Life with Pi: wading into Vancouver’s independent theatre scene
Last night, I was warmly welcomed onto the board of directors for Pi Theatre’s. Pi produces bold, uncompromising plays that explore modern life. They also have a fantastic staff and…
Et Cetera
Do grassroots archives have a future? – Exhibition from archive of activist histories
About 30 people gathered in Toronto last night to discuss what many hope will grow into a movement for archiving grassroots histories. The public meeting was organized by Ulli Diemer…
Breaching the foreclosure of critique – Like art, critical acts generate unexpected insights and outcomes
The contemporary political moment is inflected with both optimism and collapse, unexpected insurrections and brutal repressions. In Greece, Russia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Spain, and elsewhere, the current…
Femininity, fantasy, and fever dreams – Book review: The Lava in My Bones by Barry Webster
In a delirious, hallucinogenic voice, author Barry Webster turns directly toward the place and experience of femininity in a queer life dominated by masculine desires.
How Many Gallons per Hour? – Water Portraits brings water usage closer to home
In the excitement at finally convincing his father to be the first subject of his water portraits, Peter Holmes poured cold water over his father’s head. A surprise to both…
Una Noche a beautiful story of a challenging life
It’s rare to see depictions of Havana that don’t consist of the stereotypes: people playing music, someone sitting on the street smoking a cigar, old American cars, stunning old buildings.…
Privatizing creativity: the ruse of creative capitalism
Ties by Henry Gepfer (henrygepfer.carbonmade.com) 1. The new hype about creativity Who can hate creativity? Who would want less of it? No one, obviously. But something profound has happened to…
Art in the age of political absurdity
“The strength of our American-ness lies in our ability to question, to look frankly at the nation’s past and present, and to ask if we are living up to our…
Finding (Queer) Time – Book review: First Spring Grass Fire by Rae Spoon
Rae Spoon (Photo: JJ Levine) In his remarkable 2009 text, Cruising Utopia, José Esteban Muñoz fixates on the ways in which queer bodies exist outside of and subvert what he…
Duets for Abdelrazik help keep human rights abuses in spotlight
Sam Shalabi joins Stefan Christoff on stage at the June 16 launch of Duets for Abdelrazik. To understand the grotesque, inhuman and criminal depths to which the Canadian government will…
Funding drive for award-winning public art – ATSA asks for public support
One of the most remarkable public art collectives in Canada needs your support. ATSA (the collective name for artists Annie Roy and Pierre Allard) have created some of the most…
Root sculptures celebrate local activists – Pierre Leichner’s Grassroots Project
Pierre Leichner uses grass to make sculptures — for The Grassroots Project, in the shape of faces of community workers and activists from Vancouver’s East Side. The living sculptures, pictured…
Pioneer Ladies [of the Evening] – Photos of incarcerated women are transformed
An exhibition at PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts in Winnipeg is testing the sexualized and gendered boundaries of our Canadian history. Curator Dr. Laurie K. Bertram has taken…
Call for participation – Convergence 2012: The geo/body politics of emancipation
The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Graduate Student Initiative is inviting graduate students from the humanities, arts, and social sciences to come together to discuss contemporary notions of emancipation,…
City of Vancouver launches Arts & Culture Policy Council
The City of Vancouver is now home to an Arts and Culture Policy Council which will advise City Council on civic programs relating to arts and culture. The creation of…
VOINA calls for activist art, Berlin Biennale – Deadline for outsider exhibition July 1
The Russian activist political art collective Voina Group, is inviting artists to participate in the 7th Berlin Biennale. Rejecting what they describe as “limitation in age, education, nationality, political views…
Wild At Heart: Keep Wildlife In The Wild – New Contemporary artists paint the endangered and beloved
Animals inspire, intrigue, and move people in a way nothing else can. Andrew Hosner and Amanda Erlandson gathered together a group of incredible ‘new contemporary’ artists for “Wild at Heart…
How the West Was Won – Art of Nicola Verlato
Nicola Verlato’s “How the West Was One” is a visually striking series of oil on canvas that tells the tale of the culture clash between monotheism and polytheism throughout human…
Quebec’s red square hits Cannes’ red carpet
The team behind 'Laurence Anyways' attends the film's premiere in Cannes, France. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images.) Although Québécois filmmaker and actor Xavier Dolan may be across the Atlantic at the Cannes…
Improvising statehood at the Berlin Biennale – Khaled Jarrar issues postage stamp for State of Palestine
It is a postage stamp for a nation that exists somewhere between memory’s twilight, international conflict and the aurora of hope. Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar has designed a postage stamp…