Louise Liliefeldt - Remembering Series

Weeping Body, 2002

...Weeping Body is about the blood sweat and tears that we all endure. It is a sad and quiet piece, but through the actions of the body and the determination of the mind that allow the body to continue, strength will prevail....

There are people I love, and their are people I'll love for forever, this goes to Toronto base, South African performance artist, Louise Liliefeldt. There are so many stories I can share with you, our dancing in the cages with Christine Zeidler, the drunk girl who peed in the bed, Sneaky Dees, the Tavern bar, me asking to be excused then going outside and taking a nap on the pavement. Her bike, her boots, wearing clothes wrong side up, her boyfriends, her support of the band, Barenaked ladies and her survival instincts.

I remember Louise working at VTape with Lisa Steele, the co-creator of what is considered as the largest independent artists video archival in North America. I managed to see Lisa in 2003, coming out of the Bloor retro cinema in Toronto. I remember a video she made parodying Canada as a powerful country, and having their cousins below, America franchising things that were distinctly Canadian. I don't think students got it then because she had to explain the concept to us. O Canada (eh!)


Break your concentration. cut off a finger. Louise Liliefeldt with a knife, Toronto , 2004

Louise Liliefeldt, the funny side but the true Liliefeldt is just under the skin with a her ability in control, stillness, tolerance and self infliction. This is not her threshold, but rather of the spectator. Her performances are psychological, played out as a game of Russian roulette of art as she morphs into the character and loses herself into a kind of sub-conscious state. And this is were art can transcend. Liliefeldt has been at the discipline for nearly two decades.


Seer from 1998

Eric Glavin and Elizabeth McIntosh - Remembering Series

As long as I have known Eric Glavin. I remember him as an artist who has been diligent in his work and purported career in Canada. His flat architectural line landscapes are his signature. Eric is a tall striking handsome man who at any event we met, we kissed directly on the lips. This was a display of mutual respect. I remember when last I saw him, his girl friend looked kinda puzzled at it. But Eric's history is really with Elizabeth McIntosh where in 1992 she, himself and I took part in an exhibition of 26 Toronto artists.


Eric Glavin's minimalist work

Eric Glavin's collaborator in Art is Nester Kruger, I never got to know him personally at school, but when last I saw him in 2003, he looked shorter and heavier. Kruger's installation works are sophisticated, polished like Tom Benson, by the detail in its finish. In Trinidad, I remember Peter Doig introducing me briefly to Chris Ofili as, " Oh, Richard knows Elizabeth, Elizabeth McIntosh". McIntosh later studied art in England and became friends with him, Ofili. I've kissed Peter at the crown of his head.

I have often wondered why Canadian Artists like herself including, Louise Liliefeldt where denied coming to Trinidad through, The Canada Council for the Arts, Artists in Residence programme, under the debunked CCA7, where many before had casually blurted out it getting it on a whim. They both had strong desires to visit the island, perhaps their biographies where not as palpable to the criteria, what ever the fuck that means.... People often fail to realize, that I have the ear of a monkey, mind of a shark, heart of a dog and an eye having xray vision.


Elizabeth McIntosh's optical painting

Elizabeth was always kind in her disposition, her paintings carried a type of Japanese pattern print. Her mother and her mother's friend where I overnighted treated me with great hospitality. I met her for breakfast with her partner in 2003. She lives in Vancouver, BC.

Ana Rewakowicz - Remembering Series

"Dressware" was inspired by the legacy of Archigram. They investigated the relation between cities and new technologies, regarding fun, play and pleasure as their projects rationale and developed among many other works, single space, portable units called "Suitaloon" and "Cushicle"(Michael Webb), 2003.

In a press release, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal showcased APPEARANCES, May 27 to September 11, 2005. The exhibition included early or mid-career Canadian artists the likes of, Ana Rewakowicz. I remember seeing the banner online with a work I had seen before. Ana Rewakowicz's beginnings as I recalled was in the foyer of the Ontario college of Art. She spoke broken English and tried her best to have a conversation without feeling uncomfortable. She is Polish of Ukrainian heritage.

