EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
  • Home
    • ECH News
  • Community
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About

The ECH is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Susanna Heller

5/10/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
Susanna Heller (1956-2021)
On Oct 13, 2020, Susanna Heller  wrote to ECH editor Tariq Hassan Gordon:

Hey Tariq it’s Susanna reaching out to you! Wyn shared your email and told me you were setting up the embassy cultural house website. Feel free to use my entire website or any part of it. It is simply SusannaHeller.com
Also if you need any other info just ask. I’m so pleased it’s YOU who is doing this! Damn I wish we could meet in person with your mom and dad too of course! For now I’m just sending a giant hug and kiss and all my love.
Susanna
Picture
The Paris Vision ECH tabloid issue Sept./Oct./ Nov. 1984, page 6, Susanna Heller in conversation with Jamelie Hassan...

The Embassy Cultural House is deeply saddened to learn of the death of the remarkable painter Susanna Heller, who passed away on May 5, 2021.

Many of Susanna’s paintings involved elaborate installations made up of assemblages of smaller paintings on paper and were based on her walks around the city.  Her love of painting and her love of walking were intricately connected. Her sketch books were the notes that reflected her curiosity and intense observation of her surroundings, whether walking around the metropolis of NYC or the cities of Europe.

ECH co-founder Jamelie Hassan first met Susanna in 1984 when they were both living at La Cité internationale des arts in Paris through the Canada Council for the Arts. Jamelie remembers her time with Susanna:

"Over the months that we overlapped, we enjoyed many conversations about culture and numerous wanderings around the city, so conscious of the way the city and its abundant museums and galleries, parks and gardens, kept us outside walking, rather than working inside our respective studios.

"Our group in Paris at the time included my young son Tariq, age 11, Ron Benner, Wyn Geleynse and his daughter Mara, age 11. The Paris Vision ECH tabloid issue from Sept./Oct./ Nov. 1984 records this unusal collection of creative people in dialogue with Susanna over that period.  In 1986, Susanna came to London to present a solo exhibition of her recent works at the Embassy Cultural House. Her connections with the London community of artists, writers and curators deepened at that time.

"Recently, in October 2020, she reconnected with us and the ECH, presenting one of her startling paintings, Eyes in a Bleak World, 2020 for the open call online exhibition Hiding in Plain Sight coordinated by Ron Benner. In her communications to us she expressed her pleasure to be involved with our reinvigorated collective.

Susanna was an inspiring artist, a generous colleague, and a warm and supportive friend. Her death leaves an enormous gap in the arts community both in Canada and the United States, where she had made her home and studio in Brooklyn, NYC."

 
Here is a revealing conversation from Feb. 6, 2020 with her longtime friend Medrie MacPhee that conveys the genuine spirit, humour, intelligence and beauty of our friend and artist Susanna. May she rest in peace. Her website is  online here.
Picture
October 15, 2020, photo from Susanna Heller, "Tonight’s sunset over the East river looking at manhattan !! Xoxo susanna"
Picture
Susanna Heller, "Eyes in a Bleak World", 2020, oil paint, mixed media on canvas
Artist Statement for the work by Susanna Heller "Eyes in a Bleak World" for the ECH's inaugural online exhibit Hiding in Plain Sight launched on October 30, 2020: “Eyes in a Bleak World “ is a recent painting completed in 2020.  The sky and earth in this oil painting are dominated by the intensity of two eyeballs wrenched from some creature and which soar comet-like through a scorched and haunted landscape. The power of sight in this painting is menacing and speaks to the destructive state of the world which we are witnessing.

2 Comments

ECH mourns passing of the Curator of Education at Museum London Steve Mavers

4/25/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Embassy Cultural House  is saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Steve Mavers, their colleague and friend at Museum London. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends and numerous colleagues in the cultural and educational community. He will be greatly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing and working with him.

The last exhibit that Steve curated at Museum London is on display and is an exhibit of public and high school student art on the environment titled Our World of Nature: A Student Exhibition which opened on March 13, 2021. Please see Museum London's tribute to Steve Mavers here. 

0 Comments

ECH family & community mourn the loss of Tyson Haller

3/23/2021

1 Comment

 
The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) family and community are grieving the loss of Tyson Haller who passed away recently in Ottawa. He was a strong supporter and advocate of the ECH both during its original program at the Embassy Hotel between 1983 - 1990 and its present online format.

