Robert Labossiere

Wrong with the picture

The failure of the international aid system is finally getting some critical attention, prompting me to repost this 2006 project.

Free Sign Project

What does "free" mean today? Free to own? Free to borrow? Free to work? Free to capitalize? Free to liberate?

Payday

Window installation at the Convenience Gallery in Toronto, emulates the storefront of a payday lender. Payday lending has exploded locally and is unregulated, allowing lenders to extract exhorbitant rates.

N

Artist's multiple/book - Word pairs like this 'n that, up n' down, etc. are printed on current issues of consumer magazines. In this case, the March '08 issue of The Walrus, edition of five.
Exhibited at Eyelevel Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia


PLATES

This project involves using the "vanity plates" services available in most jurisdictions to create a suite of thematic license plates.

BLOGUMENTA

Launched at the same time as the international art fair Documenta; gathers together artworks into a viewing space for Facebook audiences.

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artforum

REAL ESTATE

Illustrating the proportion of advertising to editorial in art magazines and other publications.
sloganeer

SLOGANEER

During a residency at the Banff Centre, fellow residents were asked to write slogans for the Centre, which coincidentally was undergoing re-branding. A workstation was set up – an electric typerwriter laoded with a continuous roll of paper – and residents produced this document.
studio installation - the world is a cartoon

THE WORLD IS A CARTOON

Noticing frames around things in an increasingly cartoonish world.
2006 view jpegs

 

studio installation - executive toys

VOCATION/VACATION

Being creative requires discipline, unlike play. On the other hand, play requires imagination, unlike discipline.
2006 view jpegs
 
dog and gramophone

HIS MASTER'S VOICE

His Master's Voice – riffs on the famous dog and gramophone logo, sometimes working something like a diary.
aphorisms - short texts

APHORISMS

Sometimes you feel like you ought to say, but don't. Other times you do say but shouldn't have. These cards refer to the specific contexts in which they were created and distributed.
1982-2006 view jpegs
works involving magazines

MAGAZINE WORKS

Magazines are wonderful containers, abundant with riches yet ephemeral, objects of desire one moment, discarded the next. These works treat or use magazines in many different ways.
1997-2006 view jpegs
piano drop

piano drop

Celebrate art's birthday on January 17 by dropping a piano. Can't wait 'til then? Drop one now.
casts

casts

"Nature" is a powerful trope, for whatever appears natural we also think of as more true and more virtuous. These plaster casts taken from the body exhibit an almost other worldliness, while those of a plain framed canvas eroded by water are more grounded. Sizes vary.
1992-94 view jpegs