Event // STEPHEN AVENUE LOCATION
Brunch Launch is a pre-book-launch-reading event presented in connection with Contemporary Calgary’s, Never the Same: what (else) can art writing do?, a symposium on the agencies and futures of art writing. This event features eight exciting writers, who will present brief readings (5-8 minutes) from works that have just been published or are on the verge of being published.
Sunday, September 17
12:15 PM – 1:30 PM
Contemporary Calgary
Hosted by Contemporary Calgary Senior Curator, Lisa Baldissera and independent curator, Joanne Bristol, Brunch Launch features:
Sky Goodden, Momus: A Return to Art Criticism (Vol. 1, 2014-17)
Since 2014, Momus has dedicated itself to the vital, uphill work of producing criticism in a mostly uncritical time. Now for the first time, this online publication is moving into print with a compendium of its best – and best-read – art writing: twenty-one writers speaking truth to power, in history’s court.
MOMUS.CA
Kristy Trinier, eyedoll by Tennis Club (Edmonton: Publication Studio Edmonton)
Tennis Club, a collective featuring artists Alyson Davies, Megan Gnanasihamany, Morgan Melenka, Renée Perrott, and Marie Winters, have been working in a variety of contemporary modes exploring themes of femininity, sport, and class through performed identities. Tennis Club Fan Memberships are available via WWW.YEGTENNISCLUB.COM. PUBLICATION-STUDIO.MYSHOPIFY.COM
Emmanuel Iduma, The Sound of Things to Come (New York: The Mantle)
A young woman loses her grip on reality, destroyed by being the mistress of a powerful general. A pastor hides the innocent from marauding gangs hyped up by post-election fervor. A philosophy professor struggles against his better judgment to save everyone but himself. In present day Nigeria, there are many centers of the universe. Loosely centered on the activities of a church, the many colorfully drawn characters in Emmanuel Iduma’s breakthrough novel illuminate the complex interconnectedness of a community where individuals struggle through their own painful dramas. First published in 2012 as Farad in Nigeria, Iduma’s novel is the disruptive harbinger of Nigeria's rising generation of writers. WWW.MANTLETHOUGHT.ORG/CONTENT/SOUND-THINGS-COME
Jennifer Krasinski, ‘Untitled’ (a long essay on Blanchot and love).
Amy Fung, Before I was a critic, I was a human being(Vancouver: Artspeak, 2019)
Going into official and unofficial histories from institutional archives, oral histories, and gossip, the forthcoming text is a creative non fiction treatment of the violence of white supremacy in the Canadian art world. This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada. amyfung.ca
Maryse Larivière, Orgazing, (Calgary: Untitled Art Society)
. . . Orgazing is an epistolary novella set on the remote Scottish island of Staffa. A woman, held captive in an institution built atop Fingal’s Cave, addresses her beloved about their failed revolution, her attempt to transform writing into telepathic singing, and her effort to develop this mode of communication while incarcerated. Shifting between prose and poetry, word and birdsong, Orgazing explores the limits of body and voice, articulating an unsettled longing for metamorphosis. Orgazing, along with installation, sound, and film work, is part of Larivière’s project Under the Cave of Winds, currently on view at Untitled Contemporary Art until September 23. www.uascalgary.org/current.html
derek beaulieu, a, A Novel (Paris: Jean Boîte Éditions)
derek beaulieu’s a, A Novel (Jean Boîte Éditions, 2017) uses Andy Warhol’s novel of the same name to present a sonic portrait of the streets of New York in the 1960s. Mining Warhol’s novel, beaulieu leaves only the punctuation marks (the traffic signs of literature) and the onomatopoeia; leaving only the thrum of our days. WWW.JEAN-BOITE.FR/PRODUCT/A-A-NOVEL-BY-DEREK-BEAULIEU
Maria Fusco, Give Up Art: Collected Critical Writings (LA/Vancouver: New Documents)
Give Up Art is a new collection of critical writing by Maria Fusco, published by New Documents (LA/Vancouver). James Elkins has written of it "After a book like this, most nonfiction seems curiously unaware of what writing can be." MARIAFUSCO.NET/WRITING/GIVE-ART/
Brunch Launch also features:
Pop-Up Book Shop
Presented by Shelf Life Books
HTTP://SHELFLIFEBOOKS.CA
Featuring a selection of publications by Never the Same participants, the Pop-Up Book Shop presented by Shelf Life Books will be on site during the following events:
This event is free; light refreshments will be served.
neverthesame.ca