Is party and Art a good combination?

For the Vancouver Art gallery the answer is YES! For some years now they have been organizing night events for adults with performances included. I went to one of these events like 5 years ago with some pretentious characters so I didn´t enjoy it that much then although I saw Fond of Tigers playing there. I was back to the gallery on March 12th for another of these events. There are a couple of interesting exhibitions going on Visceral Bodies and Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man Both running until May. I was expecting more from the first exhibition, but nevertheless was interesting and had some bold statements, It is a very eclectic exploration of the human body “as the world’s athletes gather in Vancouver for the 2010 winter Games and
our attention is gripped by the astonishing capabilities of the human body, or I should say the human form “a groundbreaking exhibition of contemporary art focused on the human form,” said Vancouver art Gallery director Kathleen Bartels. “together with leonardo da Vinci’s magnificent drawings, this exhibition represents the considerable history of artists using the body as a subject of anatomical, social and psychological study.” The press release continues “Visceral Bodies features 20 international artists working in a diverse range of media, including sculpture, painting, mix media, photography and video. the first section considers the body as a site of emotional, political and gendered meanings. next, the exhibition presents artworks drawing on advances in scientific and medical technologies to explore the physicality of the body in new ways. the remainder of the exhibition envisions a future where the human form is exploded and no longer contained as a definable whole”.

The exhibition is presented with the drawings of Italian genius from the Renaissance Leonardo Da Vinci.  He draw a very comprehensible collection along with his anatomical observations. certainly it was a good experience to see these works by night. As the night grew older the crowds started arriving. We went to the second floor to see the permanent collections and the Visions of British Columbia.

Other “attractions” of the night included: Get to know your neighbour by sending postcards to a stranger,  free gifts by Natalie Puschwitz, performances by  Hello, Blue Roses, and Kick Everything. Although these bands were not my cup of tea, Carol Sawyer and Ion Zoo definitely were. Kick Everything were a little too kitch and tried hard to be a no wave New York band, then there was the duo of Daniel Bejar from new Pornographers and Destroyer and his girlfriend Sydney Vermont and although I consider him a good songwriter we were parched and missed their performance. I didn´t think he needs our support but the bar downstairs neither, the DJ was lousy and the ambient a little dislocated so we went to the Gallery cafe where another jazzy band was playing. Much better.

But Ion Zoo gave a breathtaking, magical performance, mantra-like at times, experimental voices led by Carol Sawyer and exotic percussion by Steve Bagnell who also plays the whole family of Saxophones, the bassist is Clyde Reed also a founding member of the NOW orchestra and a very versatile bassist. The three of them took us into a voyage that fitted the art atmosphere and the dinosaur skeleton made from plastic chairs that hangs from the roof in the quadrangular room. trippy, you could also see them from above among the photos of the Vancouver apartments. Very seventies looking.

I suggest to explore their website and discover what you might like from the gallery, is pretty much the only big Art Museum that we have here and they are running cool programs so we can be educated and do more art and less hockey.

http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/events_and_programs/fuse.html