Merike Talve

Merike Talve was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on January 31, 1957.{{cite web |title=Merike Talve |url=http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/99a72339-939c-4d99-9b33-b8805e3fc2e4 |website=Royal BC Museum – Genealogy |access-date=29 March 2020 |ref=MerikeTalve-2 |date=1997}} She was a performer and a Rhythmic Gymnastics instructor in Richmond in 1976.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47791890/open-house-in-richmond-richmond/|title=Open House in Richmond|date=10 September 1976|work=Richmond Review (Richmond, BC)|access-date=1 April 2020|page=25}} Talve studied at Emily Carr College of Art and Design, where she earned a diploma in two-dimensional art. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art history from the University of British Columbia in 1981.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45647355/ubc-grads-richmond-review-27-may/|title=UBC grads|date=27 May 1981|work=Richmond Review|access-date=25 February 2020|page=13}}

In the early 1980s, Talve worked for the Vanguard magazine and the Surrey Art Gallery in British Columbia, Canada.{{Cite news|last=Godley|first=Elizabeth|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45134949/|title=Haunting image of Berlin Wall is drawing artist back to Germany.|date=25 Aug 1987|work=The Vancouver Sun|access-date=19 February 2020|page=33|via=Newspapers.com |ref=Godley-1987 }} She was appointed as the curator to the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1987.{{cite journal |title=Photo Communiqué |date=1987 |publisher=Photo Communiqué |volume=9 |page=4}} Her curatorial activities at the Contemporary Art Gallery and Surrey Art Gallery included organizing exhibitions of the work of Canadian artists, such as Stan Douglas, Katherine Knight and Laura Vickerson,{{rp|24}} Kent Tate, Martin Honsich as well as writing critical reviews for exhibitions with artists, such as Paul Wong, Sara Diamond,{{Cite book|url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/3414/|title=Voice Over: Kati Campbell, Sara Diamond, Amy Jones, Ingride Koenig|last1=Talve|first1=Merike (Author)|last2=Pakasaar|first2=Helga (curator)|date=1985|publisher=Contemporary Art Gallery |via=e-Artexte|isbn=0920751024|access-date=21 March 2020|ref=Artexte-1985}} Kim Tomczak,{{Cite journal|last=Talve|first=Merike (author)|date=1984|title=Street Culture: Kim Tomczak, John Alpert and Keiko Tsuno, Martha Rosler, Michael Goldberg, Ardele Lister, Kit Tizgerald and John Sandborn, B. Levine, Skip Blumberg, Bob Harris and Rii Kanzaki, Dara Birnbaum|url=http://www.vtape.org/critical-writing-index-article?id=142|journal=Video Guide|volume=6|issue=4|pages=4–5|ref=Vtape-1984|via=Vtape}} Vera Frenkel, among others.

Talve's body of work included essays and critical reviews, such as "Absense [sic] of Body Presence of Voice," from Voice Over (1985); Television Interference (1984); and Wallflower Order (1983). For the exhibition Luminous Sites: Ten Video Installations.(1986), In "Some Are Weather-Wise; Some Otherwise: Criticism and Vancouver," from the book Anthology: A Project of the Or Gallery (1991) William Wood examines "the question of who writes about what" in art criticism. Wood's cited Talve's critical review "Joey Morgan: Fugue" in Parachute magazine. In his essay, he discussed "genres of criticism." Wood described Talve's approach (in part) by stating that, "Talve settles into straight exposition, delaying any inflection of her description till the end. Her judgment at that point is a studied ambivalence, a trait shared by a good number of Morgan's reviewers." Talve's "Vestiges of the Avant-Garde in Installation", provided a conceptual and historical framework for this exhibition.{{cite book|last=Talve|first=Merike (author)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uqc0AQAAIAAJ&q=Vestiges+of+the+Avant-Garde+in+Installation|title=Luminous Sites: Ten Video Installations|publisher=Video Inn / Western Front Gallery|year=1986|isbn=9780920974148|editor-last=Henry|editor-first=Karen (co-curator)|location=Vancouver Canada|pages=7–9|chapter=Vestiges of the Avant-Garde in Installation|quote=Vestiges of the historical avant-garde are found in the shifting forms and delinquent nature of installation. Certain qualities earmarked by the avant-garde, such as newness, confrontation, and in insistence on creating a relationship between art and the outside world, are generally shared by installation's precursors, and in some ways by installations in its present form. Installations may unwittingly be the only one of contemporary art's forms to directly bear the burden of the avant-garde.|ref=VideoInn-1986|access-date=11 March 2020|editor-last2=Augaitis|editor-first2=Daina (co-curator)}} {{ill|Eugeni Bonet|es}} referred to Talve's essay "Vestiges of the Avant-Garde in Installation" in "La instalación como hipermedio (una aproximación)" from his book Escritos de vista y oído' (2016). In this essay, Bonet's cited in part Talve's views as follows,

