A few weeks ago Port Moody curator Gregory Elgstrand contacted me to suggest that he might put together a show of work by the Raiders. Bohart is an arts organisation owned by him and his brother Chris. Greg has just started to use a store-front on Spring street as his gallery. The first show featured a painting by Elizabeth Zvonar, and this second display, ‘Raiders Made’, was installed on the weekend. As his didactic below tells us, from the very many artists who have ‘raided’ my studio, he has chosen to show plates painted by artists with whom he has had a connection.
The map above will help you to find this out-of-the-way location. The building houses a number of artist studios and can be found in the block east of Moody Centre skytrain station. Greg has adopted the store front so that the art can be seen at any time, from Spring street. You will also find a cheerful ‘mural’ on the street. It indicates the location of Slaughterhouse Creek which, in the not-too-distant future will be daylighted. During the same TOD development the one-storey concrete buildings that housed small businesses will be demolished. Yes, Port Moody artists are desperately trying to find more studio space as their eviction looms. I understand that artist live/work spaces are proposed for there.
Raiders Made
Unbeknownst to most people in Port Moody, for about twenty-five years some of the leading artists from across Metro Vancouver have been periodically gathering to paint ceramic plates in the Port Moody home-studio of well-known ceramic artist, Gillian McMillan. How these gatherings came to be is a longer and interesting story but in short, Vancouver artist Eric Metcalfe, seeking help in 1995 to create a leopard-print-painted ceramic tea set, connected with McMillan for guidance and assistance. Metcalfe began making trips to McMillan’s studio to paint plates and platters and he would then come to invite other groups of artists to join him. The trips continued in what came to be known as “raids” on the studio where the gathered artists took up blank slab plates and earthenware as blank slates for their own artistic elaboration.
During these day-long gatherings the Raiders make space together to share with one another where there are no grant applications or final reports or expected outcomes except to be with one another in individual acts of creation. There is also no obligation to collaborate – collaboration is in fact rare and artists author their own individual works. Rather, the artists participate in something that composer and musician Brian Eno calls “cooperative intelligence.” According to Eno, while all great ideas are articulated by individuals, these great ideas are, in their turn, always generated by communities. A raid is the creation of temporary creative community. In these shared spaces of a raid, ideas of all kinds are freely exchanged, thoughts about art and technique and life swirl around the large working table (and the lunch table). In this creative space distinguishing from where or from whom an idea, artistic or otherwise, comes would be a challenge were such things a concern. Intelligence is generated by the community and finds its way into each plate or platter of each member of that community.
For the works in Raiders Made, the curator invited a selection from among the dozens and dozens of Raiders who have participated in even more raids over the years to offer a work or two of their own choosing. Given the number of Raiders over the years, and the space available for this exhibition, necessitated that only a fraction of artists could be included. In selecting the nine artists, the curator invited the participation of Raiders with whom the curator has had a personal or professional relationship over the past thirty-ish years who collectively, in their turn, form another kind of community.
Gregory Elgstrand
I hope you can find the little gallery over the next few weeks. It’s been fun for me to see some plates that were made years ago, and some made this year. Onward Raiders!
Verynice, bravo!
How long will they be exhibited Gillian?
I’m not going to be back until April 14th.
Thanks for blog post, and please say hi to Greg.
I’m not sure how long the show will be up but I think there’s a good chance you’ll get to see it after April 14th. John. And yes, I’ll say hello to Greg for you. G