TH&B United art show–Hamilton delivers again

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Hit the TH&B United group art show in The Hammer on Saturday. I liked a lot of the work. I liked the scale. I liked the venue. And what I really like is that Hamilton shows up!

This show at 270 Sherman Ave N was primarily composed of large-scale installations (yeah baby!) and some performance pieces. Sixteen projects from 22 artists. TH&B is the adopted name of the arts collective including Simon Frank, Dave Hind, Ivan Jurakic, and Tor Lukasik-Foss. If you’re kicking yourself for missing this show, you can still get a look during Doors Open Hamilton, May 2/3 10am-6pm or hit the closing gig on May 16 8pm-11pm.

This piece above is by Laura Marotta and is well executed with swinging components and doors and compartments. Shows really well here.

Click through for a completely unreasonable number of photos.

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I saw some of Laura’s work at Supercrawl last year. But let’s back up a bit.

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The Cotton Factory (aka 270 Sherman) is in the industrial hinterland of the city’s north end by the harbour. Looks like the perfect neighbourhood for artists: big spaces and what I assume are more reasonable rents.

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Lots of parking out here.

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This name is adopted from the old railroad of Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo.

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This is my kind of building.

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Points for maps, cards, and stickers.

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The 5000sqft space on the second floor showed this installation by Andrew McPhail.

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Woven from gloves. They were almost skin-like. That was a lot of gloves.

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This piece by Lucy Howe will look familiar…

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to those who saw her work in Kitchener during CAFKA.11 a few years ago. Love this.

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Kelly Mark’s project took advantage of a little raised office on the second floor…

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I think that TV on the bottom left is mine. The Sony. It weighs about 200 pounds. Left mine at the curb. This piece makes me think of a techno campfire.

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I caught Ivan Jurakic doing a last minute check on this piece. Ivan is one of the TH&B posse and a show organizer/instigator/wrangler.

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Upstairs on the third floor landing to the 20000sqft space, Tyler Tekatch

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had this wicked piece, composed of slides mounted on the wall with mapped video/images projected over top. Really cool effect. It was like the slides were animated.

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The TH&B crew…

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was showing a video in another small office, chronicling them installing and deforming a scale model of a hydro tower. Memories of the ice storm in the east from years ago for me.

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Not art (?) This place is huge. Looks like a real hive of awesomeness.

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I’m ready for my close up.

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Evidence of Human Life.

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This piece by Matthew Walker blew my hair back. I thought a lot about it and took a lot of photographs. The piece was very well executed so I could think about the concept undistracted. Chain link fence is the most ugly, minimally utilitarian element in the modern landscape. Here it traps quite beautiful grass in a forbidding envelope.

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Pulled back for some scale. There’s the piece on the left. What is that? 16 feet tall?

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There was a most ornate half-pipe by…

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Brandon Vickerd, complete with…

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skaters!

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There were these really cool flying buttress supports that weren’t getting nearly enough attention. They are wicked! The gothic pointed arch forms and the circular forms reminiscent of rose windows make this the church of skating. Very cool.

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This piece by TH&B made me think of a marionette.

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It features these bamboo segments…

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linked together with wire and steel rings…

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and can be animated by pulling this great long harness. There’s the puppet master way in the background on the left.

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The heap of segments could be reconstituted into a very interesting organic matrix that produced fabulous shadows. This piece illustrates the importance of lighting in a venue such as 270. I recall from shooting the BOX Art Show in Kitchener that good lighting takes a serious amount of work, but it is worth it.

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Everyday objects re-envisioned by…

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Zeke Moores.

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Do I detect a coppery patina?

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Hey! We all remember this artist from her CAFKA installation last May down at The Tannery in Kitchener. Yup, this is Laura Moore heavy work.

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Ah, another side room attraction: under the neon “sic amour”…

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a small room…

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held things for smellin’. This seven part installation called SYCAMORE was created by the iloks/swell collective of Lesley Loksi Chan and C. Wells.

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I love these floors and glass block.

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Back to Matthew Walker’s piece for a…

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selfie.

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This suspended whale-sized form by…

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Janet Morton

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provided some interesting visual counterpoint between its doily skin and the industrial setting.

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Then there was music…

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and shouting. A barbaric yawp from TH&B’s Tor Lukasik-Foss.

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And processional clanking of these great links.

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And dancing and whirling.

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And singing. Gotta call out the particularly nimble twirling while holding the bass.

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This stuff, I love.

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Tor addresses…

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the crowd. A little meta in the bottom right: UWAG’s Scott Lee shooting photos.

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The other parts of TH&B: Simon Frank (left) and Dave Hind. I thought Dave looked awfully familiar and quick search of makebright revealed that I shot Dave at a talk in Brantford and have admired his pop-riveted metal collages in Waterloo’s Paula White Diamond Gallery.

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Ivan Jurakic of TH&B.

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Tor Lukasik-Foss, rounding out the four of TH&B.

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Frank Muir, property wrangler at 270 Sherman North.

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Tor called for “hard nuggets of intense love” from the crowd for the…

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artists. Tyler Tekatch and Laura Marotta.

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Laura Marotta and Marco D’Andrea(?)

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Donna Akrey and Tyler Tekatch.

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Wrap!

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Back into…

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the night.

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Don’t stop, keep going.

From 270 Sherman Avenue North, this is Hamilton.

DW

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