I is being This

by Janine C. Grant

Instal­la­tion view, I is being This, Catri­ona Jef­fries, Van­cou­ver, 2012.
Photo Courtesy of Catronia Jefferies

It happens to all of us.  At some point, we are confronted with the trite materiality of our daily existence.  Whether it’s emptying your pockets at the end of the night, clearing off your desk, or bagging clothes to give away, each daily activity is a form of exhuming the evidence of your life choices and vices.  I wouldn’t say that these remnants define who we are, but rather act as indicators of our life narrative.  The process of sorting and discarding is complicated, involving many different layers and items of the everyday.  Liz Magor, in her recent show I is being This at the Catriona Jeffries Gallery, displayed them all.

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The Studio Theatre: New Work by Damian Moppett

by Brandon Chow

Damian Moppett’s work at the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Offsite location fashions concrete space into an imagined stage, and Georgia Street’s sidewalk into front-row seating.

Large Painting and Caryatid Maquette in Studio at Night, colloquially nuanced, describes a large-scale model (maquette) of elements from a portrait of Moppett’s studio, translated into a colour kaleidoscope of Rorschach-esque metal cutouts. While a sculpture of a painting of an art studio sounds like an easy concept at which to throw hipster labels, Moppett’s use of various media in relation to one another reflects a deeper meditation on the progression of art making—something that didn’t immediately appear to me in my experience with this piece, but grew more familiar with an intimate review.

The Evolution of a Graffiti Artist

by Stephan Ackermann

I’m Stephan.  I’m a 20-year-old graffiti artist from Germany. I am a bit too young to know much about Hip Hop history in Germany, but I know that as in America, Hip Hop culture is very old in Germany and so is the graffiti scene.  Superficially, Hip Hop may appear to be about XXL clothes, violence and drug-glorifying music. However, if one goes deeper, it is probably the most creative youth culture that ever existed. I myself have always been interested in visual arts and part of the Hip Hop culture, so it was inevitable that I would resort to the spray can one day.

The real trigger was probably a friend’s computer game. It was about a sprayer in a utopian city ruled by a strict regime.  The idea of sneaking through the night like ninjas with a couple of friends, having every thing planned like a bank robbery and finally producing art, a message for the cold, grey environment, fascinated us. A short time later we made this dream came true.

The Ongoing Adventures of Dash Fantastico and the Blazing Buckaroos….Episode 21: The ¡FNARG! Pit

By Sean Michael Nelson | Cover Art by Rhys Edwards

When we last left our daring hero, Dash Fantastico, he was venturing deep into the headquarters of the dreaded Scarlet Syndicate to prevent the firing of the evil Chairman Grop’Th’Tul Chang’s Neutron Death Ray at the intergalactic capital of Von Braun City on Earth’s artificial moon Nova Luna.

Who knows what dangers await Dash as he courageously makes his way through the maze-like corridors of Chang’s bureaucratic barracks…