Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
22 May 2018 Vol 3 No 11 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2018
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
I had an interesting glimpse of the future as I was editing Beverly Cramp's story about Trace, a fascinating Vancouver-area show that brings together art and robotics. I needed to write captions for drawings made by five robots called Paul, part of an art installation by French artist Patrick Tresset. He designed and programmed the robots. They did the drawings. So who is the artist and how do I label the work? This is a question I suspect we will grapple with more in coming decades given the revolutionary changes predicted with the stunning advances in Artificial Intelligence. I do hope the brain trust at the Chicago Manual of Style is mulling over this question!
This a varied and interesting issue of Galleries West. I was pondering what to place in one last story slot when news arrived from the Vancouver Aquarium about a project by Douglas Coupland that responds to the staggering amount of plastic debris in the world's oceans. That was an easy call – star power and an important environmental cause. I interviewed Coupland once for a story about a series of vintage Canadiana prints. I was nervous, but our phone conversation was downgraded to an email interview as Coupland was holed up on a remote island somewhere working. But he was generous in his responses, and endeared himself by signing his note with x's and o's. When I watched the videos embedded with this story, I saw him as someone open to experiences and emotions, a quality I've noticed with other creative people who happily go about doing their thing. This is a show I want to see on my next trip to Vancouver.
Another important story in this issue is by Winnipeg writer Stacey Abramson, who writes about the Resilience billboard project. Featuring the artwork of 50 Indigenous women on more than 160 billboards across the country, it is a crucial act of reconciliation with a broad reach into the everyday life of many communities. The list of artists reads like a Who's Who of contemporary Indigenous art, and women's voices are given a powerful presence through what's essentially a massive linear art gallery.
This issue is rounded out with three additional stories – Lissa Robinson's review of Winnie Truong's fanciful art in Calgary, Agnieszka Matjeko's look at India Inked, an Edmonton show that emerged from a cultural exchange with Banyan Hearts, a small print studio in India, and my story about Saskatoon's Jennifer Crane, whose exhibition of poetic work was created using antiquated photographic technologies.
This editor's note is somewhat slapdash as I was rushing to finish it before departing for a quick long-weekend getaway to San Juan Island, one of the American outposts in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the B.C. Mainland. Yes, I'm getting out from behind my desk for a few days of cycling with a group of old friends, and my aching back can't thank me enough. I can hardly wait to have a robotic assistant that will instantly transfer my thoughts to the pages of this magazine, coherently, of course, and with perfect style, so I can sit out in the sunshine with a glass of wine.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Stacey Abramson, Beverly Cramp, Agnieszka Matejko, Lissa Robinson