Making of the Artist Bloc Doc (2007) posted on January 10th, 2009
Artist Bloc : The Documentary (running time 48 min) a documentary following the host Jon McCurley as he entered the lives of seven emerging Toronto artists, to assist them through their artistic block. In the fall of 2007 the producers screened the documentary on the seven artists to a sold out crowd at the Theatre Centre in the Queen West Art district; which also included an exhibition of the works the artists created with Jon’s assistance.
Development: In search of the seven artists to appear in the documentary, Jon McCurley (the host), the producers and a documentary team traveled across Toronto, primarily by bike, for four months during the summer of 2007 to interview approximately thirty artists. Each of the video interviews were uploaded to You Tube for the selection committee to review. The committee was looking for artists that were comfortable on camera, charismatic, possessed an interesting art process/practice and open to Jon McCurley contributing to their artistic development. Most importantly they needed a dilemma that they could not overcome without his assistance.
During each interview we would ask the artists to recommend others that we should consider for the project, whom we would add to our growing list of individuals to meet. Each of the artists that we interviewed provided us with a wealth of information about the challenges that they face, and the range of art being created in the city today.
We only had the resources to invite seven artists to participate in the final documentary but we did rely on many of the artists that we interviewed for continued support on the project and as it turned the artists we interviewed played a key role in our fantastic turnout at the exhibition.
Shooting the Documentary: The selection committee choose seven artists to participate in the project and confirmed the exact way that Jon McCurley. Afterwards the artist’s would have up to four months to complete their art work before the exhibition in November of 2007.
Lesley Loksi Chan: had always used her family members to play the lead role in her films but when her sister was unable to help her, and with a festival anxiously awaiting her new work, she was in a real bind. After meeting with Jon McCurley she decided to cast him as the lead in her new film. Read more about Lesley here.
Mark Pellegrino: felt that the suburbs, where he grew up, did not provide for him the inspiration that was essential for an art practice. Jon took mark back to the suburbs to help him connect with his home and culture and to help him to find inspiration.
Tomas Del Balso: Tomas decided upon a series of installations, master-less in craft, to be made in public spaces that are hard to reach. Jon was able to help by working out with Tomas the parameters for the installation and making sure that it was critically workable. He is a member of the band dd/mm/yy.
Erin Fleck: a puppeteer longed to take her creations off of the stage and create a puppet meant to live in the real world which she did with the help of Jon she created a puppet and took him to the business district of Toronto. Find her here.
Jordan Scott: explores the poetics of stuttering. He has for years dreamt of incorporating his writing with sound. Jon and Jordan developed an idea for a sound installation utilizing an oscilloscope, Jordan’s voice professional musicians.
Ryan Solski: the sheer quantity of Ryan’s prolific output was precisely the source of his challenge. Having produced all of this visual work in books, Ryan found it difficult to display in a presentable, interactive manner. Enter the Big Head! Together, Jon and Ryan worked on the Big Head sculpture, which housed and displayed Ryan’s various artist books at the Artist Bloc exhibit, and coincided with the launch of ryansolski.com.
Rahim Ladha: a dancer, Rahim sustained a serious knee injury that was a source of great pain, and serious professional debilitation. Therefore, Jon helped Rahim transform the piece into something that remained intensely physical, but without the use of his leg.
The event was well attended (over 400 attendees). We watched, danced and drank Pilsner to the tunes of DJ Pat C, Foxfire (formerly Foxfire Forest) and DeathSet!
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