The Valley (Winter 2022)

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MASTHEAD
THE DIRECTOR
Polen Light
PROGRAMMING COORDINATOR
Alex Au
COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR
Joanna de Villa
EXHIBITIONS COORDINATOR
Arthur Hamdani
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT COORDINATOR
Laira Macapagal
MAGAZINE DESIGN
Vy Le
COVER ART
Tasnim Anzar
WRITER
Sonia Tao
WRITER
Tara Hejazi
WRITER
Lauren Tremblay
WRITER
Maidah Afzal
WRITER
Alyssa Lyon
VOLUNTEERS
Leah Manz, Yanling Shi, Vaishvi Shah, Rajsree Mandal,
Nilany Sivakumar, Toey Saralamba, Angela Purnama
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Introduction
The Public Art Series: Chloe
Kouyoumdjian’s Jasper
Send Nudes
Immersive Exhibits: Honourable
or Exploitive
Contested Space
A Gallery Dayout with ISC
The Celebration
Google Arts & Culture: The
Colonial Framing of Art
The Public Art Series: Rika
Nakane's Holding
A Dummy's Guide to NFTs
in the Art World
Thank You
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TABLE OF
CONTENTS
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INTRO
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Before I begin the introduction, I’d like to start out by saying this
semester has been a journey for all of us at the Gallery–which I
can’t wait to talk about later–but for some of us this is the end of
the journey. As the semester is coming to an end, our beloved Gallery
staff members Joanna de Villa, Laira Macapagal, and Alex Au will be
graduating. It has been a very special experience to work with you
and I will miss you all a lot. On a second note, a huge heartfelt thank
you to Gallery staff members and volunteers as a whole, this semester
has been incredible thanks to you, and you were just as incredible
as the artworks if not more. And thank you to all who endured science,
history, biology, and culture “lectures” during and after the staff
meetings–I hope you enjoyed it just as much as I did.
Dear readers,
It’s that time of the year again where we’re all mustering
up for that final push, going through sleepless nights and
trying to keep our sanity. I have to say–and I can speak for
the Gallery staff here as well–the time and effort we spent
in the gallery this semester significantly contributed to the
accumulated pile of work left to the end of the semester.
Though looking back at things we did, the moments we
shared, and the people it allowed us to meet and interact,
I think it is undeniable that these memories put a smile on
our faces and help us continue.
This semester the gallery went from “are they even going
to open campus up” to “oh shit they’re opening the campus,
how the hell do we use a hammer again?” to finally “so
you’re telling me we had 90 visitors on our first day and
just short of 300 visitors by the end of 2nd week?”. The
staff might have had to deal with depthless email threads
for EHS & facilities approval, adapt to constant changes
in uncertain times, and executive new programming in a
space which was dormant for years and used for Starbucks
storage. But despite all the odds, our programming & contributing
artists were received with great praise.
The Winter 2021 opened up with a collaboration between

The Capture photography club at UTSC and Gallery 1265
in our virtual exhibition space. It was followed by the solo
show of Nicole Kozak, Send Nudes, where she was able to
truly dazzle the visitors. Simultaneously, the gallery also
mounted two public artworks on campus: Chloe Kouyoumdjian’s
Jasper in the Meeting Place, and Rika Nakane’s
Holding in the Student Centre. The public artwork project
was a special one for us, as it allowed us to expand beyond
our gallery walls, interact with more students, and
offer artists a new way to express their creativity. Last but
not least we also hosted a portion of the Annual Studio
Art Student Show, which was just as captivating as every
other year. At the time of writing this, we’re also preparing
to open up Gabriella Zi Yan Bai’s solo show, which I
couldn’t be more excited to see.
Beyond our art programming, we also had the great pleasure
to collaborate with other organizations on campus
to hold different events. One of which was a collaboration
with the International Student Centre where we took international
students to the Art Gallery of Ontario and introduced
newcomers to Canadian Art. The students made
new friends, learned about Canadian and contemporary
art, and had discussions around how art can be a medium
for cultural exchange and understanding. The other collaboration
was with the Department of Arts Culture and
Media, where we hosted a beautiful celebration at the end
of the Annual Studio Art Student Exhibition.
Once again, many thanks to the faculty and staff at the
ACM department, the staff at the gallery, and the many
volunteers (which I am very happy to say that I’ve met
with many this year) who devoted their time. I hope that
you enjoyed our offerings just as much as we enjoyed preparing
it, and that some of the initiatives we took this year
will continue to flourish and grow over the coming years.
