Artist of the Week
Julia Baird

By Kerry Freek

Posted May 28th, 2007

This week marks the online debut of MONDO's "Artist of the Week" column. Tada! Our first artist is Julia Baird, whose current work explores the ways we document and preserve ourselves. Through the cold, impersonal medium of email, I interviewed Julia about her thoughts on unique gallery spaces, preservation, and the importance of documentation, and received a warm, personal response. Here's what she had to say.

MONDO: You mention that your work involves exploring the ways we document ourselves. With your not going anywhere any way artist's book, you used parts of your Grandmother's journal from 1986. With Insert Yourself Here, you're documenting yourself with the people in your life. Why is preservation of such interest to you?

Julia Baird: Man, when I was growing up, I was surrounded by it! My parents hardly ever threw anything out. Other people knew this too, so somehow ancient books of sheet music owned by my recently-deceased neighbour would end up at our house. Family members wanted to save heirlooms and old photographs, but I don't think they actually wanted to store them at their own home, so those would also end up at our house. My Mom is also fascinated by genealogy. We have pretty extensive family trees for most branches of my ancestry.

For a couple of years, I developed photographs at a Mom-and-Pop photo shop (this was when digital was in its early years), so I got to witness first hand the very personal attachment people have with their photographs. It was a very thought-provoking experience.

Combine all that with me just dealing with death and the end of relationships in my own life…and I think you've got your answer.

MONDO: In a site-specific component of not going anywhere any way, you plastered fragments of your Grandmother's journal around her old Markham neighbourhood. What was your motivation? What did it feel like putting her private thoughts into the public sphere? Did you receive any feedback from neighbours or people who knew your grandparents?

JB: My motivation? My father passed away from cancer about six months before I started this project, so in retrospect, I was probably dealing with his death through facing my Grandmother's death and creating a tribute to her life. I asked permission of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings before I went ahead with it and no one in my family felt like the posters were disrespectful to my Grandmother's privacy. She wasn't one to write down her personal thoughts in her journals. Each entry was like a very short list of what she did that day and I think that in itself says a lot about her practical, humble personality and the differences between people who were raised in her era as opposed to later years. If she were still alive today, I think she would be supportive about the project, but she probably would wonder why I'd choose to devote the project to her life instead of the life of someone else more "important"!

I don't think that things like this happen very often in a quiet neighbourhood in downtown Markham, so people stopped and talked to me all the time when I was putting up the posters. A few people complained about the litter, but for the most part, the response was positive. It was interesting to see how the posters became integrated into the lives of the people who lived in the community. One mother told me that her and her preschool daughter would go on a walk every week, read the posters and use their imaginations to try to figure out what they were about. Another man told me that right after I put up the posters each week, the same lady would ride her bike down her street and take all the posters down with a razor blade (I figure this meant either she hated the posters and didn't want to look at them, or she loved them and she wanted to keep copies for herself!). I didn't run into anyone who remembered my Grandparents (nineteen years had passed since the journals were written), but I did have a really nice long chat with the man who bought my Grandparents' old apartment building after they moved out.

MONDO: You have a history of exhibiting in (or on) some unique venues, such as the Alopecia Gallery (actually Gordon B. Isnor's face) and the McCleave Gallery (a travelling suitcase) — how did you come to be involved with these projects? What attracts you to these venues? Are you against traditional galleries?

JB: I'm always on the lookout for alternative gallery spaces. Working with unconventional galleries is a challenge and I find them conceptually intriguing. I've created work that I probably wouldn't have otherwise because of the unusual parameters of the galleries and so far the people involved in running the spaces have been very supportive and accommodating. I'd recommend exhibiting at both Alopecia and McCleave to anyone!

I'm definitely not against traditional galleries, but I do acknowledge their limitations in terms of reaching most people out there. For a large chunk of the population, I don't think that visiting art galleries is on their list of priorities or within their comfort zone. That's why most of my art has an online component — because the internet is easily accessible from home and is a format that most people are comfortable with.

And to be perfectly honest, my focus on "unique venues" at least partially has to do with the fact that I'm an emerging artist and it's much easier to land an exhibition in a grassroots-run gallery space than in an established public or commercial gallery or artist-run centre!

MONDO: You work in a variety of media. Books, stickers, paint, etc. Is there a draw (shoot, pardon the pun) to any particular medium? If so, why?

JB: When I was in art school, I mostly studied traditional two-dimensional media: printmaking, drawing and painting. But then I started to get ideas that wouldn't have been fully addressed if I stuck with those three, so I started to branch out. Really, I come up with an idea that I'd like to explore first and foremost, then I try to figure out the best way to bring that concept to a physical form. Most of the time, the best solution is something that I've never tried before. I've learned SO MUCH since I've started working in that vein: web design, digital photography, bookmaking…and soon I'll hopefully be branching out into ceramics.

MONDO: Tell us about your current/future project(s). Do you have grand schemes for what's next?

JB: I'm always full of ideas — it's sitting down and making them happen which is the struggle for me. I have two projects that I'm probably going to start this summer. The first one has to do with genealogy and will be my foray into the world of ceramic sculpture and the second will be a story created by exploring a relationship between two people entirely through written correspondence (which is slowly becoming endangered, I fear).

Julia Baird and her work can be found here.

all content is copyright of the authors, 2007 — email us! editor [at] mondomagazine.net
hurrah!