Art Metropole

Printed Matter’‘s mission is to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists’ publications, which we define as books or other editioned publications conceived by artists as art works, or, more succinctly, as “artwork for the page.” Printed Matter specializes in publications produced in large, inexpensive editions and therefore does not deal in “book arts” or “book objects” which are often produced in smaller, more expensive editions due to the craft and labor involved in their fabrication.

To promote public awareness of and access to artists’ books, Printed Matter maintains a public reading room where over 15,000 titles by 6,000 international artists are available for viewing and purchase. In addition to being a wholesale and retail distribution hub for artists’ books, Printed Matter offers a free consulting service to libraries, art institutions, and art professionals involved with artists’ books throughout the world. Printed Matter presents a range of educational programs for the public from talks to student groups by staff members to in-store lectures and readings by artists, critics, and curators. These educational initiatives are complemented by our internationally recognized exhibitions program and publishing program.

Chrysanne Stathacos is a multi-media artist and educator whose work has been exhibited extensively in museums, galleries, sculpture gardens, train stations, and public spaces internationally for twenty-five years. She was born in Buffalo, New York in 1951 and studied fine arts at the Cleveland Institute of Art (1969-1970); at York University, Toronto (1970-1973); and at the Open Studio, Toronto (1975-1976). Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s Stathacos was active in the Toronto artist-run community, curating projects for A-Space, and co-directing The Gap, a performance art space she co-founded in 1980 with Martin Heath, Colin Lochhead, Elke Town, and David Buchan (1950-1994). In the late 1970s Stathacos became associated with the art collective General Idea, eventually becoming close friends with the group’s founders, AA Bronson (b. 1946), Felix Partz (1945-1994), and Jorge Zontal (1944-1994). Stathacos moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1981 and after two years there relocated to Manhattan, where she co-curated The Abortion Project with Kathe Burkhart (b. 1958) at Artists’ Space and the Simon Watson Gallery, New York in 1991 and the following year collaborated with Hunter Reynolds, aka Patina du Prey (b. 1959), on a performance piece entitled The Banquet at the Thread Waxing Space. Other major works by Stathacos include 1-900, Mirror Mirror (1994), a performance piece; The Wish Machine (1995), her first interactive public art work; The Aura Project (1999-2006); Refuge, a Wish Garden (2002); and The Roses (2006). Noteworthy collaborations in which Stathacos participated include Green Machine (1994), with composer Ben Neill (b. 1957); and One Night, One Garden One Wish (2006), with sound artist Andrew Zealley (b. 1956). Stathacos has received awards from Art Matters (1995), the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation (1998), the Japan Foundation (2001), and the Puffin Foundation (2005). She is represented in numerous public collections, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; the Art Gallery of Hamilton; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester.

Andrew Zealley is a Toronto-based artist whose work expands beyond audio and music methods to inform mixed disciplines and media. His practice has been situated at the shifting nexus of HIV/AIDS, queer identity, and the body since 1990. Zealley s audio installation, Nature: This Is A Recording, is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada. He has recordings published by labels Art Metropole, Fine & Dandy, How To Explain Silence To A Dead Hare, Old Europa Cafe, Public Record/Ultra-red, Tourette Records, and Vague Terrain. Zealley holds an MFA in interdisciplinary studies from OCAD University. He is currently pursuing doctoral research through the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University; Program of Study: Safe and Sound: Art, Queer Listening, and Biopolitics of HIV/AIDS.

Stephen Andrews was born in 1956 in Sarnia, Ontario Canada. Over the last twenty five years he has exhibited his work in Canada, the U.S., Brazil, Scotland, France and Japan. He is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Belkin Art Gallery, the Schwartz Collection, Harvard as well as many private collections. His work deals with memory, identity, technology and their representations in various media including drawing, animation and recently painting.

Julie Voyce was born in 1957 in Woodstock, Ontario. She Studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto. Since the early 1980s, she has shown her work extensively in Canada and has had exhibitions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and Italy. Her practice has been documented in writings and exhibition catalogues by Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario; University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario and Struts Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick. Her work is included in numerous private and public collections including those of The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal; Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga and Osler Hoskin and Harcourt, Toronto. In addition to drawing, painting and printmaking, Voyce has engaged in several book and mail art projects, often collaboratively. In 2004, she was awarded Artist of the Year Award by the by the Untitled Art Awards in Toronto. She lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.

Black Sun Productions collective is a project of sound, visual and performance artists, primarily featuring activists Massimo and Pierce, who also perform under the stage name the Anarcocks.

