W.O.R.K.S — WE.OURSELVES.ROUGHLY.KNOW.SOMETHING was an international performance art festival and publishing collective based in Calgary from 1972 –5.
Their historically-acclaimed curatorial performance, audio and artist television projects include: First World Festival of W.O.R.K.S (1972); A Conceptographic Reading of World Thermometer, a six one-hour artist television series on performance (1973); LIVE LICE — satire Cable TV community news program (1974); VOICESPONDENCE — an audio art cassette magazine (1974); W.O.R.K.S. Plays Cricket (1975); and w.o.r.k.s.c.o.r.e.p.o.r.t (Beau Geste Press, 1975).
For M:ST 6, the listed artists re-perform their works.
Paul Woodrow (Canada) has been involved in performance art, installation, video, painting and improvised music’s since the late 1960s. He co-founded W.O.R.K.S. with Clive Robertson in 1972. He has exhibited extensively in Japan, France, Italy, Sweden, England, Belgium, Russia, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and the USA, including the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm and The Tate Gallery, London. He is the co-founder with Alan Dunning and Morley Hollenberg of Einstein’s Brain Project (1996) an organization that examines the idea of the world as a construct sustained through the neurological processes contained within the brain. Paul is an art theory specialist teaching at the University of Calgary.
Clive Robertson (Canada) began making and curating performances in 1970. As a media artist he has performed across Canada, in the USA, the UK, Holland, Germany, Poland and Japan. Clive co-instigated the performance and publishing collective, W.O.R.K.S. with Paul Woodrow in 1972. Clive was the founding publisher and co-editor of FUSE magazine (with Lisa Steele and Tom Sherman) and founded the continuing artists sound and indie music label, Voicespondence in 1974. With Alain-Martin Richard he edited the book, Performance au/in Canada 1970–1990 (Coach House Press / Éditions Intervention, 1991). He currently teaches Performance Art, Art History and Cultural Studies at Queen’s University.
Johanna Householder (Canada) has been making performances, video and other artwork in Canada since the late 1970s. Johanna was a member of the notorious feminist performance ensemble, The Clichettes in the 1980s. She has recently performed in Guangzhou, China, Belfast, N. Ireland, and Göteborg, Sweden. Her video collaborations have screened in numerous venues internationally. She is a founder and co-director of the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art. With Tanya Mars, she edited Caught in the Act: An anthology of performance by Canadian women, published by YYZ Books, Toronto in 2005. She is a Professor in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University.
Matt Rogalsky (Canada) is a composer, sound artist and musicologist who since 1985 has presented work regularly in performances and gallery exhibitions across North America and Europe. He has recently given performances of the music of Alvin Lucier, Phill Niblock, David Tudor, John Cage, Rhys Chatham and Terry Riley. A soundwork exhibition catalog with DVD, was published in 2008 by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Matt has served as the Artistic Director of the annual Kingston “adventurous sound festival,” Tone Deaf. Matt records and produces under the banner of Memory Device (www.memory-device.com). Matt teaches in Music and Interdisciplinary Studies at Queen’s University, Kingston.
Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and raised on the Great Plains of North America, Terrance Houle is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary media artist and a proud member of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe).
Involved with Aboriginal communities all his life, he has traveled to reservations throughout North America participating in Powwow dancing and native ceremonies. Houle makes use of performance, photography, video & film, music, and painting in his work. Likewise, Houle’s practice includes various tools of mass dissemination such as billboards and vinyl bus signage.
Houle graduated from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 2003 with a BFA Major in Fibre. His groundbreaking art quickly garnered him significant accolades and opportunities.
Houle’s work has been exhibited across Canada, the United States, Australia, the UK, and Europe.
Houle lives and maintains his art practice in Calgary.