Spontaneous Combustion

Spontaneous Combustion

A short documentary film about the art collective, Spontaneous Combustion from the early-to-mid 1980’s.

Richard Mongiat/David Sylvestre

Collective City

Collective City

Collective City

Online documentary film

Documentary film

Spontaneous Combustion was a collective of contemporary visual artists, many who had graduated from the Ontario College of Art in the early-to-mid 1980’s. These artists worked in a variety of media ranging from large format printmaking to holography and almost all presented their work in installation format. In interviews supported by archival film and photography, Spontaneous Combustion founders b.h. yael, Gwen MacGregor and Caroline Langill discuss the collective’s origins, the role of the artist as curator and how few opportunities existed for installation artists, particularly for artists who were working with kinetic work or electronics.