I was going to make this week’s pick a selection from a “top ten” list from the very recently launched Netflix.ca, but the selection is so atrocious, so barren and bad, that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So, this week’s selection, in a roundabout way, connects with other Canadian “news”: One of Canada’s leading arts, culture, politics and literature magazines, The Walrus, has recently taken to offering its advertising space to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for the sole purpose of greenwashing.
CAPP and RBC, the principle investor in Canada’s eco-nightmare tar sands project, are publishing full-page ads in the magazine that amount to lies and rubbish. Since the Walrus-tar sands greenwashing campaign is all about the supposed efforts of Canadian finance and resource companies’ efforts to reforest the brutally scarred region of northern Alberta, and since the awesome doc about the tar sands—H2Oil—isn’t available for streaming, we bring you Forbidden Forest.
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Did anyone catch the Polaris Music Prize award show on MuchMusic, Canada’s music television station? No? Of course you didn’t. Because despite the fact that was hosted by some of MuchMusic’s personalities, it was relegated to a live feed on the channel’s website.
Granted, the show will be aired on the main MuchMusic channel on Saturday, but its placement and rerun status suggests that it’s an afterthought. I guess they couldn’t find any space in a packed Monday night schedule of three Gossip Girl re-runs; two Degrassi episodes; a show called Pants On, Pants Off; and the painful Video On Trial. Groan.
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It has begun! In late August, a group – or project – calling itself the Toronto Street Advertising Takeover (TOSAT) reclaimed 41 advertising posts and about 25 larger billboards in the city of Toronto.
The “interventions” included painting over, pasting over and replacing advertising kiosk images with artwork and anti-consumer and anti-advertising graphic images from more than 60 international artists. Approximately 90 individual ads were “reclaimed”.
The takeover was orchestrated by 15 local artists lead by Jordan Seiler, a New York City–based street artist, well-known for his similar 2009 reclamation project in New York. The group was briefed on how to gain access to the kiosks and then issued a make-believe letter of permission from an advertising company stating that the company had “graciously donated over 20 Core Media Pillars to the Municipal Landscape Control Committee public arts program division,” among other fictional things. The kiosks were targeted in a 2-hour period on a Sunday afternoon; billboards were reclaimed later that night.
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Just two weeks following the resignation of Jane Danzo, Chair of BC Arts Council, the Government reorganized its funding to provide an additional $7 million to the BC Arts Council, increasing the council’s budget to just over $16 million for this fiscal year.
Following BCs devestating series of arts cuts, Danzo felt it was necessary to resign from her position “in order to have a voice,” and it appears she was heard.
“In my opinion, the work of the BC Arts Council Board, has not been supported by government on a number of different levels,” expressed Danzo in her resignation letter.
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Stephen Harper said last week that he was “concerned” about Homegrown, a play running at this year’s Summerworks theatre festival in Toronto. Homegrown apparently takes a sympathetic view on one of the ‘Toronto 18’ would-be terrorists who were foiled by Canadian authorities in 2006.
Summerworks, like many artistic endeavors across Canada, receives federal funding. This year, Ottawa gave the festival $35,000. There are over 40 performances at this year’s festival, which means that Homegrown probably received somewhere in the range of $875 from the federal government.
Granted, the concern is probably not just about the money; it’s a principles thing, I guess. Why, one might ask, would Canadian taxpayers support a play that asks us to sympathize with a man who was apparently going to try to blow up federal buildings and kill Canadians?
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Back in February of 2008, I attended a concert with a good friend of mine. For a relatively casual afternoon affair, all the stops were pulled out. Headlining the show was then-quintessential Canadian songstress Feist, supported by the complete Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The party was hosted by Ben Mulroney, and played host to all the goofy Olympic mascots: Quatchi, Miga, Sumi and Gordon Campbell.
It was the starting point for the events of what VANOC called the Cultural Olympiad — a two-year running program of dance, music, theatre, music and installation art that showcased for the world the diversity and creativity of BC’s artistic community. Two years to the day after Feist wowed the crowd at the Orpheum, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games were officially opened at BC Place. On display was some of the finest culture BC and Canada had to offer. The centrepiece of the opening ceremonies was BC’s own Shane Koyczan, whose impassioned spoken word piece brought damn near everyone to their feet. Our Olympics were to celebrate our creative prowess as much as our athletic grit.
But running alongside this celebration of BC arts was the spectre of massive financial cutbacks. Before the games even opened, the BC Liberals projected a 90% cut to provincial arts spending provided through the BC Arts Council for the 2010 budget (for what is still one of the best articles on this scheme, read this piece by Mark Leiren-Young of The Tyee). When the March 2nd Budget Lockup announcement rolled around, these cuts had been scaled back to 50%, a devastating blow to an arts sector that already received the least per capita funding of any Canadian province, at a mere $9.67.
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The first official visit by UK Prime Minister Cameron to the White House on July 20, 2010 was watched closely by political pundits around the world. They both wore blue ties during their meeting — did this signify unity on foreign affairs? Was their body language cold or comfortable? Did they walk in stride? During their visit the media analyzed every move, but it was the traditional gift exchange that took the world by storm.
President Obama presented the Prime Minister with a signed lithograph by the famed American pop artist Ed Rucha. In exchange, the Prime Minister presented Obama with a graffiti canvas painted by UK tagger-turned-street artist Eine. With this simple gift, Cameron had instantly challenged conventions and redefined the boundaries of contemporary art.
The media have since described Cameron’s gift as an ‘eyebrow-raising gift of hoodie art’ whilst others have referred to the exchange as a ‘refinement and sophistication of transatlantic relations’ and having ‘established new heights of greatness in meaningful diplomatic gift-giving.’ But more than anything, the exchange has reignited the classic debate: is it art?
The success of prolific street artists such as Banksy and Os Gemos have catapulted street art into the spotlight in recent years resulting in evening art auctions and exhibits in prestigious galleries including the Tate Modern.
For years, seen as only vandalism, the scene has now been set to re-evaluate graffiti’s merit as an art form. But while the art world has been able to reflect upon this difficult aesthetic question, government authorities have been slower to change.
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