The circumstances that brought her to Canada were never discussed, I felt she was alone in this cold unfriendly city called Toronto. But Ana had a reputation of being a Bitch, she came across hard and perhaps had the persona to protect herself, but to also boost her art career as she takes it very seriously in its profession and vocation. She also looked like Madonna and made a student video singing one of her popular tunes in error. Ana made fun of it when last I saw her in 2003. She, Kika Thorne and Eric Glavin were my fellow co-players for an industrial sound sculpture I made in 1990.


Misha says sorry, I had it with the pain, now I can walk and jump for food, gimme, gimme, gimme

Ana Rewakowicz has settled herself in Quebec, and works with self containing modules or independent livable housing as inflatables. Its about displacement. I spent a few days in Montreal with her and her partner Anthony Seaberg. I remember walking with Misha, their very, very, very, much, loved three legged dog, Thats another story in its self.


Immersive installation by Montreal-based artists Ingrid Bachmann, Lorraine Oades and Ana Rewakowicz. Sonar 3 was presented by cafka, September 2007 at the Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Kitchener City Hall, Ontario

Edward Squire - Remembering Series

Hey Dad, I going to be a Ballet dancer

And they think I am eccentric, Edward Squire's facebook portrait

In the old days of clubbing, I remember that I had the ability to jump, turn and kick back my leg and land back where I was first positioned. In New York, I remember that I was told that I should be one of Madonna's dancers. I think it was my timing and strength as a thin wiry dud. At a club in Toronto, I sometimes noticed in the distance, another dancer, muscularly built with a medium height who seemed to look at me with a pinch of envy. This was burly Edward Squire, who when I got to know him initially danced for the American Ballet Theatre under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov. I often wondered over this, perhaps it was my timing as I thought of Edward's size as a dancer and the agility it takes to get airborne. Unfortunately, an injury put a stop to his career.

Edward had a great sense of style, I remember those silk shirts and his cap. I bought his black motorcycle leather jacket. He also had an aura that drew in a magical union. Things naturally happened, doors opened. At any event, people just offered tickets or invited us in to their private parties. I remember his work as a hybrid of fashion and sculptural armor wear, particularly his chain link jacket so many years ago at Gallery 76, Toronto. Edward Squire lives in Bangkok, Thailand.

Excepts from a exhibition, “Being with 15 minutes”

In Bangkok, new malls open, renovate, and expand in the frenzy of creating the “bigger, better” experience. This insanity creates an endless quest to evolve and transform “mall life” driving people to buy stuff they believe they need for a great life. The fallacy is that these objects in themselves have no value beyond the objects themselves. People are sucked into an endless cycle of collecting useless junk that cause a false sense of fulfillment. This institution we call “the mall” becomes a socially acceptable asylum of people searching for life meaning lost in space!

Shirin Mohtashami (Kouladjie) - Remembering Series

What truck?...what bus?


A montage of Shirin Mohtashami (Kouladjie) as a portrait of Nadia (She knows)

It just happened, Shirin Mohtashami and Kambiz Kouladjie gathered their stuff and left to New York. The Kouladjies where not to be found or even cared about their past, friends, whatever. This was a conscious break. Yet, I have fond memories of the Iranian French speaker trained to be a doctor in France, then decided to become an artist. Shirin and I even had a show together at the College's art gallery, Gallery 76. I remember her collages, her love of Nadia Comăneci and her great eye as she assisted, directed and oversaw Kambiz's film productions. I think that is the one of the reasons Kambiz married her, just to keep her selfishly to himself, her creative ability to see things dissected and cut away.


As I sift through Shirin Kouladjie's the day of my life collages.....an eerie premonition my fellow pass belongs in the dust of my urn

Once at their home in Toronto, I remember Shirin preparing meat, then she added a pinch of seasoning and ate it RAW. Try it, try it. In 1998, Shirin Kouladjie began an daily updated online montage art called Photomontage using composite photographic images pasting together as individual stills or vintage film loop clips. Then, her site was honoured as Yahoo's Site of the Day. I always enjoyed Shirin's company, and her sensitiveness and caring qualities made mention of a friend who had a Bitchy reputation, Ana Rewakowicz.


