Celebrations

Yesterday was a lovely day.  So much to celebrate.

First, I woke up to learn that David Zieroth, poet, teacher, coffee savourer, organiser of the Sunday Afternoon with the Dead Poets (an event David organised and we hosted here in October) and all round fabulous person won the 2009 Governor General’s Award for his recent book of poetry, The Fly in Autumn.  As far as I know, a GG is the highest literary honour in Canada, so a million and three congrats David!  I have ordered 10 books from the publisher and they will be available at the cafe in celebration of David’s honour.  I believe they arrive tomorrow, November 19th.

Then, I got images of Navin Rawanchaikul x Navin Production Studio Gang x Teams of Painters’ epically huge installation at the FAT Music Festival in Bangkok.  Not only is it just a massive painting.  But it is important for Navin’s practice too.  Navin has always been driven by questions about art’s role/place/form in human communities and it’s relationship to the worlds outside of the narrow confines of the so-called art world.  So it makes me really happy to see him have a chance for what must have been a really nice (though a tad costly) collaboration with an unprecedented number of people who have nothing to do with the art world, and who are likely brilliantly satisfied with the chance to be a part of bring of this work to a huge audience (supposedly over 100,000 people attended the festival).  Of course Navin runs the risk of being perceived as a producer of low-art to the detriment of his high-art cred, but Navin’s practice wouldn’t be Navin’s practice without constantly testing these very boundaries.  So congrats to you Navin on a coup of a project!

Then, it was great, yesterday to learn that the opening of Christina Froschauer’s first CAFCA curation, LIVE COMMON GROUND, went on fabulously last Thursday.  I missed it, sadly.  The show as both an installed thing and a curatorial practice is really nice.  As an installation it is low-key yet informative.  Inside the gallery, effectively introducing the medium of electronic art, there are an array of electronic art works from Ben Bogart’s interactive video and Morgan Rauscher’s crazy glasses to Michael Filimowicz’s net art and Helgi Kristinsson’s poetically blocked screen.  In the cafe area in the meantime, Christina has arranged some of the artists’ technical drawings (or programming outlines), writings and a video about the process of making such work.  There was also an appearance of Cafca regular, Sung Yoon’s interactive stop-action animation production system set up in the children’s area.  As a curatorial process what made this project so nice for me was how it served as a mechanism of research and engagement.  Having recently completed her Master’s in Art History at Concordia Christina was super-well aware of the arts scene in Montreal.  But here in Vancouver, not so much.  One of the things she observed however, was that electronic arts certainly appeared less prevalent than in Montreal.  And that awareness of this sort of art was likely not so broad.  So, hoping to introduce herself and our community to what might be going on in the local scene she simply asked question, I wonder what’s out there, and began planning the exhibition.  She called for submissions via craig’s list and other sites sending a call out to seemingly relevant professors and so forth.  Basically saying ‘hi, how are you?’ to Vancouver’s little world of electronic art.  LIVE COMMON GROUND is the beginning.  Congrats Christina!

Finally, it wasn’t exactly yesterday, but I know that recently an exhibition proposal was submitted by someone who hasn’t done that sort of thing in a long time.  And to him too, many congrats.

November exhibition at the cafe: LIVE COMMON GROUND

cafe for contemporary art presents…

An art exhibition featuring works by local artists Ben Bogart,
Michael Filimowicz, Helgi Kristinsson, and Morgan Rauscher.

Show Dates: November 8th to 29th, 2009
Opening Party: Thursday, November 12th, 7pm – 9pm
CAFCA address: 140 East Esplanade, N. Vancouver. 778.340.3379

Café for contemporary art presents LIVE COMMON GROUND, an exhibition featuring the works by local artists: Ben Bogart, Michael Filimowicz, Helgi Kristinsson, and Morgan Rauscher. Brought together by common interest, each artist uses electronics and new media, in their own unique ways, as a medium for creative production.

Often falling under the guise of gaming art or digital art, the discipline of “electronic arts” includes these elements and more, expanding into the artistic realms of robotics, video, audio, music, internet, circuitry, digital, wireless, among others. Acting as a window into this vast and intricate discipline, the show invites the gallery attendees to learn more about electronic art practices and programming. Often embracing interaction as an aspect of their work, electronic and new media artists necessitate audience participation to contribute to the completion of their pieces. Café for contemporary offers a two piece program inviting the audience to look, physically engage with, and learn more about circuitry, net based art, interactive video, and audio visual works on show in the gallery space. And lining the walls of the cafe, diagrams, patches, text, and schematics, provide an intimate window into the artist’s process and the “how to” of what’s involved in creating and programming art with electronics.

