United Congress
Encyclopedia
The United Congress is a long-standing artist collective
active in Calgary, Alberta. The group has combined conceptual art
, silkscreen, music, constructed language
, abstraction, propaganda and anti-art
in its activities.
Alberta
visual artist and original Congress member Lisa Brawn describes the group as "interested in dada
ist instigation, politics, intense productivity, anonymity and relentless propagandizing” .
, by White-Field Senate, who is the group's longest-standing member . Membership in the collective has always been loosely-knit and fluid. Earliest collective members were White-Field Senate, Lisa Brawn, Doug Nachtigall, Catherine Fisher, Connie Lambrecht, Andrea Ford, Elmer Xavier and Richard Farand, who has remained one of the group's most active artists .
Milo Dlouhy, Conroy Nachtigall, Kenneth Doren and Richard Cole also made contributions to the United Congress in its early days, and Dlouhy and Doren continue to be involved in Collective projects.
Yuriko Iga, one-time director of Blim Gallery in Vancouver
, has also contributed to the United Congress' recent projects in Calgary.
by members of the Final Solution Skinheads, who covered the front of the building with white supremacist
graffiti
one night in November 1989.
The show made statements opposing all racist and anti-Semitic violence in Calgary, using music and visual art. The House of Israel show was set up shortly after the vandalism, at ACAD.
campus in February/March, 1991. The Castration was intended to critique what The United Congress considered the patriarchal nature of Christianity, and the show created "a virulent reaction" in the local press. "The Castration of St. Paul" featured thirty low-resolution colour xerox enlargements of Polaroid
photographs of naked male torsos. Each enlargement was carefully framed and labeled with the name of a historic Christian religious figure, including the twelve Apostles, seven Old Testament
Prophets, five early Christian Saint
s, the Trinity
, John the Baptist
, Martin Luther
, and Pope John Paul II
. Also part of the exhibit was a public lounge area featuring select pamphlets and literature promoting Christian organizations who espoused traditional values which the collective considered to be encouraging the subordination of females in family and public life.
Early collective member Lisa Brawn describes the UC of the 1980s and early 1990s as producing "rapid-fire shows using video surveillance, nets, creamed marshmallow and red packing tape" and she jokes that the Congress took over the Alberta College of Art and Design "(l)ike a parasitic infestation."
This period was very active for the United Congress, who assembled numerous shows on a variety of themes, including March 1989's One Hundred Pounds of Pretty Girls, God Save the Queen in April, 1989 at the Marion Nicholl Gallery, Montreal at the Illingworth-Kerr Gallery in 1992 , as well as CNIB, Recent Video Art by the United Congress (which contained no video art), The Sacred Shroud of Turin, and Our Ladies of Soul Sister. Each show was promoted by a run of hand-silkscreened posters distributed throughout the city .
The United Congress also collaborated with community groups to produce hand-screened posters for events such as Women Looking Forward's 1989 International Women's Day
celebrations, and with the Calgary Jewish Centre for their multimedia presentation The Farthest Horizon: 100 years of Jewish Life in Alberta.
inspired by Dutton Speedwords
. Called ISU (short for 'In Stat Ua' or 'International Language'), the developed language attempted to root out perceived inherent biases (such as gender hierarchies) in existing world languages. In 1996, the United Congress published a book on the topic: ISU: THE NEW WORLD LANGUAGE.
, modern dance
and fabric arts to create works like Doren's celebrated Allegro Molto Con Brio King Kong, a 1999 Digital Opera focused on pop culture connections to the Greek myth of Prometheus
whose performance incorporated a string quintet
, three dancers and video monitors
Artist collective
An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims...
active in Calgary, Alberta. The group has combined conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
, silkscreen, music, constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
, abstraction, propaganda and anti-art
Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
in its activities.
Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
visual artist and original Congress member Lisa Brawn describes the group as "interested in dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ist instigation, politics, intense productivity, anonymity and relentless propagandizing” .
Beginnings
The United Congress was formed in 1988 at the Alberta College of Art and DesignAlberta College of Art and Design
-History:The Alberta College of Art & Design is a Canadian degree-granting, publicly-funded art and design college located in Calgary . It was known as the Provincial Institute of Technology and Arts, which was part of SAIT until 1985...
, by White-Field Senate, who is the group's longest-standing member . Membership in the collective has always been loosely-knit and fluid. Earliest collective members were White-Field Senate, Lisa Brawn, Doug Nachtigall, Catherine Fisher, Connie Lambrecht, Andrea Ford, Elmer Xavier and Richard Farand, who has remained one of the group's most active artists .
Milo Dlouhy, Conroy Nachtigall, Kenneth Doren and Richard Cole also made contributions to the United Congress in its early days, and Dlouhy and Doren continue to be involved in Collective projects.
Yuriko Iga, one-time director of Blim Gallery in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, has also contributed to the United Congress' recent projects in Calgary.
The House of Israel
The House of Israel was an art event held in response to the desecration of a former downtown Calgary SynagogueSynagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
by members of the Final Solution Skinheads, who covered the front of the building with white supremacist
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
one night in November 1989.
The show made statements opposing all racist and anti-Semitic violence in Calgary, using music and visual art. The House of Israel show was set up shortly after the vandalism, at ACAD.
