a show a book a happening


The Pidgin Collective


April 10 — May 12, 2018

Project Description /

The New Gallery is pleased to support a show a book a happening, a new publication project and series of conversations and workshops organized by The Pidgin Collective in the Main Space (208 Centre St SE) from Tuesday, April 10 through Saturday, May 12, 2018. a show a book a happening distributes writing in the form of a physical publication in conjunction with installations of each text in The New Gallery’s Main Space. a show a book a happening features writings from Konrad Aust, Alexa Bunnell, Alyssa Ellis, Ethan Peters, Alice Schoenberg, Sarah van Sloten, Kellen Spencer, Teresa Tam, and Thomas Weir. All corresponding events will take place in the gallery-turned-publication house, which will be open to the public during regular gallery hours (Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12PM-6PM) for viewing, lounging, reading, writing, etc.

While admission to The New Gallery is free, some of the events listed below require registration due to limited space. Please RSVP by e-mailing claire@thenewgallery.org with the specific date(s) and topic(s) for any of the events requiring registration. Note that these events will be documented through photo and video. Please let us know if you prefer not to be included in documentation.


Excerpts from issue 001, a show, a book, a happening, Publication by The Pidgin Collective
Publications available for free at The New Gallery


Schedule of Events (2018) /

Thursday, April 12 @ 6PM to 8PM / Grey Guide Publication Launch & Discussion with Anne Bertrand

Grey Guide editor and ARCA National Director, Anne Bertrand, will prompt a discussion around the diversity of publishing forms, publics and circulation modes.

The Grey Guide seeks to trigger high-level debate about the role of publishing in artist-run culture. Combining theory with practice, the Grey Guide also offers practical guidance in this complex field, so that a new generation of artists and cultural workers who wish to professionalize may do so, while others may opt to remain resolutely DIY if they so please. Either way, somewhere on the continuum between adopting an entrepreneurial strategy and advocating for sustained public funding, this guide offers insight into the advantages and disadvantages inherent to a diversity of approaches. Registration is not required for this event.

Thursday, April 19 @ 6PM / Bring Your Own Poem (BYOP) Night

Bring a piece of poetry that is close to your heart – either written by yourself or by another poet – and share, as well as listen to others read their favourite works in the exhibition space. Light snacks and beverages will be provided. Registration is not required for this event.

Thursday, April 26 @ 5PM to 7PM / An Introduction to Freelance Art Writing with Mark Clintberg

Mark Clintberg will lecture and lead a workshop on the topic of freelance art writing for emerging artists and writers. This is an introduction to the basics of art writing, and will cover what to look for in contracts, communicating with editors, copyediting, and financial management, amongst other topics related to the intricacies of writing. Mark Clintberg will kick off this event with a short lecture followed by a hands-on workshop for the participants. Please bring laptops or writing utensils to participate in the writing portion of the workshop. Registration for this event is required with a maximum of 12 participants.

Friday, April 27 @ 6PM / Volunteer Bookbinding & Publication Production Night

Spend your evening surrounded by pals to help The Pidgin Collective bind their brand new publication!

Thursday, May 3 @ 5PM – 8PM / A Discussion on Critical and Creative Art Writing with Diana Sherlock

This lecture will introduce participants to a variety of contexts and methods of writing and art criticism and allow for conversation surrounding these topics. Participants are encouraged to bring texts related to art writing and criticism that they find pertinent to act as entry points into this conversation. Participants are not required to stay the full length of discussion but are encouraged to be present for the beginning of the lecture.  This event is by registration only with 20 available spots.

Friday, May 11 @ 7PM / Pidgin Collective Publication Launch & Closing Reception

Join us at the closing reception for The Pidgin Collective’s project, a show a book a happening, and celebrate the launch of their new publication. Publication contributors include Konrad Aust, Alexa Bunnell, Alyssa Ellis, Ethan Peters, Alice Schoenberg, Sarah van Sloten, Kellen Spencer, Teresa Tam, and Thomas Weir.

Subscribe to the Facebook event pages for additional details on each program: https://www.facebook.com/events/168098287230503/



Biographies /

The Pidgin Collective is a student-run group dedicated to the distribution of information and text-based artwork. Through a series of lectures, publications, and community engagement events, The Pidgin Collective strives to facilitate a meaningful discourse on information, language, and art. The Pidgin Collective is comprised of Collin Brown, Signy Holm, Declan Hoy, Uii Savage, and Kristen Webber.


Publication Contributors /

Konrad Aust is a Calgary-dwelling software developer who enjoys art, algorithms, cryptography, useful things found in the garbage, and giving ideas away for free. Currently, Konrad works for a three-person startup called Menome Technologies Inc, where he happily cranks out large volumes of code for his eccentric boss. He spends most of his spare time dissecting old video games, writing very poorly crafted prose, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. If you’re the type of person to shout nice things from a moving car, you might get along with Konrad. Remember: Even if something is commonplace or easy to explain, that doesn’t mean it’s not magical.

Anne Bertrand is currently director of the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference / La conférence des collectifs et des centres d’artistes autogérés (arccc-cccaa, aka ARCA), an organization that groups nine artist-run associations representing over 7500 art professionals, members of the 180 artist-run centres located throughout Canada. From 2005 to 2012, Bertrand was the artistic director of Skol, an artist-run centre located in Montréal and is a founding member of Viva! Action Art. Bertrand received her degree in Visual Arts from the University of Ottawa in 1986, after obtaining a degree in Classical Studies.

