MONDAY ARTPOST 2024-0701

MONDAY
ARTPOST
2024-0701
ISSN1918-6991
MONDAYARTPOST.COM
Columns by Artists and Writers
Bob Black / bq / Cem Turgay / Fiona Smyth /
Gary Michael Dault / Holly Lee / Kai Chan /
Kamelia Pezeshki / Lee Ka-sing / Malgorzata
Wolak Dault / Sarah Teitel / Shelley Savor /
Tamara Chatterjee / Tomio Nitto / Yam Lau
/ Yvonne Pigott + A Palm, A Fountain, An
Umbrella (Sharon Lee) / K&G Greenwood
(Holly Lee)
MONDAY ARTPOST published on Mondays. Columns by Artists and Writers. All Right Reserved. Published since 2002.
Edit and Design: DOUBLE DOUBLE studio. Publisher: Ocean and Pounds. ISSN 1918-6991. mail@oceanpounds.com
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ARTPOST contributors
Cem Turgay lives and works as a photographer in
Turkey.
Fiona Smyth is a painter, illustrator, cartoonist and
instructor in OCAD University's Illustration Program.
For more than three decades, Smyth has made a name
for herself in the local Toronto comic scene as well as
internationally.
http://fiona-smyth.blogspot.com
Gary Michael Dault lives in Canada and is noted for
his art critics and writings. He paints and writes poetry
extensively. In 2022, OCEAN POUNDS published two
of his art notebooks in facsimile editions.
Holly Lee lives in Toronto, where she continues to
produce visual and literal work.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Lee
Kai Chan immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in
the sixties. He’s a notable multi-disciplinary artist who
has exhibited widely in Canada and abroad.
www.kaichan.art
Kamelia Pezeshki is a photographer living in Toronto.
She continues to use film and alternative processes to
make photographs.
www.kamelia-pezeshki.com
Ken Lee is a poet and an architectural designer based
in Toronto. He has been composing poetry in Chinese,
and is only recently starting to experiment with writing
English poetry under the pen name, “bq”.
Lee Ka-sing, founder of OCEAN POUNDS, lives in
Toronto. He writes with images, recent work mostly
photographs in sequence, some of them were presented
in the format of a book.
www.leekasing.com
Robert Black, born in California, is an award-winning
poet and photographer currently based in Toronto.
His work often deals with themes related to language,
transformation, and disappearance.
Sarah Teitel is a multidisciplinary artist living in
Toronto. She writes poems, songs and prose; draws,
sings and plays instruments.
sarahteitel1.bandcamp.com/album/give-and-take
Shelley Savor lives in Toronto. She paints and draws
with passion, focusing her theme on city life and urban
living experiences.
Tamara Chatterjee is a Toronto photographer who
travels extensively to many parts of the world.
Tomio Nitto is a noted illustrator lives in Toronto. The
sketchbook is the camera, he said.
Yam Lau, born in British Hong Kong, is an artist and
writer based in Toronto; he is currently an Associate
Professor at York University. Lau’s creative work
explores new expressions and qualities of space,
time and the image. He is represented by Christie
Contemporary.

http://kasingholly.com

THE 50 GLADSTONE
Lee Ka-sing and Holly Lee Archive
(Works, Objects, Artifacts, 1976 to current)
An exhibition: April 27 to July 28, 2024
50 Gladstone Avenue artsalon, Toronto
(visit by appointment: mail@oceanpounds.com)
This exhibition has been organized on the
occasion of the inauguration of the Lee Ka-sing
and Holly Lee Archive 李 家 昇 黃 楚 喬 文 件 庫 ,
a permanent establishment located at 50 Gladstone
Avenue in Toronto.
A collection of 200 items is presented in the
exhibition, including both artists’ current and past
works, encompassing photography, writings,
and publications, along with related documents,
objects, and artifacts.
View the flip book version of the exhibition catalogue,
featuring all exhibited items in full caption:
https://reads.oceanpounds.com/2024/04/t50.html

