Theatre

• I would have loved to offer some in-depth coverage of the 2008 Fringe Festival, which runs from September 3-14, but I'm just too busy these days. If anyone would like to see their own show review published here at BR, send 'em my way. Regardless, get out there and support some of the best and ballsiest local talent in Vancouver. There's some highlights from the Straight and some previews at VancouverPlays to get you started. This city has an exciting theatre scene that shouldn't be taken for granted...

OK that's a cheap shot. They've had some really good shows there in the past 2 years. The Herzog show, Pictorialism, the Tree show, Roy Arden and Monet to Dali. Although you have to wonder what else we could've curated if the director of the VAG wasn't in a huge rift with the National Gallery...

Now there is talk about moving the gallery to a fancy new building on the False Creek waterfront. Are they going to raise the rates again to pay for the move? Why do they need to build a brand new building? What about the Post Office? What is the old building going to be used for, other than selling pot?

It's been a while now since I've profiled any local visual arts or music happenings. It's not that there's been a dearth of great ways to spend an aesthetically enriching Vancouver weekend; it's just that by the time I've finally narrowed down what's worth doing, I hardly have the energy to write a blog post about it. With that in mind, I thought I'd highlight a couple of random events happening this weekend that may be worth your time. I already wrote about some cool Saturday stuff in today's Brew, but here's a few things on the radar and worth highlighting for Friday night.

People have been swapping music illicitly for a long time, but with the rise of the internet the methods and scope of that sharing have changed completely. The most popular means of trading copyrighted material has been the emergent peer to peer technologies (all seemingly kneeling at the altar of bit torrent). Recent changes in copyright laws, combined with high-profile lawsuits (including last fall's shutdown of the world's most popular peer-to-peer network, Oink), have not only threatened the way fans consume their art, but have temporarily brought even more attention to and interest in downloading music illegally.

While this turnaround in music distribution has had an invariable effect on the artist, it's also profoundly changed the way us fanatics listen to our music (the death of real rock appreciation? the end of a true musical community?) With all this in mind, Cornershop Projects has brought together Ear to Ear at the Or Gallery, on display this weekend only: "a community-based, ad hoc archive of contemporary popular music and music ephemera." The show brings together visual, audio, and printed materials including 29 specially commissioned mix CDs which'll be given out over the weekend. There's also a conversation today at 5:00 (with lots of guests) and a closing night party on Sunday. More after the jump...

We arrived at the party around 9, when the line-up was still tolerable. Later, it began to stretch all the way down Homer Hornby Street, and getting in took a while. Once inside, we were given schedules of what shows were on at what time. There was plenty to cover, and there was a ton that I ended up missing over the course of the night. Duran's photos (slide show after the break) alone were full of surprises - I didn't catch a lot of the performances because I spent the first part of my night trying to get all the people I was with in one location. Tip #1: go with one or two friends. If you go with a group, don't count on staying together. You'll end up wasting a lot of time and cell phone minutes.

FUSE is back once again. And for the second time in my memory of the VAG, the partay won't stop until the early 'morn. Six in the 'morn to be exact. Come see some KRAZY! DragonballZ-infused anime, mixed in with the art of female Canadian modernists. Arowbe will be holdin' it down too along with July Fourth Toilet in the music department (loving the 'stache). And the nifty-est event of the night in my honest opinion will be the 12_Hour Comic Draw, where a comic book will be conceived from start to finish over the entire event by the talent of local artists. This among a plethora of other entertaining performances guaranteed to at least make you think "WTF".

Conceived by Jim Hoehnle and Chris Bentzen in 2004, this is the fifth, and possibly final year, for Hot One Inch Action in it's present state. A simple idea to get 50 artists to design the artwork for 50 different buttons, sold at the show for five bucks a bag - you take what you get and trade up the rest in a scene that, at times, resembles a stock market's closing hour. This year has an added bonus: they are raffling off all five years of hot action for a total of 250 unique buttons up for grabs. As they say: "Don't think you need that many buttons? Wait until you're in the heat of the moment." That's what it's all about.

While the marriage of art and protest was on the minds of the creators at the beginning, the event has become so popular they sell out of buttons within a few hours and find the thing takes on a life of it's own soon after doors open. It's become a template for social interaction, merging the high with the low brow. Redefining a familiar scene into something outside the bubble. Oh yeah, and it's a total blast as well. Keep reading for an interview with one of the creators...