Alexa Bunnell is currently a candidate for a Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics at the Alberta College of Art and Design. Her practice deals with the queer domestic, the sexually explicit and political potential of craft. She has recently exhibited her work at the Marion Nicoll Gallery 15+ Window at Arts Common (2017) and the Hear/d Residency Exhibition If You’ve Come This Far (2016).

Mark Clintberg is an artist who works in the field of art history. He is represented by Pierre François Ouellette art contemporain in Montreal, Canada, and is an Assistant Professor in the School of Critical and Creative Studies at the Alberta College of Art + Design. He was Shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2013, and his doctoral dissertation was nominated for the 2013 Governor-General’s Gold Medal. Journals and periodicals that have published his writing include The Senses & Society, C Magazine, ETC., BlackFlash, Canadian Art, The Art Newspaper, Border Crossings, the Fillip Review, Photofile, Arte al Dia International, and Art.es Magazine. He has also published essays in One for Me and One to Share: Artists’ Multiples and Editions edited by David Dyment and Gregory Elgstrand (YYZ Books), Utopia Factory (Contemporary Calgary) edited by Lisa Baldiserra and Nate McLeod, and Multiple Elementary edited by Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed (Blackdog). His in progress research focuses on queer affect as manifested in installation, film, and video, and the ongoing impact of the Fogo Process Films. He is currently co-editing a special issue of the Journal of Canadian Art History with Johanne Sloan focused on the legacy of Joyce Wieland.

Alyssa Ellis is a Canadian artist based in Calgary, Alberta. She received a BFA from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 2014 and since then has embarked on a constant ongoing, revolving and dissolving love affair with botanical life forms. They work together, play together and by all means narrate together in order to further develop their complicated relationship. While multidisciplinary in nature, the experimental research of their stories fluctuates between textiles, drawing, performance and installation. Recently she has completed a studio-based residency with Bonnie McComb Kreye Studio Residency in Victoria, British Columbia and a bioart themed residency in Chelsea, Quebec.

Through his work and writing, Calgary based artist Ethan Peters aims to interpret and challenge systems of logic and thought. Regularly using text in his practice, he approaches language as an opportunity to abstract and reimagine his personal relationships. In doing so, he encourages the audience to do the same. Exploring continuity, value, and labour, his work often manifests as editioned ephemera. Though Peters works primarily in print media, he is currently pursuing a BFA in sculpture at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Alice Schoenberg is a queer identifying, interdisciplinary artist as well as a current undergraduate at the Alberta College of Art + Design, living in Calgary. Her work is targeted towards creating a dialogue based on theories of social epistemology, specifically in the exploration of the nature of social truths and their circulation. These explorations include both direct visual manifestations of the theory itself, as well as explorations of various case studies of social systems, most recently the systems in place surrounding death, such as funeral practices, dialogues cued for grieving and comforting and the languages present in film and television biographies. This manifests through performance and video work, with a very active role of the body.

Diana Sherlock is a Canadian independent curator, writer and educator whose projects create opportunities for contemporary artists to produce new work in response to specific collections, contexts, histories and cultures of display. Recent curatorial projects include: New Maps of Paradise (2016) with Eric Moschopedis and Mia Rushton (Nickle Galleries, Calgary); In the making (2014–15) (Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary and Kenderdine College Art Galleries, Saskatoon). She has published over 80 texts in gallery catalogues and contemporary art journals internationally including Canadian Art, BorderCrossings, CMagazine, FUSE, Blackflash, Ceramics Art and Perception, .dpi Feminist Journal of Art and Digital Culture and The Calgary Herald. Currently, Sherlock is editing a monograph on Canadian artist Rita McKeough’s performances and installations, forthcoming in the fall of 2018. The essay, “Capitalizing on Community: The Makerspace Phenomenon,” is included in the upcoming anthology Craft on Demand: The New Politics of the Handmade edited by Nicole Burisch and Anthea Black for I.B. Tauris. Sherlock teaches critical theory and professional practice in the School of Critical + Creative Studies at the Alberta College of Art + Design, Calgary.

Kellen Spencer is a printmaker and visual artist currently completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD). Using primarily print, photography and collage, his practice focuses on ideas in architecture, urbanism, and the spatial and familial relationships we have with the places we call home.

Teresa Tam is an artist based in Calgary, graduating from the Alberta College of Art & Design in 2014. Her practice utilizes digital technology and physical labour as mediums to explore alternative viewer engagement to familiar and personal spaces. She likes to work collaboratively with artists, formally or informally, and with audience participation and inclusion as a way to develop community, processes and dialogue. Teresa has recently exhibited as part of SAD LTD and Quartet in Transit.

Sarah van Sloten is an interdisciplinary artist currently living and working in Calgary. Van Sloten has most-recently been involved in projects across Canada with Artspeak Gallery (Windsor), An Artist Residency in Motherhood (Edmonton), AVALANCHE! Institute of Contemporary Art, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary Allied Arts Foundation, Studio C and The Ledge Gallery (Calgary). Van Sloten holds a BFA (2010) in Drawing from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an MFA (2016) from the University of Windsor.

Thomas Weir is an artist based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His art practice is based in digital imaging, painting and sculpture/installation. He is currently working towards a Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) in art and design from the University of Alberta and is expected to graduate in 2019. Thomas has shown work in several group shows in spaces including Epcor Tower in Edmonton, Alberta, The Rutherford Galleria at the University of Alberta and with Next Fest arts festival. He has been a recipient of the Alexander Rutherford Scholarship and the Jason Lang Scholarship.