The Show and Tell Art Lecture

A sign which invited everyone to come see an artist present her work was posted up in front of the York amphitheatre in the EV building of Concordia University. Inside it was jam packed with cheery excited people who could barely stay put as they waited for the artist to speak, and present her work on the big screen through powerpoint slides.

This specific event was titled the Show and Tell Art Lecture where Marina Polosa, the public programs coordinator of the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery introduced the audience to Julie Ault who is not only an artist, but is a writer and a curator as well. She is best known for being the co-founder of Group Material, an artists collective which was put together in lower east Manhatten in 1979, consisting of four members and lasted until 1996.

Julie Ault projected images of her book Show and Tell to the audience. Show and Tell documents art exhibitions that Group Material organized throughout their years together. These exhibitions would take place in city squares, subway stations, and museums. Group Material`s exhibitions reflected issues such as reproductive rights, the US intervention in South America, Aids awareness, and crisis in democracy.

She also informed the audience of other people who she set up art exhibitions with such as the artist Martin Beck. Together her and Martin Beck set up the exhibition called Social Landscape which reflected the increasing gap between the rich and the poor in the US.

This lecture which was set up through the collaberation of Felicity Taylor and Centre des Arts, invited people from the audience to speak with Julie Ault in person after she finished presenting her work. Julie informed me that her hopes and dreams havn`t changed at all since her early days in Group Material.

``When we started out we believed that our work can have an impact and effect social change. We wanted to create our own platforms, and to have a voice in culture. Group Material worked with what was effecting society, the urgency of the moment, and issues of social justice.``

Julie Ault is now working on a book project with James Benning which will be titled Social Isolation and the Politics of Autonomy and Solitude.

When the lecture ended, several people from the audience lined up to speak with Julie Ault in person because they were anxious to hear about what she will do next.