nodding off with mush

Solo exhibition at 8/11 Gallery

November 6 - November 19 2014

When we're being read to, it's easy to stop paying attention. Children's picture books are written to be read in a way that slows, gently, with minimizing syllables and dimming illustrations, to a stop as a child nods off to sleep.

"Mush" is a Cockney slang believed to have Romany origin. It is used as a term of endearment for a close or familiar friend. Sometimes, the closer you get to another person the more difficult it becomes remember the particulars of their face.

Margaret Wise Brown's 1947 picture book Goodnight Moon archives the entire contents of a young bunny boy's room and cherishes the overwhelming reverence he grants to his inanimate familiars. When he matures into a hare, what type of objects will he award the privilege of speech?

8-11 is a collective art space located at 233 Spadina Ave in Toronto.


Some materials for the production of this exhibition were generously sponsored by ReStore Habitat for Humanity in Toronto.

Two-colour GOCCO print edition of 200. Collaboration with Toronto-based writer Kirk Heron, who wrote the limericks.
nodding off with mush was presented concurrently with an artist's edition of hand-painted canvas throw pillows, sold exclusively through 8-11 Gallery.