Tyson's parents Helen and Egon owned the Embassy Hotel from the late 1970s until it was sold in 2001. He was a huge part of the running of the hotel and organized the music program in the hotel bars. Tyson went on to study film at Ryerson University in Toronto. Our heart goes out to his family and all his friends in London, Toronto and Ottawa and around the world who are mourning his untimely death.
​
Please visit Tyson's page to see some of his film work and photos.
Picture
Picture
The Embassy Hotel
​

I grew up here
Always chasing what's possible 
Ya I grew up here
With the old men
The ladies and escorts
The 1st Peoples
The bands
Social Distortion, DOA, No Means No, Rancid, SNFU, Face To Face
The Art
The Art exhibits 
The Embassy Cultural House
Remember
Polish your Eyes
Greg Curnoe, Tom Benner, Ron Benner, Eric Stach
They taught me to  hum a song
Till the feeling is gone
It burnt down
Now I look at the stars at night
Oh the modern world
You made my eyes red and raw
Lived through it 
To get to this moment
So I close my eyes
Click my heels 3 times
Embassy 
Home
You had to go 
I know I know
But if you look around
You just might feel the ghost
Floating around
Reminding us
That the winds are blowing 
And we can always choose what is possible than what we see...
 
Tyson Haller, August 2020

1 Comment

UK curator and writer Guy Brett dies at the age of 78

2/6/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Guy Brett with Mona Hatoum in 2019 during a visit to her exhibit "Remains to Be Seen", White Cube Gallery, London, UK. Photo credit: Gerry Collins
Picture

​The international arts community mourns the passing of UK curator and writer Guy Brett, who contributed important exhibitions and publications on key Latin American and Asian artists. Guy Brett died at the aged of 78. Among his many writings was the groundbreaking book Through Our Own Eyes: Popular Art and Modern History published in 1986. The book profiled art as overt political action with a focus on resistance to Chilean fascism, support for decolonization in Africa, and the nuclear weapons disarmament movement. All important themes that were also concerns of the ECH community's programming between 1983 and 1990. 

Jamelie Hassan met Guy Brett through Mona Hatoum during a visit to London, UK in 1989. After that meeting, Jamelie and Ron Benner began a correspondence with Guy that resulted in his visit to London, Ontario in the spring of 1992 where he presented a lecture at Western University's Visual Art Department. Guy's interest in indigenious cultural production in Canada aligned with Jamelie and Ron's commitments and after he read the publication Council  Fire by Tom Hill, he especially appreciated his meeting with Tom Hill and a visit to the Six Nations' Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario. At this time,  Jamelie and Ron worked with curator, Peter White, to organize for Guy a tour of other cultural centres in Canada, including  Banff, Alberta, Vancouver, BC, and Saskatoon, SK.


UK-based Palestinian artist, and long time friend  of ECH co-founders Ron Benner and Jamelie Hassan, Mona Hatoum shared this tribute to Guy. "It is very sad to say goodbye to the sensitive and insightful critic, curator and friend, Guy Brett who always championed artists outside the mainstream and focused on experimental and precarious forms from the margins, internationally and specially Latin American and Asian art. A very humble person who was never conscious of his own importance, he was nevertheless highly appreciated and has been referred to as ‘a hidden national treasure’. His quiet, graceful presence and unpretentious intelligence will be greatly missed."

Please read  recent obituaries on Guy Brett:
Constantly curious, uninterested in the market-led view': pioneering curator and writer Guy Brett has died, aged 78
  • Guy Brett, Influential Curator and Critic Who Expanded Art History, Has Died at 78

0 Comments

Tribute to Sylvie Bélanger, 1951-2020

10/14/2020

6 Comments

 
Picture
Sylvie Bélanger, 1951-2020
Picture
Sylvie passed away on October 8, 2020. As many of us know, Sylvie was (it feels strange to write about her in the past tense) a respected artist and a committed educator. But for me, she was a friend. I’ve known her for 20 years, so my memory might be less than accurate but this is how I remember meeting her for the first time at her exhibition at YYZ in Toronto. I went to the gallery to introduce myself as I had recently found out that I had been accepted into the MFA program at the University of Windsor where she was teaching. I knew her work, spent time reading about her installations but had never seen her work in person. I am a shy person. So instead of talking to anyone, I stayed in a darkened room with her work Le regard du silence. The work was so quiet. I felt I may disturb the image if I were to walk around. I sat and watched the slow turning page in the projected image as the face in the video slowly dissolves and disappears. I was so moved by her work, I decided to be courageous and ask her to be on my committee. Many years later she told me how she made the work to look so natural, which I won’t reveal because there was a little trick to it. She was always ingenious when it came to solving problems.

