March 12 - April 10, 2022
Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick
Owens Free Space is an unfolding community resource and creative production space. Inspired by my work as a teen in late 1990s Toronto in and around infoshops—non-hierarchical, informal centres for activism, art, punk, information exchange, and anarchist praxis found around the world—Owens Free Space draws from their ethics and culture to create an alternative, open site of learning and making.
Students and the public have access to a zine library of nearly 450 zines, adhesive vinyl for hand cutting, a photocopier for zine making, and a record collection to play. Visitors are encouraged to create a zine to provoke and inform and leave something behind for someone else to explore.
On March 21st, 2022, I facilitated a Plotter Jam— a vinyl graphics workshop where students and the public created a collaborative mural in the space. This event and the greater project was programmed alongside the exhibition The Baroness Elsa Project, and linked the history and spirit of Dada with contemporary self-publishing and movement-building.
This space was developed within the context of my role as 2022 Artist-in-Residence at the Lassonde School of Fine Arts, Mount Allison University in collaboration with Lucy MacDonald, Curator of Education and Community Outreach, Rachel Thornton, Curator of Digital Engagement, and fine arts students Daisy Graham, Chloe Lundrigan, Kaya Panthier, and Shivanya Ra.
An interpretive video about the Owens Free Space, and my role and inspiration in shaping the space, can be found here, on the OwensTV Vimeo channel.
Photos: Rachel Thornton