Intertwining: Landscape, Technology, Issues, Artists

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

The art critic John Grande has gathered together 81 interviews and
reviews and organized them around the themes of landscape, technology,
issues, and artists. He investigates a wide range of topics, including
the effect of the Internet on education, agriculture as art, animal
rights, violence and children’s toys, and recyling. The artists he
interviews (and reviews) include Kathryn Lipke, Martin Borden, Bill
Vazan, Paul Gegoire, Louise DeLorme, Ted Rettig, Monique Crepault,
Barbara Hepworth, Betty Goodwin, and Yasufumi Takahashi.

In the essay “1–800-Anxiety,” Grande discusses “Age of
Anxiety,” a show performed by shinjinui Japanese artists that
addresses “social issues of a present and future prescribed by
technology, as much as business and bureaucracy.” In “Shadow
Edge,” he presents his views of Japanese photography and
photographers. In “Bang Bang You’re Dead (Toy Gun Shop),” he
explores the work of an artist whose “art is so bad it says it is
bad.” In “Oh! Canada. Eh?,” he seeks an answer to the question
“Can the Group of Seven’s vision be linked to the present state of
Canadian art?” Elsewhere, he reflects on Disney’s impact on modern
culture.

These are the observations of a man who obviously takes his role as a
critic seriously. This thought-provoking book would have benefited from
a selection of black-and-white photographs that better supported the
text.