INTERVENTION:

from a woman's perspective on depression, the work pharmaKon is initiated from the ways in which one can reflect on the politic of pill consumption in our otherwise cap[italist] consumer society. the active ingredients to consider, are the implications and consequence of depression, how is it handled in our social structure and why this state of being, necessarily implies a quiet[ed] violence against women by the medical community, by our environments and towards ourselves. it is not a question to reject or accept one a day in the morning or prescribed notions of regular and extra strength dosages; it is rather an inquiry into the ways that we are informed, and what combinations of resources are possible when acknowledging difficult patterns of behaviour in our lives.

a series of miniaturized texts are created, that transcribe personal experiences in depression. these narratives are then encapsulated in pill form, bottled in pharmaceutical vials and labeled with directions for use. the intent is to advance a subject that in my own life has been ignored or hidden away. never speak of 'it', certainly do not acknowledge 'it', and make up for lost time when 'it' has subsided. part of the serie's purpose, is to bring out the aspect of sharing and the soul[full] in what is most often a dismal adventure into disconnected living. the style of poetic writing that is used for the vial labeling and inside the capsules, allows a distance to be taken from actuality since this process of becoming writer/observer places experience in a form which, as in story, releases the closeness and closedness of actual experience into softer states of memory and resilience. my words start the process of, pharmakon, but it is exchanges of narration that expands the work; many of us have the unofficial knowledge to speak but need a venue to express ideas and to reflect upon the individual/societal conditions of depression.
in the role of 'pharmacists' for pharmaKon pharmaceuticaL. phoundation - stress art productions, pharma-pseudo workers will manufacture and distribute. each time a vial is given out, the recipient will leave her 'signature' 'her story' as an active measure in building community. these miniaturized narratives in pill form are meant to be carried in jeans, purses and pockets as a pre[script]ion for shared lives and a dose of extra strength optimism for those of us Œwalking¹ this path. we have access to formalized structures of specialized medical treatments but dialogue and giving voice outside that structure shall be advanced as a viable option for empowerment and conciliation.

by remarking on one’s own personal path, we can as individuals, remake the private narrative into shared experience or community.
My path as part time instructor for eleven years to full time tenured track position, Department of Design Art, is about having a vision.
It is about holding on to that vision through flux, adversity, and progress in both the art and educative systems.
It is about entry and then from a place of privilege, uncovering new paths with colleagues, students and community, by the acts of engaged research and practice.
This is the poetry and politic of professor.

pk langshaw has taught at all levels of the design art programme, including design studio, seminar, independent study and internship courses. her primary concentration is directed toward social design, which by definition and responsibility, aligns the design artist to community, community members and the natural/built environments.at all stages of creation from ideation and context processes through to production and dissemination, designers must respond to the consequence of their practice.

ms. langshaw has studied at the université de quebec à montréal [UQAM] in the graduate programme-la maîtrise en arts plastiques- en création. her artistic work is initiated as hybrid, a cross disciplined practice, extracted from concrete poetry, and expanded by the quantic relations between text and image. each work is bound to the site where construction takes place and to the audience who receives the work. pk has participated in solo and group gallery exhibits and is actively involved in collaborative, public art projects, exchanges and conferences.
‘en d’autres termes’, permanently installed september 1997, is a 30 ‘ poetic wall inscription, which may be viewed at the judith jasmin pavilion, mezzanine level, UQAM in montreal.

the interventionist work, entitled ‘PharmaKon - stress art productions’- mediates, meditates, and medicates on the [ab]normal patterns of behaviour in women with depression’. it scripts the ways in which we can swallow the text pill as an object[ive] of reflection. to take the prescribed daily dose is to inscribe the side effects back to the self with the soul in attendance and to repeat the dosage is to set up an act of informed defiance. this production takes on permanence by the documentation process and by the memories that keep it in mind and by the miniatures that en[cap]sulate the experience.

. Les Etudes de Maitrise, en Art Plastiques, Concentration Création, U. de Quebec à Montréal. 1996-1999.
. Independent study, graduate/undergraduate courses, Concordia University, Montreal, Que. 1991-1998.
. School of Fine Arts, concentration in Environmental Design, Fanshawe College, London, Ont. 1974-1977.
. School of graphic design, Fanshawe College, London, Ontario. 1973-1974.
. School of Liberal Arts, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario. 1972-1973.
. German Intermediate Studies, Goethe Language Institute, Munich, Germany. 1971-1972.
. Apprentice, Franz s. Sussl Bauernmobeln/furniture co., Munich, Germany. 1971-1972.

 

. Assistant professor. Full time faculty member. Department of Design Art. Concordia University. Montreal Que. June 1998-ongoing.

. Concrete visual poet/artist, community and collaborative projects, public work, permanent site work, private collections, 1982-ongoing.

. Limited Term Appointment, full time faculty member, Dept.of Design Art, Sept 1997- May 1998.

. Part time faculty, Concordia University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Design Art 1987- ongoing.

. Propmaker, self employed, film Industry, 1980-1989.

. Propmaker, atelier P+P, special effects & propmaking company, Montreal, 1980-1983.

