SPATIAL POETICS XIII: WeMix
Vancouver’s thirteen-year tradition of artistic mash-up plays to a packed house at The Western Front.
This marks the 13th consecutive year of Spatial Poetics, a celebration of cross-disciplinary artistic collaboration that heralds the beginning of the annual Powell Street Festival. For more than a decade, this event has mashed-up local artists of diverse interests, approaches, and specializations to create new works based on the adventure inherent in the seemingly happenstance […]
Glancing inward to expand outward
A review/interview of Human Theatre Collective’s CAEZR: 33 Cuts
Words by Kaylin Metchie The sun was high in the sky as my boyfriend and I walked up the hill to The Cultch. It was the second time I had been there that week, and I was eager to satisfy my experimental/contemporary theatre itch. No matter whether you like or hate a play at the […]
Hot Choir in the City: The Kingsgate Chorus and Mount Pleasant Regional Institute of Sound
Jenny Ritter’s Rock & Roll choral groups [give a concert] [throw a party] at the Biltmore.
The Kingsgate Chorus and Mount Pleasant Regional Institute of Sound (MPRIS – and pronounced “Empress”), Jenny Ritter’s two excellent choral groups, represent a fresh departure within Vancouver’s burgeoning community choir scene. They perform a tightly arranged repertoire of pop music covers, not the typical choral catalogue of recycled religious hymns, slave songs, civil rights anthems, […]
Exuberant Hues: Ben Skinner Colours Back Gallery Project
Like many art galleries, Back Gallery Project has a generous display window at the front of the building. While not an unusual architectural feature, this window always seems a little special. It is a large, open portal on a particularly blank stretch of East Hastings, illuminating the otherwise forgettable streetscape in ways far more astonishing […]
In The Loop: Musician Chersea Talks LAUNCH Festival
Written by Dillon Ramsey Edited by Christopher Millin Photos of Chersea’s 2013 LAUNCH Fest performance by Ash Tanasiychuk Anyone who hasn’t watched a “loop artist” at work is missing out. “Looping is basically a form of live DJing,” summarises local singer-songwriter Chersea, whose unique technique of manipulating live music through electronic equipment won her the […]
Bozzini Lab 2014: Young Composers Shine in Exploration of New Music
Montreal's superb contemporary- and experimental-classical string quartet premiers thrilling new works by emerging Canadian composers.
On a peerless, cloudless, 20º Friday, with the early evening sun still drenching the city and people abandoning their workweek for the beaches and neighbourhood parks in droves, an audience of nearly 60 others filled a dark, black-box-of-a-room deep within SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. They had come to the Assembly Room of the […]
Seeking Communion
A journey through faith and healing
Words by Brit Bachmann At first glance, Tyler Hagan’s In The Similkameen is a homecoming for those from the British Columbia Interior. We are situated geographically in a place through his landscape photography, where scree slopes meet agriculture, where horses are left to gnaw on fence posts, and where the nearest gas station is at […]
The Wide Perspective: Filmmaker Rami Katz Talks LAUNCH Festival
written by Justin Ramsey edited by Faber Neifer Photos by Ash Tanasiychuk “I love Vancouver,” states Rami Katz affirmatively. “I love the landscape and the environment here—it’s just a beautiful place to live.” This is quite the declaration, given today’s quintessentially-Vancouver weather: grey, chilly, and drizzly, even on a Sunday morning in late May. Nevertheless, […]
Feeling Visions: Choreographer Julianne Chapple Talks LAUNCH Festival
Written by Justin Ramsey Edited by Kaylin Metchie Photos by Ash Tanasiychuk I am sitting in Kafka’s, a charming café in Vancouver’s fashionable Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, enjoying a fabulously foamy London fog. The white walls are decorated with art, and the large front windows fill the spacious room with a pale, natural light. At 9:53, […]
Medical Drama: Theatre Artist Yvette Lu Talks LAUNCH Festival
written by Justin Ramsey edited by Christopher Millin Yvette Lu has a distinction to her name that is unusual for an artist: the prestigious suffix MD. “I wanted to be a doctor for a long time,” Lu recalls fondly, “ever since I was a small child.” We are sitting in Revolver Café, a trendy coffee […]