Canada is a country is a city unlike any other, filled with people from all walks of life, individuals with ideas, beliefs, virtues that span an infinite spectrum. As a Canadian company, based in Toronto, the Imm Living team believes that some of the most talented individuals are right here in our own backyard. Not Forkchops encompasses the idea that we live in a country where worlds have collided, cultures of all kinds (not just ethnic based cultures) have merged, borrowing ideas from one, and adapting from another. As a result of this amalgamation of cultures (ethnic, mainstream and subcultures), we as Canadians have developed beliefs, virtues, ideas, practices and visions that are uniquely Canadian.Not Forkchops is a multi-disciplinary showcase of Canadian artists and designers taking place during the 2012 Toronto International Design Festival.

What?

The ability to be inspired by a multitude of cultures, without producing another set of “Forkchops” is the driving force and concept behind this show. Not Forkchops will give Canadian artists and designers the opportunity to showcase how this idea of cultural adaptation and adoption, has influenced the work they produce, in a way that is elegant, contemporary and unique.

The concept of cultural integration and the unified results of a “melting pot” society are not new. ‘Things’ merging different cultures are all around us, combining typical elements from each to bring you the new fangled hybrid, often producing what some may call ’bad design’. Culture is often seen as an attribute determined by your ethnic background, but the myriad of mainstream and subcultures have made major effects on our world, and will continue to do so.  It is this ability to draw from this mélange of cultural sources that sets Canadian artists and designers apart from the rest.

Taking place in conjunction with Toronto Design Week, Not Forkchops will run from January 25, 2012 – January 29, 2012. We are asking all participants to design and create products found in one’s home, with an emphasis on kitchen, table top and functional wall décor.  Designers will be allowed to show a number of products that fit into the show’s theme “Not Forkchops” (number of pieces to show will be determined by the size of show space).

Where? 

The Department Gallery
1389 Dundas St. West
Toronto, Ontario
416.716.8273
http://www.thedepartment.ca

When?

January 25 – 29, 2012

rcboisjoli studios produces handmade domestic objects in a small factory in Toronto, Ontario. Proud of their small scale productions and hands-on fabrication, they make functional, graphic and modern wares in porcelain.

Project Statement –  Rcboisjoli hopes to recreate and re-evaluate the common stainless steel stackable lunch containers often associated with Indian cuisine. Rendering this new form in porcelain, they will create a new vocabulary for lunch accessories, without losing the basic and important functionality. Following suit, the new vessels are stackable, graduated and lidded, but move beyond the regular, with a refinement of materials. Rcboisjoli hopes to be functional with out being ubiquitous.

 

Anneke van Bommel is a graduate of NSCAD University (BFA 2001) Halifax NS, and former artist in residence of the Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON.

Anneke is the recipient of various grants including the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Crafts Council and the Canada Council of the Arts. She exhibits her work throughout North America and Internationally, and currently supplies multiple galleries across North America with her work. Her work has been published in a number of magazines, both online and in print and in Lark Books 1000 rings and 500 Brooches.

Anneke has taught as sessional faculty with the Ontario College of Art and Design, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University.

She currently teaches at George Brown College and has an active studio practice in downtown Toronto.

Project Statement – I am interested in presenting a series of stools that reflect a personal narrative and allude to Canada’s post war agricultural immigration. In the 1950s, My grandparents, my father and his brother and sister left Holland with the promise of plentiful land to farm in Canada. They established themselves as dairy farmers in Nova Scotia, and raised 13 children in Canada. Native Canadian wood species were used in the fabrication of the stools, and the traditional cobalt blue that characterizes Dutch Delft ceramic painting, is alluded through colour, pattern, or form, in each of the stools. It is this idea of migration, cross cultural exchange, decorative interpretation and family history that provided the basis of this exploration and experiment.

Claire Madill graduated from Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2007 and wasted no time moving into a ceramics studio where she could continue excelling in ‘plaster disasters’. She started heyday design to create functional and wearable modern porcelain while having an excuse to dig through second-hand shops for shiny objects and arresting patterns. Ideas around value and usefulness continue to inform her practice.

In 2011, heyday design fabricated over one hundred custom porcelain beaver jar lights for Anacleto Design’s renovation of Oliver & Bonacini’s canoe, as well as showed her porcelain jewellery with Designboom at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City.

Claire lives and works in Vancouver, BC.

Project Statement - Heyday design has created a series of porcelain containers from well-used plastic take-away tubs, referencing the competing cultures of disposability and reuse. Recognizable and utilized by all without discrimination, these yogurt-type containers often outlive their intended single-use; they can be regularly found, clean and stacked, in people’s cupboards, freezers, basements or garages. When transformed into porcelain, these vessels offer us a new, strangely elegant, type of permanence, crinkly tape labels and all.

