We: Vancouver: Political Parties
Keith Higgins 1200 Vancouver Specials 2006 Video still Courtesy the artist
Usually landmark civic birthdays—particularly Canadian ones—are polite cake-and-congratulations affairs. But this spring, the Vancouver Art Gallery is celebrating its city’s 125th in a surprising, critical and diverse style. Its exhibition “We: Vancouver” is manifesto-flush, having been curated around 12 declarative tracts (like “DETOUR: We divert. We drift or swerve. We change direction. We take the long way around.”) and having commissioned statements on public space, food and ecometropolitanism to be posted around the city. Overall, more than 45 produced-in-Vancouver projects are represented, ranging across art, architecture, design, activism, publishing and more. Artist Althea Thauberger offers documentation of her Carrall Street Project, which halted traffic one evening in 2008 for a performance by local residents. Downtown Eastside advocacy group Pivot Legal Society highlights its Red Tent Campaign, a protest tool used during the Vancouver Olympics to call out Canada as the only G8 country lacking a national housing strategy. Writer and artist Keith Higgins, pinpointing an overlooked architectural history, maps 1,200 examples of a type of house known as the “Vancouver Special.” Concerned clothing designer Natalie Purschwitz exhibits all the items created and worn during her yearlong Makeshift project, when she would only wear self-crafted clothing, shoes and accessories. Reflecting on the local motion-picture industry, author Michael Turner presents eight Vancity-shot films. Researcher Lindsay Brown looks back at Habitat 76, a temporary pavilion where the UN gathered to discuss human settlements 35 years ago. Rounded out by dozens of other initiatives, an informative website and events like April 9th’s sustainability conference, “We: Vancouver” brings a welcome measure of politics to a potentially staid party. (750 Hornby St, Vancouver BC)
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Pivot Legal Society Red Tent Campaign 2011 Installation view / photo Rachel Topham Vancouver Art Gallery |
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Jane & Stephen Cox introducing the "We: Vancouver" Special Edition Pecha Kucha Night Vol. 12 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, June 23, 2010 / photo Cause + Affect |
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Althea Thauberger Carrall Street (Powell Street) 2008–9 Courtesy Artspeak Gallery |
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