Leesa Bringas, Blake Fall-Conroy, Lucy Howe, Zeke Moores, José Seoane, A.G. Smith
WINDSOR FIGHTS BACK!
April 30–May 29, 2010

Leesa Bringas (Windsor ON) Artist, social activist, educator and cultural worker will present documentation from a series of performances and interventions held in and around Windsor. Inspired by the Municipal worker’s strike of 2009, Leesa Bringas braided the long, uncut grass in Windsor’s riverfront parks. Leesa Bringas is currently a candidate for a Masters of Fine Art at the University of Windsor School of Visual Arts.

“I considered braiding the grass a simple gesture; my motives and approach were not overly political. I (and occasionally with the help of friends) utilized the long grass as a material without cutting and transformed the space,
sometimes highly visible, and at other times in a small and perhaps almost unnoticeable way. I also approached this project as a way to enjoy the city despite the negative undercurrents, and did so in a repetitive and meditative fashion —working with my hands and creating something that would eventually be cut, transformed and eventually disappear.”

Blake Fall-Conroy (Ithaca NY, USA) For MayWorks Windsor 2010, Conroy has rebuilt his Minimum Wage Machine to answer the challenges of a slightly higher Ontario minimum wage, and the beveled edges on some Canadian pennies! Artcite has filled it with pennies and it is ready to go! The minimum wage machine allows anybody to work for minimum wage. Turning the crank engages a timer circuit that is set to dispense pennies at a rate geared to minimum wage per hour. If the participant stops turning the crank, they stop receiving money. The machine’s mechanism and electronics are powered by the hand crank, and pennies are stored in a plexiglass box.

“I want my projects to be socially conscious. I want my projects to be simple, approachable, and defined by the vocabulary of everyday objects. I want my projects to be easy to understand, even if it’s in a different way than I intended. I want the form of my projects to follow the underlying concept, nothing more. I am more interested in communicating ideas and less interested in making art.”

Lucy Howe (Windsor ON) Lucy Howe is interested in subverting the everyday and exploring the physical and metaphorical structures of common spaces, objects and activities. Her interventions, installations and objects shift the purpose, being and function/behavior of ‘reliable objects’, while bringing into question that which is known and familiar. Here, sculpture is being utilized to escape the physical form and create an internal space of balance, between belief and distrust.

Zeke Moores (Windsor ON) Originally from Newfoundland, Zeke Moores has been living and working in Ontario for the past 7 years. He has an extensive background in fabrication, blacksmithing and foundry; has worked at one of the largest art cast foundries in North America, Johnson Atelier Foundry & Fabrication, and has been a free-lance fabricator for the past ten years.

Zeke Moores has a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA from the University of Windsor, Ontario. Currently, he is showing nationally and internationally, while teaching at the University of Windsor, and Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

“Dumpster is the continuation of a series of works that recreate an object to scale, questioning its perceived value, while exploring its social and cultural economies. The Dumpster’s high polished surface allows the viewer to reflect upon their role and relationship to the object. From the environmental state of our urban landscape to issues of value, property and control, the Dumpster is a cultural vessel that overflows with contemptuous issues that permeate our society today. ”

José Seoane (Havana, Cuba / Windsor ON) Originally from Cuba, José Seoane has been living and working in Ontario for the past 8 years. He has an extensive background in painting and drawing; since 1990 he has been participating in several international and multi-cultural projects between artists from Germany and Cuba in both countries. José Seoane studied at the art institute San Alejandro (Havana city) in 1982, completing diploma in printmaking. José Seoane is showing nationally and internationally, while teaching as a Painting & drawing Professor at the University of Windsor since 2002.

“As a painter and installation artist, I am interested in investigating ideas around transculturation and identity . The current presented work explores an immigrant’s journey between Western and non-Western cultures and the process of integration and re-invention. Over the past few years I have developed a vocabulary of painterly images and effects that simulate stratifications of oppositions meant to evoke permanence and transience, absence and presence, belonging and displacement, which are part of the immigrant’s lived experience. Living in a border city–Windsor–has given me the unique opportunity to witness the conflicts and tensions that are more present at the edges of any nation, which is an extension of my own experience. Here the border is a river, but it functions as a wall in the sense that it is a barrier between two cultures even though not appearing as such.”

A.G. Smith (Windsor ON) Between 1973-1981, A.G. Smith taught printmaking and drawing, first at Morehead State University in Kentucky and then at the University of Windsor in Ontario. Since 1981, he has worked as an illustrator and paper engineer; published over 100 books, including, cut and assemble activity books, colouring books, social studies, and history books for children, numerous articles and illustrations for periodicals (Stoddard, now, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Toronto; Dover, New York). He has authored two books, What Time is It? and Where Am I? for Stoddard Publications, now, Fitzhenry and Whiteside. A.G. Smith. has led numerous workshops and author in the school visits.

Currently, he has developed a series of paper models of ships and architecture. They are being published by Upland Books and Design. A.G. Smith lives and works in Windsor and Nobel Ontario.

“People around the world found common means of constructing shelter. Basic Shelter is based on this archetypal structure, representing a place of security. Constructed of banners and placards from demonstrations and actions for peace, human rights and social justice, that have taken place in Windsor, the text on the entrance reads: Our security lies in our fight for the rights of all. ”