This non-profit corporation launches a biannual outdoor art exhibition, inviting artists from around the world to participate. The art pieces include sculptures and performance art.

Each exhibit has a separate theme. The current one is “in-TRANSIT-ion”, featuring art along bike and public transportation routes. This reflects movement and a mobile society.

When , I realized that these elicit conversation between the passers-by. Whether between friends or perfect strangers, the pieces become cornucopias for multiple dialogues and interpretations.

We by Jaume Plensa sits on top of a hill in Sunset Beach Park.

One of the more popular sculptures is Spanish artist, Jaume Plensa’s We , which sits in Sunset Beach Park along the bike route. Multiple alphabets merge to form an abstracted, seated figure. The sculpture symbolizes Vancouver’s diversity. People interact with the work, walking inside the sculpture or climbing on top of it.

seems to be art for the people of the city rather than tourists. It transforms the landscape and reflects the city’s values. However, as it largely depends on city funding, I wondered whose values were actually being pushed and how free the artists were to express themselves. It seems like here artists fall into the same situation as with art galleries where they are somewhat limited to the visions of the commissioner.

There has been much debate about the in the city. Should it merely decorate city streets or should it provide a unique commentary and insight into the culture of the city?

I instinctively began to compare the city-funded public art with the city-condemned street art. Public art is aesthetically pleasing, adding value to the city. But is street art necessarily the opposite?

A detail of Plensa's sculpture, showing the many alphabets.

, a Vancouver street artist, once told me that city-commissioned pieces are too restricting for the artist. So who decides what is art and why does there have to be one official vision?

From my experiences of viewing the sculptures of the Vancouver Biennale, I found that public art provides a public forum. It creates a place for open discussion about art. This type of engagement between random passers-by is missing from art galleries. I think this conversation can only be enhanced by allowing the expression of all types of art.

In May of 2000, at a press conference at the Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan, Manetas announced the creation of the first art movement of the 21^st century – only a mere five months into it. The movement was titled . Shortly afterwards, he published the .

download shrek forever after

Jacksonpollock.org is one of Manetos' more popular pieces. Click on the image to create a Pollock piece.

Doesn’t this process of coining an art movement usually occur in hindsight, once it’s had time to evolve? Or is this the result of today’s fast-paced, manufactured culture?

This creates animated artwork that interacts with the public through the click of a mouse. The Neen artists, also known as Neenstars, design websites exclusively for their artworks. Each URL becomes the title of a different piece. You can spend hours on these addictively entertaining websites. As the manifesto states, “Neen is about losing time on different operating systems.”

Manetas had clear views of what the movement would entail when writing the manifesto. Not to be confused with , Neen art favours the unpredictable and spontaneous. It is usually absurd and must not have a purpose. In an , Manetas states that only a few people are 100% Neen. For a Neenstar cannot have another job.

Maninthedark.com is by Aaron Clinger and Manetos. Click on the image to interact with it.

According to the manifesto, Neen art is not about identity, but a state of mind that is subject to change. This enables a Neen artist to use another’s identity if he/she feels like it and vice versa. In the interview, Manetas says he’s against intellectual property, believing that information has a life of its own and should be free from its creators.

Reading the manifesto, there are certainly some interesting ideas. But then again, isn’t this movement supposed to be without purpose?

Many aspects of Neen art appear counter-intuitive and, ten years later, it is still rather small. It appears to be practiced by only a , many of whom have personal ties to Manetas.

Leduchamp.com is by Rafael Rozendaal, the youngest of the Neen artists born in 1980. Click on the image to spin the wheel.

However, as history shows, it is usually these types of under-appreciated-at-the-time artistic movements that are extensively written about years after they are over. So, maybe I’m being too critical. Maybe we are witnessing a great movement of the 21^st century. It certainly reflects the spirit of our times. After the advent of online art galleries and selling work on the Internet, creating work using the Internet seems to be the next logical step.

