During the book Vancouver Art Book Fair, I picked up the latest zine by Vancouver based artist, Sonja Ratkay. The zine contains Ratkay’s abstract and empathetic illustrations:
The illustrations are so beautifully minimal and abstract. An eye unfolds into a machine and dreams deject the skull, and float off into the atmosphere.
For more info:
sonjaratkay.com
October 6
In response to the Jürgen Partenheimer exhibition that is currently showing at the Contemporary Art Gallery September 12 – Novemebr 9, the Vancouver Electronic Ensemble orchestrated a concert/performance in the gallery that uses the artwork as maps for sound. The performance consisted of an electronic music station set up in both exhibition rooms, and a violinist that moved to and from the two spaces.
One of the members of VEE explained to me during the performance that he had scanned images of Partenehimer’s work and was manipulating the colour, composition and noise of the image to produce sound. He works with a computer program to determine the level of noise being emitted from white or coloured space in the image and translates this into sound. Colour as sound is determined by a numeric value and registered into the computer program to produce a range of sounds according to colour hues.
The sound that was produced at the event sounded like digital air waves, radars, and old machines. My imagination conjured up images of futuristic alien space crafts gliding slowly over an infinite black plane speckled with faint stars – like the Death Star in Star Wars! During the performance the art in exhibition could be experienced by both optically and audibly .
For more information:
http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca/events/vancouver-electronic-ensemble-alternative-energies/
http://newmusic.org/community-events/vee/
Please check out the New Music Festival that is on October 16-19! http://newmusic.org/
October 5
Scrivener’s Monthly at the Western Front with publisher/ typographer Will Holder (London) and musician Alex Waterman (New York) in the Western Front’s Grand Luxe Hall. Holder and Waterman launched their latest book Yes, But Is It Edible ? (New Documents, 2014), a scored biography of American composer Robert Ashley.
Will Holder and Alex Waterman rapped Ashley’s Opera Dust (1999) and Celestial Excursions (2003) in a rhythmic tone, that sounded like a beat-poetry a capella. The layout of the book demands multiple readers, and is perfect to bring friends together for a reading at a dinner party, the office, on the bus, or at the park. Try it – pick up the book from the Western Front and make friends with strangers while reading sections aloud.
Image source: http://front.bc.ca/events/will-holder-and-alex-waterman/
Oct 5 at 7pm
Western Front,
303 E 8th Avenue Vancouver
Tonight the Western Front will be celebrating its third season of Scrivener’s Monthly with publisher/ typographer Will Holder (London) and musician Alex Waterman (New York) in the Western Front’s Grand Luxe Hall. Holder and Waterman will be launching their new book Yes, But Is It Edible ? (New Documents, 2014), a scored biography of American composer Robert Ashley. The 800 page volume is the culmination of years of research and exploration of the musical migration of the English language across the American landscape.
Website description:
For this event, Will Holder and Alex Waterman will read and sing duets from Ashley’s operas Dust (1999) and Celestial Excursions (2003).
Scrivener’s Monthly is a series of public presentations that explore the space between material practices and spoken words: a periodical that talks. Set alongside the exhibitions program at Western Front, this experiment in “not publishing” involves readings, performances, and other articulations.
Co-presented by New Documents and the Vancouver Art Book Fair.
This evening FIELD Contemporary gallery celebrated its new artist bookstore (located within the gallery) with issue issue releases from Highway and Moniker Press.
The crisp and fresh Highway publication released its first issue tonight and aims to address contemporary culture though “artist collaborations, fragmentary fiction, cultural analysis, speculative futures, food-as-memory and experimental sound” (see website link). The publication has a hand made feel and features articles by Vanessa Brown, Sarah Pace, Hans Wendt, Natasha Young, Larissa Pham, Emma Tillman, Sea Oleena, Rommy Ghaly and Adrienne Matei!
Moniker Press presented its latest publication, Ends, compiled by Vancouver artist Erica Wilk. Ends is described as ” a collage of fragments; collected from conversations, interpretations, chat rooms, sketches, friends, strangers, memories, google, vandals, robots, break-ups, departed ones, found objects and secrets” (see website link). The zine is limited edition so get one fast! Moniker Press operates out of Vancouver and works collaboratively with artists and writers to produce small editions of books, zines and printed matter.
http://www.hwy-mag.com/
http://www.monikerpress.ca/
http://www.field-contemporary.com/
http://www.generosound.com/
Vancouver Art Book Fair presented by Project Space
October 4-5 at the Vancouver Art Gallery Annex, 750 Hornby Street.
