The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax, Canada, holds a near-mythic art world status, due, in large part to its influential conceptual art program and prolific publishing activities during the 1960’s and ‘70’s. At that time, NSCAD attracted a who’s who of postwar international artists–predominantly men–who shaped the school’s legacy. This included Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Robert Frank, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Sol LeWitt, Claes Oldenburg, Dennis Oppenheim, Michael Snow, and a few notable women including Alice Aycock, Simone Forti, Lee Lozano, Yvonne Rainer, Martha Rosler and Joyce Wieland. The NSCAD press, founded in 1972 by then-NSCAD President, Garry Neill Kennedy, and initially run by Kasper König, played a vital role in dissemination of North American postwar art. Meanwhile, the school’s Lithography Workshop produced prints by visiting artists and faculty that now reside in major public and private collections around the world.
Hubbard / Birchler’s exhibition, No More Boring Art (2025), revisits a pivotal, yet largely overlooked moment from NSCAD’s conceptual art heyday. In April 1971, a group of students wrote the phrase “I will not make any more boring art” repeatedly across the walls of NSCAD’s Mezzanine gallery every day for ten days. This performative gesture came from a set of instructions sent by American artist, John Baldessari, (1932–2020), who called the project a “Punishment Piece.” Baldessari did not travel to Halifax to participate himself, instead, he designated students–or “surrogates,” as he called them– to carry out the work. What began as a fleeting, performative action soon became something else. At the suggestion of NSCAD faculty member and Lithography Workshop director Gerald Ferguson, Baldessari’s Punishment Piece was transformed into a commercial object: an edition of 50 lithographic prints, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art. This work quickly became one of Baldessari’s most iconic pieces and has since been widely reproduced–appearing on everything from wallpaper and pencils to scarves and mugs.
Who were the anonymous participants—mostly art students—who gave form to Baldessari’s idea more than five decades ago? Until now, their names have remained unknown. How did the experience shape their lives? What has become of them? Through extensive archival research, photographic forensics, and an international search, Hubbard / Birchler set out to identify and find them. In their multi-channel video work with sound, Hubbard / Birchler lead the viewer on a meandering journey through a constellation of interconnected, deeply personal portraits exploring the connection between life and art. No More Boring Art delves into the unrelenting passage of time, the complexity of memory and the reconstruction of overlooked histories. Central are women’s voices and perspectives, offering a poignant counter-narrative to the dominant male voices of NSCAD’s conceptual art legacy. What emerges is both an act of remembrance and a rebalancing.
About the Artists
Teresa Hubbard (Irish/ American/ Swiss, born in Dublin, Ireland 1965) and Alexander Birchler (Swiss, born in Baden, Switzerland 1962) have been collaborating as an artist team since 1990. They began collaborating as artists-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, in Banff, Canada and completed graduate degrees at NSCAD in 1992. Their work, primarily grounded in time-based media, aims to inspire sensorial interactions and explore connections between social life, history and memory. Hubbard / Birchler often seek engagement with adjacent fields of study that have more conventionally been considered the domain of the anthropologist, archeologist or historian.
Hubbard / Birchler represented Switzerland in the Swiss Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennial, presenting Flora in the exhibition “Women of Venice,” curated by Philipp Kaiser. Hubbard / Birchler have also presented their work in the 48th Venice Biennial; Giacometti Institute Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Kunsthaus Graz; Mori Museum Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Reina Sofia Museum Madrid; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Tate Museum Liverpool and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Their work is held in numerous permanent collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; Goetz Collection Munich; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.; Kunsthaus Zurich; Kunstmuseum Basel; Los Angeles County Museum of Art LACMA; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles MOCA; National Museum of Art Osaka and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
Hubbard / Birchler are Professors in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin.
Supported by
Alturas Foundation supported the creation of No More Boring Art as part of its Artist Grant Program which encourages artists to explore fresh directions and provides opportunities to develop new ideas over extended periods.
John MacLeod and Karen Smith through
the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia
Patron Supporters of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Developed with the support of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Contemporary Calgary. Organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