Hope to see you all in coming semesters,
Polen
DUCTION
DUCTION5

To kick off Gallery 1265’s Public Art series, Chloe Kouyoumdjian’s installation
Jasper was unveiled in the Meeting Place on Monday, March 14th,
2022. The vermillion installation sits comfortably in the center of the action,
surrounded by the hustle-and-bustle of students rushing between classes
each hour. The figure redirects the eye of those moving frantically past it,
creating the lingering thought of what it was and where it came from. Towering
at a height of ten feet, the scarlet figure is a connected series of plywood
boxes and planks that provide the twisting illusion of a spiral midway
up. Similar to the form of a vine wrapped around wire, the figure proceeds
upwards in a similar fashion to the base, basking in the sunlight pouring in
from the iconic roof of windows found above. The sculpture itself is picturesque,
painted with a base of red acrylic and an overlapping of white and
mahogany detail to provide the rounded, organic shapes that provides a
balance to the otherwise boxy form of Jasper.
Kouyoumdjian’s inspiration for the creation comes from both the gemstone
chalcedony and the historical background of the Andrews Building (more
well-known as The Science and Humanities Wings) at The University of
Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC). Designed and named after architect
John Andrews, the construction was desired to bring together the inorganic,
modernist building with the organic, flowering ravine below. The Valley,
filled with flora, fauna, and the rolling stream throughout, can be found
in Jasper; from the natural grain of the plywood to the watered shoreline
shapes drifting atop it. The blazing rouge comes from the red translucent
variant of chalcedony, otherwise known as jasper. The contrasting forms of
the orderly, plotted shape of the installation is echoed by the disordered
context of organic formation in crystallized rocks. It is no doubt that Jasper
is named after the very mineral that holds a wealth of impurities in its form:
just as the divot in Jasper holds as a disruption to the organic growth of the
figure itself. Those who pass by this installation on their way to class may
wonder: how could the mere imprisonment of natural forms be considered
art?
To those who had been seized with enough curiosity to approach, they’d
find similar feelings wrought on by the artist themselves. The accompanying
description explores the challenges that come with interpretive art, focusing
on the dominating question of what exactly makes art, ‘art’. Jasper explores
Kouyoumdjian’s fascination with the question, stating it had sprouted
THE PUBLIC ART SERIES: CHLOE KOUYOUMDJIAN'S
JASPER
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Review by Maidah Afzal

alongside the beginning of their journey as an artist. The artist writes, “[w]
hat started out as a simple curiosity soon became corroded into a cacophony
of questions, leaving only a sense of what could be and the inevitability
of a new order.” Jasmine Castelo, Mental Health Studies major and Art History
minor student studying at UTSC provides her take on the installation:
​”For me, Jasper invokes a sense of wonder and possibility,” Castello remarks,
when asked how the piece challenged narratives of how art can be
defined. “As I look up at the 10-foot piece resembling what seems to be
the merging or the middle ground between a pillar and a puzzle, it is both
earthly and man-made; bold and dense and yet fluid. The variability of forms
seems potentially endless when intermixing the natural and organic with
the crispness of geometric shapes.”
However, like many pieces, Jasper must hold some shortcomings. As the
piece poses the ever-expansive question of “what is art?”, the question
continues the race alongside many others of its time. The question itself has
become a genre of art, such as Édouard Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, or
the controversial works of Andy Warhol. The extensive use of the Andrews
Building history in producing this piece additionally removes a level of creative
merit, as its marriage of the organic and the artificial is already amply
represented in John Andrew’s architectural approach.
Overall, deriving work from popular themes in art does not necessarily
make the piece pointless, just as we should not feel discouraged to persist
in adventures that have been explored before. If anything, it adds to the
arms-race towards a true meaning of art; another piece of the puzzle of the
final definition.
Chloe Kouyoumdjian's Jasper
was installed in the meeting
place through March. Please
contact Gallery 1265 if you
would like access to photo
archives. Images courtesy of
Gallery 1265.
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SEND N
Review by A
The art of the digital nude has seemingly
crystalized itself since the COVID-19
pandemic forced all of us to interact through
screens. For so many, the distortion of bodies
through the imperfect lens of our phones has
been discomforting at the very least. This pandemic
has taken so much, must it also take away
the tenderness and sensuality of the nude as
well? Presented as the first in-person exhibition
since UTSC students returned to campus, Nicole
Kozak’s ‘Send Nudes’ provides a community-oriented
antithesis to our communal digital
anxieties.