Vancouver Art Book Fair website description:
Free and open to the public, the Vancouver Art/Book Fair is the only
international art book fair in Canada and one of only two on the West
Coast. In 2014 the event is anticipated to attract over 1,500 visitors from
across the Greater Vancouver Area and beyond.
Presented by Project Space, VA/BF is a two-day festival of artists
publishing featuring nearly one hundred local, national and international
publishers, as well as a diverse line-up of programs, performances and
artist projects. Featured artists travel to Vancouver from across Canada
and the globe, and produce everything from books, magazines, zines and
printed ephemera to digital, performative or other experimental forms of
publication.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3
Members Only Preview
Open to Members of Project Space and the Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery, Lobby & Annex, 750 Hornby St.
Friday, October 3, 6ââ¬â8pm
Memberships available at the door or http://www.projectspace.ca/memberships
VA/BF Reception
Free and open to the public
UNIT/PITT Projects, 236 E Pender St.
Friday, October 3, 9pm
Doubles as the launch of ISSUE Magazine, published by UNIT/PITT Projects
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4 & 5
Vancouver Art/Book Fair
Free and open to the public
Vancouver Art Gallery Annex, 750 Hornby St.
Saturday & Sunday, October 4 & 5, 12-5pm
Full schedule: http://www.vancouverartbookfair.com
VA/BF has been made possible through the generosity of the following
partners: Vancouver Art Gallery, City of Vancouver, Georgia Straight,
Downtown Vancouver BIA, Discorder, Foam, Sad Mag, Fillip, Geist, Ethical
Bean, The Keefer Bar, Bandidas Taqueria, Paper Pusher, Publishing @ SFU,
Modo and The Paper Hound.
For more information please contact: info@projectspace.ca
Vancouver Art/Book Fair | website | #VABF2013
Project Space | Facebook | Twitter
2 – 236 E Pender St
Vancouver BC V6A 1T7
For full description, schedule, events and exhibitors please visit the VA/BF Website:
Adjacencies | 221a | September 27
I cut through a back alleyway off of Pender Street in Vancouver Chinatown’s hip art district and arrived at the soft opening for the latest collaboration between 221a, Access and Grunt Gallery. Empty tents that were pitched within close proximity to one another echoed eery sound effects and chatter. Spotlights visible at the end of the narrow walkway attracted visitors towards a gathering of onlookers who were waiting in line to have their palm read by a psychic or waiting for the main performance to begin.
With enthusiasm, Mayor Gregor Robertson (was he really the Mayor or a performance artist….) took to the spotlight to recall the complicated history of the ownership of the space, and concluded his speech by slicing into a cake modeled after a house that was once located where the celebration was held. Cheered on by the crowd, the Mayor was easily convinced to raise a roll of cannabis to the cool night air, and onlookers lined up to receive a slice of cake.
The soft-launch celebrates gallery 221a’s ten year long program to commission work that “considers the changing dynamics of Chinatown and the surrounding communities”.
221a event informatio:
Schedule of Programs
September 27, 4–10 PM
4:00–5:30
Fortune House, tarot readings, Cindy Mochizuki (limited spots)
4:00–10:00
Funny Flow, mixed media, Dennis Ha
“We Are Cheesy” by Jeremy Todd, from SPOOX Issue 11: Crowds, Julia Feyrer and Pietro Sammarco (eds.)
10x10x10 I, installation, Felicia E. Gail
6:30–8:00
Fortune House, tarot readings, Cindy Mochizuki (limited spots)
8:30
The Future is Uncertain (The Past is a Piece of Cake), performance, Lauren Marsden
Contributors
Felicia E. Gail, Artist
Lauren Marsden, Artist
Dennis Ha, Artist
Cindy Mochizuki, Artist
SPOOX (Julia Feyrer and Pietro Sammarco), Artists
http://221a.ca/adjacencies/#more-3254
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