{{Blockquote|text=Sin embargo, esta circunstancia posmoderna del arte de la instalacion no esta renida, en opion de merike talve, con el hecho de que pueda simultaneamente ser considerado como la unica de las formas contemporaneas de arte qu soporta directamente el peso de la vanguardia, tanto por recrear una interrelacion entre el arte y la realidad cotidiana – a traves de los elementos y cosas que extrae del prosaico entorno, como porque, muy a menudo, comporta un compromiso critico y etico caracteristico de las antagonias vanguardistas. [Talve, 1986]{{cite book|last1=Bonet|first1=Eugeni|url=https://issuu.com/macba_publicacions/docs/eugeni_bonet_pdf/296|title=Eugeni Bonet: Escritos de vista y oído|date=26 May 2016|publisher=Museu D'art Contemporani de Barcelona|location=Barcelona, Spain|pages=296, 318|trans-title=Eugeni Bonet: Writings of sight and hearing|chapter=La instalación como hipermedio(una aproximación)|trans-chapter=Installation as hypermedia (an approximation)|format=pdf|quote=Sin embargo, esta circunstancia posmoderna del arte de la instalacion no esta renida, en opion de merike talve, con el hecho de que pueda simultaneamente ser considerado como la unica de las formas contemporaneas de arte qu soporta directamente el peso de la vanguardia, tanto por recrear una interrelacion entre el arte y la realidad cotidiana – a traves de los elementos y cosas que extrae del prosaico entorno, como porque, muy a menudo, comporta un compromiso critico y etico caracteristico de las antagonias vanguardistas. Aunque, como consecuencia de todo ello – del peso de la vanguaradia transormado en peso de la historia – , [la instalacion] tambien se situa a uno paso de ser neutralizada por esta [nuestra] sociedad: una condicion familiar y temida por el movimiento vanguardist en sus ultimos anos. [Talve, 1986] However, this postmodern circumstance of installation art is not affected, in Merike Talve's opinion, with the fact that it can simultaneously be considered the only contemporary art form that directly supports the weight of the avant-garde, both for recreating an interrelation between art and everyday reality – through the elements and things that it extracts from the prosaic environment, such as because, very often, it involves a critical and ethical commitment characteristic of avant-garde antagonisms. Although, as a consequence of all this – from the weight of vanguaradia transformed into the weight of history -, [the facility] is also one step away from being neutralized by this [our] society: a family condition and feared by the avant-garde movement in his last years. [Talve, 1986] {{sic}}|ref=Bonet-2016|access-date=10 March 2020|via=issuu.com}}

However, this postmodern circumstance of installation art is not affected, in Merike Talve's opinion, with the fact that it can simultaneously be considered the only contemporary art form that directly supports the weight of the avant-garde, both for recreating an interrelation between art and everyday reality – through the elements and things that it extracts from the prosaic environment, such as because, very often, it involves a critical and ethical commitment characteristic of avant-garde antagonisms. [Talve, 1986]{{sic}}|author=|title=|source=}}