DOUBLE DOUBLE 李 家 昇 黃 楚 喬 博 物 誌 , Edition 176, July 2024
If Sculpture Could Talk
by Holly Lee, Bill Grigsby
Photographs by Lee Ka-sing
8x10 inches, 88 pages, softcover
Print-on-demand paperback edition
Available at BLURB, $40 CAD (plus shipping)
https://www.blurb.ca/b/12045074-if-sculpture-could-talk
Print-on-demand paperback edition
Order online at OCEAN POUNDS, $33 USD
Pick up in Toronto at THE 50 GLADSTONE (save on shipping)
https://oceanpounds.com/products/if-sculpture-could-talk-holly-lee-bill-grigsby
PDF ebook
Available for download at OCEAN POUNDS, $5 USD
oceanpounds.com/products/if-sculpture-could-talk-holly-lee-bill-grigsby-ebook
Flipbook edition
Available for PATREON members
https://reads.oceanpounds.com/2024/06/st.html

A Palm, A Fountain,
An Umbrella (2024)
a poem by Sharon Lee

A Palm, A Fountain, An Umbrella
Oh, I saw one.
A green statue standing on an island.
Dear Canton Girl,
We called it Bing Tou Garden,
literally the Head of British Soldiers’.
How are you?
I am always asked by the locals
mastering the question as if none.
How are you, darling?
Darling,
in Cantonese,
is an intimate word kept private.
Will I see you again in the botanical garden?
The Royal palm travels across oceans
conquering the land with some green
and factories in between.
Flowers bloom in forever red
Plastic futures assemble in ladies’ hands
one bit at a time,
one bead at a time.
I write you a postcard.
A river of text runs across the Public Garden.
I lost the map so I used a dictionary
searching for star colours.
Colour or color?
Submarine yellow or electric white?
From island to island,
expecting some welcoming palms
like a California tee.
I saw none.
All palm trees are tall,
but some are taller than others,
growing wild on avenues.
from Queen’s to Nathan Road,
from King’s to Hennessy Road.
Palm trees and umbrellas stand still
humming the anthem in typhoons
coming from South China Sea.
The palm grows into a fountain,
always a newer wonder

fighting one another
trashing the photo albums of families and lovers.
Cannot hate it properly
but in tragic love.
I repaint the photograph
adding a raindrop to the ultramarine.
I stood behind the people with a polaroid
to photograph the wishing fountain
that does not exist yet.
Here lies the rainbow for wishful thinkers.
You own
not a label but a name.
You unguard the porcelain skin,
undo the epoxy hair.
You hold an umbrella
firm and still.
Fountain vapour hits the sun
like a gun.
Forever yours,
Through the viewfinder,
a frame with a cross in the middle,
I see you.
You left an umbrella.
Monsoon drew scars.
No, stars.
Midday sun shines a constellation on earth.
I shoot you a portrait
one that belongs to tomorrow.

Poem a Week
Gary Michael Dault
Unseen Garden
(For Michael Schreier after his Visit.)
it’s too bad
you didn’t get to see
the garden
there is shade there
pure enough to drink
iris flowers
big as your head
violets so solid
you can stub your toe
on one
there are feathery
peonies
that clutch at you
like children
marigolds giggling
all the while
too bad
we didn’t
go there
May 25, 2024

K&G Greenwood
Holly Lee
K&G Greenwood is a project of intricate complexities. It revolves around
the realms of experience, cherished memories, enduring friendships, and a
profound love for gardens, artists, writers, and books.
I began my journey by calling a stag a horse. Using pictures I took from
K&G’s garden, I paired each one with my writings written for different
gardens that have inspired and intrigued me.
The project takes the form of postcards, which I mail to K and G at intervals.
On each postcard, I include a few sentences from the longer text. I extend an
invitation to K or G to respond by taking a photograph each time they receive
my postcard.
The Tarot Garden (Niki de Saint Phalle)
After you gave up modelling, I was born the following year, and thirty years
later, I learnt the names of those who photographed you, for Elle, Life, and
Vogue – Arnold Newman, Robert Doisneau and Horst P. Horst.
(opposite page) Sculptures of the Tarot Garden
And now, after seven decades, in 2024, your monumental Tarot Garden
has led me to you, your life and work, your remarkable story. At the end

