Past Exhibition
Norman T. White Lives Here
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January 2018
“Art as pure self-expression doesn’t interest me very much. Self-expression inevitably creeps into art, but I would prefer that it sneaks in through some back door. For me, Art comes alive only when it provides a framework for asking questions. Science provides that framework too, but ‘good science’ is too constrained for me. I would rather ask questions that simultaneously address a multitude of worlds… from living organisms to culture to confusion and rust. Only art can give me that generality.” Norman T. White
Just two weeks after he celebrated his 80th birthday, Canada's pioneering artist in electronic and robotic art, Norman T White has moved! His relocation was of short distance, just across the street from his home in the old Knechtel Mill to the Gallery where White has transformed one of the exhibition spaces into an environment where art and life meet and overlap.
White will occupy the space among the parts and pieces that are indispensable to his way of living and creating: his computer work station, a mattress, crates overflowing with machine parts, printed circuit boards, plastic bottles, tires, boxes of old fashioned slides, books and magazines, obsolete electronics, an old tennis racket - in short, the paraphernalia White has accumulated over the past 29 years at his residence in the Mill. (The artist calls it "The Normill.")
There, with memories that are prompted by the physical environment of the Normill, the artist will live and work and share stories, ideas and knowledge with visitors through conversation and dialogue. You might even learn how to fix a toaster!
Norman T. White was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1938. He grew up in and around Boston, Massachusetts, and obtained his B.A. in Biology from Harvard University in 1959. Originally planning to become a fisheries biologist, White changed his mind and decided to travel the world during the early 1960s for one and a half years on a $2,000 budget.
In 1967, White moved to Toronto, where he began to build and experiment with kinetic electronics. He taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design from 1978 to 2003 when he “retired” to continue teaching at Ryerson University in Toronto until spring of 2017.
White has an extensive exhibition history and won several prestigious prizes including the Petro Canada Award and the d.velop digital art award (Germany). His work can be found in major public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
http://www.normill.ca/