Strathearn Mural: “Free Rain” in Edmonton

James is working on this mural for a wall in Edmonton next week, with an opening event on the 19th. Here’s the invitation, and if you happen to be in Edmonton, please come by.
If you follow the link to the site for the project, you can see a slideshow of the work so far.

Free Rain

A 16’ x 16’ public mural

by Vancouver artist James K-M

Opening Sunday, July 19, 2009

3 – 5 PM

at 9206 95th Avenue (west wall)

Edmonton, Alberta

For more information call Joe Clare at 780-913-5447

RSVP at project web site: http://strathearnmural.net

About the artist:

James K-M lives in Vancouver, B.C. and has exhibited internationally since 1978.

His most recent exhibition of paintings was at the Simon Fraser University Teck Gallery in 2008

His next exhibition will be in Camagüey, Cuba in December 2009. Artist web site is at http://jameskm.wordpress.com

“Out of extremely objective systemization comes extreme subjectivity”

Bill Jeffries, SFU Gallery Curator

A public mural commissioned by Joe Clare

RSVP: Free Rain Mural Opening

Performance on Carrall Street this Tuesday

This post is a duplicate of a post in my Carrall Street Journal.

Art on Carrall – literally about Carrall Street. This is the kind of thing I’ve been thinking about for years, and now it looks like Althea Thauberger is making art about this street and its complexities.

Can’t wait to walk out my door and see what she has put together.

ARTSPEAK | CARRALL STREET | ALTHEA THAUBERGER | SEP 30
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CARRALL STREET | ALTHEA THAUBERGER

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
8-11pm in the 200 block of Carrall Street, Vancouver

Carrall Street Public Forum
Thursday, October 2, 2008
7pm at 33 West Cordova Street

Althea Thauberger’s one-night performance, Carrall Street, will present the
street (brightly lit like a film set at nighttime) as a stage, or zone of
illumination where the roles of performer and spectator blur. The
interweaving of organized performers, passers-by and audience members will
allow for unforeseen interactions to take place that reveal something of
the street’s history, its current issues, as well as its future. Carrall
Street is planned in collaboration with local directors, performers and
community members.

Carrall Street is one of the oldest streets in Vancouver. It can be argued
that the entire history (and pre-history) of the city can be mapped along
its six blocks. Caught between urban gentrification and decay, the street
marks transitions from the most touristic parts of the city to what is
often described as the poorest neighbourhood in Canada. In ways that are
both unique and similar to other inner cities, it has been affected by
development, public policy neglect and polarized politics.

A publication accompanying the project will be available in 2009.

Althea Thauberger is an artist based in Vancouver. Her work involves
research and collaboration that result in performances, films, photographs,
audio recordings and books.

The performance and forum are free and open to the public.

This project has been supported by Arts Partners in Creative Development,
The Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver and the Portland
Hotel Society.

Creative Reworking of the Old Telus Box

This post is a duplicate of a post in my Carrall Street Journal.

This Telus box near the bus stop on Carrall and Cordova has been a real eyesore and a problem in the area, as in the past it was a place where dealers and users would congregate. All kinds of things went on between that box and the building behind it. The people at the new Irezumi Tattoo shop had the idea to make this box less of a graffiti-covered eyesore, and arranged with Telus permission to cover the box with a graphic of their own design. It’s totally in keeping with the feel of the street so how could it invite graffiti? Fantastic! Kudos to Irezumi Tattoo!

What’s Happening in Vancouver?

Wondering what to do this weekend? Check out VanCal, a great new site from the prolific Rosie!

Check out her new listing of free and near-free Vancouver events here at her new VanCal site. Updates, reviews, upcoming event listings, its all there!

Upcoming: Illuminares at Trout Lake

Here’s what she says about VanCal:

We have a young family and full time jobs, student loans and a mortgage. Access to the arts isn’t just the purview of the upper middle class, it’s available to everyone. You just need to know where to look.

VanCal is a calendar for everyone who wants to get out and enjoy arts and culture in Vancouver but can’t afford the Chan Centre. The information is collected from the free publications and wherever I hear about it – the important thing is to get out there and support Vancouver’s vibrant arts community.

