{"id":890,"date":"2023-01-13T03:54:28","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T03:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/?page_id=890"},"modified":"2024-02-23T02:07:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T02:07:31","slug":"people-like-us-the-gossip-of-colin-campbell","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/?page_id=890","title":{"rendered":"People Like Us: The Gossip of Colin Campbell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pioneering Canadian artist Colin Campbell (b. 1942 Reston, Manitoba; d. 2001 Toronto, Ontario) used video as a cheap and accessible medium for storytelling. His homespun tapes are a perverse collage of tall tales, rumours, conversations and daydreams\u2014all gleaned from his everyday life. Making art was no sublime act of creation but merely what friends and lovers did together in the art community developing in Toronto in the seventies and eighties. Ironic, irreverent and ambiguous, always attuned to the playful shifting of genders and desires, Campbell\u2019s tapes chart how identity is performed and circulated in the social world. Art historian Gavin Butt has suggested, \u201cgossiping is a form of social activity which produces and maintains the filiations of artistic community.\u201d Disregarding the boundary between truth and artifice, Campbell\u2019s life and art practice derived both inspiration and form through gossip. The characters he created and inhabited\u2014and those he coaxed out of his many collaborators\u2014confide secrets and stories to us, crafting elaborate and compelling mythologies around them. Through videotape, he gossiped with and about his real social circle and created a new one, fictional personas such as Art Star, the Woman from Malibu and Robin who became tangibly real once their tapes were watched, loved (or hated) and talked about. By the time Campbell passed away, his personas were left bereft of a body but they continue to float freely in our collective consciousness to this day. People Like Us: The Gossip of Colin Campbell<\/em> surveys the artist\u2019s illustrious video career from early tapes like True\/False<\/em> (1972) to his final work, Que Sera Sera<\/em> (2001). It is the first major exhibition of his work since his death in 2001.<\/p>\n

Exhibition Guide<\/a><\/p>\n

Catalogue<\/a> (see Writing<\/a> page for more details)<\/p>\n

Tour (originated at Oakville Galleries, ON):<\/p>\n

Carleton University Art Gallery<\/a>, Ottawa, ON: November 14, 2011\u2013January 29, 2012<\/p>\n

OBORO<\/a>, Montr\u00e9al, QC: November 13\u2013December 18, 2010<\/p>\n

Owens Art Gallery<\/a>, Sackville, NB: September 17\u2013October 31, 2010<\/p>\n

Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery<\/a>, Halifax, NS: June 12\u2013August 1, 2010<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos from the opening at Oakville Galleries, Friday, December 5, 2008:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\" <\/a>\u00a0\"\" <\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Panel discussion at the Carleton University Art Gallery with (l\u2013r) Lisa Steele, me, Peggy Gale, and moderator Penny McCann (recording available here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Press:<\/p>\n

Canadian Art<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Star<\/a><\/p>\n

Voir <\/a><\/p>\n

Le Devoir<\/a><\/p>\n

CanCulture<\/a><\/p>\n

Xtra!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pioneering Canadian artist Colin Campbell (b. 1942 Reston, Manitoba; d. 2001 Toronto, Ontario) used video as a cheap and accessible medium for storytelling. His homespun tapes are a perverse collage of tall tales, rumours, conversations and daydreams\u2014all gleaned from his everyday life. Making art was no sublime act of creation but merely what friends and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-890","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/890\/revisions\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jondavies.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}