In addition to the Gallery exhibition, two of the firms will create temporary landscape design installations in the downtown core and one will locate their installation at rare Charitable Research Reserve.

Mini Golf – a social practice, curated by Iga Janik, is an aspect of the Common Ground project that will be installed in the Queen’s Square Gallery and in the downtown area of the city.
Nine artists will each create an artwork for a “hole” in a 9-hole mini putt course that will start and end at Cambridge Galleries’ Queen’s Square location.

The official launch festivities begin on the evening of July 6 at Queen’s Square and Design at Riverside Galleries with architects, artists and other contributors on hand. Celebrations will continue on Saturday, July 7 with tours of all the projects and opportunities to meet the architects and artists at their various locations in the morning. You can also visit other related exhibits and activities; attend a lecture to learn more about the landscape architecture installations with their creators; and sign up for a mini putt golf tournament in the downtown core – so bring your putter along!

3 BY LAND Features three award winning, established Canadian landscape architecture/ architecture firms: PLANT Architecture Inc. (Toronto), Vlan Paysages (Montreal), and Janet Rosenberg & Associates(Toronto). The Design at Riverside exhibition will present multiple projects from each firm through photography, film, drawings, maps and models, plus a unique in-gallery collaborative installation.

The associated three site-specific installations commissioned for public spaces in Cambridge and rare Charitable Research Reverse will reflect their design approach/philosophy and reference the location (historically, geographically, and materially). Construction on these sites will take place two weeks prior to the project launch weekend.

Each firm will attend the multi-event launch of Common Ground, and will contribute brief remarks at the opening and will guide tours of their sites and participate in a joint lecture on Saturday, July 7.

Participating Firms PLANT Architect Inc., Toronto PLANT Architect Inc. is an interdisciplinary studio of architects and land¬scape architects formed in 1995 by Chris Pommer, Lisa Rapoport, and Mary Tremain. PLANT embraces and synthesizes the increasing complexity of the world and the ambiguity of where landscape, built form, and design intersect. PLANT has won numerous architecture and landscape architecture awards. Recent projects include: winning schemes for the Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization, the Dublin Veterans’ Project, and Stratford’s Market Square. Landscape: Foote’s Pond Wood (Morristown, NJ); Sweet Farm Parc (Québec); and a large master plan study for the New Jersey Meadowlands. www.branchplant.com

Vlan Paysages, Montreal Founded in 1999 by Julie St.-Arnault and Micheline Clouard, Vlan Paysages is an award-winning landscape architecture firm specializing in multidisciplinary urban projects that include urban design, landscape analysis, master planning, and installations. They approach landscape with sensitivity to place and people, as well as natural and anthropological mechanisms. Sustainable design and strong conceptual themes imbue their work. Vlan Paysages has received numerous awards including a Governor General’s Award and won competitions in Canada, France and China – most recently for Marc-Favreau Library and Park, Montreal, and Trois-Rivières Amphitheatre. www.vlanpaysages.ca

Janet Rosenberg + Associates Janet Rosenberg + Associates (JRA) is one of Canada’s most distinguished landscape architecture and urban design studios with decades of experience and an extensive portfolio of work that includes public, commercial, and institutional spaces as well as private residential gardens and condominiums. JRA is recognized globally for sustainable innovation, design excellence, and for its fresh-eyes approach to site challenges. The studio actively participates in garden shows and installations as a catalyst for experimentation in scale, materials, and technologies. Led by Janet Rosenberg and creative director Glenn Herman, the studio is supported by a team of talented landscape architects and urban designers who truly work collaboratively, constantly redefining the profession with creativity and unique ideas. Recent studio endeavours include Devonian Gardens in Calgary, Guelph Market Square at City Hall, and Newmarket Riverwalk Commons. www.jrala.ca

MINI GOLF – a social practice
July 6 – September 16
Mini Golf - a social practice is an exciting 9-hole course designed by nine teams of artists, and laid out across downtown Cambridge beginning and ending at Queen’s Square Gallery.
Reflecting on the use of public spaces, urban development trends and issues of access, artists are developing projects that reflect individual sites and conditions. Collectively, this series of installations will provoke discussions around space usage, land value, and the role of spectacle in social engagement.

Individual holes designed and created by nine artists from across Ontario will showcase a multiplicity of approaches and styles in use of material, space, and interpretation of the game: Expect all levels of difficulty, decoration, and attention. Included are sculptural, installation and conceptual pieces that will challenge you to a game of mini golf and alternative views of your own community and downtown spaces. All holes are playable throughout the summer!

The locations of the course include: Queen’s Square Gallery and grounds, Cambridge, Sculpture Garden, Courtyard on Melville Street, City Hall, Southworks, parking lots on Water Street, and surrounding areas.

