It’s the site of what is arguably Vancouver’s most notable event, a bitter battle between the Non-Partisan Association and an alliance of Strathcona activists and Chinatown business people – the Georgia Street Viaduct. Built as a first phase of a planned interurban freeway system, this minute stretch of freeway reaches like a tree root from the downtown core to Chinatown a now-gone neighbourhood of Vancouver known as “Hogan’s Alley” and home to the city’s only black church, the African Methodist Episcopal Fountain Chapel.
On the one hand, the viaduct is considered the single most ‘convenient’ way out of downtown. On the other, a complete waste of incredibly valuable space. It’s an unwanted shrine to a battle that kept the freeway from being built through downtown, allowing the city to become what it is today.
The City of Vancouver has decided it’s time for this shrine to go – though when and how and what will go there is yet to be determined.
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Skattered throughout Vancouver, bus stop shelters have been turned from ad space to sheet music. Adorno and Nose, as the piece is called, is a collection of ten songs composed and illustrated by Barry Doupe and James Whitman. Each poster contains a different song, notated as standard sheet music, the verse, and a drawn graphic.
“The songs are invitations to play and divertissement, whether private, humming or singing to oneself, or performance, singing out loud to friends or strangers. …People will be surprised, will wonder what they’re for,” explain the artists of the work.
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This new Banksy work plays on the ongoing News Corporation phone hacking scandal.
Have you discovered any other artwork related to Murdochgate? Tell us in the comments below.
Via REBEL:ART.
Going nude on Wall Street may be more risky than insider trading.
Three artists were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct Monday for participating in a site-specific performance designed to protest US and international financial institutions.
Entitled Ocularpation: Wall Street, the five-minute performance was organized by Manhattan artist Zefrey Throwell and included dozens of volunteers acting out various Wall Street occupations before shedding their clothes.
“The idea, Mr. Throwell said, was to expose the realities of working on the nation’s financial artery as a commentary on the state of the economy, though most passers-by simply saw flesh.” (ArtsBeat)
Approached by the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe to produce a public work for their event, South African designer Heath Nash built shade structures using scrap materials — largely discarded beverage containers.
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‘Pakour’, or FreeRunning, is the acrobatic art of running through cities and overcoming obstacles on the fly — or like a fly, because sometimes it seems like traceurs (slang for those who practice pakour) can defy gravity. It is thrilling to watch, and no doubt even more thrilling to do.
I just discovered this great short doc (Free Running Gaza) by the folks who make the Artscape program at Al Jazeera about two young men in Gaza who have been practicing pakour since 2009 and posting videos of their acrobatic feats on Youtube.
It is, of course, about the art of pakour for these occupants of Kan Younis refugee camp, and about survival and inspiration. Check it out.
Free Running Gaza
The fine folks from Making Contact (a program at the National Radio Project) present Marching for Change: Street Bands in the US, a new documentary about the musical funsters who make protests danceable.
Social justice marching bands have emerged in recent decades as essential contributors to North American protest movements filling streets of unrest with their fun beats and good vibes.
This new documentary includes appearances by such luminaries as the Hungry March Band, Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Infernal Noise Brigade, and the Brass Liberation Orchestra.
Download or stream the doc here.
An audaciously proactive guerrilla group has, just recently, conducted an early morning raid on ubiquitous advertising encasements at bus stops, metro stations and other locations throughout Montreal – replacing corporate adverts with art and political posters. They have put together a site complete with an interactive map where the locations of each intervention are highlighted with text and photos. The action is nothing short of heroic, brilliant and inspirational. Below is their blurb, from their website. Kudos to Artung!
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The W2 Media Cafe (Vancouver) is hosting a day of remembering for the ill-fated Komagata Maru, a ship carrying 376 refugees from British India that arrived in Vancouver on May 23, 1914. After two months, the Komagata Maru was sent back to India where many of the survivors were arrested, beaten and 20 were shot to death by the British.
The day of remembering will include panel discussions by filmmaker Ali Kazami, artist Rita Wong, lawyer Catalin Mitelut, and activist Kat Norris. The infamous history has clear echoes today with current treatment of refugees who encounter border policies based on race, wealth and political affiliation.
There will also be a 60-minute Komagata Maru Memorial Walk hosted by artist T’Uy’Tanat Cease Wyss (Skwxumesh) to the Coal Harbour to visit the site of the Komagata Maru memorial plaque.
The Komagata Maru memorial day program will conclude with the screening of Continuous Journey, the amazing and moving documentary film by Ali Kazami, with introduction by the filmmaker.
For more info: Komagata Maru Panel Discussions and Walk
A Montreal artist collective is taking their public art to the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. Billed as “The Pigeon’s Club”, an art festival for the homeless, the event will offer two days of revelry and amenities for Vancouver’s down and out, homeless and street involved.
The festival which runs May 20-21, is being organized by ATSA, the internationally acclaimed Montreal duo of Pierre Allard and Annie Roy who have held a similar although much bigger event in Montreal for almost a decade called Etat d’Urgence.
The idea is to offer an “all inclusive” vacation package to those who are traditionally excluded from such luxuries – food, health services, clothing give-aways, hair-cuts, live music and performances.
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