FASTWÜRMS

Gryphon statue at the University of Guelph completed in 2014.

FASTWÜRMS is a Canadian artist collective founded in 1979.^[1] It originally had three members: Kim Kozzi who was born Kim Kozolanka in Ottawa, Ontario, 1955, Dai Skuse who was born David Skuse in Oldham, England, 1955, and Napo B. who was born Napolean Brousseau in Ottawa, Ontario, 1950.^[2] The collective moved from Ottawa, where they were employed as security guards at the National Gallery of Canada, to Toronto in 1980.^[1] In the mid-1980s, Napo B. moved to NYC and left the group,^[1] while Kozzi and Dai Skuse continued the collective and later became studio art professors at the University of Guelph in Ontario.^[3] Their artwork is multidisciplinary, including video, installation, and performance art. It concerns working class aesthetics, queer politics and witch positivity.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Artistic career

FASTWÜRMS describes the focus of their art as social exchange and relational aesthetics. Kozzi and Skuse have exhibited internationally, taught at the Toronto School of Art and OCAD and are currently Associate Professors of Studio Art in the School of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Guelph.^[4]

In 1981 FASTWÜRMS began exhibiting at The Ydessa Gallery in Toronto. Throughout the 1980s the collective included Napoleon Brousseau, who left in 1991.^[10] They are currently represented by Paul Petro Contemporary.^[11]

Public art

While FASTWÜRMS' portfolio and installation work is extensive, their public art pieces are few. FASTWÜRMS has commented on the process of public art creation as being a 'risk mitigation', sometimes leading to compromises with the work. Their permanent public art sculptures include Ex Ovo Omnia at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph and Turtle Pond, Snowm'n, and a pair of Woodpeckers at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.^[4]

Monoceros

Monoceros is a public art piece by FASTWÜRMS currently installed in Liberty Village in downtown Toronto, Canada. This pieces comes in the form of a giant bronze frog and narwhal tusk/unicorn's horn, a pair called Monoceros. According to FASTWÜRMS the work is "based on the Tetraploid Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) and the took or 'tusk' of the Narwhal (Monodon monoceros). In medieval Europe, rare and valuable Narwhal tusks were accepted as proof positive for the existence of the magical Unicorn. The Unicorn and the Frog are both powerful icons from traditional and popular culture. They promise protection, good health, prosperity and wealth. Invest in natural wealth and the health of Narwhals and Frogs, tryst with reciprocal coexistence, and the Monoceros gyre of good fortune and good luck is yours to share." Monoceros' tusk is 37 feet high, and has a 11 foot diameter 'moon disc'. Along the Narwhal's tusk, a groove filled with crushed stone, detailed polliwogs, and tadpoles develops into frogs swimming upstream through a river of ancient coins, symbolic of health and wealth.^[4]

References