Shirin-Five-A, from 2006. A filtering of dreams superimposed with dolls and libraries, swimming pools fused between the fanning pages of a book

Janet Bellotto - Remembering Series

Rich - churd



This is a portrait of Janet Bellotto. One of the fondest memories was when she said to me loosely, Richard, I hate it when my lover tells me, "Your eyes, they are so lovely" and I just want to rip them out of the eye sockets as shove them in his mouth.... Janet indeed has lovely aqua coloured eyes, but Janet Bellotto's history is her mane of sandy brown hair. In one of her public performances, she retold a story of brushing her hair in sequential counts, when a clipper blared David Rudder's Trini to the bone behind her as she was counting the number of brush strokes.


Janet Bellotto canceled out by a passing sailboat, Harbour Front Toronto

These types of mishaps does not phase her because Ms. Bellotto has diligently worked at making her art no matter the circumstances, and completely on her own. In 2005, she was here in Trinidad to write about carnival complements of the National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago with free passes to all the events. What I love about her is her loyalty. She is currently in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.



Wave Interview with curator Kóan Jeff Baysa

Andrew Awad - Remembering Series - Wherever you are

Don't say you


Don't say you - Andrew Awad at one of the many photo documentary shoots around and about,Toronto, 1993

Maddest, tell us why, tell us to our faces why. Jump off to the side, kick a bucket over. Smile, grin, slap my face so I feel pain no more...Go to the wall, stand there, probe me with a stick, its too late, Richard, I've gone off to the other side...Asylum, 2004

As I remember, Andrew Awad was an outspoken student, when I first met him he was part of a student union meeting. He spoke with an authority, but also was sensitive as a writer with a talent for English literature. Andrew and I were like oil, water and gas combined and we fought many times. But more when I think back, it was how unstable, close to the edge he behaved, yet he managed to get back on his feet.


Joseph Scoren as Kiki in Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs, David Cronenberg (1991), a character which Andrew had empathy of

On a bike trip from Montreal to Toronto or was it Ottawa, we passed the crest of the disputed Oka land. I remember, it was one of the most beautiful dust vistas I had ever seen. The journey on the roadways through Quebec was treacherous and dangerous not helped by those trailer trucks driven by a crazed Quebecer. Whoosh.....Holy fuck man. When we arrived back in Toronto, I think Andrew's bike's bearing bracket was completely worn. Since 1994, I have never heard from him, nor once a dear friend of mine, Shirin Mohtashami (Kouladjie)

Linda Watson - Remembering Series

Linda Watson's Gulliver, a computer drawing and her new direction into the visual interface components at IBM

We are in a time of convergence between desktop and web based applications. Intuitively, we see that each has its own design language, related, but different. But what exactly are these differences?.......1. How and where do the conventions and best practices for web app design and desktop app design intersect? 2. Is there an identifiable design ethos for the web? 3. What are the criteria to be met by our interaction and visual design practices? 4. What if any design requirements are unique to the Eclipse context? 5. Are there general mapping rules to increase the fidelity of our Eclipse based web applications? 6. How do we, desktop designers, learn to “think” like web designers? - Excerpts by Kevin McGuire and Linda Watson, Eclipse Summit Europe, Gemany, 2008

Linda Watson along with Tom Benson where the first who people I met at the Ontario college of Art. She was an artist who was very proficient in drawings and for many years we roomed together in one of the apartments up Bathurst Street. We both worked in our rooms painting.

One evening we decided to order a pizza from those thirty minutes or its free places. Well, the Food Gods where on our side that day as the delivery man was late, give or take five minutes. When we answered the door together, we were calm but fidgeting inside. From his expression, he knew that there was no dispute, and that he had to release the piping hot Pizza to us. At the moment the door closed behind him, we looked at each as grown adults and began to jumped up and down clapping and stamping our hands and feet in pure free bliss. I think is is one of the happiest moments in my life.

Linda Watson transcribed from the original Bookmann website from 2004

I make artwork which continues to explore the media and themes from my early 1990's exhibitions. This earlier work combined drawing, painting and computer-manipulated imagery to create layered, pictorial objects. The works drew on various themes, and experimented with contemporary forms of representation. I've always been fascinated by pictorial narration, such as that found in Medieval and Early Renaissance painting, in particular the work of Giotto.

Also, as a child, I first began drawing by tracing photographs from Life magazine (especially the horse in Marlborough ads). So I find myself drawn towards art-making that resides in what is for me, a mysterious zone - where images from art history, mass media, and daydreams intersect, transforming one another. Where the possibility of meaning is suggested, but open to interpretation.