Dawn Petticrew is a ceramic artist. As a graduate of the ceramic program at Sheridan College, Dawn has been inspired to work through ideas with clay and has professionally pursued her evolving passion with the material for ten years. She is intrigued by highly decorated surfaces and interested in how an over-load of visual information on the surface of an object interacts with the viewer. Dawn’s work is based on contemporary re-interpretations of historical clay objects. The objects that most excite her are ones to which she can propose questions as to why someone would make them, and how their function would fit into the society of today.

Project Statement - Inspired by the excessive ornamentation of the Baroque period, Petticrew’s works engage the viewer in considering the absence of nature in our everyday lives. In our modern/urban world, we have become physically disconnected from the very environment which sustains us. This absence of connection creates a sense of longing and desire. Through these works, a more mindful consideration to nature is suggested. Broadly representing nature, the animal forms attract and invite the viewer to further inspect, to better understand their function beyond their beauty. Vintage molds are used to create the slip cast animal forms. Although the resulting pieces have a soft appearance, they may evoke a subtle, discomforting feeling by using these are pieces in our homes, it is hoped that the viewer is reminded of the important human connection with nature, what sustains us and what needs to be celebrated.

Project Statement - For the Not Forkchops show, I  designed a series of fender ornaments for commuter cyclists. Borrowing from the practice of hood-ornamentation on cars, these figurines live on the front fender of bicycles fearlessly leading the way. We tend to ornament cars with animals symbolic of power and speed, like horses and jaguars. I felt the bicycle deserved symbolism from animals of a different kind, with qualities reflecting the eclectic personalities found pedaling the streets, byways and back roads of our fair cities.

Michelle Ivankovic was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. In 1998, she graduated at the top of her class from the Ontario College of Art and Design’s Industrial Design program. After design school, Michelle worked as a fine woodworker, making furniture. She later went on to work with Umbra as a creative visionary, responsible for pioneering the art direction and cohesive product language of Umbra’s U+ Collection. Her work is held in the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt, the American National Design Museum as well as being included in the notable Reinventing Rituals design exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York and San Francisco.

Currently Michelle has a studio in Amsterdam where she designs products for clients such as Bugaboo and Salter.  She also art directs a line of designer made products distributed by Umbra.

Project Statement – I ate my errors… and I loved every bite of it. My guess is that I make more mistakes than the average person. I try new things and I make a lot of mistakes along the way. Sometimes learning from them, sometimes learning nothing, but always savouring. I think I got this bug from growing up in Toronto. Torontonians are no strangers to trying new things. We are descendants of adventurous risk takers.

As I experiment with formulas to create an edible and functional plate, my studio looks more like a laboratory than a kitchen, with bags of flour lying scattered between beakers, powders and stirring sticks. When I take the fractured segments home I boil  them in a pot of water then slather them with sauce. While I eat them up I feel homesick. I think about how I’ll do it differently tomorrow.

As an artist and designer Southcott is driven by a creative sensitivity for observation and synthesis. Creating objects and art pieces that address the potential of form and function as a relational aesthetic exchange. His work draws from the realm of the experiential and the lived. As a creative maker, he finds inspiration in every facet of the material world, transforming observation into novel re- articulations of the known and the familiar. His process-oriented practice summons metaphor and considers the inherent lives of
materials and their transformation.

Project Details – As world cultures grow and expand, we are faced with the challenge of developing an infrastructure that can sustain our population. One thing we can expect is that as population increases, sow ill the scale of development, especially in urban areas. This piece aims at capturing the increasing scale found in modern development. With a variety of buildings that reflect how a metropolitan skyline expands over years of growth.

Designed as a desktop organizer, to hold a variety of stationary supplies, users would compile objects by sticking them into a range of different shaped voids created between the buildings landscapes.

Anabela Carneiro and Geoff Piersol are the couple behind Fieldguided. Operating as a blog and a line of handmade and artistic goods, Fieldguided encompasses Anabela and Geoff’s various interest in art, design, fashion, music and literature.

Project Statement - Fieldguided and imm Living have joined forces to create a very special token for this extremely unique exhibition.  For the Not Forkchops projects, Anabela and Geoff created an exclusive promotional tote bag influenced by their previous work, but with a more personal cultural connection. Her first language being Portuguese, Anabela selected lyrics from the Tropicalia song “A Minha Menina” by the 1960s Brazilian band Os Mutantes. The moon image is a scan from an antique stereoview card, with overlaid abstracted flag-motifs as accents.

**As Fieldguided’s participation in the Not Forkchops exhibition is based on a collaboration with imm Living, they will not require your votes.