Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/144909
Second World War, becoming the biggest employer in the second half of the 20th century. When the plant shut down in the late 1980s, the town pretty much folded along with it, becoming even more of an eyesore in the vivid New England landscape. Some of the town's visionaries saw the potential in the sprawling abandoned factory, however. In 1999, it sprang back to life as the remarkable MASS MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art). Now covering more than 2.7 hectares (300,000 square feet), MASS MoCA is one of the largest contemporary art museums and performance spaces in the United States. It has been called America's answer to the Tate Modern, London. Raymond Forbes/Masterfile p28-33_Oh_Canada.indd 29 Befitting its size, the museum focuses on big installation temporary exhibits along with cutting edge and experimental international art. This summer, MASS MoCA is dedicating a fair chunk of its space to a galaxy of the brightest stars in the contemporary Canadian art world. Oh, Canada, the largest survey of Canadian art ever shown outside our country, opens on May 27 for a 10-month run through April 1, 2013. It will feature a broad spectrum of established and up-and-coming but critically recognized artists – 62 in all from every province and nearly every territory. The show spans multiple generations and includes work in all media. Oh, Canada is the brainchild of MASS MoCA curator Denise Markonish. Her plan with the exhibit is to highlight some of the distinguishing characteristics of art made in Canada. She also wants to encourage American art enthusiasts to turn what she admits has until now been something of a blind eye towards the Canadian art world. Over lunch in the museum's café, Markonish tells me that the show was a long-held aspiration, even something she pitched when she applied for her job at MASS MoCA. "I always loved the work of [international art world darlings] Douglas Coupland, Janet Cardiff, Marcel Dzama and David Altmejd," she explains. "I didn't realize they and many of my other favourite artists were Canadian. It became a real curiosity for me, and the only way to figure it out was with a show." Markonish has spent the past three years criss-crossing Canada, visiting hundreds of artists in studios, galleries and museums to gather works for the exhibit. She insists she had total freedom in selecting the artists, both from her superiors at MASS MoCA as well as from the Canada Council, which helped fund the exhibit. "I certainly started out thinking about doing a good representation across the country, but what I think makes this show different is that I came WESTWORLD >> S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 29 4/13/12 2:18:23 PM