Her work was published in Canadian art magazines, including the Vanguard magazine, ISSUE magazine,{{Cite journal|last=Talve|first=Merike|date=Dec 1983|title=UNIT/PITT Project|url=https://publications.arcpost.ca/publication/547/view|journal=ISSUE Magazine|publisher=(Helen Pitt Gallery)|volume=1|issue=3}} Video Guide, C Magazine, Parachute magazine, and the Parallelogramme.{{Cite journal|last=Talve|first=Merike|date=1986|title=Jody Berland and Peggy Gale|journal=Parallelogramme|volume=12|pages=88}} Her critical reviews included exhibitions that were presented at the Western Front Gallery Surrey Art Gallery, Or Gallery, UBC Fine Arts Gallery, Simon Fraser University Co-op Gallery, Emily Carr College of Art and Design Charles H. Scott Gallery, Non Commercial Gallery, Main Exit Gallery, Video Inn and Coburg Gallery in Vancouver.

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• "Elizabeth MacKenzie." Vanguard (Jan 1983) 11.10: 19.
• "The Meat and the Mystery:" Lynn Hughes and Michael Jolliffe. Vanguard (Feb 1983) 12.1: 10–12.
• "Wallflower Order:" Marion Barling. Video Guide (Apr 1983) 5.2 [#22]: 5.{{Cite book|url=https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2227_300062687.pdf|title=The Second link: viewpoints on video in the eighties|publisher=Walter Phillips Gallery, the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts|year=1983|isbn=0920159001|pages=37–38|chapter=Viewpoints on Video.- Brian MacNevin|quote=Marion Barling's videotape manages to capture the 'collaborative strength' of this group and a spirit which "...slices below the aging skin of formal anti-content Modernist tradition to a feminist art with different and urgent values."|ref=SecondLink|via=Moma.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://publications.arcpost.ca/index.php?lower_limit_d5aeef=50|title=Latest Publications|last=Talve|first=Merike|publisher=VIVO Media Arts Centre|via=VIVO|access-date=14 March 2020|ref=VIVO}}
• "Street Culture:" Kim Tomczak, et al. Video Guide (1984) 6.4 [#29]: 4–5.
• "Third Hand:" Arni Runar Haraldsson. C Magazine (Fall 1984) 3 : 22–23.{{Cite journal|last=Talve|first=Merike|access-date=20 February 2020|date= Fall 1984|title=Third Hand|url=https://cmagazine.com/issues/3/pdf?p=24 |journal=C Magazine|volume=3|pages=22–23|format=pdf}}
• "Fugue:" Joey Morgan. Parachute 36 (Sep–Nov 1984): 64–65{{Cite book|last=Wood|first=William|title=Vancouver Anthology: A Project of the Or Gallery|publisher=Talonbooks; Or Gallery (co-publisher)|year=1991|isbn=978-0-88922-614-2|editor-last=Douglas|editor-first=Stan|location=Vancouver, British Columbia|pages=152–154|chapter=Some are Weather-wise: Some are Other Wise: Criticism and Vancouver|quote=To expand the question of who writes about what, it is worthwhile to look at the genres of criticism, starting with the short review, usually penned by the occasional critic-an off-duty journalist or a curator, an intrigued artist or writer. In this particular case, Merike Talve's review of Morgan's Fugue in Parachute is appropriate, as is Roy Arden's Vanguard review of Ken Lum's Youth Portraits. These are exemplary reviews in the terms of the typologies already described. Talve uses almost a thousand words of description prior to maybe three hundred of discussion, while Arden's ration would be precisely the reverse. Admittedly, Morgan's Fugue, involving two specific sites, one real-time and one reconstructed duration, and much administrative delay, calls for explanation in a big way, yet Talve settles into straight exposition, delaying any inflection of her description till the end. Her judgement at that point is a studied ambivalence, a trait shared by a good number of Morgan's reviewer's.}}{{cite book|last1=Bradley|first1=Jessica|title=Chants D'expérience//Songs of Experience|last2=Nemiroff|first2=Diana|date=1986|publisher=National Gallery of Canada|isbn=9780888845436|page=190|ref=Bradley-2}}{{cite book |last1=Nemiroff |first1=Diana |title=Canadian biennial of contemporary art |date=1986 |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |isbn=9780888845955 |page=152 |ref=Nemiroff-1989 }}
• "Television Interference:" Paul Wong, et al. Video Guide (May 1984) 6.3 [#28]: 4-5.{{cite book |last1=Pernes |first1=Fernando |last2=Muntadas |title=Muntadas: intervençöes : a propósito do público e do privado |date=1992 |publisher=Fundação de Serralves |page=123 |ref=Pernes-1992}}{{cite book |last1=Muntadas |title=Muntadas: proyectos |date=1998 |publisher=La Fundación |page=169}}
