Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

The Clock is a performance piece with a strong kinetic sculptural element – the artist moves cinder blocks from one pile to another to mark the passage of time over a 12-hour period in an exploration of labour, endurance, aging, repetition and the perception of art.

Beginning with his father’s Kodak Brownie at age 8, Chris has spent the past 32 years making the rest up as he went along with stops along the way at several universities, various art galleries, and some fine art shops. Now making his permanent home in Toronto he’s come to love the city and all it has to offer by capturing it on film.He dreams of owning an 8 x 10 view camera and being able to afford the processing but often wakes from these heavenly visions in his underwear covered in a cold sweat.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Gareth Lichty studied Fine Arts at York University in Toronto and Sculpture at Leeds University in England. He has exhibited internationally and nationally with exhibitions in Europe, New Zealand and Canada. Lichty has been a Director and the Chair of Programming for CAFKA (Contemporary Art Forum, Kitchener and Area) since 2005. He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Lichty lives and works in Kitchener, Ontario and is represented by Peak Gallery, Toronto.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Max Streicher is a sculptor and installation artist from Alberta, now residing in Toronto.  Since 1989 he has worked extensively with inflatable technology in kinetic sculptures and installation works.  He has shown widely across Canada in solo exhibitions in museums such as The Art Gallery of Ontario, Edmonton Art Gallery and the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon.  He has been part of group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, the Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal, Power Plant Centre for contemporary Art, Toronto and Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge. He has completed several international site-related projects in such places as Taichung, Taiwan, Erfurt, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic. His inflatable works are in the collections of museums such as the ESSL Museum, Vienna, The Hara Museum, Tokyo and Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton.  He was a founding member of the Nethermind collective of artists who organized four large exhibitions in alternative spaces in Toronto between 1991 and 1995. Max Streicher is currently represented by Galerie Raquel Ponce, Madrid, Galerie Eric Mircher, Paris, Gallery Maskara in Mumbai, India, Felix Ringle Galerie in Düsseldorf, Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York and Wagner + Partner in Berlin.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

The Beehive is a craft and urban homesteading collective. Bound together by a common thread of making things by hand, this collective was formed in 2011 by members of the arts community in Hamilton, Ontario. Focusing on handmade, DIY, and sustainability, they hope to engage and promote a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity.

The Bomb Squad Art Crew is a group of diverse artists based in Hamilton, Ontario, committed to using street art and other forms of expression to engage the citizen in a unique process of urban renewal.

The group’s work to date has chiefly used diluted tempera and chalk to create vivid cityscapes that truly delight the viewer. Children and adults alike are mesmerized by the pieces, especially when they witness them develop within their midst as often happens with the large scale, multi-artist installations.

But the Crew’s mission is to use a variety of methods, media and art forms to create projects that both entertain and provoke the viewer to reconsider serious cogitations such as urban stratification, revitalization, graffiti and the temporary/permanence dichotomy.

But why the Bomb Squad? And what is the bomb?

“The bomb is the urban situation now,” explains crew leader Sallow Crow (aka Andrew McLean), “and it’s our job to defuse it.”

 All GritLIT authors brought to you by Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Antony Di Nardo is the author of the collections, Alien, Correspondent (Brick Books) and Soul on Standby (Exile Editions). His poetry and non-fiction appear in anthologies and journals across Canada and internationally, most recently in Grain, Prism, and Prairie Fire, with work forthcoming in Exile and Descant. He divides his time between Oshawa, Ontario and Sutton, Quebec.

Chris Pannell has published four poetry books. Drive (Wolsak & Wynn, 2009) won the Acorn-Plantos People’s Poetry Prize and the Arts Hamilton Poetry Book of the Year. He helps organize the monthly Hamilton reading series Lit Live and Hamilton’s annual gritLiT literary festival. He has appeared at the Banff-Calgary International Literary Festival, the Authors at Harbourfront Series in Toronto and at UPEI. For over fifteen years he has promoted poetry and creative writing through workshops and public readings across Canada and in England.

