Art and Anarchy

On Friday the 13th, I attended the Art and Anarchy at 16 East Hastings in the Occupied Territories of the Downtown East Side.

There were some fantastic exhibitions including more items from Zig Zag, a local First Nations, I featured last year. Check out Zig Zag's Resist 2010 Artwork here. (Thanks to The Blackbird, your photos are outstanding!)

The most compelling works I saw was the Tent City Barricade by David Cunningham. It was a sculpture created using items from a tent city in Vancouver. Elements of it were reminiscent of our over glamourized Canadian war memorials abandoned pill box machine gunners nests in Vimy Ridge. The visceral undertones of conflict were highlighted by a line of Molotov cocktails leading to (or away) from the sculpture. The bottles, with their calico cloth wicks, could be viewed without context against the light coloured wall, save for the bottle to the left or right. Very powerful and well executed.

I spoke to the artist David Cunningham and found him to be a very gregarious, intelligent and engaging.

I can't say I had any interest in checking out the Vancouver 2010 "Cult"ural Olympiad but I am certainly glad I took the time to check out this provocative and confrontational show.

I certainly don't pretend to have the most sophisticated artistic pallet...

Requisite Monty Python reference:

Pope: I'll tell you what I want! I want a last supper with one Christ, twelve disciples, no kangaroos, no trampoline acts, by Thursday lunch, or you don't get paid!

Michelangelo: Bloody fascist!

Pope: Look! I'm the bloody pope, I am! May not know much about art, but I know what I like!

And I know what I like. And I really enjoyed the Art and Anarchy show.

Dr. G