Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Clive Robertson is a 2025 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Video directed by Alixandra Buck.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit https://en.ggarts.ca.
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Transcript:
Tonight, we have a tremendous show for you.
Got a dream? Talk to the Bank of DontWeAll.
Artists… Artists are a very serious people. They have something called ‘work,’ which looks like fun, reads like fun, sounds like fun, but is anything but fun.
[singing] _We reminisce, we sing a song, but we still know there’s something wrong. We’re still here, which is to say, counterculture never went away._
My PhD supervisor said, “A culture critiqued is culture cared for.” It was this reaffirmation of the magazine, the record label, and of course, the artists-run centres themselves.
_Broadcasting live from the Parachute Centre for Cultural Affairs._
Robert Filliou circulated this idea: for every artist to think of himself as part of an eternal network.
_Centerfold_ is Parachute’s newspaper document.
A key question that informs much of my work is: How is art spoken for? And who, or what, does the speaking?
_Hello?_
I’ve done some installation performances.
_He slapped me blind. He pulled the shotgun from the wall..._ [unintelligible]
This man, this man, whose own instigations...
_Repeat after me: There is nothing..._
There is nothing...
_creatively rewarding..._
creatively rewarding...
_about not being paid._
about not being paid.
_Out of the studio, into the street!_
_Fuse_ was something that we call a cultural news magazine. It was responding to issues which were misrepresented a lot of times by the media. The magazine had this mission of being able to publish in print, in audio and video.
When you’re an artist, people try their hardest to tell you that the world is not artist-centric, that your individualism is giving you a bad name, that the history of your existence is five parts mythology, two parts nostalgia. That you’re a figment of someone else’s patronly imagination.
Anyone can become an artist. All it takes is self-determination, some form of adolescent grudge, a little neurosis, optional allergies, good circulation, a bad appetite, a thick skin, a few ideals, romantic or otherwise.
Thank you!
#GGArts2025 #CliveRobertson #CanadaCouncil
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
X - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
X - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Clive Robertson is a 2025 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Video directed by Alixandra Buck.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit https://en.ggarts.ca.
****
Transcript:
Tonight, we have a tremendous show for you.
Got a dream? Talk to the Bank of DontWeAll.
Artists… Artists are a very serious people. They have something called ‘work,’ which looks like fun, reads like fun, sounds like fun, but is anything but fun.
[singing] _We reminisce, we sing a song, but we still know there’s something wrong. We’re still here, which is to say, counterculture never went away._
My PhD supervisor said, “A culture critiqued is culture cared for.” It was this reaffirmation of the magazine, the record label, and of course, the artists-run centres themselves.
_Broadcasting live from the Parachute Centre for Cultural Affairs._
Robert Filliou circulated this idea: for every artist to think of himself as part of an eternal network.
_Centerfold_ is Parachute’s newspaper document.
A key question that informs much of my work is: How is art spoken for? And who, or what, does the speaking?
_Hello?_
I’ve done some installation performances.
_He slapped me blind. He pulled the shotgun from the wall..._ [unintelligible]
This man, this man, whose own instigations...
_Repeat after me: There is nothing..._
There is nothing...
_creatively rewarding..._
creatively rewarding...
_about not being paid._
about not being paid.
_Out of the studio, into the street!_
_Fuse_ was something that we call a cultural news magazine. It was responding to issues which were misrepresented a lot of times by the media. The magazine had this mission of being able to publish in print, in audio and video.
When you’re an artist, people try their hardest to tell you that the world is not artist-centric, that your individualism is giving you a bad name, that the history of your existence is five parts mythology, two parts nostalgia. That you’re a figment of someone else’s patronly imagination.
Anyone can become an artist. All it takes is self-determination, some form of adolescent grudge, a little neurosis, optional allergies, good circulation, a bad appetite, a thick skin, a few ideals, romantic or otherwise.
Thank you!
#GGArts2025 #CliveRobertson #CanadaCouncil
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
X - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
X - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
