“Beyond Green”—An Update on The New Black in London

Green is the new black, or so those tiresome organic style wags driving top-end Priuses to pick up their free-range filet mignon like to say these days. Now “Beyond Green,” a travelling exhibition curated by Chicago’s Stephanie Smith, suggests that artists, as usual, were on to the trend way ahead of its Al Gore-led pop-cult surge. From locavore interventions into everyday supermarket stands by artist collective FreeSOIL to houses for the homeless that recycle industrially vented waste heat by Michael Rakowitz, “Beyond Green” casts a broad creative net around the concepts of sustainability and artmaking. Similarly, it shines a light on the ways artist innovation has been appropriated by industry: JAM collective’s homemade solar bags, radical when they debuted in 2005, now have imitators for sale at Bay stores across Canada. Similarly, Andrea Zittel’s ultracompact Living Units don’t seem so different from the hottest LEED-approved condos springing up around Canuck downtowns. Is this art meeting life as a matter of survival rather than sensibility? Take a look and find out. (421 Ridout St N, London ON)