What Art is For Part 2: Dirt City:Dream City

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

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).

This weekend, the Edmonton Arts Council’s summer transitory art project Dirt City¦Dream City launches downtown in the Quarters, which counts among its 15 young Edmonton artists Latitude 53’s Communications Coordinator Adam Waldron-Blain, and other friends of the gallery like our Parka Patio installation artists Jes McCoy, Rachelle Liette Bowen and Mackenzy Albright, and local painter Aaron Paquette, who we had hoped to book for this year’s Incubator before life got in the way.

Dirt City:Dream City is a collaborative effort with fifteen local artists and artist/curator Kendal Henry to create site-specific public artworks throughout The Quarters Downtown. These collaborations will delve into the past, look to the future, wallow in the grit and radiate in the sometimes-hidden beauty that is alluring and unique to the district to conceive provocative and innovative public interventions.

The show begins with a launch party on Friday from 4–7 at Jasper Avenue and 95 Street, with a variety of entertainment (including a Lion Dance, bands, DJs and poetry—find the list here) Curator Kendal Henry will also be giving a talk and guided tour at 2pm on Saturday, at the Artery (9535 Jasper Ave).

Find out more about the event at dirtcity-dreamcity.ca.

Latitude 53 Video Podcast

Mackenzy Albright and Rachelle Liette Bowen took a break from working on their installation in the gallery to talk to us about their work and what it’s like to be an emerging artist in Edmonton.

See their installation at our new winter fundraiser, the Parka Patio, on February 18. Get your tickets at www.latitude53.org/parka.

Our Parka Patio installation artists have been busy the last few days getting ready, and Rob Harpin and our volunteers have been hanging the auction work too. It’s so close!

We’re just putting the finishing touches on our video with Rachelle Liette Bowen and Mackenzy Albright, who’ve been working on this piece—look for it here on the blog tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, Jes McCoy’s tunnel also looks pretty sweet—but you’ll have to wait and come journey through it on Saturday. No peeking!

Wondering just what Mackenzy Albright and Rachelle Liette Bowen are going to be building for the Parka Patio? Here’s a little teaser—recently sighted in their studios, a lamp and a massive block of pink foam.

Look for video here on the blog next week during their installation process.

On Saturday, Easy Street curated by Megan Rose Mehler goes up for just one day at the old Duchess Bakery location at 10720 124 St. Check out previews from Carolyn Jervis at Vue and Ana Maria de la Fuente at Avenue.

The show is the second part of a collaboration between Edmonton– and Victoria-based artists and curators, with a mixture of BC and Alberta artists—and the list includes lots of friends of Latitude 53, including local artists Mehler, Leanne Olson, Josh Holinaty, Smokey, Terrena Boss, as well as Emilio Rojas who last was in Edmonton for Visualeyez 2011. Of particular note for us this week, though, is a collaboration by Rachelle Liette Bowen and Mackenzy Albright who will be here in the gallery next week building a winter environment for the Parka Patio.

Join the Facebook event or just drop by—the show is open from noon, with a $5 cover from six o’clock for the party portion of the event.

These artworks by Sam Walrod, Jill Stanton and Mackenzy Albright could be yours in less than two weeks: they’re all up for auction at Schmoozy on December 5th—take a look at the roster of artist-donors and book your ticket at www.latitude53.org/schmoozy.