Kozak is the kind of artist who finds herself
dedicated to incorporating the communal within
her personal journey as an artist, the 12 pieces
which make up ‘Send Nudes’ are thoughtful
examples of that dedication. The abstractions on
each canvas (aside from ‘Vicky @vortexvicky’
and ‘Persona’) are created by the painting's
real-life subject. Kozak then steps in to paint
the nude and semi-nude images of the friends
and peers who have joined her on this journey.
Naïve as I might be, I didn’t know this when I
viewed the exhibition for the first time, albeit
it did not reduce the art’s impact upon viewing.
There is an innate beauty in the figures Kozak
paints, the detail in the brush strokes of the skin,
the light, and the shadow of its folds and bends.
For someone like me who never got beyond any
skill I developed in 8th-grade art class, I’ll always
be impressed by detailed depictions of the physical
human form. Kozak’s art, however, left me
with a feeling I couldn’t verbalize until the weekend
after the exhibition closed.
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The more I sat with a piece like ‘Brianna,’ unique

UDES
lyssa Lyon
in the scope of the exhibition as the wave like
abstraction is far more present than the figure
drifting on top of it, the more I came to understand
the provocation of the exhibition’s title.
A title which, upon first reading and without
context felt linguistically disjointed and simple
compared to the visual interest the art peaks.
‘Send Nudes’ is a challenge, a title more to goad
and less to invite. Kozak uses the incendiary
connotations of the statement to invite you
the world of her art, where community comes
first and every body is worthy of appearance in
fine art. Each piece is a testament to the tastes,
abilities and interests of its authors and Kozak’s
rendering of their forms speaks to the love and
respect she has for each participant. From a
visitor’s perspective this exhibition feels both
like a love letter to the painting’s subjects along
with a pointed commentary on the relationship
between the body and art.
In a digital economy that bolsters, and uplifts
thinness, the edited and airbrushed, beauty in
isolation; Kozak’s art stands in direct opposition.
No body is the same, and the art coming from is
going to be comparatively different. In collaboration
and the application of her strengths, Kozak
manages the seemingly impossible feat of transforming
a statement of objectification into one
which values the beauty of individual. So yeah,
send nudes because who you are under all those
clothes, when you turn out the lights is a priceless
work of art.
Nicole Kozak's solo exhibition ran from March 11th
to March 18th. Please contact Gallery 1265 if you
would like access to photo archives.
Images courtesy of Gallery 1265 and the artist.
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“Beyond Monet” immersive exhibit in Toronto. Photo courtesy
of CNW Group/Beyond Exhibitions
IMMERSIVE
EXHIBITS:
HONOURABLE
OR EXPLOITIVE?
The new rise in immersive
exhibits raises questions on
their integrity to the art and
the visitors.
by Lauren Tremlay
Recall your more memorable
experience at an art gallery
for a brief moment. Think of
the time spent learning as close
as possible to your favourite
paintings, experiencing them for
their proper size, and straining
your eyes as much as possible to
take in every brushstroke. Was
it less grand than you expected
like the disappointment tourists
often take away from seeing the
Mona Lisa for its small size? Or,
was it even better than imagined,
with its online reproductions
not doing its beauty justice?
I, for one, adore viewing my
favourite artworks in person, as
I often attempt to look through
the layers of the paint, deconstructing
brushstrokes and paint
layers, in awe that I can finally
perceive a painting with my own
eyes, rather than from those of a
camera. Though my appreciation
for the classic gallery structure
is shared by many, a new trend
is taking the art world by storm
and giving galleries a run for
their money.
About a year ago, I began to
see sponsored posts on my
Instagram feed about immersive
art experiences. Shortly after,
my feed was full of my friends
attending to post videos and
photos, which were justifiably
beautiful. These shows are held
in large industrial and entertainment
buildings, like Toronto’s
Metro Convention Centre. Using
high-quality imaging and projection
technology, these large
empty spaces are turned into
canvases for digital art, with all
walls, ceilings, and floors being
used as projection screens. The
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1 Maureen Feighan, “Meet Vincent: New immersive ‘Beyond Van Gogh’ exhibit in Detroit goes beyond paintings”, The Detroit News, June 23rd 2021, https://www.
detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/arts/2021/06/23/new-immersive-beyond-van-gogh-exhibit-opens-friday-detroit/5303392001/

goal of these exhibitions is to allow
the visitor to experience artwork
like never before, essentially as
if they were in the painting itself.
