 Hi, art lovers! | | | Last week, we caught up with Xiaojing Yan, an Ontario-based artist who’s worked with top luxury brands including Hermès and the French perfumer Henry Jacques. And yet, neither of those projects are anywhere near as fascinating as another creative partnership of hers, a “collaboration” that’s been going on for years.
Xiaojing works with live lingzhi mushrooms to grow sculptures like this one. | | |  | (CBC Arts) | | | And in the short doc, she unpacks how the process works. A never-ending experiment, she teased several new related projects in a Q&A accompanying the video, which happens to be the season finale of Natural Collaborators.
If you loved the series and are left wanting more, I’ll point you toward some similar stories we’ve run in the past — articles and videos about Canadian artists who “share creative control with the wild” (to quote the official series summary). Some foraged links from the archives: meet an artist who makes paint from soil and rocks, plus one who produces ink via similar means (recipe here). This artist even has her own “dye garden.” Think sculpting with mushrooms is cool? This artist sculpts with the aid of live barnacles. In the mood for poetry? This was written with the wind. And this sound art was generated from fungi and plants. Plants also helped create this twinkling video installation, and even the tiniest living creatures have something to contribute. These colourful abstract landscapes? An artist made them by swabbing bacteria from paintboxes (etc.) once used by the Group of Seven. | | |  | Rajni Perera | | Hand with Ring for Truth by Rajni Perera (seen here). Rajni will open her first-ever survey show at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection Nov. 18, and she accepted the 2022 MOCA Artist Award last week. | | | | |  | MOCA | | Talking about MOCA, admission to the museum is free every Friday between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., and do you realize there’s an installation on the main floor that doubles as a fully functioning (and impeccably stylish) karaoke bar?! It’s true and it is fantastic. I plan to be there whenever I can, shrieking along to Torn. | | | | |  | Loraine Mohar | | Is it seriously Christmas craft season already? If you’re holiday shopping in Hamilton, Ont., collage artist Loraine Mohar will be at the Quirky AF Art Fair Nov. 11 and 12. | | | | |  | Laura K. Watson | | And Laura K. Watson will be at the Heart & Pocket Revue in Sackville, N.B., on Nov. 19. She has lots of lovely prints and zines available through her online shop too. | | | | |  | CBC Arts | | | | | Xiaojing Yan (previously seen here) has spent years “collaborating” with lingzhi mushrooms. How does it work? Watch her in action and discover what’s next for this experimental project. | | | | |  | Netflix | | | | | Wednesday, Sort Of and The Crown top our streaming picks for November. | | | | |  | Amazon Prime | | | | | | | Sorry not sorry, Harry Styles fans. These classic queer romantic tragedies are better than My Policeman. | | |  | Klara Vollstaedt | | Calgary artist Klara Vollstaedt created this design for Transgender Awareness Month. Conceived as a tribute to trans women in STEM, the retro-tech esthetic is totally Klara. “My art practice is very much connected to the internet,” she told us. Read more about her work in this Q&A. | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time! | | | | | |
