Politics and art make strange bedfellows. There’s nothing art wants more than to make a meaningful and long lasting impact in the world, but there’s something way too immediate about direct and localized action. Desperate times call for desperate measures, however, and artists galvanized by the impending federal election have found an outlet in an exhibition that will close the day before our next government is selected. Many of the works on display had a life before curator Lisa Klapstock gathered them together and they all will live on after the big day, but their impact is focused and magnified in this place and at this point in history, so now is obviously the best time to experience them. 
Lisa Steele & Kim Tomczak, Lacuna (redux), 2011, rope light, tape, clips
Currently housed in the space formerly occupied by P|M Gallery (was that a serendipitous pun?), Something to think about is an open-ended collaborative project that marks a new phase in Klapstock’s artistic career. Best known as a photographer, she is now engaged in setting up situations or venues that explore particular contemporary issues through a variety of disciplines. Her first venture brings artists and graphic designers of different generations together to express their discontent with the policies of our current government while at the same time reflecting on the crucial consciousness of hitting the polls. 
Lisa Klapstock, 12. THREAT ASSESSMENT from Appendix 9: ENBRIDGE NORTHERN GATEWAY PROJECT INTEGRATED SECURITY LOGISTICS AND COMMUNICATIONS PLAN, KELOWNA, January 28, 2013, 2015, duct tape
For an exhibition of text-based art, it's no surprise that the most visually arresting piece is the one without any words. Klapstock's abstract arrangement of black tape on one wall is now recognizable as a representation of redacted text and, in the context of this exhibition, the innumerable (because they are not fully known) ways in which the Harper government has withheld information from Canadian citizens. The flipside to this and the most appropriate platform for those works hoping to effect change are those designed to be in public spaces. Jason Halter and Anita Matusevics' poster campaign highlighting our national restrictions on voting eligibility over the years or Lisa Kiss' wall text love note to Canada deserve to be pasted up in unexpected yet highly visible locations all over the country. Chris Lloyd's Dear PM web project manages this through its use of the postal system and the internet to dramatize the proximity and distance struck between lowly voters and their leaders. Other contributions, like John Marriott's buttons or James Carl's animated gif are made to circulate each in their own way. What these works lose in terms of longevity they aim to make up for in distance, reaching out to the populace and pleading with them to engage the body politic in the simplest way possible: VOTE.
Something to think about: http://www.somethingtothinkabout.nyc/#vote
VOTE continues until October 18.
Terence Dick is a freelance writer living in Toronto. His art criticism has appeared in Canadian Art, BorderCrossings, Prefix Photo, Camera Austria, Fuse, Mix, C Magazine, Azure, and The Globe and Mail. He is the editor of Akimblog. You can follow his quickie reviews and art news announcements on Twitter @TerenceDick.
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