Colours change, and images move
around and melt into one another,
creating a dream-like sensation, and
like the sites state, giving new life
to the paintings. The most known
immersive experiences are associated
with impressionist and surrealist
artists such as Vincent Van Gogh,
Claude Monet, and Gustav Klimt.
With their artworks already taking
on otherworldly visuals and colours,
their pairing with immersive experiences
offers a heightened sense of
euphoria.
Though I may never reach a final
internal decision on my stance,
the rise of immersive exhibits has
me weary. Even while writing this,
the popularity of these exhibits, or
shall I say, experiences, makes me
question myself. Are my opinions
dated? Have I not given this enough
thought? Last fall, after seeing an
ad for the Gustav Klimt immersive
experience, my mom asked me to
look into buying her tickets. As fun
as these exhibits look, I, as a museum-goer,
have a few concerns. After
visiting the website and selecting to
purchase tickets, I was alarmed that
the price for one person was almost
50 dollars. I had never imagined
paying this much to look at projection
imagery, as I have paid less to
come face to face with Van Gogh
paintings. After telling my mom the
price, she swiftly passed, stating that
it was not worth that at all for her.
These high costs raised questions
in my head as to who was paying
for these exhibits and why. Is it for
the sake of Instagram posts, or are
most visitors taking away a new
experience with these projections?
Then, I question the motivations
of the people running these shows.
With the non-stop advertising and
steep costs, these exhibits feel like a
money grab disguised as a once-in-alifetime
experience.
Moreover, these immersive exhibits
have raised concerns about
the show’s integrity to the actual
artwork. None of these shows
are affiliated with art galleries or
museums, such as the Art Gallery
of Ontario or the Royal Ontario
Museum. Therefore, none of the
Toronto’s Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit. Image Courtesy: Immersive Van
Gogh Exhibit, Toronto. https:// www.vangoghexhibit.ca/
costs are going towards supporting
art galleries or museums that
handle conservation and education,
but rather event organizers. The
organizer of the Van Gough exhibit
has noted that they were banned
from changing the composition or
colour of the paintings to maintain
some integrity of the work itself 1,
but many images from these shows
show collage-like arrangements of
the paintings. The shows rightfully
try to express the artist’s imagination,
but are Van Gogh’s artworks
alone not enough? Are collages and
slide show formats really necessary?
With all these significant aspects,
I still wonder if it would be better
for institutions such as the AGO, or
any other developed art gallery for
that matter, to house similar events
themselves. Established galleries and
museums offer shows, like those
of Van Gogh, at a lesser cost while
also allowing visitors to experience
the actual paintings. This way, money
can be put into the preservation
of the art, along with funding for
educational programming and new
acquisitions.
Looking ahead with this new surge
of technology use in entertainment,
the future could be uncertain for
art institutions if they do not jump
on the trend of immersive exhibits.
Once a painting has been distorted
or enlarged to fit an entire industrial
building, will the original image lose
its purpose and meaning to new,
young crowds? Will the expectations
for art museums be raised to a
new level of digitization and entertainment,
discarding paintings, and
promoting virtual reality? Overall, a
fine line needs to be walked between
the authentic, and the digitally
reproduced, to promote education
and history, as well as inspiration
and escapism.
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CONTESTED
SPACE
In our final exhibition of the year, Gallery
1265 is honoured to show Zi Yan
Bai’s Contested Space. Bai is a multi-award
winning senior student at the University
of Toronto with a long history with the
Gallery. We could not think of a more
fitting way to round off one of our most
exciting seasons to date than with Bai’s
work. From photography, to video, to
sculptures — Bai does it all in Contested
Space. Her pieces masterfully exist in
tandem with one another as they each
explore the tense relationship between
artificial structures and the natural environment.
Contested Space holds a somber tone
as it centres the natural world’s urban
infection. The exhibition’s central question
is firmly found in Between Tension
and Curiosity where the artist’s signature,
misery, is potent in this photo series. The
bagged cement block rests next to a fell
tree in one image, then just barely as tall
as the surrounding plants in another. Two
largely offensive urban polluters: bricks
and bags take space in these forests, the
elephant in the room featured off of the
centre, but just as prominent. The block
stands in its lonely solitude, contrasting
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UPCOMING EXHIBITION
AN EXHIBITION OF TENSION
Review by Joanna de Villa

with the sparse nature around it crafting
a tense moment.
As a fan of Bai’s Third Generation featured
in the 2020 Annual Student Art Show
and her pieces in the Gallery 1265’s
Intersections (2021), I am glad to see her
work in the Gallery once again.
