Iain Baxter&: Ampersand, Mon Amour

It’s not often that average, everyday, non-proofreading folks become enamoured of a particular punctuation mark. But that just makes Canadian artist Iain Baxter& the exception that proves the rule. Here’s a person so admiring of the ampersand (or “&”) that he legally appended it to his own last name—and crafted a 10-foot-high, silver, inflatable version for his current show at Corkin Gallery. (Piles of smaller, multicoloured ampersands and reflections of same in mirrors are also on view.)

Why is Baxter& so in love with this most curvaceous, twisty-turny piece of Anglo type? To him it seems to symbolize a “non-authorial take on art production… an unending collaboration with the viewer and the means to question the artist’s role.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time in Baxter&’s 40-year career that he has played with creative naming. He’s also well known for co-founding (and in many ways rebranding himself as) NE Thing Co in the 1960s, an umbrella under which he produced paintings, prints and photos, organized exhibitions and environments, designed logos and business cards, sponsored sports teams and even coordinated an expedition to the Arctic.

Given the breadth of Baxter&’s background, it’s clear punctuation isn’t his sole passion. In other new installations, Baxter& uses his witty semiotic flair to environmental ends. In Zero Emissions, extended stainless steel mufflers rise vertically into the air, each topped with a different taxidermied animal. Similarly, in his Television Works, the electronic tube stands in for natural landscape. Though the subject is grim, the delivery is droll—a characteristic chasm for Baxter&’s work to plumb.

Baxter&’s exhibit is accompanied by a show from British artist Tim Scott, who became known in the 1960s as part of the “New Generation” of London sculptors. Though his early work was typically colourful and minimalist—a good selection of same is on view at David Mirvish’s warehouse at PACART until April—the smaller, buff-coloured clay objects at Corkin Gallery emerged from a time Scott recently spent in Toronto at Mirvish’s behest. Both his shows are worth checking out for a different approach to issues of symbol and substance. (55 Mill St bldg 61, Toronto ON)