Please come out, meet the artists, and join us in celebrating the opening on November 12, 2009, from 7pm to 9pm (food and refreshments will be served).

Contacts: christina froschauer.604.781.4018
café for contemporaryart.778.340.3379.
cafeforcontemporaryart@gmail.com

Café Myriade

So I made the trek out to Café Myriade today….It was indeed a trek, but definitely worth it. Chatted with Anthony and the two baristi on shift about their machine, coffee in general, business, you name it. It made me miss making coffee and interacting with people in that way.

With regards to that last post, the main issue brought up there has been fixed….

Recognize the bag, anyone? Café Myriade’s roastery is none other than 49th Parallel! That bag is the Tanzanian Karmaro Microlot…can’t wait to try it tomorrow morning

Anthony treated me to a delicious espresso and the very talented (and very lovely) Cici – spelling unknown – made me a fantastic cappuccino. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, so I couldn’t take any photos of the café (or the space). Next time, I promise!

LOL,

Tim

Musings of a Gingerkid

News from Montréal!

Hey guys – long time no talk!

Just thought I’d post a little blurb about what’s been going on out here in Québec. Lots of stuff, but first:

Nooooooo!!!!!! I’M OUT OF COFFEE!!!!!!

Stan Douglas – Stained Glass

Saturday night Seung-Young’s show opened well and many lovely people were by to check it out. Yesterday, we flew some paper airplanes at Waterfront Park and carried on to take Seung-Young and Jaehyun (his marvelous other half) for a day trip up the sea-to-sky highway. Today, along with Sung and Kiban (my better half and son) they enjoyed a day in town. Sung took them to go check out what might be on at the Vancouver Art Gallery, but when Seung-Young heard the ticket counter staff explain that all they really had on was a show of the Group of Seven and Stained Glass, it is understandable that he wasn’t so interested. Sadly, it was only on the ride home tonight that we discovered, it was just a lost-in-translation moment and not that he just had no interest in Stan Douglas… There is no stained glass show on at the VAG. And as far as I understand they don’t have any planned for the foreseeable future…

Seung-Young Kim: Self-Portrait

CafCA is buzzing as we set up for  Sueng-Young Kim: Self Portrait, marking the Korean artist’s first international solo exhibition. The show features documentation of three performance works that occurred in New York City and on a flotilla in the waters between Korea and Japan, focusing on themes of identity and globalization (see below for an overview of the works)  We’re holding an opening this Saturday, September 19th from 7-9pm, with the artist in attendance; come by for good coffee and conversation.

Also, on Sunday afternoon (around 1pm), as a playful nod to one of Kim’s pieces, we’ll be flying paper airplanes in the park across the street. Hope to see you this weekend!
__________________________________________

September 19th – October 25th, 2009
Opening Reception: September 19th, 7-9pm

café for contemporary art
140 East Esplanade Ave.
North Vancouver, BC
V7L 4X9, Canada

__________________________________________

Café for Contemporary Art proudly presents, Seung-Young Kim’s first international solo exhibition. Seung-Young Kim: Self-Portrait is an exhibition of select works from the artist produced while participating as an artist in residence in New York’s PS1 International Studio Program (1999-2000), and, during a process of exchange between Korea and Japan. This exhibition is a part of the Café for Contemporary Art’s dynamic line of exhibitions aimed at exploring the contemporary negotiation of life, identity and relationships in an age of global migration that continues to be tainted by the experiences of colonialism.

Seung-Young Kim has used his artistic practice as a means to explore the relationship between memory and the fluid constitution of the self. Straddling a space between an outward challenge of encountering and joining the cultural other and an inward desire for peace in the turmoil of the mind, Kim constructs spaces for contemplation and embarks on transformative cross-cultural encounters in his work. An engaging invitation to a shared inner-world of constant change, Kim’s work is removed from the ebb and flow of urban mania, pop-culture and mass-media, and refocuses on fundamental, ancient human questions of the self, relationships to community, nature’s role, and inter-communal relations. The challenges related to the transitional journey between cross-cultural social encounters in the face of inherited perceptions and unresolved historical tensions, are at the centre of the curatorial rationale for the selection of works in this show.