The theme of the exhibition will be
about the ambivalent spaces – the relationship
between artificial institutions
and the natural environment. In the past,
Bai had been investigating various social,
cultural, and economic institutions
through investigating their intellectual
construction, infrastructures, devices,
contexts, etc. As a student she was also
studying how education has responded
to those institutions.
During the pandemic, however, there
was a change in Bai’s research direction
as she started paying more attention
to the natural environment. As someone
who grew up in the urban regions,
nature was unfamiliar to Bai. But as Bai
continued exploring the natural context
and conducting research on its cultural
connotations, she found that historically,
nature has also been regarded as a
space for artists to critically examine the
institutions. It almost seems to Bai that
nature itself already constitutes a critique
of the institutions. Thus, the exhibition
examines such phenomenon, but
without a definite answer.
Zi Yan Bai's solo exhibition Contested
Space will be on view from 30th of March
to 11th of April. Please contact the Gallery
1265 for if you would like to access to
photo archives. Images courtesy of Gallery
1265 and the artist.
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AN ART
GALLERY
DAYOUT
WITH ISC
by Arthur Hamdani
A
fter two years of online events,
Gallery 1265 grasped the opportunity
to weave back the gap in the
UTSC community in collaboration with
the International Student Centre (ISC).
We took new and returning international
students on a day trip to the Art
Gallery of Ontario (AGO) as a warm
welcome to Toronto’s art culture. The
trip was part of ISC’s existing Explore the
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6ix series where they take international
students to different spots
around Toronto as opportunities
for students to make new friends
and exchange cultural perspectives.
Our trip to the AGO introduces art
discussions into the mix.
Being in an art gallery with a group
of students is bound to spark
conversations about the artworks,
shared experiences, and new relationships.
The gallery and the
art within acted as a medium for
cultural exchange between international
and domestic students. From
abstract painting, realistic oil portraits,
to contemporary sculptures,
students roamed around and shared
their perspectives within each other
that segued into new relationships.
Our visit to the AGO was met with
perfect timing as students got to
witness two spectacular temporary
exhibits by Canadian artists: Red
is Beautiful by Robert Houle and
Blue View by Matthew Wong. Two
contrasting artists that beautifully
reflected the Indigenous rebellion
against colonialism and an artist’s
battle against depression made our
trip a memorable experience.
For many, this was their first visit
to the AGO. Many were elated that
the gallery provides a free annual
membership for those between the
ages of 14 and 25. Our trip was a
welcoming experience for those
who wish to return to the gallery.
With the diverse collections of
permanent artworks from around
the world and interchanging temporary
exhibitions from global artists,
Gallery 1265 and ISC have introduced
students to the art culture
of Toronto and sparked expansive
cultural discussions.

THE GALA
THE CELEBRATION
by Vy Le
On March 18, the Arts, Culture and Media department held an annual exhibition to celebrate
the works of UTSC’s Studio Art students, in collaboration with Gallery 1265. The reception
and award ceremony took place in the Meeting Place. Guests were welcomed with light refreshments
and live music, in a venue beautifully decorated by the Gallery 1265 team and volunteers.
Many awards were given out during the night to students with outstanding artworks, and mzany
heartfelt stories behind them were shared. The artworks themselves were displayed in the gallery
and on the third floor of the Arts Administration building for the rest of the university to visit. The
exhibition featured an incredibly diverse collection of works, which included photographs, paintings,
digital arts and sculptures.
After almost two years in the pandemic without much in-person interaction, the campus finally
came back to life with this event.As a first-year who has seen the campus go in and out of lockdowns
since the beginning of this academic year, I really appreciated finally being able to see what
university life is all about. Students, staff and the faculty were clearly excited to not only celebrate
each other’s hard work in the past year, but also to simply reconnect and catch up over a cup of
drink. As part of the volunteer team, it was heartwarming to see how much work and dedication
the organizing team put into ensuring that the evening goes smoothly and making it as enjoyable as
possible for the guests. There were many surprises at this year’s exhibition, such as a dress made of
letters or an automatic clapping machine (which literally made people jump). Many of these works
showcased and acknowledged the resilience of the artists and those around them, bringing people
together to reflect on the difficult path we have walked together, just like what this celebration did.
