Akimblog
Calgary
Artcity Festival | Wendy Toogood at Stride Gallery | Scott Rogers at The New Gallery | M:ST Performative Art Festival
posted by Sarah Adams-Bacon - October 14th, 2008.
I’ve learned several lessons in the past few weeks. One: I should have sold my condo eighteen months ago. Two: I need a personal assistant/clone. Three: I dislike Stephen Harper in a way that disconcerts me. And four: Political comment forums on news sites and Facebook groups are the quickest way to a head explosion.
That’s right, my head has officially exploded. Gone are the days of ducking under low-hanging branches and using pillows for sleep. Bad hair days? Forget about it. Thinking? Done. I’m not even sure how I’m writing this, but apparently my hands are still working fine and would like to tell you about some wonderful art that has transpired in the last few days and weeks.
The new season was kicked off with two major events: the Artcity opening gala celebration and Truck Gallery’s 25th anniversary exhibition Future’s So Bright. My coverage of Truck programming has been nil over the last year or so (I sit on the Board now; the old adage, “if you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?” rings true in my case) and, while I can’t really speak to how excellent the show was, I can say that the opening was a grand success and I drank lots of gin.
The gin drinking carried over to the unfortunately disappointing Artcity gala. I don’t know, I guess I just expected more bigwig artists sipping champagne, guffawing over their latest big sell, and whining about how they need another grant, lest they have to find “real work.” As it happens, the volunteer DJ graced us with the Offspring and other bad nineties memories and we sipped tinny wine out of plastic glasses while choking on smoke machine fog. Ah, the high life!
Crystalbeard Collective, Adventure Land Fun Balloon
The Artcity festival itself, however, was packed with brilliant events and performances, including intimate readings (The Readers) by the Social Evolution Research Gang (SERG), participatory odes (Choral Society Performance) by Jennifer Delos Reyes, a wicked fun animation (Adventure Land Fun Balloon) by Ben Jacques and Stu Hughes (aka Crystalbeard), walking city bingo tours (Calgary Super Bingo!) by Megan Morman, a keynote lecture by renowned graphic novelist Chester Brown, tons of architectural goodness provided by Dominique Cheng, Jennifer Thorogood, Nicolas Waissbluth (including installations and panel discussions), well-placed doomsday coasters (Life After Doomsday) by Jason de haan, and much more. This jam-packed week of art, design, and performance is an excellent testament to our city’s growing culture.
Wendy Toogood, Tinfoil Barbie Window, 2008
Apart from Artcity, more great work could be found at Stride Gallery in Wendy Toogood’s A Nakusp Narrative. The exhibition included around one hundred small fabric collages, each detailing a piece of Toogood’s life in the small mountain town of Nakusp, BC. The collages contained fragments of daily narratives: waiting for flooring, watching the news, making wine, or receiving a tragic phone call - all interludes in the passing of time, some mundane and others heartbreaking. Going from piece to piece, I became increasingly immersed in Toogood’s brief stories, looking to the later ones to fill in or explain the events of the earlier pieces. A very well-spent art visit.
Scott Rogers, Towers, 2008
The New Gallery had a nice show up too. Scott Rogers’ Towers was an interesting critique on Calgary’s booming (busting) condo development industry. Comprised of several flimsy half-completed condo models made from glossy condo magazines and partially blockaded off by plywood development screens, the exhibition was a sprawling, scattered, not-so-subtle evaluation of the double-speed development within our city. With rumours of sites already being abandoned due to the approach of a major recession, the slick, glossy mess of Rogers’ exhibition reflects the reckless, but empty, nature of such profit-focused projects.
Morgan Sea, Citizen Justice, 2008
A super exciting bunch of art that is taking place as I type is M:ST or the Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Festival. From Citizen Justice in the Cow-Town of Tomorrows (including appearances by performance artist Morgan Sea’s alter ego Citizen Justice) to Personal Appearance - Performing Self by Cindy Baker (where Baker’s alter ego is simply herself in a suit of herself) to Run Glenbow Museum by The Movement Movement (artist/curator Jessica Rose and dancer/choreographer Jenn Goodwin), where participators are invited to take a run through the Glenbow Museum. These performances, in addition to exhibits by Stephanie Rothenberg and Suzanne Thorpe (The Zero Hour at Art Central), John Murchie (Days of Our Lives at the Nickel Arts Museum), Stephan Schulz (Equally Distant From Both Sides at Truck), Cheryl L'Hirondelle (êkâya-pâh-kaci (don't freeze up) at the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts), Nina Horvat (Music (for my Father) in Truck’s +15 window space), Adrian Stimson (Old Sun at Truck and Buffalo Boy’s Battle of Little Bighorny at the U of C), Kelly Andres (Urban Habitat Laboratory at 809 exhibition space), Duncan Speakman (sounds form above the ground at EMMEDIA), Liss Platt (You Can't Get There From Here (Redux) at CSIF), and Eryn Foster (New Canadian Pilgrimages: Mobile Mix Tape). And that’s not even including the Lethbridge side of it! Phew!
Sarah Adams-Bacon is a visual artist and writer based in Calgary. She has exhibited across Canada and enjoys scrabble, books, and gamecube.
Artcity: http://www.artcityfestival.com/
Truck Gallery: http://www.truck.ca/
See website for current exhibitions.
Stride Gallery: http://www.stride.ab.ca/
See website for current exhibitions.
New Gallery: http://thenewgallery.wordpress.com/
See website for current exhibitions.
M:ST 4continues until October 17.