Tim McLaughlin is a Canadian artists, writer and photographer. Presently he is active in the production of small batches of traditional hand-made inks. He also teaches ink making and researches natural dye use.
In partnership with Charllotte Kwon and Maiwa Handprints, Tim documents artisan communities and advocates for the importance and continuation of traditional craft and culture. This collaboration provides the moment to take both writing and photographic work into new areas and to work on larger projects. Recently, Charllotte and Tim worked together to produce Textiles of the Banjara: Cloth and Culture of a Wandering Tribe Thames and Hudson, 2016.
Over the years Tim has been active in experimental radio, hypertext fiction (he is included in the Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada), graphic design, book production, and documentary film. Links to early works can be found in the Prose & Poetry section. Details of exhibitions, readings and works can be found below.
In his photographic work Tim McLaughlin is drawn to portraiture. In 2014 his book Portraits Found and Taken was awarded silver in the PX3 Paris Photo Prize. Between 2013 and 2015 he ran Image on Paper a collection of photographic essays and reviews (now hosted on this site).
EXHIBITIONS | AWARDS | PRESS
September 17, 2019
Lecture Artisan Ink and the New Calligraphers. Delivered at the Maiwa School of Texiltes, Vancouver, Canada.
October 16, 2018
Lecture The Poetics of Textiles. Delivered at the Maiwa School of Texiltes, Vancouver, Canada.
Gibsons Art Gallery
Group Show: The Art of Loss. Curated by Paula O’Brian, Octotber 12 - November 4, 2018.
Sunshine Coast Art Centre.
Group Show. 50 Canadian Things. Curated by Ian MacLeod, August 2-20, 2017
Monte Clark Gallery.
Exhibition as part of the Vancouver launch of Textiles of the Banjara, September 2016.
Paris Photo Prize (PX3) 2014
Silver in the Book Category and in the Portraiture Category.
Ferry Building Gallery.
Solo show. January 28 - February 9, 2014. West Vancouver.
North Shore News
January 22, 2014 West Van Gallery Hosts Portrait Exhibit
Giorgio Magnanensi's portrait is published as the cover for Musicworks Magazine # 117.
Coast Reporter
August 9, 2013 Review of GPAG photography exhibition
Gibsons Public Art Gallery
August 1 - September 2, 2013. Opening reception Saturday August 3rd, 2-4pm. 431 Marine Drive, Gibsons BC.
Havana Art Gallery
November 22 - December 5, 2012. Joint show with Sophena Kwon at the Havana Art Gallery on Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
Melriches Coffee House
October 1 - 31, 2012. Solo show in the heart of Davie Village, Vancouver.
Sechelt Festival of the Arts 2011
October 2011 - juried group exhibition.
Encyclopedia of literature in Canada
Edited by William H. New, published in 2002 by University of Toronto Press.
The entry on Technology and Communications contains the lines "Tim McLaughlin, the author of several well-received electronic texts and art installations, is perhaps Canada's best-known exponent of hypertext fiction ... "
Front Magazine
November 2001 - review of work in SITU - The Diary of Displacement.
Jumpin' at the Diner
2000 - Concieved by Marjorie Coverley Luesebrink with Jennifer Ley. Commentary by Jay Bolter and Stephanie Strickland. Featured work:25 Ways to Close a Photograph.
Coast Independent
2000 - An interview after the production of a series of commemorative stamps designed as a fundraiser for the Grantham's Landing Community Hall.
Words in Flight
English Thesis by Shari Margolin, December 1999.
The CIAC Electronic Art Magazine
1999
Parachute Magazine
Spring 1999. Ken Allan reviews Apocrypha: Poems that Read Themselves.
Word Circuits
October 1998 - Parsing the Cold: McLaughlin's Notes Toward Absolute Zero By Robert Kendall
New York Times
December 1997 - Review of the Fifth Annual Digital Salon, which featured works from threw the read window.
The Fifth Digital Salon, November 1997 - New York City, Run by the School of Visual Arts and featured in Leonardo Magazine.
Inter/Access Gallery
1997 - Toronto work featured as part of the >>iceflow>> Exhibition.
The CIAC Electronic Art Magazine
1997
SHIFT Magazine
September 1997 - Review of 25 Ways to Close a Photograph.
Le Mois de la Photo
October-December 1997 - Montreal, 25 Ways to Close a Photograph featured in an on-line exhibit: Arborescences.
Artificial Memory: Mnemonic Writing in the New Media
Published online July 1996.
Banff Centre for the Arts
Reading of With Men of Progress and Women of Vision at the Banff Centre for the Arts. March 1997.
National Ideas Competition for the VIth International Exhibition of Architecture at the Venice Biennale
With architects Bruce Haden, Thomas Bessai, and Maria Denegri. REPROCITY: Plans for a Canadian Pavilion in Venice.
Launch for Notes Toward Absolute Zero
September 26, 1996 - Vancouver, reading at the Vancouver Film School.
The Globe and Mail
July 20, 1996 - Review of Notes Toward Absolute Zero by Robert Everett-Green.
Vancouver Sun
October 1995. Review of NWHQ by Michael Scott, Sun Art Critic.
Vancouver Magazine
June 1995. Profile of Knossopolis Media a group of Web Architects containing - Tim McLaughlin, Elizabeth Fischer, Martin L’Heureux, Dave Watson and John Maxwell by James Glave.
LA Times
April 1995 - Review of work featured in NWHQ.
Vancouver International Writers Festival
October 1994 - Vancouver, reading from... with men of progress.
Fifth Gulf Island Poetry Festival
September 1994. Participant and co-producer.
Centre for Image and Sound Research.
Summer 1994 - Vancouver, hypertext performance and discussion.
Western Front Gallery
April 1994 - Vancouver, computerless hypertext performance. The first web exhibition/reading took place on April 1, 1994 at the Western Front as part of a launch for Elizabeth Fischer's E-Zine NWHQ. Part 1 of 25 Ways to Close a Photograph was presented by fixing 25 old photo postcards to the wall and placing the text on a folded piece of paper behind each photograph. This was my first attempt to make a public performace of the usually private relationship of the reader to computer and text.
SHIFT magazine
Fall 1993
Kootenay School of Writing
June 1993 - Vancouver, lecture and presentation of hypertext with C.J. Keep and Robin Parmar.
Banff Centre for the Arts
June 1993 - Banff, lecture and presentation of hypertext with C.J. Keep and Robin Parmar.
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ARTIST STATEMENT - AS PHOTOGRAPHER AND WRITER:
The human face is all things. It is a map, a history, a story, and a surface. It is the ultimate text to be read, interpreted and believed.
All photos are texts, and in the end they are all about the same thing: the passage of time. They are stones that break the surface of a river. Impermanent though they are, they seem to stand firm by comparison to the flowing water.
The art of the photographer and the art of the writer are the same. Both are solitary adventures in which we work to assemble, edit and deliver our fictions to the world.