Born and raised in Bermuda to a Bermudian father and Jamaican mother, for Dane Swan, visiting family involved trips to small villages in Jamaica like Yallas and Land’s End, or to New York communities like Crown Heights in Brooklyn. The great story-tellers he heard in these communities were his only literary professors. At 17, Dane moved to Canada with his brother to further their education. Dane’s poetry can be found on CD, 12”Vinyl, MP3, in anthologies and in poetry reviews. Bending the Continuum is his first full-length collection of poetry in print.

Gary Barwin is a poet, fiction writer, composer and performer. His publications include five books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a novel, The Mud Game, which he co-wrote with Stuart Ross. Barwin was the co-winner of the 2009 bpNichol chapbook award and was a recipient of the K. M. Hunter Foundation Artist award. He is also the author of several books for kids, including Seeing Stars, which was nominated for a CLA YA Book of the Year and an Arthur Ellis Award. Barwin lives in Hamilton.

Jeff Seffinga was born in the Netherlands and grew up in rural Eastern Ontario. Most of his adult life he has lived in Hamilton. He is a long-standing member of the Tower Poetry Society and is also the administrator of the Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award. Seffinga has published numerous collections of poetry including We Measure Our Time in Coffee Cups, Bailey's Mill, and Tight Shorts, a collection of haiku. His latest book is All We Like Cats.

Klyde Broox (as Durm-I) started his career as one of Jamaica’s most promising dub poets. He traveled to England and the United States to do readings, workshops and lectures before emmigrating to Canada in 1993. Broox (now a Hamiltonian) co-founded Dub Poets Collective and hosts PoeMagic, a performance-oriented, monthly poetry event. His 2005 collection, My Best Friend Is White, was an Amazon best seller. In February, 20ll, Broox was awarded a John C. Holland Award for Arts Achievement.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Commitee

Jason Freiburger is a Canadian artist and sculptor who lives and works in Hamilton, Ontario. Working primarily as a wood turner, Jason combines the art of wood turning with the intrigue of non-traditional art materials. Jason's work has been featured at Ontario Craft Council’s “Made of Wood Show”, Allsorts Gallery - Hamilton, and Circle Art - Tobermory. His work is celebrated in numerous private collections throughout Canada and the United States, including the Hamilton International Airport. 

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Jim Riley is a Burlington, ON based video artist and independent curator. His art practice is a blend of documentary evidence, personal ideology, social commentary and artistic investigations.  It involves video installations, single channel screenings as well as exploring the juxtaposition between video and painting.  He has exhibited recently at WKP Kennedy Gallery (North Bay), Art Gallery of Hamilton, World Film Festival(Take It to the Streets), Art Gallery of Sudbury and the Burlington Arts Centre.  Some of Jim Riley's videos are represented by Vtape Distribution, Toronto.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Marie-Jeanne Musiol's photo installations have evolved from archeological itineraries to journeys exploring the nature of energy. While working in Auschwitz in the '90s, she experienced the limits of photographic representation and began searching for a more direct way to express the felt presence.

She now records the luminous imprints of plants in electromagnetic fields. She is presently constituting a first "energy botany," set forth in several gallery and outdoor exhibitions. Her more recent work probes the light fields surrounding plants to uncover a mirror image of the cosmos enfolded in the light corona. Her presentations of electrophotography in national and international forums speak to the importance of magnetic fields as carriers of information and speculate on the holographic nature of the universe.

Marie-Jeanne Musiol lives and works in Gatineau, Quebec.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Mark Ainslie was educated in Montreal, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Arts from Concordia University in 2004. He has also studied printmaking at the Toronto School of Art in 2005. He is an avid horticulturalist and naturalist who draws much of his inspiration from nature. Ainslie has received production grants from Concordia University as well as been acknowledged with awards for local film work in Montreal Canada.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Peter Michael Wilson was born and raised in Hamilton. He is self-taught in analog photography and its various processes. Photography has been his preferred artistic medium, as it enables him to capture the endless subject matter that presents itself on a daily basis, and the infinite possibilities of creating pre-visualized scenes.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Robert Michael is a Hamilton-based artist whose practice is concentrated on black and white studio photography and portraiture. RM has also directed music videos for Slow Hand Motem and Canadian Winter.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

SHAKE -n- MAKE is a collective that was inspired by the discovery of vintage Betty Crocker recipe cards. On the heels of a personal loss, the unearthing of these retro recipes culminated into a desire to craft a way out. SHAKE -n- MAKE is motivated by a shared experience of growing up in the 1970s, where survival, crafting, and popular culture defined not only an era but also our childhoods.