• "Martin Honsich." Surrey Art Gallery (1985).{{Cite news|last=Johnson|first=Eve|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45107262/johnson_eve_this_dream_world_is_a_bit/|title=This dream world is a bit too far out.|date=21 December 1985|work=The Vancouver Sun|access-date=18 February 2020|page=33|quote=Curator Merike Talve writes that Honisch "accepts his enigmatic visions for what they are, offers them up to the world for scrutiny and delights in the fact that they will never be fully intelligible, not even to himself."|ref=Johnson-1985|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.surrey.ca/culture-recreation/25321.aspx|title=1980 to 1989 Past Exhibitions|last=Talve|first=Merike (curator)|website=Surrey Art Gallery|location=Surrey, British Columbia|via=SAG|access-date=6 March 2020|ref=SAG}}
• "Absense of Body Presence of Voice," Voice Over: Sara Diamond et al. Contemporary Art Gallery (1985) 1–20 {{ISBN| 0920751024}}.{{Cite news|last=Johnson|first=Eve|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45135881/johnson_eve_wit_and_wisdom_of_four/|title=Wit and wisdom of four wordy women.|date=18 Sep 1985|work=The Vancouver Sun|page=33|quote=Whatever the Voice Over catalogue may have to say about it – and after trudging through both Pakasaar's essay and Merike Talve's "{{sic|Absense}} of Body Presence of Voice" several times I'm still not entirely clear what that might be – Voice Over lets us know that women artists are still angry.|via=Newspapers.com}}
• "Alan Storey's Draw." Vanguard (Feb 1985) 14: 44.{{cite web |title=Alan Storey |url=http://www.mercerunion.org/exhibitions/david-mach/ |access-date=6 March 2020 |ref=MercerUnion-1986 |date=1986 |quote=Alan Storey's Draw (cf. Merike Talve's review of the Vancouver installation, Vanguard, February 1985) is brilliant compression of the bureaucratization of art, the bureaucratization even of expressiveness itself. }}
• "Crafty women and the hierarchy:" Kati Campbell. C Magazine (Winter 1985) 4: 19–21.{{Cite journal|last=Talve|first=Merike|access-date=20 February 2020|date= Winter 1985|title=Crafty women and the hierarchy|url=https://cmagazine.com/issues/4/pdf?p=21|journal=C Magazine|volume=4|pages=21–23 |format=pdf }}
• "Vestiges of the Avant-Garde in Installation," Luminous Sites: Ten Video Installations: Vera Frenkel et al. Video In /Western Front (1986) 1–64, {{ISBN| 0920974147}}.{{Cite book|url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/3882/|title=Luminous Sites: Ten Video Installations|last1=Henry|first1=Karen (Curator)|last2=Augaitis|first2=Daina (curator)|date=1986|publisher=Western Front / Video In|others=Talve, Merike (author)|isbn=0920974147|access-date=16 March 2020|ref=e-Artexte-1986|last3=Talve|first3=Merike (author)}}
• "Trigger:" Colette Urban. Vanguard (Sept 1987) 16: 29.
• "Installations:" Katherine Knight and Laura Vickerson. Surrey Art Gallery (1987) 1–8, {{ISBN| 0920181147}}.{{rp|24}}
• "New sculptural works:" Daniel Laskarinet, et al. Contemporary Art Gallery (1988) 1–8, {{ISBN|0920751180}}.{{cite book |last1=Talve |first1=Merike (curator) |title=New Sculptural Works: Warren Murfitt, Daniel Cogdon, Daniel Laskarin |date=1987 |publisher=Contemporary Art Gallery |location=Vancouver, British Columbia |isbn=0920751180 |pages=1–8 |url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/295/ |access-date=4 April 2020 |ref=Artexte-1987}}{{rp|44}}
• "Learning from salmon:" Deborah Koenker. Contemporary Art Gallery (1988) 1-8, {{ISBN |0920751199}}.{{Cite book|last=Talve|first=Merike (curator/author)|url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/292/1/DeborahKoenker_LearningFromSalmon.pdf|title=Learning from Salmon: Deborah Koenker|publisher=Contemporary Art Gallery|year=1988|isbn=0920751199|location=Vancouver, Canada|pages=1–8|access-date=18 February 2020|via=e-ARTEXTE}}
• "Repo:" Georgiana Chappell, et al. Contemporary Art Gallery (1988) 1-10, {{ISBN |0920751202}}.
• "The Stalker:" Kent Tate. Contemporary Art Gallery (1988) 1–12, {{ISBN|0920751210}}.{{cite news|last1=Perry|first1=Art|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36164182/perry-art-stalk-the-light-19-sep/|title=Stalk the light|date=19 Sep 1988|access-date=16 March 2020|publisher=The Province (Vancouver)|page=43|quote=Tate's show is about power, mainly the misuse and misunderstanding of power... It's about the power of power, no matter what the cost.|ref=Perry-1988|via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |last1=Orafson |first1=Oraf |title=Visual Arts: Year in Review |publisher=The Georgia Straight |date=January 1989 |ref=Oraf-1988 |pages=22 |quote=" The Stalker at the Contemporary Art Gallery: humour, ecology, multi-nationalism, and beautiful 3-D work all in one spot."}}{{Cite web |url=https://publications.arcpost.ca/index.php?action=by_curator&artist=443130 |title=Publications by Curator: Merike Talve |last=Talve |first=Merike (curator/author) |via=ArcPost|access-date=6 March 2020 |ref=ArcPost}}
• "Television spots:" Stan Douglas. Contemporary Art Gallery (1988) 1–34, {{ISBN|0920751237}}.