 

. AERA/SIG/RWE, Crossing Borders, Blurring Boundaries, Celebrating 25 years of research on women
and education, joint presentation with Judith Cezar. Hofstra University, New York, Oct. 1999.

. Artistic co-director with colleague Michael Longford for the redesign of the Concordia faculty
of fine arts web site. Two design art students and one studio arts major are collaborating
under our guidance in the new site. September 1998- completion/launch date January 1999.

. Guest lecturer and mail art exchange advisor for Concordia design art students with students
at Kent Institute of Art and Design, Cantebury England. Traveled to Cantebury to present
work on the theme of image and text. Student tutorials and mail art project initiative with
discussions for further exchanges between student/faculty groups at the two institutions. Nov. 1998.

. Visiting artist lecture on “image and text- imagining texts or the art of textmaking”,
with Gilbert boyer and Barbara Mcgill-Balfour, for students in the graduate programme UQAM
and open public, Mtl. Que., may 1998.

. Round table discussion with invited artists, ‘de nature urbain’, group exhibit, UQAM, Feb. 1997.

. Invited speaker, galerie Articule, with Devora Neumark, Kim Storey, Danielle Boutet,
and P.K.. Langshaw, ‘practices of the socially implicated-models of engagement’, Nov. 1996.

 

1999

. “Pharmakon- pharmaceutical phoundation- stress art productions” Public art intervention on the subject of
[ab]normal patterns of behaviour in women with depression. performance and readings night, slated
for November 5, 8pm, Concordia University, 1999.

. “Bottled” - Group exhibition at Phoebe Street gallery, Toronto.Four artists , including Michael Longford and Lois Anderson, installed their work on the physical and conceptual references to the term “bottled’. September 4-september 19, 1999.

1998-1999

. Work in progress as part of artist residency and intervention in thematic exhibition ‘violence against women’ Concordia University, [liaison-Loren Lerner] in collaboration with artist community, [liaison-Devora Neumark], six speakers for conference and six artist interventions highlighting the process of empowerment and healing, relative to violent acts and conditions of violence against women in various social structure[s]/situations.
‘PharmaKon-stress art productions-p.k. Langshaw- pharmakon from the greek word pharmakeutes meaning drug.
this project is an eighteen month- spring 1998-November 1999 ongoing research and intervention community and collaborative endeavor.

1996-1997

. Site specific, public art work, awarded and funded by La Foundation de l’Université du Québec a Montréal. Permanent installation, Judith Jasmin Pavilion, corner St. Denis and St. Catherine. Project construction and installation dates July- Sept. 1997. Open Sept 29 1997.

. Site installation, ‘de la proportion des lettres. l’homme lettre= de l’appropriation des lettres. la femme lettre ’. Window and office space facing hallway, Judith Jasmin building, UQAM Mtl. June -Sept 1997.

. Public window installation, ‘there are no magic cures in nature; the capsule is a science project, the product of the cartesian mind demanding control over the body separate’. window facing hallway, Judith Jasmin building, UQAM mtl. April-June 1997.

. Public video installation, ‘le poème concret-pure patterned poetry’, television monitor in gallery window facing out into corridor with wall video projection on the opposite side of corridor and simultaneous video broadcasts on UQAM‘s networked television broadcasts,‘de nature urbain’, Centre de Diffusion, UQAM, Feb.1997.

. ‘Biennale du Dessin, de l’Estampe et du Papier-matière, du Québec. mil neuf quatre
vingt quinze’, travelling group exhibit, Maison de la Culture Mercier, March 1997.
‘Immixtion’ public art project, co-coordinator, design and production of artist book,
8 artists in residence, a collaboration with galerie daredare, mtl., June 1995-Jan 1997.

. Launching of artists book ‘immixtion- closure’, nov. 1996, galerie DareDare, Mtl.

. ‘Laboratorio’, Merck Frosst Pharmaceutical, invited artists, group exhibit in company’s library space, Mtl. Nov. 1996-Feb.97. Exhibit moves to Dawson College April 1997.

. ‘Passage’ window/street video projection, group of six artists, site specific window projection installations, St. Catherine and St. Denis, Mtl., Oct. 1996.

1995

. ‘The lecture’, public installation for Webster library site and Art gallery, Concordia University, April 1995.

. ‘Biennale du Dessin, de l’Estampe et du Papier-matière’, juried group exhibit, Alma, Que.1995.

1994

. ‘La politique de la signature; la poetique de la signification’, solo show, Galerie DareDare Montreal, Quebec, April 1994.

. CRIM Research Institute, Montreal, Quebec, selected group exhibit, Oct. 1993- March 1994.

1992

. ’Women and the environment’, group exhibition, Ceres Gallery, New York, New York State.

1991

. ’L’étre et le néon- ‘la publicité avide”, public art exhibit/ Peel Metro, group of four artists with four works each, fujitran back lit photo installation at Stanley street entrance to the Peel Metro station, Montreal, Jan.1991.

1990

. ‘Construction in verse’, public art exhibit, Complexe du Canal Lachine, Montreal, coordinator and participant of group show with proceeds from art sales donated to the community CLSC St. Henri.

