title>   Journal

medium>  daily journal entries appearing as classified ads

date>   ongoing since 1995

description>
From time to time I have used the personal-notices section of the classified ads of varoius daily newspapers as the site for a kind of journal (for are journals not written for eventual consumption by others -- or at least oneself as another separated by time?). These messages invert the urgency of this familiar space for recording the circulation of useful things and abject hopes. The tone of the texts is familiar, providing mundane observations about my daily routines (example: "8 April, Toronto. Ran into A and S, who solved my problem. Had dinner, beer. I like them."). Instead of seeking the commercial or social transations usually advertised in this space, I use the real time and repetition embedded in the newspaper to relate little more than the passing of time, gently magnifying its banality and arguing for the monumentality of daily preoccupations. Executed anonymously, this work's reception is as unknowable as its potential audience is wide, though part of its poignancy lies in the assumption that many of the activities I describe might be familiar to many of the unknown people who happen to read them. Although the events are particular to me, they thus might seem to represent certain shared collective experiences.

newspapers used>
1995-99 Ottawa Citizen; 1997 Kingston Whig-Standard; 1998 Toronto Star; 1998 Sydney Morning Herald; 2000 Le Devoir (Montreal); 2000 Edmonton Journal; 2001-02 Winnipeg Free Press; 2003 version as mobile sign, Hamilton

selected bibliography>
Allen, Jan. "Germaine Koh: getting personal", Art/Text (Sydney), no. 59 (November 1997-January 1998), pp. 50-1
Zdeb, Chris. “Life… as art among the classifieds”, Edmonton Journal, p. C1, October 23 2000