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Talve was married to Jonathan Gary Fisher. Her parents, Harri Talve{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46045993/talve-harri-the-vancouver-sun/|title=Talve, Harri|date=9 January 2010|publisher=The Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, BC)|page=31|access-date=2 March 2020|ref=HarriTalve}} and Marie (Õunpuu) Talve, met and married in Vancouver.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45647609/talve-marie-national-post-27-apr/|title=Marie Talve|date=27 April 2007|work=National Post|access-date=25 February 2020|page=27 |ref=MarieTalve }} Both her parents were born in Estonia. Harri, at the age of 13, relocated to Denmark due to displacement because of the war. Marie's family had relocated to Sweden. Harri immigrated to Canada in 1950 at age 20 and Marie in the early 1950s. The couple married and settled in Richmond. Merike Talve died in Vancouver on November 27, 1997.{{cite web |title=Merike Talve |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46364485/merike-talve-the-vancouver-sun-2-dec/ |publisher=The Vancouver Sun |access-date=8 March 2020 |ref=MerikeTalve |page=26 |date=2 December 1997}}

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Category:1957 births

Category:1997 deaths

Category:Artists from Vancouver

Category:Emily Carr University of Art and Design alumni

Category:University of British Columbia alumni

Category:20th-century Canadian women artists

Category:Canadian people of Estonian descent

Category:Canadian women curators