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Traffic: Defining Canada’s place in conceptual art<br />
“ Traffic” brought a clarity to works we thought we knew so much<br />
about, revealing a depth and breadth people hadn’t realized existed.<br />
In 2005, while researching her book on the<br />
history of conceptual art in Canada, art<br />
historian Jayne Wark discovered others<br />
circling the same topic.<br />
Jayne soon found herself part of a team<br />
of three university and two institutional<br />
gallery curators from across the country,<br />
planning the first national touring exhibition<br />
of Canadian conceptual art.<br />
“ The reasons for the exhibit were the same<br />
as those for my book,” Jayne explains.<br />
“While there’d been a significant revival of<br />
interest in conceptual art worldwide in the<br />
past 15 years, Canada was next to invisible<br />
in the publications and exhibitions.”<br />
Thus was born Traffic: Conceptual Art in<br />
Canada 1965-1980.<br />
Organized by region, in recognition of the<br />
influence of institutions like <strong>NSCAD</strong> on<br />
the movement in Canada, Traffic brings<br />
together works that hadn’t been seen<br />
for years, exposing links between artists<br />
never before evident.<br />
“ The bulk of the exhibition’s documentary<br />
and archival content comes from <strong>NSCAD</strong>,<br />
not surprising as so many of the luminaries<br />
of contemporary art passed through<br />
our doors,” adds Jayne, who curated the<br />
Atlantic section. “While they didn’t create<br />
objects per se, the traces of their installations<br />
and performances remain in the<br />
ephemera.”<br />
Opened in 2010, Traffic was nominated “Best<br />
Exhibition of the Year – <strong>University</strong> Gallery”<br />
by the American Art Curators Association.<br />
In April 2013, Traffic travels to Karlsruhe,<br />
Germany for a three- month showing,<br />
presented by the Badischer Kunstverein.<br />
view video profile ><br />
www.nscad.ca/report2011/profile-wark.html<br />
<strong>NSCAD</strong> UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2011