I conduct interviews with different artists, curators and cultural figures around the themes of “darkness in art”, the grotesque, and the role of technology in creating evil or good. I interview figures who have used the themes of darkness, technology, political dissention, nihilism and the occult in their practices. Current subjects include David Liss, Director of The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), Governor General’s Award winner and provocateur Istvan Kantor, multi-media artist Jubal Brown and painter Matt Bahen, with more exciting subjects and interviews to come.

YOUTUBE | View Channel | View Playlists

I see YouTube as a populist means of sharing video images with millions of people around the world. I am interested in putting contemporary art content among the many videos of dancing dogs and parties and sitcom excerpts that are found on YouTube. With the nature of search engines and the opportunity for people to stumble upon the strangest items through random key word searches, my hope is that unlikely viewers will stumble upon these videos and take a look. In a sense, these YouTube contemporary art interviews are like bottled messages floating in cyberspace.

David Liss | Youtube Playlist

David Liss is the Director and Curator of the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art in Toronto. Since 1995 he has organized, produced and/or curated more than 100 solo and group exhibitions of contemporary Canadian and international art, in addition to overseeing related publications, educational programs and special events. Darkness Ascends a recent show that he curated at MOCCA, was critically acclaimed by Art Forum and Canadian Art magazine. Liss and MOCCA have also organized art projects in China, the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Taiwan.

Istvan Kantor | Youtube Playlist

Istvan Kantor (aka ‘Monty Cantsin’, and ‘Amen!’) is a Hungarian born Canadian performance and video artist, industrial music and electropop singer, and founder of Neoism.

Recent work involves noise installations and performances with electrically modified file cabinets. He also founded the Machine Sex Action Group which realizes theatrical cyber-futuristic body performances in an S/M style. His more controversial works involve vandalism and gore, painting large X’s in his own blood on the walls of modern art museums, and in doing so he has been banned from many of the world’s art galleries, a status he holds with pride. In 2004, he threw a vial of his own blood on a wall beside a sculpture of Michael Jackson by Paul McCarthy in the Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art museum of Berlin. In March of 2004 he was awarded the Canadian Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media arts.