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A SELECTION FROM THE SHOW
Tolu Ahmed - Bola
Zainab Aslam - Self Portrait
Cynthia Bao - Journey
Jing Teng - Shoulder bag
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Millan Singh Khurana -
Peace of Mind
Anechka Paredes
Saniel - The Beauty
of Words
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Karida - HOORAY

GOOGLE
ARTS &
CULTURE:
The Colonial Framing
of Art
What does it mean
to discover art?
by Sonia Tao
Launched in 2011 by the Google Cultural
Institute, Google Arts & Culture is a global
arts project that aims to preserve art through
digitisation. From the Ohara Museum of Art
to the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Google
Arts & Culture collaborates with over 2000
cultural institutions around the world. Google
partners use Art Camera, Museum View, and
other media technologies to digitise paintings,
sculptures, and artefacts. They also use Street
View and Augmented Reality to capture virtual
cities, museums, and galleries. Users can access
the art through the Arts & Culture website
and mobile app. The project curates a one-stop
experience for art lovers.
Google’s art digitisation has helped people to
access art during the pandemic. Viewers can
browse through Monet’s paintings in The National
Gallery in London, admire photographs
of tombs in India, or zoom through the virtual
streets of Sydney from their homes. The project
has made art more accessible, but it also
has some flaws. While Google Arts & Culture
has brought global art to online audiences, it
has also perpetuated the colonial language of
discovery in the art world. The art itself is not
problematic, but the language used to frame
the art is.
Google invites viewers to discover art. On
the home page, you find the word ‘discover’
peppered in phrases like “Discover culture
through familiar masterpieces” and “Discover
artists around the world”. This language of discovery
imposes a colonial perspective on the
person or thing being discovered. For example,
the European settlers ‘discovered’ indigenous
people living in what is now known as the
Americas. To say that indigenous people were
discovered seems to disregard their prior
existence on the land. Indigenous people were
positioned as foreign to the land on which
they had lived for thousands of years before
the settlers arrived.
This discovery rhetoric has continued to bleed
through the fabric of Western culture. The assumption
that artists and artworks can simply
be unearthed appropriates colonial language
into the art world. One is discovering, and
the other is being discovered. It positions the
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“Discover artists”
on Google Arts &
Culture homepage.
Images and Street
View maps of
Cáceres, Spain.
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viewers as active discoverers, and the art as passive
objects waiting to be found. Instead of using discover,
Google might consider phrases like “engage with art”
or “reflect upon sites in a city”. Engage and reflect
invites viewers into dialogue, rather than impose
themselves upon others. There is more fluidity in
these words, and not a strict dichotomy of the discoverer
and the discovered. Art should welcome viewers
into conversation, not create divisions. To engage and
reflect on art means to allow various perspectives to
talk and listen to each other.
In addition to discovering art, viewers can also discover
places in Arts & Culture. An example of this is
Google’s Street View. When viewers click on a Street
View of Cáceres, Spain, they find themselves zooming
through the streets of the city. Storefronts, buildings,
and the blurred faces of pedestrians are all captured
in sharp details. The Street View offers a hyperreal
experience that verges on being invasive. It is oddly
disorienting to see intimate details of a space without
actually being in that space. It feels like viewers are
imposing themselves within a place where they do not
belong, just like the European settlers’ colonisation
of indigenous people and their land. An alternative
vocabulary to ‘discover places’ could be ‘engage with
places’. This phrase goes beyond the active-passive
binary of the discoverer versus the discovered. ‘Engage’
opens up possibilities of different ways of engaging
with virtual spaces. This word is hopefully, a more
inclusive vocabulary that can counteract the colonial
bias entrenched in the language of discovery.
Google Arts & Culture has contributed tremendously
to the digitisation of art around the world. The
massive collection of artworks, museum spaces, and
cultural landmarks are something to behold. The platform
has made global art more accessible to online
audiences. But Google should be more mindful about
the colonial framing of the art. Arts & Culture invites
viewers to ‘discover’ arts and places, which replicates
colonial ways of seeing in the modern art world. The
language of discovery needs to shift from imposing
dominant dialogues on others to engaging others in
dialogue. Words like engage and reflect can help to
resist the colonial language of discovery. These alternatives
disrupt the rigid power structure between the
active discoverer and passive discovered. It is all about
putting different voices in dialogue with each other,
and not imposing a dominant perspective. I would
like to think of my suggestions as part of an ongoing
conversation about the ways Google can reconcile
with colonial language in the art world. After all, this
is something that Google Arts & Culture has yet to
discover.