This exhibition is primarily a triptych with Kim’s Self-Portrait (1999) resting at its centre.  This is a video piece of the artist repeatedly posting a slightly larger than life-sized image of himself on a wall only to have it fall again and again.  This work stems from Kim’s experience of trying repeatedly to post a Joseph Beuys poster on the wall of his studio while in residency in New York. He was struck by the similarities of this repetitive act to his process of establishing himself in a foreign environment. Exhibited along with this work, are documents from two social encounter projects. One is Paper Airplane Project (2000), a simple project where Kim ventured into Harlem and made paper airplanes in a park. This will be the first ever exhibition of the photos from this project. And the second, Picnic on the Ocean (2002), where Kim and Japanese artist Hironori Murai (Kim’s studio neighbour at PS1) engaged in a long journey of preparing and realizing a picnic in the seas between Korea and Japan.

Through his works, Kim invites us to join him on these acts of encounter, and offers us an opportunity to consider the myriad of challenges faced in plodding through inherited social perceptions and lingering historical anguish.  Along the way, he opens doors to the possibility of constant renewal.

Seung-Young Kim: Self-Portrait runs from September 19th through to October 25th, with an opening reception on September 19th from 7-9pm.

A 24-page full colour pamphlet accompanies the exhibition.

This exhibition is supported by: Arts Council Korea

Emiliano Sepulveda has installed a little show…

In the little gap between the young architects/artists/sign-makers’ workshop that resulted in the Terminal Visions exhibition and Seung Young Kim’s upcoming exhibition (opens Sept 19) we are very happy to welcome an experimental installation/environment by Emiliano Sepulveda.  It doesn’t have a name yet, and maybe it never will, but it is lovely.

When Matthew, our beloved Matthew, learned that there was going to be a little gap between shows he said, hey, the other night I met this interesting guy, an artist, I don’t know exactly what it is that he is doing, but it seems really interesting, engaged in a sort of probing and translating of urban space.  What has resulted is a dance of urban light and form.

Emiliano’s show will be up for the duration of next week, closing on Sunday the 13th.  Come check it out if you get the chance.

Comments From an Uber-Regular

This morning I asked, “So, who’s posting to your blog now that Tim’s gone?” Well… this evening, I am giving you my first post. Things happen pretty fast around here. I guess that’s one of the reasons why I love this place so much.

Who am I? I’m a CafCA regular. My name’s Lisa, and I’ve been writing a novel at CafCA for the past four months. Something about the energy, the art, the spirit of the people makes CafCA one of my favorite hang outs. So, this morning, the idea of contributing to this blog came to me. After all, it joins my two pastimes: drinking coffee and writing.

I don’t want to write too long for my first post, but I wanted to leave you with this:

The Flat White. With Holly’s return to New Zealand, there was a misconception floating about that CafCA wouldn’t be serving them anymore. This is simply not true. The Flat White is in my thoughts because it made the news today in England’s Daily Mail.

If you haven’t tried one, well, CafCA still serves them and they’re still great. Holly taught them well! You can even raise a glass in her honour if you like.

Holly

two quotes for today

1. from Marshall McLuhan’s War and Peace in the Global Village (1968)
It may be simplest to say at once that the real use of the computer is not to reduce staff or costs, or to speed up or smooth out anything that has been going on. Its true function is to program and orchestrate terrestrial and galactic environments and energies in a harmonious way. For centuries the lack of symmetry and proportion in all these areas has created a sort of universal spastic condition for lack of inter-relation among them. In merely terrestrial terms, programming the environment means, first of all, a kind of console for global thermostats to pattern all sensory life in a way conducive to comfort and happiness. Till now, only the artist has been permitted the opportunity to do this in the most puny fashion. The mass media, so-called, have offered new materials for the artist, but the understanding has been lacking. The computer abolishes the human past by making it entirely present. It makes natural and necessary dialogue among cultures which is as intimate as private speech, yet dispensing entirely with speech. While bemoaning the decline of literacy and the obsolescence of the book, the literati have typically ignored the imminence of the decline in speech itself. The individual word, as a store of information and feeling is already yielding to macroscopic gesticulation.

2. Canada Revenue Agency, Statement of Account For Current Source Deductions (2009)
This year, National Payroll Week is from September 14 to 18, 2009. The Canada Revenue Agency salutes payroll practitioners across the country, our partners in administering payroll deductions requirements.
www.nwp-snp.ca

As the sweat beads trickle

Oh the horror.  Sweat beads trickled as the grand masters of espresso took their sips.  Nervous barista texts flew as we were honoured with a visit from 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters’ gang of incessant cuppers.  The man with the golden tongue took the photo.