To-Do-To-Do | Matthis Grunsky and M.E. Sparks | March 2021

Matthis Grunsky and M.E. Sparks revisit the to-do list as a site of ideation. List-making is a way to organize, plan and record, but it can also function as a form of storytelling told through metrical summaries of our day-to-day lives.

Over the course of the pandemic, lists have provided a sense of structure during periods of slowness and isolation. In the absence of social dates and deadlines, list-making becomes less about increasing productivity and solidifying goals. Rather, in its less-solid, less-productive form, the to-do list allows for us to wonder, observe, and reflect on things that may always remain incomplete.

In To-Do-To-Do Grunsky and Sparks have created lists of lists that organize and dis-organize. Through a nested directory of hand-coded websites, they invite participants to contribute to a collective to-do list with no set aim or deadline, visualize the distances between planets, and draw the forms of one-hundred popcorn kernels. They have reimagined the mental lists we compose while trying to fall asleep, and have brought together a wide array of generously gifted lists from anonymous list-writers. Through this, they question if these bullet-point narratives may begin to reveal shared priorities, imaginings and purpose.

Special thanks to all the list-makers who shared their personal lists with us. We are beyond grateful! Thanks also to the SFPC stewards for introducing us to new tools for digital exploration.  - M+M

Matthis Grunsky and M.E. Sparks both live and work on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Sə̓lílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. They have collaborated on projects that explore computer programming as a form of painting.

In his work, Matthis engages in the production of images through both material and digital systems. He uses traditional methods including painting, drawing, plaster casting, and printmaking, alongside newer technologies such as computer programming and electronic prototyping. Through these methods, he explores how we find meaning in random and chaotic information. Matthis’ research is currently supported through the Canada Council for the Arts.

M.E. works primarily with paint and canvas. Through a practice of pulling apart and recombining borrowed forms, both art historical and autobiographical, she looks for the moment an image loses its representational solidity. Recently, she has been exploring material possibilities of un-stretched painted canvas. Paintings are cut apart, layered and draped in an effort to obstruct and reimagine both the pictorial space of painting and its historical narrative.

SPAM (Special Presentation Art Mail) is an email-based art series where artists work collaboratively to create a digital artwork. Through the link below, viewers can sign up to partake in the project by volunteering to receive upcoming interactive Number 3 Gallery emails.

For the most part, the only art we encounter these days arrives via digital means. You may receive emails announcing exhibitions—both online and in person (often by appointment)—and documentation of process work on your feed in lieu of studio visits or art crawls. When we consider how this changes our perception and relationship to artworks we might also reflect on how many folks have been exclusively viewing artwork this way long before our current infectious disease concerns. This said, online art can just as easily connect us as it can be ignored entirely. If we start to question whether the work we see is losing something to these platforms we might also note how art and technology are almost irreducibly connected—be it the tools we use of the visual influence it can catalyze. 

This is not a new dynamic; mail artists have long used postal technology as a way to share snippets of their progress or work, which often intentionally took the place of formal in-person exhibitions. Not unlike our current email subscriptions, mail art (an inherently collaborative medium) would enclose participatory or interactive project and publication opportunities. Given that technology is presently the lifeline to connectivity for many of us, what better time to reconnect with the spirit of the early mail and e-mail artists who used their choice method of distribution as a transfer of aesthetic information to surmount geographical and cultural boundaries. 

To view the project please contact number3gallery@gmail.com