of the 70s, when you were laboriously planning and constructing your
sculpture garden amidst the rolling hills of Tuscany, I also began my
career as a photographer. We had a common thread—both self-taught and
ambitious. But you possess the great gift of an ability to persist, to stay
focused on your epic project, which eventually came into fruition in 1998.
It is an exceptional achievement for one who had gone through so many
battles, both mentally and physically. For art was your therapy and Tarot
Garden your calling. You could not stop it even though it would take up a
lifetime. Rebellious since a teenager, you challenged the limit of freedom
and gender equality, absolute in believing that a woman can also work on a
production of such enormous scale. Against ill health and other difficulties
in carrying out the immense task, determination and perseverance never
left you. Dear Niki de Saint Phalle, your steadfastness and fortitude have
earned my admiration, even though your art in the Tarot Garden is not
exactly to my taste. But I must acknowledge your wide range of art creation
and expression, the boldness and originality is unmatchable to many of
the artists of the time. You cry out loud, to be free from the bondage of
your gender. You shoot to release your anger; you celebrate the female
body warrior, you expel suffering by revealing the roots—deep wired
entanglement inside the dark forest of the human soul.
Enough of my personal thoughts and emotions, I am truly fascinated and
overwhelmed by the gargantuan undertaking of constructing this unique
sculpture garden, which Saint Phalle considered her joyland. In her own
words, “Where one could have a life of unfound freedom.” In order to create
without limit and judgement, Saint Phalle self-funded the project through
the sale of her signatured perfumes, mini Nanas, balloons, and jewelry.
Her support from her spouse, Jean Tinguely, the Swedish Kinetic artist
and many artist friends encouraged and helped pushing the impossible
forward. The project started to take place after she received two hectares of
land donated by the art collector Marella. The long and laborious quest for
making Tarot Garden took almost two decades.
(opposite page) Holly Lee: K&G Greenwood original postcard - Tarot Garden
144mm x 100mm, 2024

Over her life time, Saint Phalle had produced numerous art which was
radical and forefront. Tarot Garden, however, a project that she commenced
in her late forties, captured the lime light and is considered her highest
accomplishment. I have a feeling that while her earlier artwork was more
in tune with other contemporary artists, a departure to the main stream
began to emerge when she began the whimsical Nana series in the midsixties.
With strong feminist notion still in the spirit, her work became more
animated and well-liked. Confident in this direction she realized it was also
self-fulfilment – to create a unique yet popular art style to bask in for the
rest of her art career.
To build this mystical Tarot Garden there are a few important sources
inspiring and motivating Saint Phalle: Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell in
Barcelona, Parco dei Mostri in Bomarzo, as well as Palais Idéal by
Ferdinand Cheval in France. On a fourteen-acre site, the construct of
twenty-two monumental sculptures representing the greater Mysteries of the
Tarot lie across the cobblestone paths, the oaks and the olive trees, over the
cobalt blue sea extending to the horizon. While she was the chief designer
and master mind behind the huge scheme, a talented team of people helped
her to accomplish this project. Jean Tinguely, assisted by Rico Weber and
Seppi Imhof welded the iron armatures of The Sphinx, The High Priestess
and The Magician, while Doc Winsen, a Dutch artist, aided by Tonino Urtis,
worked on The Emperor’s Castle, The sun, The Dragon and The tree of Life.
(opposite page) Jean Tinguely and Seppi Imhof construct the framework of the hand of Niki de
Saint Phalle’s Magician in the Tarot Garden, Garavicchio, Italy, May 1981 © Estate Leonardo
Bezzola
(Top) The water basin with Jean Tinguely’s Wheel of Fortune in front of the High Priestess and
the Magician, Tarot Garden © Hans Jan Durr