Self-described “artivists”, Massimo and Pierce, met on October 26, 2001 on the set of an underground pornographic film in which both were performing. The pair, who had both worked as male sex-workers since their teens, formed a romantic and artistic relationship which cumulated in the formation of the queer, post-industrial Black Sun Productions collective. The pair also operated Zurich-based queer sexual fetish clubs and engaged in collaborations with a diverse range of artists including Coil, Lydia Lunch and H.R. Giger. The Black Sun Productions collective have a long standing commitment to the exploration of altered state of consciousness, esoteric sexual practices, anarchist political theory and practice, DIY ethics, anti-fascism and anti-racist movements.

Massimo and Pierce, who are primarily based in Switzerland, were married in Zurich on December 1, 2003.

Massimo and Pierce had previously been well known as artists in Switzerland and Italy; however, in 2002, the pair gained international attention when their ritual performance piece, Plastic Spider Thing, was included in industrial band Coil’s European and Scandinavian tour. Black Sun Productions explained Plastic Spider Thing as “ A highly moral, yet sexually explicit exploration into the relationship between the spider and the fly”, whilst Brainwashed.com described the performance as “The sex act turned into a sadomasochistic, predatory dance of sorts.” Plastic Spider Thing included performance art from Massimo and Pierce, accompanied by loops and fragments of numerous Coil works that created a multi-layered electronic ‘dronewerk’, created by the third member of the Black Sun Productions artistic collective, DraZen.

Coil members Jhonn Balance and Peter Christopherson were introduced to Plastic Spider Thing while receiving a demonstration of various pieces of bondage paraphernalia at a private ceremony at Massimo and Pierce’s fetish club in Zurich, Switzerland. Balance and Christopherson, who were impressed by Black Sun Productions, signed the group to Coil’s Eskaton label and subsequently invited the collective to support their 2002 tour.

Following the 2002 Coil tour, Black Sun Productions continued performing throughout Europe. The collective performed a 23-part performance and installation art tour, based on the original Plastic Spider Thing concept. The tour’s performances were often considered controversial as they included elements of chaos magick and ritualized sex magick that involved nudity and explicitly sexual material, such as urination. Almotriptan in Athos (or A Well Hung Monk), a film directed by Daniel McKernan, commemorating Black Sun Productions’ eleventh Plastic Spider Thing performance in Coil’s English home, “The North Tower”, on August 23, 2002, was completed in 2008. A Well Hung Monk has been shown in Turin, Italy at the 24th Torino Film Festival: “From Sodom to Hollywood” and at TLV International LGBT Film Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel. The film will also be included in the 25th New York Queer Experimental Film Festival as part of the program “X Marks the Spot” on October 17, 2012.

On March 31, 2003, Black Sun Productions’ offices in Zurich were raided by the vice squad of the Zurich metropolitan police as a result of claims that the collective were in possession of items promoting “deviant or lurid sexual activity”. Computers, cameras, tapes, DVDs, magazines and pictures were confiscated by police in order to be copied and investigated. The Black Sun Productions collective was charged with possessing and producing “illegal pornography”. According to Swiss laws any picture showing human excrement, including urine, is considered illegal pornography. A fundraising campaign by fellow artists was launched to support the Black Sun Productions collective’s legal costs.

In 2004, Black Sun Productions issued two CDs, Astral Walk and Toilet Chant.

In 2005 Massimo and Pierce released a new album, OperettAmorale. OperretAmorale is the fifth official release by Black Sun Productions and it features Massimo and Pierce paying homage to the poetry of German poet, playwright and thinker Bertolt Brecht (1898 – 1956). As many of Brecht’s lyrics explored themes of human sexuality, morality and prostitution, Brecht was an influence on both men’s lives from an early age. OperettAmorale features Brecht’s original work retranslated by guest musicians including Coil (contributing a version of A List Of Wishes, recorded by John Balance prior to his death), Lydia Lunch (providing vocals to The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency) and H.R. Giger (performing Seeräuber-Jenny in addition to providing a cover image for the album).

Massimo and Pierce have also collaborated with the Italian industrial music producer Mariae Nascenti in live performances and on the CDs Morituri Te Salutant and Anarcadian Night.