In 2002, I began making fully computer-based work, including drawings made with a Wacom digital tablet. I hope to continue in this vein, partly because it suits the kind of work I do. Before I formally studied art at college, I once fantasized about a more intimate way of making artwork available to people in their homes. I imagined a small, word-of-mouth interest group amongst whom paintings and drawings were circulated. So I was attracted to the idea of making digital artwork that's available on the web, which might then find its way to a modest audience of home viewers.

Linda was friendly with artists such as Cathy Daley, and collaborated in Subway art ad campaign with Elizabeth McIntosh. Linda's former partner was the Trinidadian born, Canadian writer, André Alexis.I fondly address her as Linda P.Watson.

Elizabeth Pinter and Roark Andrade - Remembering Series

Elizabeth Pinter and Roark Andrade, Front Street, Toronto, 1992

Elizabeth Pinter had a knack for fashion and also for Stevie Nicks in her code of dress and airiness. When she danced, she used to bob her head side to side showing off her blond hair. I remember when both Liz and Roake Andrade fell in love during one of our outings. Roark always held my hand in sampathy as we three would swing or skip along. This was to show his genuine love for me. At times when we worked together, we would test our physical strength in a sliding tug or I would danced to the tune of Cop Killer by Ice-T in the foyer of the Ontario College of Art cheered on by him. Roark introduced me to the independent comic works by Daniel Clowes, Fits like a Glove and Buddy, by Peter Bagge.

On one occasion while both Roark and I worked at the front security desk. A female photography student passed by, stopped, faced him directly and asked, you have such a beautiful face, can I take a photograph someday. Then, as she left, she turned to me and said, and you too.....No doubt, Roark had a beautiful face with his thick long black hair. Yet he was flawed because if I pushed my hand in his face, he flinched.

In Elizabeth's home, she had two cats, Peanut, a scrawny ginger and a large fat one, Pebbles, I believe. She also was loyal to her craft of fashion which then were hats, accessories and clothing apparel as she still designs today. Peanut, Peeeanut



Elizabeth Pinter explaining her organic dress work

Kika Thorne - Remembering Series

Kika Thorne with her film camera, and "best shit-disturber in a supporting role" at some embryonic moment, Thorne mixed together love, sex, film and activism....Now Magazine, 2002

When last I saw Kika Thorne we met at Future Bakery on Bloor Street, Toronto in 2003. Kika in her college days was quite a radical student under her soft mannered British tone, and sweet smile. But beneath the veneer she was an exhibitionist, a sex goddess once portrayed in her many underground films. She was purported of recording herself engaging in sex with her lover in a bathtub. I never saw the screening, but I remember her fondly that day as we spoke in conversation. Her notebook, her talk of Victoria, British Columbia and I vaguely recall, the place known as the Artist mecca of Canada.

You never know the amount of strength it takes to respect yourself as an artist, Kika had in with her, I don't give a fuck attitude. I recall an incident that took place at my security desk with Elizabeth Pinter at OCA(D). A fellow acquaintance of hers took her life the day her final results were posted. So strange her terror, she threw all her paintings out a window then followed suit.

Here is a Tibetan story she taught me; Think of a forest. Be very descriptive and detailed. Then, of a stream. After the stream, see yourself in an open meadow. In the distance you see a fence, walk to it and cross it the best way you can. Then look ahead.

The meaning:
The trees in the forest represents your parents, elders and any other things are your childhood
The stream is your sexuality.
The open field is how you presently feel
The barrier is your limitations
Beyond that is your future.

Mark Hesselink - Remembering Series

Mark Hesselink, director of, The Fighter, 2006 View BookShort Feature

Before the Ontario College of Art and (Design) was renovated and expanded to have that structure suspended over the entrance, the hall which hosted Fund Raising events, held a bar and was the general Auditorium was the set stage of a film produced by Mark Hesselink. Mr. Hesselink was part of a reading student group who included, kika Thorne and Linda Watson. These meetings were to discuss Hal Foster's Anti-Aesthetic book on Post Modern essays. Mark, Kika and Linda where quite proficient readers of the thick, heavenly souped jargon and spoke it as if they knew what was deliberately meant,....hmm, Susan and myself thought otherwise.

