CC: How did it start?

Name Ten Parts of the Body: Name Ten Parts of the Body came together organically out of friendship, casual conversations and what’s going on in art. Realizing we had a lot of common things we shared in terms of our work and share in a wider discourse.

Discussions would happen, we’d talk about our work, what we had in common and the idea formed that we would try to do an exhibition together. And part of the impetus in the beginning was to give our selves some power and I think that’s true of other collectives too. You decide where you’re going to show and who you’re going to show with and you decide to make it happen.

Definitely we wanted it to be a female group as well, there didn’t seem to be a lot of female groups at the time. We wanted a strong female show.

CC: Can you talk a little about the body and feminism?

NTPOTB: I think that was partly a response to the feminist challenge which was how to represent the female body without objectifying it. That was one of the major concerns of the 80’s and so with the fragment you could start to treat it symbolically and take away that sense of it as an object and start to reinvest it with meaning.

CC: How did the name come about?

NTPOTB: The name was a playful take on a serious consideration that we held in common. And I remember at the opening of our first exhibition we had a contest which was to name 10 Parts of the Body that each had three letters and you had to put this piece of paper into a bowl and I know we got some winners but we can’t remember what they won.

CC: Speak to the character of a 10 Parts of the Body show.

NTPOTB: There was a lot of work that was revisiting the body in the 80’s and into the early 90’s and the use of portions or fragments of the body as symbolic of a larger discussion.

We started out with the fragments and the body was definitely an issue at the time and we identified with using the fragment in a symbolic way so that made sense to show in a gallery space but then we wanted to go to extensions of those symbols so into clothing and other adornments of the body. So it made sense to show it where you’d get a larger audience and in a context that made sense. Shopping. And expose the work to people that wouldn’t be going to a gallery. Using clothing based work in a mall situation, therefore people who were shopping would come by and see things that they wouldn’t normally see.

CC: What about showing in alternative spaces?

NTPOTB: Our first exhibition was in a traditional gallery and after that we found ways to expand our projects so after that in was in a non-traditional space in both Toronto and Montreal in a retail mall space. It definitely gave us the idea that these exhibitions could take place in alternate spaces.

CC: And people weren’t sure if it was a retail store or an art show?

NTPOTB: I think in general the set up of the exhibition there were in vitrines, there were mannequins as a support for the work so the whole think looked like a store display.

People would come in a take an initial look and then you can see them doing a double take and say ‘wait a minute; there’s something different about this. The first response is that it’s a store and the second response is there’s something more beyond the surface.

There was a piece made of human hair. Looked like a coat but when you came up to it it’s actually, ‘yeesh’, that recoil effect was certainly something very interesting in terms of the unexpected for the public.

CC: What about the cloth catalogue?

NTPOTB: This is a cloth catalogue which we produces for the second exhibition. It involved with each artist was represented with an image. And it was designed and screen-printed by Mindy Miller. And we each contributed something to it. This is Mindy’s contribution. She burned her pieces into the cloth. And the text is assembled by Rene Barte.

And we sold this cloth by the yard too. So each artist that participated got a length of it and we had it for sale as well.

CC: What about the relationship between commerce and 10 Parts of the Body?

NTPOTB: I don’t think we had any expectations that people who were viewing would be interested in purchasing art work. Except for the cloth. I don’t think they were the right clienteles. Shopping interuptus. We were interested in changing people’s experiences and offering them something a little different. And the works were mostly installation and sculptural things, some were fragile or temporary. So we had no expectations of sales. It would have been surprising if that had happened.

CC: What differentiated the collectives?

NTPOTB: I think when you talk about the differences between the collectives they were all unique. We each had our own identity and I think that’s something that was really interesting about that period.

CC: Why in the collective shows is the site important?

NTPOTB: A lot of collectives I think for them the site was very important. Your memory of those shows had to do with where it was and how those works made sense there.

It is pulling art out of the usual expected context and trying to put it into a flow of life where there are spillovers into the everyday and into social/political structures and or retail/commerce, what-have-you. I think that’s where art gets an incredibly interesting dynamic and starts pushing boundaries.

CC: What was the most positive takeaway from that era?

NTPOTB: I think it is the DIY spirit. I think so too. Knowing you can do whatever you want. Doing an art show in a retail space and not selling anything. We could be in any space. Creating it and making it anything we want and taking away any boundaries and any sense of limitation. If you feel that you have to function in, what was then a fairly small art world.

It’s definitely a broader range of possibility now. At that time it was pretty restrictive. It gave you a greater sense of freedom to make it happen on your own.

CC: How did it end?

NTPOTB: I don’t think that our collective ended because we were frustrated or overwhelmed by the work. I think it just provided a really great sounding board to work with each other and expand our own work. Because we were dealing with these thematic exhibitions it gave me particularly a chance to try new things and experiment and I could see a direction I could follow in with works afterwards.