]]> http://thethunderbird.ca/2010/03/22/the-art-of-our-time/feed/ 0 http://thethunderbird.ca/2010/03/15/art-in-vancouvers-coffee-culture/ http://thethunderbird.ca/2010/03/15/art-in-vancouvers-coffee-culture/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:55:17 +0000 Yvonne Robertson http://thethunderbird.ca/?p=8169

A painting by Chiu Tak Hak hangs on the wall of Ama Bistrot in Point Grey.

It’s a scene that many experience daily: the anxious whirr of the espresso machines, the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the chatter of people conversing over a latte.

Vancouver is known as the coffee capital of Canada. It is no surprise then that almost every block is inundated with coffee shops or cafes. Walking through the streets there’s a choice between larger chains, such as Blenz Coffee or Starbucks, and more local cafés, such as Ama Bistrot or Kits Coffee Company. With such a booming coffee culture, I decided to explore where art fit into this scene.

Walking into more popular coffee shops, it’s difficult to believe that customers pay any attention to the artwork. Whether engaged in conversation, buried in a book or grabbing a quick coffee to go, rarely do heads turn towards the walls of the café.

So why is it there?

A painting by Hilary Morris, a Granville Island painter, hangs on the back wall of Kits Coffee Company.

In Ama Bistrot, a small Point Grey café, owner Heathir Rhyasen adorns the walls with canvases of pleasant Parisian streetscapes. She says that it reflects the style of the café and accents the relaxing mood.

The pieces in Ama Bistrot are prints of works by artists such as Chiu Tak Hak and Victor Shvaiko. However, Rhyasen says that customers have little interest in the artists, but rather the work provides a conversation starter, where memories of Paris or other travelling adventures are shared.

On Granville Island, AGRO Café creates an active artist space, showcasing work from local artists.  Customers engage with the pieces, asking knowledgeable baristas about the artists.

In between these two extremes exists Kits Coffee Company on 4^th Avenue. It displays a large painting by Granville Island painter, Hilary Morris on its back wall. Colourful and vibrant, Morris’ work depicts a busy café scene filled with lively characters.

A detail of Morris' painting.

Generally, I found that when customers showed little interest in the artwork, it was because the artwork was uninteresting, merely existing like a type of wallpaper. It’s hard to say whether a customer’s interest in art encourages a coffee shop to exhibit more compelling work or if it’s the other way around.

Ultimately, it depends on the mood of the coffee shop-goer to determine where he or she wants to go; whether to enjoy a cup of coffee in a pleasant space or to actively interact with engaging art while sipping a latte.

Luckily, in its abundance of coffee shops, Vancouver satisfies both moods.

A similar scene plays out in Gastown. Alex Mountain hunches over his own soon-to-be wooden feather, carefully carving. A similar pile of shavings at his feet and the same smell of freshly cut wood.

Exhibiting on Robson Street

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Dennis Rose sits by his display on Robson Street.

I recently visited several art galleries in Vancouver as part of Bright Light, a collaboration of 14 art organizations in the Downtown Eastside. Apart from gallery exhibits, this public art project also included other mediums of art such as performances. It was commissioned for the Winter Games and the Paralympics. It was on an exploration of street art when I met Rose, Turo and Mountain.

I wondered about this concept of public art, and other art forms in general, that aren’t seen in galleries. I thought about the artists who don’t have someone to commission their work and perhaps like it better that way. In the wake of recent artist funding cuts, the amount of artists who exhibit outside of galleries might increase. This train of thought inevitably lead to the ongoing and not-yet-exhausted discussion about the artist’s role in society: Is it the preserver of history? Mirror of society? Communicator of societal issues?

Each of the three First Nations carvers exhibited in a gallery at one point, but all prefer the freedom of the streets.

Rose said galleries were too restrictive so he moved to the streets nearly 16 years ago. He tells me he enjoys the interaction, where customers see the artistic process. People request what they want in the morning, check on it in the afternoon and take it home in the evening.

Mountain shared similar sentiments, resenting the control of the galleries. He learned how to carve from merely watching his father and has been doing it for 28 years (18 of which have been on the streets). He likes meeting his customers and interacting with them.

My previous thoughts came to mind and I wondered why they did what they did. None really knew the answer.

“I don’t know, I just have fun with it,” Mountain said. “It keeps me busy I guess.”

Perhaps it might actually be that simple.