The List: 10 things conceptual artist Luis Jacob can’t live without

Ten things the conceptual artist Luis Jacob, whose work is on display this month at MOCCA, can’t live without By Laura Cameron

My high school photo
The image on the invitation to my current show is from a photo my friend Elaine Yau took of me holding my eye open. It was taken in the cafeteria at Woburn Collegiate—it’s special to me because it’s connected to past friendships.

A cobweb worth keeping
A few years ago, the artist Germaine Koh made spiderwebs out of blue twine and put them up in empty lots. I have one in my home office on Roncesvalles.

My spider plant
Before Will Munro died last spring, he had an art show in which the central piece was a cross between grandma’s macramé and a sex sling. A spider plant hung on each corner. He cut out one of the rhizomes for my partner, Chris Curreri. The plant is on our dining room table.

My grandfather’s heron
My grandfather worked two jobs, as a bus driver and a taxi driver. I never knew him as an artist, but he made a beautiful etching of a heron, which my grandmother gave me after he died.

My pills
In 2000, AA Bronson gave me a water­colour called Millenium Cocktail. It touches on an earlier work he did with the collective General Idea, where they made giant pills representing drugs for HIV/AIDS.

My tent
I have a maquette of an outdoor art installation by Adrian Blackwell hanging in my library. The project was called Carpool, and it involved attaching the four corners of a huge tent to four cars and driving them outward to create tension.

My porcelain penises
These two sculptures by Toronto artist Catherine Heard are on my mantelpiece. On the head of each one is a hole for a single flower. They’re totally cute.

My goddess complex
When I was 17, I was in love with Fiona Smyth’s work. I scraped together all the money I had, and commissioned her to make me a shrine. It’s a cardboard cutout of a goddess. It was the very first piece of art I acquired.

Portraits of Davids
The conceptual artist Micah Lexier did a series where he photographed 75 people named David from ages one through 75. I have three of them—Davids at ages one, seven and 17—hanging in my hallway.

My artist’s proof
My friend Michael Morris gave me a print from his 1970 work called Alex and Roger, depicting two nude men on a beach. One of the men is holding a little mirror that reflects a spot of light onto the other’s body. This piece is very special to me.

(Images: Jacob by John Cullen; Artwork and spider plant by Kevin Meikle)