Next came Ugo Celletti, a 50-year-old part-time postal delivery man, who
began by making stone paths for the garden, moved to putting the mirrors
on the sculptures. He would work on the project for 36 years and recruit
his nephews to join in. Some of his family members are still involved in
maintaining the site. Ricardo Menon, Saint Phalle’s personal assistant,
introduced the ceramicist Venera Finocchiaro from Paris, who was obsessed
by the work, devoted her life-time in working on-site. When her assistant
Ricardo Menon passed away in 1989, Saint Phalle created a large mosaic
sculpture of a cat, Chat de Ricardo in the Garden.
In the Tarot Garden, there are not only giant sculptures but also water
features like waterfalls and caves. Niki de Saint Phalle loved creating
fantastical sculptures for both private and public spaces. In 1968, Belgian
collectors Roger and Fabienne Nellens asked her to create Dragon Knokke,
a playhouse for their son in their garden. In 1972, she built Golem, a
playground in Jerusalem. This black and white monster has a staircase
leading up to its mouth, where children can slide down one of three bright
red tongues, each representing a different religion.
Niki de Saint Phalle’s final major public sculpture project, Queen Califia’s
Magical Circle is located in Kit Carson Park, Escondido, California.
Completed posthumously in 2003, this vibrant sculpture garden showcases
nine large-scale mythical creatures and a circular “snake wall” with
intricate mosaic designs made from mirrors and tiles. Visitors are welcomed
at the entrance by two giant snakes, which the sculptor noted were inspired
by California’s mythic and cultural heritage. Queen Califia is open only a
few days each week and is free to the public.
(opposite page) Photograph by Glenn Beech at home, Greenwood (2024)

Earlier this year, my daughter visited Stravinsky Fountain while vacationing
in Paris. The basin contains sixteen sculptures inspired by Igor Stravinsky’s
compositions. She didn’t know that these sculptures were created by Jean
Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle in 1983. The black mechanical pieces,
the brightly coloured, whimsical works delighted her. The sight of this
playful fountain againsts the blue sky backdrop brought her joy.
She also saw Le Monstre de Soisy (1966) at The Centre Pompidou. This
monster, resembling Godzilla, caught her interest. It was studded with a
multitude of objects, including model cars, plastic animals, dolls, spray
paint cans, axes, planes, guns, and rifles. The entire assemblage was vibrant,
with colours splattered from paint cans that had been shot at, creating a
dynamic and chaotic display. She initially thought it was a more recent or
contemporary work. When she returned, I mentioned that I was writing
about The Tarot Garden. After watching a documentary of Niki de Saint
Phalle, she recognized both pieces were by Saint Phalle, an artist she was
unfamiliar with but delighted to discover.
While writing about Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden, I couldn’t help but
become very drawn to her Nana projects. Even though they carry potential
feminist undertones, on the surface, these vibrant figures in motion are so
approachable, celebratory and joyful, which’ve won her a world audience.
And, not so long ago, Niki’s fans in Japan had the opportunity to visit “The
Niki Museum” in Nasu, which opened in 1994 but unfortunately closed in
2010. More recently, in 2018, several exhibitions of her work was showcased
in museums and galleries in China. Meanwhile, I was thrilled to discover
a story inspired by the Tarot Garden called “The Garden of Monsters” by
Lorenza Pieri. I am eager to read the novel but have decided to save for a
later time.
(opposite page) Nana Mosaique Noire, 1999 (Black Mosaic Nana)
©Pedrini, Photography, Zurich

In a 1952 “Vogue Paris” cover, Niki de Saint Phalle posed as a model
draped in a luxurious fur coat. A timeless beauty, she remained stunning
and stylish throughout her life, always captivating in front of the camera.
There is a photograph that Jean Tinguely took of himself and Niki in the
Tarot Garden. Taken in the late 80s, it still radiates intimacy and grace in
their senior years.
Although I stepped back from fashion photography in the late 90s, around
the time the Tarot Garden officially opened, she continued to pursue her
dreams with creating Queen Califia’s Magical Circle. This garden, infused
with imagery drawn from Native American culture and her unmistakable
signature style, created mythical pieces that continue to enchant the world.
The garden, brought to life through the tireless efforts of many fellow
artists, is a magical place replete with both mythical and philosophical
elements. While she worked in the garden, she lived in The Empress, one
of the sculptures she made into the form of a Sphinx. This monster-like
home served as the vibrant hub for her meetings with the crew, where they
would gather for coffee breaks amidst their creative pursuits. The interior
resembles a palace—spacious, luxurious, and grand. However, it’s not a
place I’d dare spend a night. With hundreds of mosaic mirrors reflecting
the intricately decorated interior, the experience would be surreal and
dreamlike for me, provoking vivid dreams or even unsettling nightmares.
Undertake an extensive trip in Italy is a dream of mine, and this time, I will
not forget to include Tarot Garden on my itinerary. I can’t wait to immerse
myself in the wonder and joy of Saint Phalle’s grand artistic vision.
(opposite page) The Empress © Giulio Pietromarchi