Did I mention to you that I took part in the film as a railway worker, along with kika Thorne and David Finley. I remember the train tracks and his concept of the history of Chinese and other immigrants who built the foundation across the Great Canadian North. Funny to think so many years ago. I lost track of Mark Hesselink, the last time I heard he was a director of slick music videos, and quite involve with the trappings of the film industry.

A journey to the past – Ontario part 6

Necropolis - city of the dead in Cabbagetown



This is the chapel of the Necropolis cemetery, Toronto’s oldest graveyard. The grounds are located near the Beaches, East Queen Street, and the place is considered one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the city, but a little disturbing. There are rumored that many young souls linger there. These photographs are one of the earliest taken by thebookmann in 1988. The church window rosette and stain glass windows depict the Christian symbol of Christ and an angelic angel as a child. -thebookmann

A journey to the past – Ontario part 5

From the ground up, classical to post modern

The city of Toronto has a few impressive architectural landmarks. There is the Canadian National tower, the world's tallest freestanding structure next to the Sky Dome with its integrated retractable roof. If you are at King Street, you can venture into the pedestrian walkway designed by Santiago Calatrava located in the banking district of the city.

The overlapping steel beams gently loop from one side to the other, and the archway is fused by a complex matrix of geometrical joints that encloses the open street passageway. The light which penetrates through the glass roof gives one a sense of tranquility and visual beauty. Called the Allen Lambert Galleria, the city's oldest surviving stone building, the former Commercial Bank of Midland is part of a space that has been the backdrop for commercial ads, films and television productions. It is also the home, if thebookmann recalls, of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

When construction began in 1915, Union Station at Front Street was Canada's largest enclosed space at the time it was officially opened in 1927. The train station was built by both Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk Railways and architects kept with the classical architectural style developed by the École des Beaux-Arts.

Union Station uses a series of large windows to illuminate the space. The facade are engraved with the names of the provinces that make up the Great North. -thebookmann

A journey to the past – Ontario part 4

We remember when we were kids - Irwin Toy

In the series of decay and rebirth, the city of Toronto had a few landmarks plotted in and about the industrial lots situated northwest of Front Street. There was the old train depot littered with carriages and a unusual platform or bay that rotated a train motor 180 degrees in the centre of a destitute field.

This is a view of the city of Toronto with many of the skyscrapers dominated by Banks. The large grain or fuel silos was in the vicinity of lands belonging to the railway. It may be astonishing to see if any structures still exist in 2007, as they were photographed nearly fifteen years ago. -thebookmann

A journey to the past – Ontario part 3

Where I layth shall you remember me

On the shallow incline near Saint Clair, off Yonge street, Toronto you can enter the main gates of Canada's most historic cemetery, Mount Pleasant.

The 200 acre grounds is a labyrinth of walkways and valleys. These photographs were taken in 1992 on a cool fall evening. In the series of decay and rebirth, thebookmann was intrigued by the beauty of remembrance, and the ways traditions in death were placed. It was also to give a comparison, that these places all have a similarity behind them, if you step back and take the time to look. What is amusing at Mount Pleasant is that families have placed plastic flowers on some graves. This freshly cleaned grave shows the evidence behind and in between the scrubs.

At Mount Pleasant, the tombstones, obelisks are immaculate, not a stone is defaced. And for many Canadians who are doubtful about the beauty of their city, the cemetery speaks of a tranquil bliss. Many prominent Canadians such as prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and the pianist Glenn Gould are buried there. -thebookmann

A journey to the past – Ontario part 2

When we speak of progress, what we really mean is to rape ourselves

If you are unfamiliar with these structures, it is because they may not exist today. These photographs was taken in 1993 before the city's facelift which has transformed it. - Take it or leave it.

On thebookmann's journey of documenting buildings in parts of the industrial areas of the Toronto, these images say it all because the structures have been erased from memory. So just north of King Street, Toronto, Ontario, there once stood the Gardiner expressway with its dual roadway concrete structure, and at the time, the building below was in being demolished on King Street, east of Yonge. - thebookmann

A journey to the past – Ontario part 1

Farewell my past, farewell

These photographs were taken from 1990, and it was at a time when thebookmann began to document building that were being demolished in many parts of the city. It was the last rite to the buildings which were once part of the Toronto's urban landscape and industrial past. -thebookmann