Participating Artists:

Julie René de Cotret was born in Montreal in 1976. She studied Fine Arts at John Abbott College, in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Montreal and received her B.F.A. from the NSCAD, in 2004. In 2005 she was guest student at the Meadows School of Art, SMU, Dallas, Tx. She has recently finished a two-year artist residency program with the School of Environmental Science at the University of Guelph, where she is the artist in residency. Her studio is located in Guelph. de Cotret is a member of the Board of Directors for Ed Video Media Art Centre, and she also curates a few exhibitions per year at the Elora Centre for the Arts.

Steve deBruyn is an artist living and working in London, Ontario. His main artistic output consists of large-scale installation art, usually focused around the culture and aesthetics of skateboarding. As a 30-something Canadian, he takes into account his rural upbringing and lack of actual skill on the board itself in his work. He enjoys the traditional skater ethos of building things for free from whatever is available. He has also been known to create paintings, collages and zines. He frequently collaborates with others and is open to any and all possibilities when it comes to making artwork in Canada or abroad.

Utilizing video and sculpture, Vikki Dziuma explores humour and pathos through adult deconstruction of childhood mythos; childhood belief in magic is subsumed with skepticism and cynicism. Her sculptural remakes employ haphazard building techniques and/or unsuitable materials to instantiate failure. The object’s assumed function is compromised and a struggle for fulfillment proceeds. In video work she employs use of repetition and anti-climax to deny any incitement through infinite delay. Her work evokes fun but offers none, while making it clear that any attempt to obtain it is empty and futile. Dziuma is currently studying Studio Art at the University of Guelph.

Barr Gilmore has been operating as a designer and artist under his company name Barr Gilmore Art + Design since 2005. Gilmore graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture and printmaking from UBC, Vancouver (1987); was the Studio Assistant to the renowned Canadian art collective General Idea (1991-95), and a Senior Design Associate at Bruce Mau Design (1996-2005). Last spring, he completed a Master of Design in the Interdisciplinary Masters in Art, Media and Design graduate program at OCADU, Toronto, for which he won the prestigious Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal for his thesis and thesis exhibition titled Making a Spectacle of One’s Self – a new self-portrait in the form of a sculpture-cum-functioning cocktail bar called The Colour Barr.

Educated at the University of Victoria, BC and York University, Toronto, Lee Goreas currently teaches drawing and foundation at the University of Toronto. He is best known for his multimedia installations comprised of wall drawings, large format digital photographs, video loops and interactive sculptures. His installations investigate the relationship between institutional culture and popular culture. Lee deals with subjects ranging from art history to astronomy and from car culture to professional golf. He employs the comedic device of the pun to create unexpected relationships between these unrelated subjects.

Marcia Huyer is currently living and working in Toronto. She studied sculpture at the Ontario College of Art and Design and completed her MFA in 2006 at the University of Victoria. She has exhibited internationally and nationally, primarily in artist-run centres, as well as the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC; ODD Gallery, Yukon; and, Eastern Edge, NFLD. She has also participated in projects such as Nuit Blanche and CAFKA ‘07, Kitchener, ON.

Robert Hengeveld is an installation and multi-media artist whose work explores the boundaries between reality and fiction, and where we find ourselves within that relationship. He is currently living and working in Toronto, ON. He completed his MFA at the University of Victoria in 2005 and studied the Ontario College of Art and Design. He began his art practice at Georgian College, where he received a Certificate and Diploma in Fine Arts. Some recent exhibitions include Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center (Buffalo), Jè-st', Galerie d'art Louise et Reuben-Cohen (Moncton), and Mulherin Pollard Projects (NYC). Hengeveld is represented by Katharine Mulherin Contemporary.

Derek Liddington is a professional artist and curator working in Toronto, ON. He holds an MFA from the University of Western Ontario and BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. In his practice forms of mimicry, appropriation and translation are displaced in an attempt to deconstruct contemporary narratives – those close to him call him a pomo. Derek has received project support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and the London Community Foundation. In 2011, Derek was shortlisted for the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Prize.

Jess Perlitz is a Canadian-born artist currently working in Philadelphia, PA. She received her MFA from Tyler School of Art (2009), her BA from Bard College (2000) and has received clown training from the Clown Farm in Northern Ontario. Perlitz has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia), Arlington Arts Center (Arlington, VA), Cue Arts Foundation (NY) and the Canadian Sculpture Centre (Toronto, ON). She has also been the recipient of numerous awards such as the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Award, Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship and the Franconia Sculpture Park Open Studio Residency. Perlitz was most recently invited to be a LEAP artist (local emerging artists projects) with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Big Picture Program and currently teaches at Tyler School of Art.

Amy Wong is a painter of Cantonese-Chinese descent, born in Toronto, ON, who has lived and worked in Canada, the Netherlands and China. After completing her BFA in studio arts at Concordia University in Montreal, she was accepted to the two-year artist residency at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. She has recently returned to Toronto after being the first Canadian participant in the CEAC artist residency in Xiamen. She is represented by Galerie van Wijngaarden Hakkens in Amsterdam.