Claudia Manley is a writer and crafter who is interested in almost everything. She is currently obsessed with sewing and hunting and recently was awarded a Writers’ Reserve grant from Coach House Press. Claudia is interested in navigating the tension between the rustic and the refined.
Liss Platt is a multimedia artist who works at the intersections of digital arts and craft. Liss is interested in using ‘hobbyist materials’ to re-envision high modernist traditions. While exploring compulsion and repetition, Liss retains connections to nostalgia. She is currently an Associate Professor in Multimedia at McMaster University.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

Shayne Dark was born 1952, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada but currently resides in Hartington, Ontario, Canada. Shayne Dark has participated in numerous exhibitions in Canada and the United States since he began his artistic career in the mid 1980’s. Dark creates mainly sculptural works, taking a keen interest in every aspect of the process of art production, which he feels draws upon and focuses the physical and perceptual experience of the world. His works often evoke the contrasts between urban settings and the natural world, they are meant to stimulate a spiritual or visceral reaction in the viewer.

Most recently, Dark won a significant public art competition: a permanent site-specific sculpture installation for the "X - The Condominium" project at Charles and Jarvis St in downtown Toronto. Exhibitions in 2007 included ‘In/Beyond Western New York 2007’ Biennale where his work was featured at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Buffalo Arts Studio in Buffalo New York and the Mississauga Art Gallery – Sculpture Court

Among his awards and honours are: a 2004 grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation; also in 2004, Dark was one of three Canadian artists selected to participate in 'ARTiade 2004 - Olympics of Visual Arts' in Athens, Greece, in parallel with the XXVIII Olympic Games; participation in the 2003 International Sculpture Center Juried Exhibition, 'ISC @ GFS' in Hamilton, New Jersey; and the 'Juror's Choice Award' by Phyllis Braff, art critic for The New York Times at the EXPO XX Competition in April 2001.

A documentary of Shayne's life & work entitled 'Artist in the Round: Shayne Dark' premiered on Discovery Channel HD Theater on Sunday, April 25, 2004 across the United States.

Brought to you by the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee

TH&B is the creative partnership of Simon Frank, Dave Hind, Ivan Jurakic and Tor Lukasik-Foss, a group of visual artists operating out of the Hamilton area. Resuscitating the moniker of the defunct railway that once serviced the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo corridor from 1892-1987, the team develops projects that are responsive to site, context and history. Collaborating on all aspects of authorship, research and development TH&B examines unexpected intersections between cultural, industrial and natural environments.
 

Our swashbuckling comedy troupe has been seen at Toronto's First Night, The 27th Annual Robbie Burns Supper, Toronto's Poculi Ludique Societas' York Cycle, The Orangeville Medieval Fair, Campbellford's Scottish and Medieval Fair, The Word In The Street Fair, The Canadian Opera's Operathon, The Toronto Fringe Festival, Sudbury's Fringe Nord, Canadian Stages' Festival, and Dream in High Park.  We bring a variety of historical fight forms to life in comic and fast-paced shows full of swords, songs, and general mayhem.

All members of The Rude Mechanicals are skilled actor-combatants. Our audiences have thrilled to our fights, laughed at our antics, and joined in our songs. Some of our past shows have included The History of the Sword, How to Duel and not Get Dead, How to Make a Rude Mechanical, and From Monkeys to Muskets.   For our more 'serious' and 'educated' audiences we present the rigorous test a Renaissance student must survive to win his Master of Arms degree.

Flamenquitas Spanish Dancers was founded by Mirella Agro and Emanuela Dussin in the spring of 2007. After many years of performing, the two decided to unite and ignite the stage with their passion for Flamenco.