New Banners for Gastown

Check out the new Gastown banners, bright and not so soot-covered as the last ones had become over time. The blue looks great. And speaking of colour, the Bodega building has been tarted up for a film shoot. Instead of the expanse of black, sophisticated as it was, we now have the variety of red, yellow, looking like some other older part of some other different town altogether. Illusion.

But where is Hunt and Gather? I hope not gone forever, but fear it may be so – the place was empty well before the film shoot a few days ago.

Prime Time Chicken’s been back open all summer, with their photo of soft ice cream in the window; but the Prime Time Spot is still closed.

Video Monster is open now on the corner of Carrall and Cordova, with the summer patio it looks active and lively.

I’ve been meaning to mention the great No Homes No Peace sign that stands on the roof just past the West Hotel. It’s always visible on the skyline as you go north on Cordova, at around the Keefer intersection. I hope it stays up for a very long time, a timely message.

Council Decision on Carrall Greenway

A detailed administrative report and request for implementation will be brought to the city council for approval on Thursday July 13th at 2 PM. For more details, please refer to the City’s Carrall Greenway Report June 27/06. Here’s hoping Council will see the benefits of going ahead with this project.

The Carrall Street Stewardship Group has worked for many years to bring the project to this level, and I couldn’t imagine the time that it has taken even before all the stakeholders met in this form. The idea of a water-to-water connection along Carrall has been in the works for such a long time now – its time has surely come.

Plans for the Water Street/Maple Tree Square section look particularly interesting, and we hope to see these put into place very soon.

Alexander Street Block Party! June 17th

Centre A: Container Culture

CONTAINER CULTURE
  : Vancouver
 
A  new media art project by Kate Armstrong, Bobbi Kozinuk, M. Simon Levin, Laurie Long, Leonard Paul,Manuel Piña & Jean Routhier; Curated by Alice Ming Wai Jim
 
Opening:  Friday, June 16, 8pm, at Centre A, 2 West Hastings Street
Exhibition venue I:  Centre A, June 17-July 1 (Tues-Sat, 11am-6pm)
Exhibition venue II: Earth: the World Urban Festival, June 21-25 (daily,11am-midnight)
Admission is free to all events
 
This site for complete Listing of all the exciting IN[   ]EX Events & Activities from June 16 to 25.
Centre A is proud to present Container Culture: IN[ ]EX, a new interactive, city-wide collaborative media art project involving a shipping container and thousands of smaller modules. IN[ ]EX is a distributed audio sculpture in which thousands of wooden blocks with embedded technology are released into the city to engage the public as active agents. IN[ ]EX invites audience activity, movement and interaction, as well as engages with the larger urban context as the blocks are dispersed throughout the city and culture in general.
 
The blocks are distributed through an array of interventions that reference early models of instruction-based participatory works. The interventions range in scale and complexity and are geared toward carving out a cultural existence for the blocks across a wide variety of channels, including performance, commerce, installation, social media, mail art, photography,product placement, activism, and viral networks. As the blocks circulate,they transmit data which is collected by a mesh network and processed to create a constantly remixed sound environment in a shipping container.  Ultimately, IN[ ]EX explores the migration of capital, goods, and people through the ports and public spaces of Vancouver, Canada, and San José,California. By using thousands of small wooden blocks as placeholders of
this activity, the project brings forward a consideration of not only the social conditions of movement in the two cities but also the ways in which the circulation of these things implicates us in the global economy and informs our diverse world-views.

Maple Tree Square Open House

Maple Tree Square is currently undergoing redesign as part of the Carrall Street Greenway development.  A workshop was held in February 2006 to discuss the redesign with the community and City Staff have been working on revising the design based on previous inputs and discussions. Please come to an Open House on June 1st where Staff will present back to the community the revised design of Maple Tree Square and the interim bike facility on Alexander Street. 

Thursday, June 1st, 2006 4-6pm

Interurban Gallery (9 E Hastings, northeast corner of Carrall and Hastings)

City staff is looking for comments and the Greenway staff team will be available to answer questions.

Public Art for Carrall Street

As Karen Henry stated in the City of Vancouver website: Carrall Street represents the intersection of urban life and issues and is a vital ground upon which to consider possible artworks and interventions. The Carrall Street Public Art Plan is currently being developed and will identify themes and a range of artist opportunities for temporary and sited works over the next few years and recommend the nature of calls to artists.

Find out more here.