"Discover culture"
on Google Arts &
Culture webpage
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THE PUBLIC ART SERIES: RIKA NAKANE'S
HOLDING
Review by Maidah Afzal
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Rika Nakane’s Holding follows Chloe Kouyoumdjian’s
installation as the second unveiled exhibit of Gallery
1265’s Public Art series, situated between the convenience
store and the Scarborough Campus Students’
Union (SCSU) offices opposite the food court. Though
sitting on a wooden platform, the sculpture itself reaches
a height of 37 inches, leaning back concavely against
the glass window behind it. Its broad figure expands to
a width of 32 inches, and compensates for the empty
space between the wires within, having its base supported
with the most densely packed strings which decline
in solidity towards the top of the five finger-tips. Constructing
the bold figure of the hand with armature, a
spectrum of coloured aluminum wires stretch around,
through and between to create the cheery character
that cuts a picturesque form from any vantage point.
Positioned in the Student Centre of the University of
Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC), Holding is a
personal letter to whom the building was dedicated: the
students. At the heart of the UTSC campus, the building
itself was partially funded by the students to support
the various needs and demands of the working body. In
addition to providing the students a space to purchase
and consume food, this building acts as a home base for
the SCSU and campus clubs and associations. However,
work is not the entirety of the student experience;
rather the fine balance between school, health, as well
as inter- and intra-personal relationships is the essence
that this building embodies. As a hub for all the necessities
of student well-being, the Student Centre houses
medical facilities such as the dental offices on the main
floor or the Health & Wellness Centre located on the
second, fully compact with medical, counselling and
health educational services pre-paid through default
fees in each students’ tuition. Large spaces are dedicated
to student engagement and interaction, from
the open-concept dining area to the many dedicated
multi-faith prayer rooms, and expanding from the alumni
lounge and retail stores to the games room and newly
revamped Rex’s Den (soon to be known as 1265
Bistro).
Nakane’s inspiration for her sculpture comes from
recent insight into her own past and future at UTSC.
Though this is Nakane’s first piece using this medium,
the tight integration of wires and strings in her work
proves rewarding and potentially transfigurative in her
craft. Listed on the provided artist’s statement, wires
were chosen to symbolise the connections, knowledge,
and explorations within the student body, akin to how
a hand is filled with blood vessels. The colourful strings
within flourish as a symbol of growth from a strong
base, probing the thoughts and possibilities that come
with campus life. Sitting against a glass pane, Holding
provides an enticing spiderweb pattern that sprawls out
onto the concrete floor, moving like clockwork as the
sun rolls along throughout the day. Exhibited after nearly
two and a half years of the COVID-19 lockdown, this
structure is emblematic of the strong systems necessary
to connect and protect students in a world where
disconnect was mandatory.
As situated in a popular space for student viewing,
Chet Humphries, a second-year History and Philosophy
student, was asked on his own interpretation of the
eye-catching structure:
“As a promise to care for future students, and a statement
that such care requires the participation of the
entire student community, Holding is a lovely icon for
the Student Center. It certainly evokes a feeling of connectivity
and intersection, a perfect complement for a
building that hosts a multi-faith room, though the strings
themselves sometimes clump messily in parts of the armature,
though maybe this is a comment on the sometimes
messy student community itself. The colouration
and placement of the strings visually reads as haphazard,
something chaotic or spontaneous, which is in keeping
with the nature of the what is like to be a part of a
constantly learning, sometimes immature, student body;
strings bunched up and hanging on for dear life, reaching
out to help others build something to hold onto.”
Similarly to Kouyoumdjian’s Jasper, the artist points
out the duality of nature and nurture within the piece,
a theme which may be lost to those focused on the
representative theme of buildings shared by the two
pieces. Whether intentionally or not, the Public Art
series provides a commentary on the public spaces they
inhabit. All in all the work comes across as a personal
hand-written letter plastered to a small corner of the
room, only to be engaged with those who it was intended
for. Its tucked-away location continues to add to the
message of intimacy that Nakane seems to strive towards,
however its precision and noted effort deserves
a more celebrated destination that invites student
inquiry and the embrace of achievements.
Rika Nakane's Holding was installed in the Student
Centre through March. Please contact Gallery 1265
if you would like access to photo archives. Images
courtesy of Gallery 1265.
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A DUMMY'S GUIDE
TO NFTS IN THE
ART WORLD
A simplified version of NFTs and how they are affecting the art
world for those who don’t understand NFTs one bit at all.
by Tara Hejazi
It was time for the meeting to plan the next
magazine, you know, the one you’re reading
right now. The editor told us that we had complete
freedom over what we wanted to write
and decided to give the group a quick example.
“Someone give me an example,” said the editor.
“NFTs!” exclaimed my colleague.
“The in actually fuckery is an NFT,” I thought.