Caffeine Reveries
Shelley Savor
Making A Splash

Leaving Taichung
Station
Bob Black
A Defense of Sorrow
“It will take no forms but twisted forms.”-- Louise Glück
netted in a clothed mouth
voices bark up light and stitch darkness in the ward
opening spidery cracks, the pauses between words
damp in the trees and along the tunnels of patients’ throats
syllables stick fire into recipes left long in the oven

you became just breath and black paper fell like ill teeth from your mouth
sailors lost in the snow, the constant worry of limbs housed in the ice
no longer vocabularic or the dramatic weightlifting
nor the felonious feeling of adjectives, only counting under one
recall the misremembering which paddled riverward in the boondocks
the goings and the touch behind the eye, the book of you
a defense of sorrow spoken in unbuckled forms by a campfire gone damp
the wire caught in a storm drain, twisted tea stains on back pages of books
the blanket’s dandruff on the collar, words shaped in the night
that moment when you learned to fall asleep no longer brought on by hunger
or tears sometimes, syllable scratches on an heirloom table
a bark in the night is still just a bark in the night
sharks on the beach, just sharks on the beach
were our metaphors just wrong, fanciful flight
our maps mourning without illnesses
dossed down under the stars and the highway racket
your heart an open swag as the red earth baked
and sunset called it a day while frisky verbs and intemperate itches evaporate
nothing lasts not even the sequoias and a heart appears in a window
the moon cold and hung on a black wall on a thin green thread, a comet
then
the morning light, a short email, a WhatsApp text and death in a room
just like that
yet the crows still swim the rivers, up the coast the red embankment hides
a tool to call home, a book of misspelled love is still one’s own
thin as an eyelash asleep on the pillow on the hill, songs on the couch
damp pedals recede and drop at the feet of those who have gone
once under the black mouth of a dosshouse’s front porch, the crawlspace collapsed
as you scattered and hid-hid like a raccoon
from ward to wall to word to world, the San Gabriels watched
as you hung upside down, your toes Ursa Major over the slopes of Big Bear Lake
funerals on the beaches eulogized over Zoom tears
forms come and go and the times darken slow
the amber light of the fishing boats, lightning bugs from above
flittering off the shoulder of Taiwan, the stomachs of the waiting growl in their sleep
death’s shade pulls down that old harpy in the corner, the sun
a mouth spits out words uncleaned, the bewildering dentistry of loss
from ward to wall to word to world, you reckon with the wreck
of your rung wrong words with your toes in the sand, language tied
and cuticles cut and dropped in a tin for the mice
grief grows green in the backyards throughout the land
Dear remembered, all life long only questions
and the end, the end of a poem, for now
let us think
the ceiling fan gravitational, the helicopter heartstrings
a diary written in braille in the dirt morning’s memory cannot illuminate

CHEEZ
Fiona Smyth

Greenwood
Kai Chan
Drawing
35 x 35 cm, acrylic paint on rice paper

Sketchbook
Tomio Nitto

Gary Michael Dault
From the Photographs,
2010-2024
Number 37: Watering Can

Travelling Palm
Snapshots
Tamara Chatterjee
Canada (June 2024) – It’s time to march on
toward new adventures.
Summer skies, summer mood, party-time
excellent!

ProTesT
Cem Turgay

林 海 (L.H.) is a love story. It is also a love
story about photography. The initial sixteen
fragments have recently been compiled into
a book for the occasion of the exhibition
“THE 50 GLADSTONE.”
You can access a complimentary version
online via this link:
reads.oceanpounds.com/2024/04/lh.html
For those interested, a collector’s edition
of this book, in hardcover, is available on
BLURB:
blurb.ca/b/11978672
The archive of 林 海 (L.H.) in text file format
can be found at:
LH.leekasing.com
A Fictional Work by Lee Ka-sing

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