Working with Sylvie could be painstakingly intense, but this is how I learned that there is no problem that can’t be solved. When I was helping her with Fragments d’une histoire, we went around collecting the “perfect” fallen red maple leaves in the park. This was only the beginning of her pursuing to make the video with leaves falling as natural as possible. It was a contradicted effort to mimic nature through recording leaves falling in a studio. But in the end, she found the way to make it work. Similar to the steady slowness in Le regard du silence, the leaves fell in her video with ease, paired with the slow stride of Didier walking into the forest on the other side of the work. The calming pace in her work is effortless; at the same time, it is perfectly measured.   

We hung out a lot at her Toronto studio. Many times, I would stay late into the evening because our conversations often went on for an indefinite time. Rick always made wonderful meals. It was a given that there would be an extra plate for me at their dinner table. Over the years, she taught me many things. One of them is her love for animals, particularly dogs. She was always with her dogs, all the way to the end. She taught her classes with her dog next to her. We often joked about how Dismal (her Poodle) was our TA. I think my love of dogs solidified because of her, and now they are and will always be in my life. Sylvie was undeniably generous with her time, sharing of knowledge and ideas; she was honestly critical; she was overwhelmingly filled with empathy; she was passionate, especially towards art. She wanted to talk about art and her new project to the very end. 

So, I was wrong. She was never just a friend. She was and always will be an artist I admire and a mentor I love and respect. I am honoured that she was a part of my life. I think the only way to end this tribute is with her own words. Thank you, Sylvie and I will miss you. We all will.

“Art is social because it resuscitates again and again, fears, desires, hopes, anxieties, beliefs and the struggle of being at once in relationships to each other and in a world that has its own relationships. 

"L’art est social parce qu’il ressuscite constamment: craintes, désires, inquiétudes, convictions ainsi que la lutte du fait d’être en relation avec les autres et en même temps d’être dans un monde qui a ses propres relations”.                                                                                                      Sylvie Bélanger, 1985

June Pak, October 13, 2020, Toronto

Sylvie Bélanger's work is represented by Birch Contemporary You can read her full obituary here. 




6 Comments

In memory of Bob McKaskell

7/9/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
It is with the sad news, that our good friend and independent curator and writer, Bob McKaskell died on June 30, 2020. ago from cancer.

He was living between Port Dover, Ontario and Oaxaca, Mexico. While in Oaxaca he decided to study Spanish and he had just initiated a program of curating exhibits of Oaxacan artists in his apartment located in the centro historico of Oaxaca. He was a great cook, an excellent gardener and his pursuit of knowledge was startling wide-reaching. Anyone who knew Bob, understood that his sometimes stubborn nature contributed to his ability to intensely focus in a very particular and detailed way to whatever subjects grabbed his interest.

 
Bob taught Contemporary Art History for many years at Western University. He was a huge supporter of both Canadian and international artists and had a commitment to challenging art practices including conceptual art, performance works and independent artists' projects. While in London, he was involved in programming at The Embassy Cultural House, the Forest City Gallery, Museum London and the McIntosh Gallery. 

He was one of the curators at the 
Windsor Art Gallery  He also worked at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary where he built strong friendships and made contributions to the arts community across Canada.
 
There are so many fond memories of Bob - especially close to our hearts is the survey exhibition he curated Embassy Cultural House - 1983 - 1990  at Museum London in 2012.

0 Comments

    ECH NEWS

    Updates on the London Arts Community

    Archives

    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020

    Categories

    All
    BIPOC
    Environment
    Events
    Exhibits
    IBPOC
    In Memoriam
    London Art Scene
    Media
    Music
    Old East Village
    Partners
    People
    Politics
    Publications
    Women
    Words

    RSS Feed


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA 
Tariq Hassan Gordon, Ira Kazi, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi,  JoAnna Weil 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Blessy Augustine, Shelley Kopp, 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, ​Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, JoAnna Weil & Michelle Wilson. 

Picture
OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Thank you to our partners

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

​London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.

Copyright © 2022  Embassy Cultural House.
All rights reserved.
Proudly powered by Weebly

  • Home
    • ECH News
  • Community
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About