One man’s trash… is another man’s art career

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This article was published 13/05/2025 (497 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pioneering sound and media artist Ken Gregory has won this year’s Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction presented by the Manitoba Arts Council.

The Winnipegger, whose work brings a certain “mad scientist” wit and rigour to the installation environment, is widely noted as having shaped generations of local artists.

One of his best-known pieces is his playful sound installation 12 Motor Bells (2004) — where the clangs of 12 old fire alarms become lulling tones that respond to viewers’ presence — which now enriches the National Gallery of Canada’s permanent collection.

Over his 30-year career, the 65-year-old artist has also played a formative role in such institutional mainstays of the local tech art scene as Send + Receive: A Festival of Sound and Video Pool Media Arts Centre.

“When I was getting started in the ’80s, other artists handed me the artist’s hat and I didn’t think it fit,” says Gregory by email. “But I started participating in the rich and diverse art and music community, a community that was accepting, supportive and friendly. This environment allowed me to develop.”

“I now wear the hat proudly.”

Accomplishments like those mentioned made him a shoo-in, said his nominators, for the $30,000 prize recognizing outstanding artistic achievement and impact on the province’s arts community.

“Gregory is an ‘artist’s artist,’ who is held in the highest esteem by his peers,” wrote Winnipeg-born artists Daniel Barrow and Clint Enns, his nominators. “His practice often involves a form of creative problem-solving, transforming discarded and abandoned material into inspired artworks. He is always quick to share his techniques and offer creative solutions to other artists.”

It’s said that one man’s trash is another’s treasure.

And while Gregory may not always restore “utility” to the discarded objects and gadgetry he lovingly hacks and works with, he gives it a curious new life treasured by his fans and audiences.

In Coycet La Mort (2020), the artist fashions a spider-like robot with blades for legs and a dog’s skull for a head. In Sun Sucker (2020), Gregory has the audacity to add even more buzzing pests to the outdoors — only these charming insect-like audio organisms, powered by solar energy, can’t bite.

In 2004 — the same year his work was the subject of a book by Robert Enright and published by Plug In Gallery — Border Crossings magazine observed that viewers often described his exhibits as a sort of futuristic zoo, “filled with chirping, shrieking, humming noise emanating from exotic creatures.”

Although Gregory is also capable of striking elegance and beauty: his large-scale kinetic sound sculpture Wind Coil Sound Flow (2009), as pretty to the eye as the ear, turns wind into music with an instrument made of wires, coils and electronics.

“Ken’s work represents a thoughtful, often poetic engagement with both technology and the natural world,” says Katarina Kupca, chair of the Manitoba Arts Council, an arm’s-length agency of the Province of Manitoba. “Ken is an artist of the highest calibre and the impact of his work in sound and media art is immeasurable, not just in Manitoba, but across the country.”

For all these accolades, Gregory thanks the curators, jurors, gallery directors and peers who “took a risk” having him participate in their programs.

“I’m honoured, humbled, proud (to receive this award),” he adds.

Documentation of many of Gregory’s works can be seen on his YouTube channel, Cheap Meat Dreams and Acorns. Previous recipients of the Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction include Jennine Krauchi (2024), Di Brandt (2023), Daina Warren (2022), and Alan Greyeyes (2020).

conrad.sweatman@freepress.mb.ca