OCAD U Library 2016 Winter: Library Collections

High Art: Public Art on the High Line surveys the first five years of art on the High Line, the unique elevated park in New York City created through the repurposing of an abandoned railway line. Since its inception in 2009--the same year the High Line was opened to the public -- the five million visitors a year have been witness to more than eighty public art projects animating the grounds of this unique "park in the sky," including sculpture, installation, billboards, video, performance, and sound works. Engaging a range of artists from established figures such as John Baldessari, Maurizio Cattelan, Gilbert and George, and Trisha Brown to critically acclaimed emerging artists like Carol Bove, Sarah Sze, and El Anatsui, the program is steadily broadening the audience for contemporary art while pushing the boundaries of how we understand public art functions in the cultural landscape. This beautifully illustrated volume will feature the High Line's diverse projects thematically, across the four platforms that comprise the program, which include: High Line Commissions (artwork made specifically for the High Line); High Line Billboard; High Line Channel (the video program); and High Line Performance. Rounding out the color images, in addition to short texts on the various art projects, the book will feature an introduction by curator Cecilia Alemani, an essay on the High Line's effect on Chelsea, the neighborhood cultural hub where it is located.

"Learning Activism is designed to encourage a deeper engagement with the intellectual life of activists who organize for social, political, and ecological justice."

Sharp and moving reflections and ruminations on the artistry and craft of writing from one of our most iconoclastic, riveting, and celebrated masters. Charles Bukowski's stories, poems, and novels have left an enduring mark on our culture. In this collection of correspondence--letters to publishers, editors, friends, and fellow writers--the writer shares his insights on the art of creation. On Writing reveals an artist brutally frank about the drudgery of work and canny and uncompromising about the absurdities of life--and of art. It illuminates the hard-edged, complex humanity of a true American legend and counterculture icon--the "laureate of American lowlife" (Time)--who stoically recorded society's downtrodden and depraved. It exposes an artist grounded in the visceral, whose work reverberates with his central ideal: "Don't try." Piercing, poignant, and often hilarious, On Writing is filled not only with memorable lines but also with Bukowski's trademark toughness, leavened with moments of grace, pathos, and intimacy.

In our society, cultural activity--or the arts--usually refers to the high culture of the elites and popular mass culture. Clarke Mackey argues for a third category that is as old as human society itself but seldom discussed: vernacular culture. Vernacular culture comprises all those creative, non-instrumental activities that people engage in daily, activities that provide meaning in life: conversations between friends, social gatherings and rituals, play and participatory sports, informal storytelling, musical jam sessions, cooking and gardening, homemade architecture, and street festivals. In this lively and eclectic discussion, Mackey maintains that practising and celebrating such activities at the expense of passive, consumer culture have far-reaching benefits. Mackey further examines how literacy, imperialism, industrialization and electronic technologies have produced a culture of spectatorship, apathy and powerlessness. This is a timely, considered, and provocative response to the popularity of amateur, participatory, and do-it-yourself culture available on the internet.

"The stories of 48 influential clubs from 1975-2015."

"A collection of 80 wood engravings that pay tribute to the life and career of Pierre Elliott Trudeau."

Moonshot is a collection of comics and illustrated stories that was created via a Kickstarter campaign to increase and change aboriginal representation in comics. Edited by comics editor Hope Nicholson, the collection features work from Native writers and illustrators across North America, representing different bands and communities and showing that there is no singular "Native identity."

The concept for the collection (pairing authors with illustrators to tell their stories) results in a wide range of works from re-tellings and futuristic adaptations of traditional folktales to new stories based in traditional characters and morals all depicted in a wide array of artistic styles. For instance, The Observing — written by Elizabeth LaPensee and illustrated by Gregory Chomichuk — is an adaptation of a Haida story that wordlessly depicts how the "Star People" watch over hunters in muted greens and reds. The following comic — Strike and Bolt written by Michael Sheyahshe and illustrated by George Freeman — uses traditional superhero comic book illustration to tell the story of brothers with the power of thunder and lightening who use their powers to help find and rescue their mother.

The artists and authors who worked on this collection succeeded in creating an eclectic body of work that shows there is no one indigenous character or Native identity and that there are so many stories to be told.

- Lindsay Gibb, e-Reserves and Learning Zone Technician

"The first Iranian Vampire Western ever made. A joyful mash up of genre, archetype, and iconography, its prolific influences span spaghetti westerns, graphic novels, horror films and the Iranian New Wave."

"Now considered one of the 20th century's greatest street photographers, Vivian Maier was a mysterious nanny who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that went unseen during her lifetime. Vivian's strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never-before-seen photos, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her."

"Award-winning author and historian Amanda Vickery hosts this engrossing look into an often-overlooked subject: the life and work of female artists. The series offers a comprehensive examination of women artists, beginning with the Renaissance and ending with the early twentieth century."

"Known for his vibrant reinterpretations of classical portraits featuring African-American men, New York-based painter Kehinde Wiley has turned the practice of portraiture on its head and in the process has taken the art world by storm. The film 'Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace' follows the artist as he embarks on an exciting new project..."