Meanwhile I would like to apologize for likening chronically multi-funded artists to pigs feeding at the trough of the Canada Council. What is actually happening is that there are big huge fat pigs sitting right in the trough with a few mean leanies that they allow to get the occasional feed in order to remain loyal.
Noone seems to recognize the damage this does to other artists, their work or even recognition of the enormous output of artists everywhere. The system discourages art as a career, proping it up with a network of art welfare to the chosen few who have volunteered to maintain this selective structure, that has nothing to do with good or bad art.
So my proposal, which follows, for a women's art history project, was turned down, for whatever reason they thought of this time. The excuse for turning down the previous eco/art proposal was it "wasn't conceptualized enough". I wrote them back and asked what they specifically meant by this vague catch all phrase and they haven't answered, yet, it has been about a month. They did this to me last year, as well. I think the problem is that they don't know what they mean, they really are arrogant.
PART C - DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM OF WORK
My project is to research and document the women identified below, as well as Marsha Stone, Rene Rodin and Marie Baker, to achieve a better historical record that reflects a more accurate view of west coast culture, by producing one hour per artist of edited material, in order to prepare a proposal for the production of a film and/or digital media that would include more women artists from this period and to exhibit and disseminate this material.
From a historical perspective, prior to Canada Council funding, Vancouver was a community of artists, working together, organizing shows, festivals and readings, perhaps 'artists colony' would be the best description, it was a cool place to be in the early sixties, having attracted literary luminaries like Malcolm Lowry and for many years before that a pretty hip music scene. At this time there was equality for women artists, who were not inhibited in producing their art, for example, prior to Intermedia, Jone Payne did pyrotechnics at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Jeanie Kamins made community art, Maxine Gadd and Judith Copithorn, readings at the Sound Gallery.
By introducing a structure for distribution of funding, sold to us under the guise of more freedom to make art, the Canada Council undermined the community by removing the incentive for the production of art for the self, and replaced it with production of art for the state, and a funding hierarchy, dominated by men of course, this being the sexist sixties. At that point, alternative art became institutionalized, artists economically controlled by their "peers", through the funding. At the Visual Poetry Festival at UBC in 1967, all the media attention was diverted to Michael Morris and Gary Lee Nova, the "stars" of Intermedia. Other male artists of Intermedia went on to teaching in major educational facilities, young women training as art workers were subjected to this same attitude. Most of the contemporary women artists, were ignored, forgotten or marginalized by the nature of their work which was often organic. Helen Goodwin, exhausted by the years of unsuccessful funding for her dance group, eventually walked into the ocean. The traditions of that aesthetic and subsequent power structure continue to this day. Conveniently, one history is written and another is entirely forgotten with the aid of Canada Council funded art history books.
Many of the women I knew from that earlier period, could be classified as "behind the scenes" women. The vibrant artists scene could not have existed without these women, who made up the audience, cooked and provided food and support, gave birth to the children, contributed ideas, worked on the projects without getting credit, but most of all, were discouraged by the prevailing chauvinist climate to be artists in their own right. Some women became wives or partners and due to their connection in this way, seemed to garner more credibility. The other way for women media artists to become accepted was to become part of the groups who were offshoots of Intermedia, such as the Western Front or the Video Inn and later, during the seventies, Pumps. It is interesting to note that while the "men" belong to "schools" of art during this period, artists like Gathie Falk and Martha Sturdy stand out as individuals.
Women artists working in the fields of social justice or textiles were not considered important. Their work was not seen as a contribution to art or culture, but instead was taken for granted. One example of these women was Melissa Gibbs who was part of the New Era Social Club collective along with Roy Kiyooka and Glen Lewis and who worked at the Georgia Straight during the early seventies. She assisted Dan McLeod during a very difficult period when he was close to losing a newspaper that is now highly successful and cannot be ignored as part of the west coast identity. Her presence within the art scene is difficult to define, but the whole culture of the late sixties and seventies in Vancouver is impossible to keep within the bounds of art history, but is more suitable to an anthro-social scrutiny. For instance, why does the Museum of Anthropology contain works of art?
Melissa recently died and within two months of her death every vestige of her life has been erased. Many of her old friends were not notified of her death, and, with the exception of the antique dealer's cherry picking, the remaining antiques, collectables and works of art that she had amassed for 40 years were thrown into bags, hauled out to the back yard and sold in a yard sale, what ever was left over was thrown back in the house or left outside in garbage bags in the rain. Her collection wasn't something a million people couldn't replace, but it was the way she made the essence or quality or that object become more understood, in juxtaposition to the objects around. This ability to "appreciate" is also what she did for the many artists and musicians she knew. It was possible to have made some record for what she contributed, but because she was not "recognized" her life was unimportant, her estate decimated by people who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. The pieces of her that are left in peoples memory will soon also be gone. It was amidst the broken pieces of Melissa's house that I achingly wandered through, in a search for a bead loom that she had designed and that I found by some miracle in the bottom of a closet in the wreckage of her sewing room, on the second day of my search.
It is these women's depth of relationship to the community and their art form that I wish to translate into the digital medium. These women are full of stories, they deserve to be passed on.
The project will include a trip to Porpoise Bay in August, to interview Jone Pane, to Victoria in July, for Marsha Stone and to the interior of B.C. for Marie Baker in September. Some time will be needed to spend with all of these artists, their friends and their families. I have included an honorarium for each of the artists or their families to compensate for their time.
I will be acquiring documentation and conducting interviews prior to the filming. This grant will assist me in my pre production research through the subsistence portion of the budget.