1988

. ‘A is for furniture’, coordinator and participant of group show, Complexe du Canal Lachine, Montreal.

. Spring in the city’, two woman exhibit, Neo gallery and store front, Sherbrooke street, Mtl.

1986

. ‘No exit’, two woman exhibit with Shelley Reeves, artist studio, Old Montreal.

. Outdoor sculpture commission, installation, Big Island, Hawaii.

1985

. ‘Ultimatum’, poetry symposium, week of poetry performances and poetry installations, My sculptures were installed at Articule Gallery and Bar Foufounes Electrique, Montreal.

. ‘Artworks’, Espace Timothée, group show, Montreal.

. Mail art exchange, Canada/Europe, 1982-85.

 

 

1999

. FRDP start up reseach grant. Concordia University. Equipment grant and research monies over three year
period ending 2001.

Teaching and Learning Development Grant. Concordia University. Principle investigator with Dr Loren Lerner,Denise Tanguay, Bonnie Baxter, Devora Neumark, for the development and direction of the web site entitled “Public Art as Social
Intervention- Web Site as Teaching Tool in the Fine Arts”.
Parallel to the events of the collective project and symposium entitled, ‘Public Art as Social Intervention- ’But Now I Have to Speak; Testimonies of Trauma , Transformation and Change’.
Web site launch October 1999.

. Vice Rector’ Offiice, funding for the collective project symposium, ‘Public Art as Social
Intervention- ’But Now I Have to Speak; Testimonies of trauma ,Transformation and Change’. Symposium
dates Nov. 5,6,7. 1999.

1997

. “En d’Autres Termes”. Permanent site/installation work. Judith Jasmin Pavilion corner St. Denis and St. Catherine. Public art competition, La Foundation de L’Université du Québec a Montréal, installed Sept. 29 1997.

1996-97

. Internal UQAM research grant, art residency [research] for one year to explore site possibilities of a window/display space with a transient audience [people passing by the window once or several times a day] video projections, temporary art installations, and changing art installations were presented throughout the year from the office window space onto public passageway. UQAM Montreal.

1995-97

. Project “Immixtion-sites of Engagement’ artist in residency, round table, artist book publication and book launching, supported and funded by Galerie DareDare Mtl. June 1995- June 1997 project length.

. Professional Development grant, Concordia University, Part Time faculty grant award. 1992

. Canada Council Project grant.

. Professional Development grant, Concordia University., Part Time faculty grant award. 1990

. Canada Council Explorations Programme GroupPproject. Public art interventions at the Peel Metro station in Mtl. with artists- Deborah Margo, Devora Neumark, Mario Belisle, P.K. Langshaw.

 

. Design Art departmental committee work, as full time faculty, includes curriculum-revision of Dart 200, 300 and 400 levels syllabus and course content.

. International liaison committee- to create links with institutions in countries as England and Holland. 1998-ongoing.

. Committee ‘Immixtion’, Galerie DareDare Mtl., 1995 community/public art programme-co-coordinator and artist residence, collaborative and group effort. June 1994-Feb 1997.

. Selection committee, Galerie DareDare Mtl., for 1995-96 exhibitions programme.

. Jury member, for special exhibition-cross gallery participation, Conseil des Textiles du Qué.

. Elected part time faculty representative, for part time faculty hiring committee, part time liaison, 1992-1994.

. Curriculum committee, part time faculty, Department of Design Art, 1992-1998..

. Permanent review committee on the Status of Women, Faculty of Fine Arts committee member, Concordia University, 1991- 1992.

. Co-curator, ‘extremes’ show, group show, Complexe du Canal Lachine, Mtl, 1989.

. Gallery committee member, Galleries Complexe du Canal Lachine, Montreal, 1988-91.

 

. Amiga 4000 video toaster workshop, UQAM, Sept. 1996 and Oct. 1996.

. Macintosh computer intensive, Concordia University, Dec. 1994.

. French language intensive, Concordia University, May -June1994.

. Modernism & Eclecticism, 3 day symposium graphic design, School of Visual Arts, New York , March 1993.

. Future of Concordia, workshop; sexism, racism, homophobia in the university, Mtl, April 1992.

. ‘The Problematics of Public Art’, with Rosalyn Deutsche, Allan Sekula- one month course intensive, Graduate Studies Simon Fraser University. Vancouver, June 1991.

.’Art and the Environment’, three day conference, sponsored by the Artists Alliance for the Environment. Harbourfront, Toronto, April 1991.

. International Design conference and lecture series, speakers included Ron Arad- Britain Gaetano Pesces- Italy, Musée de Beaux Arts, Mtl., Oct. 1989.

 

. ‘Immixtion- Sites of Engagement’ 20 copies of hand bound artist book from artist project supported by Galerie Dare Dare, 1996. Summary and documentation of artists collaborations and residencies with communities in Montreal. Core member of publication committee with Devora Neumark, Lucie Gagnon and Suzanne Valotaire. Director of book structure, layout graphic design with student designer Diane Pemberton-Smith.

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