As the editor was discussing how we can use
NFTs as a topic for the magazine you’re reading,
there was just one thing that was going
through my mind, “What in the world are
NFTs?” Now, before we judge me, the cryptocurrency
world is very hard to keep up with,
especially when it’s constantly changing or
having new stuff added. Usually when people
hear of the cryptocurrency world, they think of
Bitcoin, but that’s just not the only crypto asset.
There is also Etherium, Tether, Litecoin, Zcash,
and of course, NFTs. From what I knew, NFTs
are a kind of crypto asset, just like Bitcoin, but
what I didn’t know is how big of an impact it’s
making in the art world. So reader, if you’re just
like me and have NO IDEA what the fuss is
about NFTs, don’t fret, I am here today to explain
(hopefully well) not only what NFTS are
but what their impact is as well.
To begin with, NFT stands for non-fungible token
which is a kind of a crypto asset that is hosted
alongside cryptocurrencies, which cannot be
replaced by another token. So an example for
cryptocurrency is exchanging lipsticks with
your friend–who has the same brand and the
same colour–which means that both of these
items are the same value so they can be interchanged.
An NFT on the other hand is like
trading your laptop for your friend’s dog, these
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A selection of Beeple’s work
are not the same value and cannot be interchanged,
but you can still trade them. The only
difference is that they’re not going to be the
same. Even an artist who has ten copies of one
work, the NFTs for those copies aren’t going
to be the same, they’re going to be different
from one another.
But what exactly is the point of NFTs? Well,
they’re all unique. As mentioned, they’re non-interchangeable
and cannot be duplicated, so
once you’ve obtained an NFT, that NFT is
yours and yours only. Another aspect of NFTS
is that they’re collectible, meaning that people
can hold onto their NFTs and their value will
increase over time–if there is a certain demand
for them of course; such as an NFT from the
artist Beeple’s collection. So it’s a great way to
make profit, but only if it's desired.
So how do NFTs affect the art world? Ironically
enough, creating a work and tokenizing (Sharma,
2022) it into NFT does not give it value (Sway,
2021), it’s only valuable if it’s very popular
within the community (and we both know how
weird the art community is). An example of this
is the Bored Ape Yacht Club where people pay
300k for a one of a kind Ape Avatar. Although,
an NFT does show a proof of ownership since
no NFTs are interchangeable which makes the
work very scarce (Sway, 2021). For example, if
you have an NFT of a work from Beeple, you
are the ONLY person who owns that work and
if you choose to sell it, you’re able to get back
more than what you paid for. Since NFTs are
also unique, many artists are choosing the NFT
route because it helps with funding . Just like
owning the original physical work of an artist,
NFTS gives the same value to digital art due to
artificial scarcity.
As one now may be thinking, “Wow NFTs
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sound great because they allow the artists to get recognized and paid” (as they should), but no
product is just perfect. One of the major downfalls of NFTs is that they are not environmentally
friendly. Be honest, when you go online, you never think about the energy that ANY online platform
uses, we just think it’s always there for us. I thought that and I have learned that that’s not
true, all online platforms use energy to work. When it comes to NFTs and other cryptocurrencies,
they are part of a blockchain or an online database just like online streaming platforms such
as Netflix and Spotify, but the blockchains are power intensive and exist within many databases.
NFTs are dominantly hosted within the Ethereum blockchain, whose owner admits the blockchain’s
total annualized power consumption approximately equals to that of Finland and carbon
footprint similar to Switzerland.
What’s your opinion on it, Tara? My opinion? Well, I don’t know if I’m being honest. On one hand,
NFTs give credit and profit that the artist deserves. On the other hand, it’s not the best environmentally
and it can be blown out of proportion such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. I think
many are worried that the art world is going to get completely digitalized and exclusive, but I
don’t agree. Just like Beeple said, “It’s just another form of canvas”.
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A quick glance at a selection of apes from a pool of 10,000 that sell for approximately $300k.
The look of each ape is generated randomly.

SPECIAL THANKS TO
Scarborough Campus Students’ Union for their very generous support
of our magazine,
Hart House for backing us up and providing expertise at every
point of our public artwork project,
Our faculty supervisors Sanaz Mazinani and Arnold Koroshegyi for
their guidance throughout the year,
Staff members of ACM department Maaal Hussain, Sydney Cabioc,
Claudia Wong for their unending patience and administrative support,
And last but not least Josh Cleminson, and Manolo Lugo, David
Bracegirdle, Kevin Wright and Colin Harris for their extensive
technical assistance.
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