Local artist Aaron Paquette is speaking at this week’s installment of Percolate. Here’s how he describes his talk on its Facebook event:
What is the role of the artist in a modern, connected society? Does art reflect the culture, or shape it?
And what about sustainability? Do the old forms still work, or is there a new movement rising?
Independent, untrained artists are capturing the public’s attention and shaping the social discourse. Why? And how is this happening?
An evening with artist, writer and speaker Aaron Paquette will shed light on these questions as he walks with you through this exciting new world where technology, social change, and humour converge. You will be challenged to re-evaluate your perceptions of what art is in the 21st century and where it is taking us on the uncertain road ahead, and why that’s a very good thing.
The talk happens this Thursday at 7:00 pm. Get tickets at the Citadel Theatre site or stream the talk live.
By Blair Brennan – Part 2 of 2
Aaron Paquette, “Everyone is Welcome”, photo by Chelsea Boos
Regular readers of these Writers in Residence posts (if such a thing exists) will have read my apoplectic outpouring on The Works and Art Walk in Part 1 of “What Art is For”. I would be one of those guys who seethed and complained without offering a solution but one was conveniently provided to me by the recent Dirt City: Dream City project.
DC: DC was an exceptional meeting and mixing of artists and organizers of varying backgrounds and experience. Inspired by transitory public art interventions in other cities, this project culminated in a public outdoor display that attempted to employ visual art as a tool or “weapon” (if we are to believe Picasso – See Part 1) for community transformation. Site specific works by 15 artists were presented in this project led by American artist and curator Kendal Henry. As one might expect of a project this size, some artists were more successful than others but all of their attempts were enough to get my attention and admiration. The work revealed artists and organizers visual and, in the best work, community sensitivity. This was evident in the artist’s steadfast refusal to back down from issues affecting life in the inner-city and the site specific placement of works in predominately empty city lots in The Quarters downtown (located from Jasper Avenue to 104 Avenue between 95 and 96 streets).
Holly Newman, “Crow’s Advice”, Photo courtesy of the artist
Holly Newman, “Crow’s Advice”, Photo courtesy of the artist
My one major criticism, that the display was planned for a ridiculously short ten day period, seems to have been recognized and remedied by organizers. It was recently announced that DC: DC works will remain on display until the end of August. That’s great though I’d still like to see some of these works with that first layer of winter snow on them (but, hey it’s Edmonton. That could be in two or three weeks!)
The project included online and virtual projects, radio, light and video projection, performance art, open houses and, one imagines, much behind-the-scenes negotiation and planning to keep all constituents happy. In focusing on the public exhibition, I realize that I describe but a small apart of this project. There are many other components to DC: DC and I urge you to check them out online.
Carly Greene, “Simulacrum”, photo by Chelsea Boos
Nickelas Johnson, “Ripped Off”, photo by Chelsea Boos
Attendance numbers for DC: DC will be no where near those of The Works or Art Walk. And it is perhaps revealing that more people would rather spend their time at concurrent events like A Taste of Edmonton, in Churchill Square (500,000 people, by their estimate) than take a short walk east to DC: DC. The numbers don’t really matter though. If we’ve learned anything from The Works and Art Walk it may be that no amount of carnival-esque tents and milling crowds will accelerate a process of personal self discovery made possible by meaningful art. Art can take hold of a viewer but it takes some skill on the part of artists, curators, arts event organizers and artistic directors to slyly coax, or sometimes shock, those summer-sunlight-opiated-masses out of their reverie. Go to Art Walk and The Works if you are looking for art to hide that place where you punched a hole in the drywall. Support projects like Dirt City: Dream City if you believe that art can help us understand “what it is to be a fucking human being”, as David Foster Wallace famously described writing.
Jes McCoy, “Futile Fancy”, photo by Chelsea Boos
Mackenzy Albright and Rachelle Liette Bowen, “Lonely Mountain”, photo by Chelsea Boos
Please visit the Dirt City: Dream City and Edmonton Arts Council websites for further information: http://dirtcity-dreamcity.ca/ and http://www.edmontonarts.ca/media_releases/
Please visit the Edmonton Journal’s Fish Griwkowsky’s photo essay of Dirt City: Dream City (but remember to bring your 3D glasses).
Alex Janvier, “Lubicon”, 1988. Art Gallery of Alberta Collection, purchased with funds from the Estate of Jean Victoria Sinclair.
By Blair Brennan, Latitude 53 Writer in Residence
In downtown Edmonton, on a Saturday morning in May, a small but highly visible culture clash is in progress. It is early in the day but high school grads, in prom dresses and tuxedoes fall out of limousines in front of the Winspear centre and pose for photographs with their friends. Across the street in Churchill Square, people are setting up tipis for Blanket of Remembrance, an event that highlights the challenges faced by first nation families by “honouring and remembering our Children who have died while under the care of Child Welfare, those who never returned home, and honouring our children today.” I go back to Churchill square at lunch time drawn by the tipis, drumming singing and dancers in fine regalia, the picturesque things that draw many to aboriginal culture.
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