Art Metropole

18 Aug. 2007

Opening and edition launch for Cathy Busby's The North End

Artist

Cathy Busby

Time

2 pm - 5 pm

The North End is an archive of posters that celebrate the abundance of cultural activity emerging from this small Halifax neighbourhood. Artist Cathy Busby presents them as a floor-to-ceiling installation at Art Metropole, papering the walls with hundreds of scavenged posters from music, political and art events. Collecting, archiving and re-contextualizing transforms the posters from the left-behind remnants of events to a massive array of socially and graphically rich cultural artifacts. The posters, from various subcultures and poster-makers, collectively make an energetic and hopeful statement in contrast to corporate branding efforts. With modest means, the DIY posters, make big business advertising seem like a tired formula.

The North End book is a 276-page limited edition of 10 with full-colour bleed images arranged in chronological order filling each page. The occasion for this installation is the launch of its sequel, The North End: Volume II, a 300-page limited edition, picks up where the first book left off. Together these publications are a consolidated statement bursting with energy, hope, and graphic sensibilities – a compilation that shows just how varied a poster can be.

The North End project also includes a third component: t-shirts. Cathy Busby first made The North End t-shirts (in gold-on-red and silver-on-blue colorways) in conjunction with an exhibition of the posters at the Emerson Gallery in Berlin in summer, 2006 – in recognition of the neighbourhood and of all “North Ends.” They were best-sellers and were re-issued for the “Go North” community festival in north-end Halifax in fall, 2006. The new North End t-shirts will mark the new exhibit and, out-of-context, be a free-floating signifier in the heat of a Toronto summer.

Please join us on August 18, 2007, 2-5 pm to open this exhibition. The artist will be in attendance.

Cathy Busby is Canadian artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has a PhD in Communication (Concordia University, Montreal, 1999) and was a Fulbright Scholar at New York University (1995-96). She has an MA in Media Studies (Concordia University, 1992) and a BFA (1984) from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She has been exhibiting her work internationally over the past 20 years.

Images

1: The North End installation at Art Metropole.
2: The North End tshirt as worn by Art Metropole staff, and Cathy Busby's family members and friends.
3: Andrew Paterson and Fern Bayer.
4: Andrew Paterson and Miles Collier ham it up at the bar.
5: The crowd surveys the installation.
6: The crowd begins to arrive.

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