The Artcity Festival of Art, Architecture and Design runs until September 16 at venues across the city
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An autumn chill is in the air, and with it comes a bumper crop of art, popping up in unexpected locations throughout the city. The annual Artcity festival is again living up to its name by hosting projects that engage with the city and its inhabitants.
Unfortunately, much of Calgary’s existing, permanent public art is characterized by a cool detachment from the city. Solidly constructed from bronze or concrete, it becomes decoration for large buildings and highway overpasses, disappearing unnoticed into the structure of the city.
Suzen Green has taken a direct approach to changing this situation. In her project Yarnover Calgary (Yo! Calgary), the artist has custom knitted toques, leg-warmers and other cozy garments for statues around the downtown core.
With their colour, texture and humour, these handmade interventions revive the figures who wear them, bringing attention to the publicly sanctioned versions of history they represent.
Like Green, Michael Coolidge has also taken the opportunity to claim public spaces for artistic use. His Free Bowl Calgary Invitational is a bowling tournament that uses all of the downtown core as its court.
Interested players and spectators should visit the clubhouse located in the lobby of City Hall for maps and further information. The clubhouse is open between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily throughout the festival.
The economic force behind much of this cultural activity is, of course, Calgary’s ubiquitous boom. It’s a subject addressed by many of the artists participating in the festival, perhaps most succinctly though by The Arbour Lake School.
The collective, based in the far northwest suburb of Arbour Lake, is distributing balloons emblazoned with the word BOOM at various Artcity locations. The sky-blue globules are printed with puffy white letters, reminiscent either of fluffy clouds in a sunny Alberta sky, or the ever-present demolition dust that hangs over the city.
While the balloons seem buoyant and cheerful at first, they are filled with varying amounts of helium. At the Artcity opening gala, a few floated up to the ceiling, getting caught in the rafters, while the rest slowly deflated, only to be popped under the feet of partygoers. An altogether fitting metaphor for our current circumstances.
With all this turbulence in the city, it’s fortunate that a few artists are ready to save us all. John Will has created John’s Little Storefront Ministry at The National Portrait Gallery Inc. on Seventh Ave. S.W. The tiny gallery space is filled with fantastical artifacts from the artist’s long and adventurous life. Front and centre is a portrait of Will’s grandfather, a circus contortionist who was also an ancestor to Paris Hilton. His grandfather was only one of many influential figures who led Will to his current mission of bringing feelings of serenity, well-being and inner peace to his viewers.
Jason de Haan, on the other hand, is building an ark. Where the Ocean Meets this Guy is incongruously located in the basement of Stride Gallery, where a two-by-four skeleton of the vessel stretches the full length of the room. The artist will spend the next month in the gallery, completing the structure that will be unveiled at a closing party October 5.
With artists determined to save us, who is left to help the artists? Elephant Artist Relief (EAR) is coming to the rescue on September 14 and 15 in Olympic Plaza. Based out of Truck Gallery’s CAMPER (Contemporary Art Mobile Public Exhibition Rig), the group plans to raise awareness about the health, well-being and livelihood of artists living in Calgary through music, performance and speaking.
The Venice Biennale is one of the world’s most prestigious art festivals. This year, Montreal artist David Altmejd was chosen as Canada’s representative. Luckily, his work can also be seen at Alberta College of Art and Design’s Illingworth Kerr Gallery until November 3. Altmejd’s visceral installations are populated by a mythic cast of creatures — men with bird heads dressed in sharp business suits, werewolves in various states of decay, as well as a smattering of mushrooms, severed limbs, fake flowers and decapitated heads.
The Artcity Festival of Art, Architecture and Design runs until September 16. Visit www.art-city.ca for more information.
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