Navigating The Invisible is a revealing portrait of acclaimed visual artist Tim Whiten, an individual who survived war and overcame poverty and racism to become one of North America’s most prolific creators of cultural objects. This project is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
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We’ve also created four short videos about Tim Whiten for the McMaster Museum of Art, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Art Gallery of Peterborough and Art Gallery of York University:
Navigating The Invisible is a feature-length documentary exploring the life and art of Tim Whiten. The documentary follows Whiten as he prepares for a landmark exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario after winning the Gershon Iskowitz Award and the Governor General’s Award at age 81. He reflects on his life as an artist and "maker of cultural objects," including the lived experiences that have shaped his work, such as childhood poverty, racism, the Vietnam War, a lengthy academic career, and his lifelong spiritual quest for what it means to be fully human.
The story shares Whiten’s deepest reflections and artistic output, along with rarely seen archival footage and insights from professionals and friends. Whiten’s cultural objects transcend boundaries, provoking us to look within and outside of ourselves.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Tim Whiten is one of North America’s most prolific artists. With sculptures, paintings, drawings and intricate installations dating back to the 1970s, his work explores themes of spirituality, oneness and society’s relationship with our own mortality.
A pioneering professor of visual art and art history at York University, Whiten’s transcendent and often ethereal cultural objects have been exhibited throughout North America and Asia, including Canada’s National Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
In 1968, Whiten moved from the United States to Canada to pursue an academic career. In the decades that followed, his artistic output was prolific and unprecedented. His sculptures, mixed media installations and ritual-performances often included materials such as glass, cast iron, leather and skulls. Whiten successfully carved a path outside the conventions of Western art, developing a vast visual language of his own. He also became the first visible minority to chair the Department of Visual Arts at York University in 1984.
TIM WHITEN: SELECTED WORKS
DOCUMENTARY TEAM
DIRECTOR / EXEC. PRODUCER
ROBERT WALDECK
ROBERT WALDECK
DIRECTOR / EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Kitchener, Ontario
Robert is a filmmaker, teacher and visual artist. His past feature-length films include Aakideh: The Art & Legacy of Carl Beam, Better Day: The Sarah J Felker Story, Jamland and A Growing Season. He’s also created short/experimental films, including Galileo’s Doorway, Walkaway and Let’s Blow This Up, a reflection on artistic process during the pandemic. Waldeck’s films have screened at dozens of international film festivals, as well as TV Ontario, TIFF Bell Lightbox, OUT TV, Canadian Reel Artists Film Festival, Smithsonian Museum and the National Gallery of Canada. He is also a practicing visual artist with more than 25 solo and group exhibitions. Robert also works as an arts educator for Waterloo Region District School Board and Conestoga College.
CO-DIRECTOR
PAUL EICHHORN
PAUL EICHHORN
CO-DIRECTOR
Midland, Ontario
Paul Eichhorn is an award-winning filmmaker who co-directed and wrote Aakideh: The Art & Legacy of Carl Beam and A Growing Season. Both documentaries were critically-acclaimed and screened throughout Canada and beyond. He also acted as creative consultant for Resilience: Transforming Our Community and Better Day: The Sarah J. Felker Story. Previously, he created, hosted, and co-produced a 30-minute weekly documentary series for Rogers TV, History Lives. As General Manager of the SweetWater Music Festival, Paul oversaw a period of major growth including developing videos of live concerts of acclaimed performers such as Measha Brueggergosman. In 1989, he founded P.E.rt, which provides fine art appraisals, event management, and communications/marketing services to private firms, arts and culture organizations, and not-for-profits across Canada. Paul has also served a director on numerous boards and public committees.
DIR. OF PHOTOGRAPHY
ERIK O'NEILL
ERIK O'NEILL
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Kitchener, Ontario
Erik is an award-winning Director of Photography and Producer. For more than a decade, he’s owned and operated three video production companies that service multiple industries. Erik also freelances as a Director of Photography and Cinematographer for other production companies. His work includes short films, music videos, commercials and web-oriented marketing spots.
PRODUCER
Aaron T. Francis
Aaron T. Francis
PRODUCER / COPYWRITER
Kitchener, Ontario
Aaron T. Francis is an artist, writer, curator, and the founder of Vintage Black Canada, a multidisciplinary creative initiative and archive documenting the transnational modern history of the African Diaspora in Canada. Founded in 2019, images from the archive have been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the University of Waterloo Art Gallery (in collaboration with CAFKA), the Gladstone Gallery, the Centre for International Governance Innovation and at the BAND Gallery, Toronto.