The Castration of St. Paul
Probably the Congress' most notable public show was The Castration of St. Paul, at the Nickle Arts Museum on the University of CalgaryUniversity of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
campus in February/March, 1991. The Castration was intended to critique what The United Congress considered the patriarchal nature of Christianity, and the show created "a virulent reaction" in the local press. "The Castration of St. Paul" featured thirty low-resolution colour xerox enlargements of Polaroid
Instant film
Instant film is a type of photographic film first introduced by Polaroid that is designed to be used in an instant camera...
photographs of naked male torsos. Each enlargement was carefully framed and labeled with the name of a historic Christian religious figure, including the twelve Apostles, seven Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
Prophets, five early Christian Saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s, the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
, John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
, Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
, and Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
. Also part of the exhibit was a public lounge area featuring select pamphlets and literature promoting Christian organizations who espoused traditional values which the collective considered to be encouraging the subordination of females in family and public life.
Other Projects
This period was very active for the United Congress, who assembled numerous shows on a variety of themes, including March 1989's One Hundred Pounds of Pretty Girls, God Save the Queen in April, 1989 at the Marion Nicholl Gallery, Montreal at the Illingworth-Kerr Gallery in 1992 , as well as CNIB, Recent Video Art by the United Congress (which contained no video art), The Sacred Shroud of Turin, and Our Ladies of Soul Sister. Each show was promoted by a run of hand-silkscreened posters distributed throughout the city .
The United Congress also collaborated with community groups to produce hand-screened posters for events such as Women Looking Forward's 1989 International Women's Day
International Women's Day
International Women's Day , originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and...
celebrations, and with the Calgary Jewish Centre for their multimedia presentation The Farthest Horizon: 100 years of Jewish Life in Alberta.
Daisiy Gets Erotik
This collective also took on the publication of the ACAD Magazine, and in Oct 1989 the first issue of Daisy Gets Erotik was hand silk-screened and made available. "Daisy" was considered controversial as an official student newspaper, as it featured nudity. Publication ceased after three issues .Development of ISU
In the early 1990s, UC founder White-Field Senate developed a constructed languageConstructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
inspired by Dutton Speedwords
Dutton Speedwords
Dutton Speedwords , sometimes called rapmotz, is an international auxiliary language as well a shorthand writing system. It was invented by Reginald J. G. Dutton in 1922. It was first published in 1935 under the title International Symbolic Script and a year later using the name Speedwords...
. Called ISU (short for 'In Stat Ua' or 'International Language'), the developed language attempted to root out perceived inherent biases (such as gender hierarchies) in existing world languages. In 1996, the United Congress published a book on the topic: ISU: THE NEW WORLD LANGUAGE.
United Missions
The United Congress collective briefly changed its name to United Missions in the mid-1990s, and for the 1997 Calgary ArtWeek Gala Bacchanal, presented Golden Boy, a show based on the personal artifacts of Rafael Albert, a Victorian cyclist.Comme des Congres
In 1999, The United Congress opened its Calgary street-front gallery, the Comme des Congres. The gallery hosted several shows, notably Alberto Guedea's Re:Colour For Industry
Sometime-United Congress-members Kenneth Doren, Conroy Nachtigall & Yuriko Iga, as well as Richard Farand work together occasionally in a different Calgary Artist collective. Colour For Industry combines digital opera, audio art, experimental musicExperimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
, modern dance
Modern dance
Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
and fabric arts to create works like Doren's celebrated Allegro Molto Con Brio King Kong, a 1999 Digital Opera focused on pop culture connections to the Greek myth of Prometheus
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
whose performance incorporated a string quintet
String quintet
A string quintet is a musical composition for a standard string quartet supplemented by a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola or a second cello , but occasionally a double bass. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who favoured addition of a viola, is considered a pioneer of the form...
, three dancers and video monitors
Sugar Estate Art Salon
Former Congress members Milo Dlouhy and Lisa Brawn collaborated on the Sugar Estate Art Salon Tea Room and Museum of Oddities, which existed from 2003 to 2004. The Salon "was formed to create an exquisite environment for interdisciplinary art exhibitions, performances, installations, etc."in Calgary.Articles
- Artcentral. Interview with an artist: Lisa Brawn
- Garneau, David. "A week in the life...ArtWeek offers an excuse to sample Calgary's galleries and some special guests", Thursday, September 18., 1997: Vol. 2 #39
- Heintz, John W. Sr. Meditations on ‘The Castration of St. Paul’, vol2/no.2 Artichoke Magazine, 1991, pp 46–49:
- Webb, Susy. Blim Gallery: Community Art is the New Dotcom, Discorder Magazine, Aug. 2004
- Wedderburn, Andrew. Pulling the curtain on window-front art:Public Display Act makes The United Congress wary of exposing themselves, ffwd weekly magazine, Aug 30, 2001
See also
- Appropriation (art)Appropriation (art)Appropriation is a fundamental aspect in the history of the arts . Appropriation can be understood as "the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work."...
- Art interventionArt interventionArt intervention is an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience or venue/space. It has the auspice of conceptual art and is commonly a form of performance art. It is associated with the Viennese Actionists, the Dada movement and Neo-Dadaists...
- Conceptual artConceptual artConceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
- Found artFound artThe term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...
- Modern artModern artModern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
- Neo-conceptual artNeo-conceptual artNeo-conceptual art describes art practices in the 1980s and particularly 1990s to date that derive from the conceptual art movement of the 1960s and 1970s...
- Performance artPerformance artIn art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...