In 2006, Black Sun Productions released the double album titled The Impossibility of Silence, featuring Massimo and Pierce and guest artists such as Lydia Lunch, Val Denham, Sudden Infant and Sonne Hagal. Throughout the year the collective played a number of live performances including “Darkness Is Enlightening” at Paradiso, Amsterdam, on a multiple bill with Psychic TV, Lydia Lunch and Val Denham.
Chemism and Dies Juvenalis

On 23 April, 2007 Black Sun Productions ceased to be a collective. Down to a duo, Massimo and Pierce released the album Chemism in April, 2007. A follow-up EP, Dies Juvenalis, was also released and the duo gave a number of live performances at venues including the Transformer Festival in Biel, Switzerland (with Val Denham), the IV Congresso Post Industriale in Prato, Italy and the Dada Industrial Nights in Pavia, Italy. In November 2007, Massimo & Pierce’s short film Uncle Billy was premiered in New York City at the 20th MIX Festival. Two compilations featuring Black Sun Productions’ tracks were released in 2007: Radio Intereference from Unknown Orgasm (Somnimage) and Old Europa Cafe (OEC100).

Phantasmata Domestica, an album which took three years to complete, was recorded between New York City, Zurich, London and Barcelona. The album, which is dedicated to the memory of Coil’s Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, features performances by Lydia Lunch, Othon, Cory Smythe, Fung Chern Hwei, Sirius Quartet and Michael Bates. Black Sun Productions have described the album as “an epic and emotional tale about sorrow and loss”. Phantasmata Domestica, which was released in July, 2012, was co-produced by Mikael Karlsson and Massimo and Pierce.

On May 3, 2012, Massimo and Pierce issued a press release through the Anarcocks website stating that Black Sun Productions would disband on December 20, 2012. The press release stated: “Dear all, on the eve of 20/12/2012, Black Sun Productions will cease to exist. Phantasmata Domestica, our collaborative work with Mikael Karlsson to be released this year, will be the final Black Sun Productions studio album. (…) It has been a decade of exciting actions and productions. We met many lovely individuals, amazing people and we are thankful for each and every day we’ve spent creating and performing. As we decide to terminate this mission, there is no sadness in our souls but gratefulness and a feeling of achievement. This is not the last you will hear from the two of us. We’ll be working together again in the future though we will manifest ourselves in new ways and under different monikers. Every end is a new beginning.”

(from wikipedia)

Joan Bankemper was born in Covington, Kentucky in 1959. She received a B.F.A. from Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri and an M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Mount Royal Graduate School, Baltimore.

The artist’s ceramic mosaic vessels grow out of 15 years of commitment to creating urban gardens with the help of surrounding communities. She has worked on projects in New York, Boston, Palermo, Italy and San Antonio, Texas, among others addressing the relationship of people to nature as reflected in the contemporary urban landscape. Her garden projects are not ordinary or formal gardens; they range from restorative healing herb gardens, to gardens based on the shape of the human body, to planting 600 giant sunflowers, which grow from the ruins of a Southern flour mill. For each of her garden projects, the artist worked within a conceptual framework, each a kind of sculpture in nature.

Her ceramic mosaics follow her love of nature and its transformations as the seasons change. She loves flowers, birds, bees, all the symbols of the garden and the creatures that help pollinate and cross-pollinate the flowers. Thus, the birds, bees and flowers are staccato notes on virtually all of her vessels. Working in the way a collagist or assemblagist might, Bankemper creates monumental scale vessels, beginning with a simple glass vase at the core. She surrounds the glass vase with the shape of an urn, be it tall and graceful with elegant handles, or round and flat with a “canvas-like” field to cover. The ceramic urn that surrounds the glass is the vessel’s first “skin” which the artist builds and often breaks. She cements sections of the urn together leaving the cemented passages open and raw, yielding an artifact-like surface to the vessel. She then starts to dress and cloak the vessel with her vocabulary of images, words, molds, etc. Casting from a collection of 1,500 molds, the artist creates myriad shapes and sizes, animals and figurines; a yellow bird sits on the handle of a blue fish pitcher while a hand-built blue bird and a bevy of bees buzz around “In Pod,” a buttery yellow urn topped off with black decals of bees and words for the consummate cookie jar: cookies, pasta, sugar, coffee, tea, cookies again. Several birds bedeck the top of the urn, and many species of flowers create a garden at its bottom, all perched on an antique tureen base that becomes the foot of the vessel. Combin-ing historical ceramics, contemporary china, hand-built objects, casting from molds that were made between 1958-1998, Bankemper creates an original tableau in ceramic. Everywhere the eye looks, there is something rich, textured and layered for the eye to behold. These are not simple pieces; they are complex tapestries of life.

The artist’s work has been shown in many venues, most notably Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan. Her work has also been exhibited in many garden venues such as Wave Hill, Bronx, New York; Abington Art Center, Jenkinton, Pennsylvania as well as extensively in Italy.