Message to Japan

I would like to offer subtle sounds of wind chimes to the people of Japan. The difficult times endured have inspired communities to work together toward healing and rebuilding. By creating a mobile and traveling wind chime backpack, my hope is that the uplifting sounds of chimes, generated by the rhythm of walking and the wind, will be a welcome reminder of nature and change, contributing to the good energy and flow that exist in the neighbourhoods and sites visited during Field Trip outings. The journey will be traced in an audio recording while the backpack is in motion, capturing the energetic sounds of the many people and neighbourhoods that will be visited over the course of the project.

Artist information

Annie Onyi Cheung is an emerging performance, video and installation artist whose work has been concerned with relational politics, with increasing focus on site and materiality. Her projects have shown most recently at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (2011 and 2010), Labspace Studio (2011), Subtle Technologies Festival (2011), The Artist Project Toronto (2011), and Doris McCarthy Gallery (2010). She has been a member of the 7a*11d collective since 2009, and recently co-curated a 3-week outdoor art-installations festival for Art of the Danforth. Upcoming projects include 2 summer workshop events with the Varley Art Gallery (June/July 2012), new work for ‘Forts’ project curated by Physical Futures Initiative (August 2012) and ‘Free (or Best Offer)’ curated by Ufuk Gueray (November 2012). Born in Hong Kong, Annie currently lives and works in Toronto.

Official Website: Annie Onyi Cheung

Message to Japan

I know that you will find balance and come out of this crisis even stronger than you were before. I hope that you continue to see beauty in all that surrounds you. Just as we, artists, draw inspiration from your country; we hope that you will gain something from the work we produce.

Aleksandra Rdest 2012

Artist information

Aleksandra Rdest lives and works in Toronto. She is most well widely recognized as a painter but her practice also includes photography and sculpture. In 2004 Rdest travelled to Japan and was deeply impressed by the culture and art; which continues to inform her work to this day.

Since graduating from OCAD Toronto in 2002 Rdest’s work has been exhibited across Canada in commercial and public galleries; as well as in Japan and the United States. She has been an active member of art collective A Collection of Foreign Objects since 2004. With the collective she has participated in Nuit Blanche as well as numerous exhibitions in artist run and alternative venues. Rdest has curated exhibitions in Los Angeles and Toronto,In addition to her artistic practice; Rdest is Creative Director at Tatar Art Projects, a hospitality art consulting firm.

Her work has been featured in Magenta Foundation’s Carte Blanche: Painting and Flash Forward Photography 2011 Publication; she was a semi-finalist in the RBC painting competition in 2007.

Recent exhibitions include: CRISScross, Sopa Fine Arts, Kelowna BC; Bungalow Colony, Gendai Gallery, Toronto; SWAGGER AND SASHAY, Angell Gallery, Toronto; Postcards from the Void, Tatar Gallery, Toronto; Fuzz, Newzones, Calgary.

Official Website: Aleksandra Rdest