I secretly long to be a student at Emily Carr.

And although I love my job as a happily-employed engineer, there are times where my creativity lacks a certain outlet. I mean, just think about it, instead of performing complex Fourier transforms and utilizing Bernoulli's equation in ways I couldn't care less about, I could have been making great profound art or designing the next big sustainable thing-a-majigger at a fantastic institution. Many of my friends, who have attended or are attending the newly-minted university have always done such cool and funky shit.

Attending Saturday's Emily Carr Undergrad Exhibition definitely reaffirmed these beliefs of mine. To say it was an overcrowded zoo would be a serious understatement - it was uber-busy. But that was just indicative of how popular this yearly show has become. The $3 wine and beer made it all the better too... From a sock ball a gynecologist could only love, to massive sized sugar cubes (I confirmed that it was indeed sucrose) strategically placed in a symbolic pattern, to a sod patch complete with boxing gloves - it was all there.

We have written about this festival a few times before, and not without good reason. These truly are the sights and sounds from out there, the art that percolates underground like the tidal flats of False Creek. Like those flats, every now and then a rising tide will dampen the earth and flood the basements, giving light to a new level of artistry - visually, sonically, even texturally. Now we can add erotic and sensual leanings to this list.

Established Vancouver artists Kristina Lee Podesva and Alan McConchie's new piece at the Helen Pitt Gallery offers what may be the most overtly web-kindled art I've seen in an official Vancouver exhibition. In fact, the installation can only be viewed on the internet, since March 13, as part of Helen Pitt's new 'Web Gallery'. The piece, titled the Google Emotional Index, uses the inescapable search engine as its primary inspiration, offering a maze-like collage of contemporary images and a glimpse into the chaos of modern morality...

The Vancouver troupe has been asked to make the journey to re-stage 2007's Diary of a Madman. The play is an original theatrical adaptation of Gogol's classic short story, the tale of a middle class Russian's descent into complete lunacy. For me, watching the experimental production was a singular experience, and it seems I'm not alone in my admiration for this unique piece of darkly droll dream-theatre.

With fourteen schools selected to join in this year's festival, the group from UBC will be the only Canadian program represented. In fact, they'll be joining a performance from New York's Columbia University as the festival's first ever North American selections. The cast and crew are currently fund raising, as plane tickets to the Czech Republic apparently don't come on the cheap. So on Saturday night they'll be presenting a special, one night re-staging of Diary in order to help with the finances. Admission is by donation, and I recommend that everyone with an empty Saturday night seize what may be their last opportunity to see the performance...

This unsettling marriage of modern stereotypes, avant-pagan imagery, and dark but often playful humor pervades the entire exhibition, which celebrates the last ten years of artistic output from Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse. The artistic duo have been combining the traditions of Wicca, craft-making, punk culture and modern art since their formation in 1979 (check out their manifesto & media kit online in pdf). Now instructors at the University of Guelph, they've held successful exhibitions across North America which have been consistently met with critical acclaim and public attention. This retrospective, however, is their first showing of work in Vancouver.

First displayed last fall in Toronto, DONKY@NINJA@WITCH weaves together five of the duo's previously acclaimed installations, dating from 1995 to the present. The resultant farrago of fringe imagery and experimental art leaves one feeling dumbstruck; the exhibit overwhelms on a level both sensual and cerebral and it almost left me too intimidated to attempt a review. Regardless of my inability to properly articulate its power, the show is essential viewing for anyone fascinated by contemporary art or fringe culture...

It's a modern luxury for any avid fan of photography, this ability to surf through reams of photographs online by our favourite photographers, adding comments and following hyperlinks to suggested views. As nice as it is to browse through photos in the comfort of one's home (or office?), it's a process far removed from the traditional art world. No longer forced to stand ponderously in front of framed pieces on a gallery walls, it's hard to deny that something is lost in the speed of online art consumption.

Beginning tonight, the Yaletown Gallery is giving photo-lovers a chance to slow down as they present Landscapes of Vancouver. The exhibit offers a chance to view the work of some Vancouver flickr staples in a more 'conventional' gallery setting, including prints by some of Beyond Robson's more frequent photographic contributers. Details after the jump...