Artwork

Commissioned along with their Woodpecker Column for the south entrance of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) is FASTWÜRMS’ piece, Snowm’n. Standing like guardians on either side of the semi-circular driveway, these larger than life sculptures take on the familiar forms of snowmen, but with a twist. Painted entirely black, the snowmen sport corn-cob noses, a food staple of many Indigenous groups from North America. This theme of inclusion is emphasized in the title of the work, Snowm’n, which bears no gender markers. The sculptures make do without clothing or adornment, and although they will not melt, the bronze material they are made of has been carefully manipulated to make it seem like they actually have been molded from tightly packed snow.

FASTWÜRMS is an artist collective based out of Toronto and Creemore. Formed in 1979, the collective was originally comprised of three members: Kim Kozzi (Kim Kozolanka from Ottawa), Dai Skuse (David Skuse from England), and Napo B. (Napoleon Brousseau from Ottawa), who met while employed as security guards at the National Gallery of Canada. Upon moving to New York City in the 1980s, Napo B. formally left the collective in 1991. Kozzi and Skuse continue to produce artworks under the FASTWÜRMS name. The collective’s multidisciplinary practice takes on many forms including video, immersive installations, performance and public art, to explore the themes of identity, humour, magic and social exchange. FASTWÜRMS strongly identifies with fringe communities and sub-cultures, often employing punk aesthetics and witchcraft as tools to examine identity politics and social interaction. The collective also celebrates their working class background, crediting much of their “determined DIY sensibility” to the untrained artists that they have learned from. Currently living and creating from their home in rural Ontario, FASTWÜRMS also spend their time teaching studio art at the University of Guelph. Their work has been exhibited extensively both in North America and internationally at venues such as the Power Plant (Toronto), the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), the Seoul Museum of Art (Korea), and the 2006 São Paulo Biennial (Brazil).