Justin Ramsey

The Lady is a Tramp: Klasika by Barbara Adler

The Lady is a Tramp: Klasika by Barbara Adler

Words by Justin Ramsey Photos by Paula Viitanen Long before his rise to prominence as one of the leading thinkers of the Frankfurt School, Herbert Marcuse was a something of a young aesthete. His doctoral dissertation examined the Künstlerroman, a literary genre that situates the artist in a struggle against her prosaic, everyday milieu. Arguing […]

 Special Contributor

High Hair Economics: An Interview with Klasika’s Ashley Aron

High Hair Economics: An Interview with Klasika’s Ashley Aron

Words by Peter Dickinson, Ashley Aron, Barbara Adler   In the summer of 2015 I went to the Czech Republic to learn about the unique sub-culture of Czech tramping. I’ve told a lot of stories about my attempts to adapt elements of Czech tramping to a Canadian context; many of these efforts have been detailed […]

 Megan Stewart

Blisters are the way the leather says ‘I love you’

Blisters are the way the leather says ‘I love you’

Dear cowboy boots, our adventures begin here. This fall there’s so much more to look forward to besides trudging through leaves and racing to class. We’re going to be in a musical together – Klasika, by my friend and MFA colleague Barbara Adler. There will be musical numbers, bedazzled denim, maybe even some sheep. Get your hopes up.

 Special Contributor

Field Camp: An Imagined Wilderness

Field Camp: An Imagined Wilderness

Words by Nola Semczyszyn Photos by Lukas Engelhardt and Megan Stewart On August 22, a motley group of people gathered at East Vancouver’s Pandora Park for Field Camp — a collaborative participatory art event and neighbourhood celebration organized by Barbara Adler and Dance Troupe Practice as part of DTP’s Field House Residency. The event drew […]

 Paul Paroczai

Strange Memorial: an audio memoir for remembering Hastings St.

Strange Memorial: an audio memoir for remembering Hastings St.

Part of the build-up to Klasika, a multidisciplinary musical premiering Oct.29\30, 2015 at the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre

Words by Paul Paroczai Sound Piece by Paul Paroczai and Barbara Adler Photos by Paul Paroczai and Barbara Adler I can’t remember at what point during the three-hour, fourteen kilometer trek between SFU’s Woodwards and Burnaby campuses we realized Hastings Street was a place that neither of us particularly wanted to be. Yet, somehow, two […]

 Brit Bachmann

Makeshift Cowboy Meets Improvised Beach

Makeshift Cowboy Meets Improvised Beach

Klasika goes on an urban vandr

Written by Barbara Adler Brit Bachmann photos Brendan Yandt soundscape It feels like it happened a long time ago. A group of friends met in my office at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, where I am currently a graduate student. We listened to field recordings I made last summer in the Czech Republic as […]

 Barbara Adler

Call Me Black Wolf: a musical essay

Call Me Black Wolf: a musical essay

David Newberry and Barbara Adler tell the story of Ernest Thompson Seton and the Natures Fakers Controversy, using music, fiction and the sweet voices of many wolves.

Article by David Newberry. Composition by Barbara Adler, with musical performances by James Meger and David Newberry. Story performed by David Newberry and Barbara Adler. Instruments recorded by James Meger at SlugBait Studios. I am writing this on a train that they call The Canadian. It is taking me and my suitcase from Vancouver, where […]

 Barbara Adler

Welcome to the Johnny Horton Remix

Welcome to the Johnny Horton Remix

In this installment of Klasika, Barbara Adler gives us a taste of some of the music she’s working on as part of her year-long, multidisciplinary art project inspired by Czech tramping.

In Klasika, Barbara uses the Czech fascination with the American Wild West to explore themes of adaptation, appropriation, fiction and thievery. As part of this work, The Johnny Horton Remix project takes these themes and makes them danceable. For Barbara and her musical collaborators, Ten Thousand Wolves, the remix is an opportunity for music to […]

 Barbara Adler

Hey you, it’s me

Hey you, it’s me

 Story and audio recording by Barbara Adler. Photographs by Jirka Matousek and Míša. After posting “My Cowbojsky Boty,” Barbara Adler returned to Czech Republic, cast as a character in Czech Country, a documentary about Czech tramping which is also the subject of her year-long, multidisciplinary art project Klasika. Her return to Canada’s west coast brings […]

 Barbara Adler

My Cowbojsky Boty

My Cowbojsky Boty

Or, "How to Own it When You Don't Own It."

Writing by Barbara Adler Illustrations by Brit Bachmann Photography by Barbara Adler and Ash Tanasiychuk Videos by Ash Tanasiychuk “A cowboy without a horse just wants to get to where they’re going.” This summer, I picked up that piece of cowboy philosophy by wandering – horseless — through the Czech countryside in a pair of […]