word of mouth narration. Some believe it was around India while others say they went to England and Australia before ending up in Singapore. Leon died away in Singapore from a heart attack or heat stroke just after a tiger-hunting excursion, or so the story goes. Anna claimed he died in her arms. She was left with her daughter Avis and her son Louis to support. She taught in the environs of Singapore until she received a letter that would make her life legendary.

The King of Siam (Thailand) wished for her to teach his children English and his wives English customs. Anna sent Avis to a boarding school in London, England and traveled with Louis to Siam. The six-year period in Bangkok, Siam is the most well known part in Anna’s life. It was made popular in the mid-twentieth century in American and Canadian culture through various books and movies, such as Anna and the King, The King and I, Anna and the King of Siam.

It is hard to believe these stories usually end when Anna leaves Siam because she accomplished so much more in her later years. She traveled with Louis to England and reunited with Avis. She sent Louis to boarding school in Dublin, Ireland to give his life some structure. After he left for school, she received a letter inviting her to visit her friend Dr. Francis Cobb and his wife in America.

So Anna and Avis traveled to Boston and then to New York City. During her time in the States Anna began to write about her time in Siam; she also joined the Rights for Women movement. Her stories became famous and she went on tour in America giving lectures and interviews. Her published books include The English Governess in the Siamese Court: Recollections of Six Years at the Royal Palace at Bangkok (1870), The Romance of the Harem (1873), Life and Travel in India: Being Recollections of a journey before the days of Railroads (1884), and Our Asiatic Cousins (1889).

When daughter Avis married Thomas Fyshe, a young accountant, all three moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. During her stay in Halifax, Anna Leonowens started a new Rights for Women campaign and worked to better the living conditions for female prisoners. She traveled to Russia to write an article for The Youth’s Companion magazine on the experiences of the common people in Russia after the assassination of Czar Alexander II.

Anna Leonowens was also the founder of the now internationally recognized Nova Scotia Collage of Art and Design (NSCAD) University. The institution was originally called the Victoria School of Art and Design in honour of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee; it was founded on October 31, 1887.

After so many accomplishments, Anna Leonowens traveled once more to Europe where she may have met up with her son Louis again and encountered two more grandchildren. She then returned to Halifax and moved with her daughter and family to Montreal. It was there that she died at the age of 84 on January 19, 1915. Her legacy, however, still lives.

Rasmi Nair