Flamenquitas invites audiences to discover the fire and beauty of Flamenco through various performances in Hamilton and the surrounding areas. They can even burn up the floor at any function or event. A company dedicated to quality performances, packed with fun and excitement!

Emanuela and Mirella have been dancing and performing together since 1997. They are enthusiastic to share their love of dance with you!

Lori Le Mare has been a professional decorative painter and instructor since 1989.  Her studio creates quality finishes for interior walls, floors, ceilings and furniture.  Surface designs include marbling, wood graining, gilding, painted ornament, wall glazing, texturing, murals and trompe l’oeil.

MSB was started in October 2009. Our mission at the School of Bhangra is to cause awareness through out the Hamilton community and McMaster University through the art of Bhangra and its culture. Most importantly we put the fun back in Bhangra while keeping you fit!

MSB is a non political, non religious, and a not for profit organization. We teach you the art of Bhangra at a professional level, with no costs, registration fees, or membership fees. It is completely free, you just need to show up!

We practice at the beautiful campus of McMaster University located in Hamilton, Ontario. We meet two to three times a week for a couple of hours and we simply spin the “light bulb,” with our own twist, obviously. Everyone is welcome! No experience is necessary.

Currently we have the following classes available: Traditional Bhangra, Party Bhangra, Bhang - Aerobics, Yoga, Giddah and Dhol. Absolutely free!

Come put the fun back in Bhangra with the MSB and be part of the revolution!

Rhythm Divine is a Hamilton-based pedestrian movement collective that aims to bridge the gap between studio training and street dance styles.  Led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Rose Gowling, this group is known for its raw energy, ethereal characters, and obscure song choices.

Rose Gowling has been creating and performing dance for the past 24 years.  Originally studying ballet through the Hamilton Conservatory, Rose traded in her slippers for sneakers as she pursued her training in less traditional environments. From the studio to the streets, Rose fell in love with an array of dance styles that emerged from various subcultures.  Raised on her father’s vast vinyl collection, Rose continues to develop a diverse vocabulary, erasing the boundaries which separate sound into established genres.

Known for her obscure song choices, surreal characters, and a movement quality that is raw and ethereal, Rose’s choreography has appeared in association with the Art Gallery of Hamilton, McMaster Dance Company, Cable 14, Revolution Wear Fashion Show, among several other events and festivals.  Through integrating imagery and improvisation, Rose embraces the spontaneous and changing nature of what it means to be human, inviting both dancer and audience to explore our relationship with our bodies and the space surrounding us. 

Collaborating with local musicians and artists in various multi-media projects, Rose hopes to continue this momentum as she seeks to redefine people’s perceptions of performance art.

ATS is a modern fusion dance style created by FatChanceBellyDance of California. Drawing its movements, costuming, and general inspiration from the Tribal cultures of the Middle East, Northern Africa/Maghreb, India and Spain, ATS is a fascinating combination of many different influences.

One of the main distinguishing features of the style is the group improvisation; there is no choreography. Carefully studied and perfected movements and positions are combined during the dance and are signaled by subtle cues in order to create the illusion of perfect synchronicity. In this way every performance is unique and exciting both for performers and audience.

The moves in American Tribal Style dance are more proud and earthy than classical "Cabaret" style bellydance, conveying the strength and beauty of the dancers and emphasizing the group dynamics.

The St. Nicholas Folklore Group was founded 35 years ago and is affiliated with the St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Cathedral on Nash Road in Hamilton. The group focuses on Serbian ethnic folk dances representing the Serbian culture of about 200 years ago in dances from all parts of the former Yugoslavia where Serbians resided. They have 5 groups, the oldest of which is dancing at the Streetfest, and is named Avala after a mountain range outside of Beograd.

Venus and Asala Devi will be performing duets and solos of raks sharki, and folk dance with Indian influences that tell a story. These dances will include beautiful veil dances, drum solos and a rope or cane dance. Flavours run from traditional Arabic taped music to more modern Arabic or non-Arabic music but the energy is always engaging and entertaining.