ERICA BRISSON
LOCAL COLOUR INFO CENTRE
Exhibition
Koffler Gallery at Miracle Thieves, 2012
Photo documentation by Toni Hafkenscheid
Toronto artist Erica Brisson engaged audiences in an exploration of public space, identity and community through drawing and urban interventions. For her Koffler Gallery Off-Site project, Brisson became an inquisitive tourist inviting Torontonians to act as her guides.
Inspired by tourism information centres as well as the process of public consultations, Local Colour Info Centre offered a social space where passersby could share personal interpretations of the city’s intentional or informal landmarks. Based on her discussions with each visitor, Brisson created postcards that revealed diverse and subjective perceptions of the city’s visual identity through minimalistic drawings recalling blueprints or maps.
By scanning and re-printing her drawings as postcard multiples available for sale, Brisson readily shared the images. The individual interpretations of the city’s iconic locations were also stored in an on-line component of the project and referenced on an expanding wall map throughout the course of the exhibition. Furthermore, visitors were able to comment and draw on the existing postcards, making a symbolic mark upon the cityscape.
Through her interactive approach, Brisson elicited interest in taking a closer look at the urban environment, unearthing emotional connections and shared experiences of the city. Considering notions of landmark and monument as well as their role in recording and anchoring public memory, Local Colour Info Centre revealed the many facets of Toronto in the imagination of its inhabitants.
Through her interactive approach, Brisson elicited interest in taking a closer look at the urban environment, unearthing emotional connections and shared experiences of the city. Considering notions of landmark and monument as well as their role in recording and anchoring public memory, Local Colour Info Centre revealed the many facets of Toronto in the imagination of its inhabitants.
Artist Info
Erica Brisson is a visual artist who uses drawing and participatory strategies to explore ideas of community, place, and identity. Born and raised in downtown Toronto, Brisson has a BFA from Concordia University and attended the curatorial outreach work-study program at the Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre. She has produced participatory and community-based projects including teaching passersby to build their own furniture out of cardboard in a public park for Dare-Dare artist-run centre in Montreal; designing a mobile billboard in collaboration with inpatients from the geriatric ward of Torontoís Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; and, most recently, compiling an inventory of observations about everyday life in the Berlin neighbourhood of Moabit as part of a residency at the ZK/U Centre for Art and Urbanism.
