leadership creativity action ideas
I was honoured by the invite to give a talk about my current interests, influences, and inspirations – by my friend and mentor, Keith Cole, to his Intro to Visual Culture class at Seneca College in North York – near my old stomping grounds, where I grew up.
Gearing up for upcoming project at Xpace Cultural Centre here in Toronto. Chalk Form Census will run January 30 to February 28, 2014.
![Alison Snowball - ChalkFormCensus Title [300dpi]](http://alisonsnowball.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Snowball-ChalkFormCensus-Title-300dpi-800x597.jpg)
About Chalk Form Census:
A series of questions is posed, one at a time, on a chalkboard installed in a street level window. Citizens passing by are invited to contemplate or respond to the question, which changes at regular intervals over the month long project timeframe. Extending the reach of the census, the question is simultaneously posted online through social media [#chalkformcensus], thereby also providing a platform for responses.
Feel free to follow along or respond on:
Instagram @chalkformcensus
Facebook Chalk Form Census
Twitter @ChalkFormCensus
Special thanks to Amber Landgraff, Alicia Nauta and Adrienne Crossman at Xpace. Also, thanks to Simon Rabyniuk, for his thoughtful reflections on the work.
Peace Process [2013]
GPS drawing [using MapMyRun]
10.15km 1:58:49 [dimensions variable ]
As an outsider to Yerevan, a map served as a logical tool for my early orientation in the city. At some point during this way finding, the city streets jumped out at me as the peace symbol.
As it relates to “In and Between the (Re)public”, the act of making the work happens in the public sphere but remains a private affair, with no outward signs that this inscription is taking place.
As a GPS drawing, the work plays with the notion of public surveillance, but defies the surveyors through purposeful activation of the tracking technology.
The product is virtual and disembodied but the process is real and embodied.
The product is imperfect but the process is negotiated rather than dictated.
The product is one of a kind but the process is reproducible and encouraged.
Played a minor role in artist Angel Chen’s project entitled, Candid Call Centre – where she connected the public with various professionals [especially in the legal and financial sectors] via a toll free call in line. I answered phones for an hour one day in my role as a former stock trader, which made for some anonymously meaningful chitchat. Thank you Angel for facilitating these crucial dialogues.
A quick quote from me in coverage by The Toronto Star.
This past Victoria Day long weekend, a group of artists [disclaimer: myself included] took to the streets to change the cityscape in straightforward, impactful ways. Depending on your generosity – oft or totally – neglected city tree planter boxes found themselves the subject of interventions all around town as a part of project entitled Outside the Planter Boxes. Organized by Sean Martindale in putting his FEAST grant to work, the scheme puts the simple back in the sublime. With no guidelines other than the starting point of the planter, a great range exists in artists’ media, mixing artificial and natural elements, as the planter boxes themselves do, not ironically.
Check out some of the already published photos – the story was picked up quickly by the Torontoist and blogTO, and even Global News took note.
I volunteered as a set of hands and my intervention at its most basic was cleaning garbage out of planters all along Bloor West from Lansdowne to Dufferin. Number one contribution from Torontonians – chewing gum. Followed in rapid and close succession by cigarette butts, coffee cups, chocolate bar wrappers, and in a strange and grizzly discovery in the planter outside the House of Lancaster some kind of jumbo animal bone [human or pig, maybe, remains TBD, but by someone else – I couldn’t bring myself to touch it further despite thick rubber gloves and had to leave it for the bouncers to identify].
When I came across the following planter, the abandoned crate alongside it naturally suggested the final design. The grass clippings were imported from a freshly mown lawn in North York.
BEFORE & AFTER