MUSIC / SOUND
DAN DRYSDALE
DAN DRYSDALE
Music and Soundtrack Supervisor
Toronto, Ontario
Dan is a multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer and producer with 20+ years of experience. He’s provided soundtracks for the award-winning documentary, Aakideh: The Art and Legacy of Carl Beam and Better Day: The Sarah Felker Story, as well as short films Death in the Details and The Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon: A Hero In All of Us. His critically-acclaimed band SolarSolar released two EPs independently, a full-length album through Binary Records and was played by MTV’s hit show, Teen Wolf. In 2007, Dan co-founded JamSchool, a performance-based education centre and recording studio in Guelph that has now expanded to two locations.
EDITOR
Christine Poyi Lam
Christine Poyi Lam
Editor
Toronto, Ontario
Christine has over two decades of experience as an editor, predominantly working in the broadcast industry. She received her Bachelor of Arts at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong and majored in audio/visual editing and documentary. During her career, she has worked on commercials, mini-series, long format programs, and promotional videos. Christine has contributed her talents to projects for the National Geographic Channel, Turner Broadcasting, Bell, Rogers, CBC, and Corus. She was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award (Best Picture Editing, Reality/Competition). She has a lifelong love of music, art, and design.
OUTREACH / DEVELOPMENT
TAELOR LEWIS-JOSEPH
TAELOR LEWIS-JOSEPH
OUTREACH / DEVELOPMENT
Toronto, Ontario
Taelor is passionate about telling the stories of creators from BIPOC and Queer communities. She is active on a number of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), anti-Black racism and social justice-based groups. Recently, she worked with Dr. John Shiga to develop a university course that explores intersections between communication practices and social structures using an EDI-forward lens. Taelor received an Honors BA in Professional Communication from Toronto Metropolitan University and currently works as an Alumni Relations Coordinator. In 2021, Taelor co-created How T.O. Art, a docu-webseries about Toronto-based artists and approaches to their craft. The project was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and won Best Web/New Media at the 2021 Canadian Diversity Film Festival.
SOUND COMPOSER
Alpha Kayondo
Alpha Kayondo
Soundtrack Composer
Guelph, Ontario
Alpha is an alumnus of the University of Guelph’s School of Fine Art and Music, and teaches voice and piano at JamSchool. During his time as singer-songwriter for the band The Challenger, Alpha began creating music that interweaves lyrical hip-hop with melodic film score. Over the past year, he’s scored a number of short films for Humber College students. Alpha’s dream is to be the first widely-recognized African-Canadian film score composer.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
BROOKLYN LOUIS
Brooklyn Louis
Social Media Manager and Research
Kitchener, Ontario
Brooklyn is a Registered Graphic Designer. She is a fourth-year student in the Bachelor of Design program at Conestoga College. Previously, Brooklyn worked as a marketing and communications assistant for Habitat for Humanity. In this role, she developed digital and social media content, created and edited videos, and photographed the organization’s events.
SOUND COMPOSER
Adonijah Mitchell
Adonijah Mitchell
Soundtrack Composer
Waterloo, Ontario
Adonijah is a third-year student studying composition at Laurier University’s Faculty of Music. He also plays alto saxophone in the program’s wind orchestra. Adonijah’s Excerpt from Bloom for orchestral MIDI debuted in 2021 as part of the Student Composer Concert Program.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Josh Spurling
Josh Spurling
Visual Effects Lead & Graphic Designer
Kitchener, Ontario
Josh is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Design program at Conestoga College. With a passion for videography, photography, motion graphics and animation, Josh uses his creative skills to produce lifestyle content that captures the world around him. He works as a Motion Graphic Designer at Business Instincts Group and as a content creator for Lodestar Studios.
ANIMATOR / DESIGNER
Aidan Marsh
Aidan Marsh
3D Animator and Graphic Designer
Waterloo, Ontario
Aidan is a fourth-year design student at Conestoga College. He enjoys using math, logic and node-based workflows to create advanced and complex animations with flexible, malleable systems. Aidan began his visual design journey at age ten, using Photoshop Elements to manipulate photos and graphics. In high school, he was introduced to Adobe Illustrator and dove into the world of vector graphics. His current passions include raster design, vector graphics, branding, motion and 3D design. Paired with his skills in traditional visual design mediums, 3D modelling texturing, lighting and animation allows Aidan to push the envelope.
FUNDERS & SUPPORTERS
Lodestar Studios is grateful to the donors and supporters who make our work possible. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Thank you to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Art Gallery of Peterborough, McMaster Museum of Art and Olga Korper Gallery for their support.
