What’s new?

Troy Gronsdahl

Description

What’s new? I’ve always disliked this question. It’s innocent enough, I know, frequently used to initiate a conversation, but in the monotonous routines of a pandemic lockdown, nothing much was new. Of course, the pandemic itself was new and it dominated every conversation, but during this time my compulsion to be busy, my need to accomplish things was frustrated. Nothing new to report over here.

At the same time, news and social media outlets churn out images of riots, war, wildfires, and floods. The distance between dystopia and documentary continues to narrow. Another day, another crisis. What else is new?

The song playing in this video is literally “What’s New,” a kitschy instrumental by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Albums by this artist have provided me with countless hours of unrestrained cheerfulness, buffering me from the pandemic and the ailments of the world as I wait for something else to happen. The song is followed by a moment of silence. With all of the loss we have experienced in the past five years, we could string together all the moments of silence and never speak again.

Biography

Troy Gronsdahl is an artist and curator from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Working across diverse media and forms including text, artist books, photography and video, his visual art is compelled by the erotics of philosophy, the uselessness of poetry and dumb yearning. He is interested in divergent forms of knowing and how meaning is formed, unformed, and formed again. In addition to his visual art practice, Troy is an award-winning musician, creating genre-bending hip hop music. He has toured extensively both nationally and internationally, and his music has been released on labels in Japan, France, Switzerland, Germany, the US and Canada.

Troy studied at the University of Saskatchewan and holds an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where he was the recipient of the Governor General’s Academic Medal. His artwork has been presented at screenings and exhibitions across Canada and is held in the collection of SK Arts and the National Gallery’s collection of artist books, among other private collections. He has received a number of awards in the field of music and visual art including the 2021 Saskatchewan Music Award for Hip Hop Artist of the Year and the 2022 Saskatchewan Arts Awards for Leadership.