Michelle Reid | Sad Mag

Helma Sawatzky The Phoenix Complex 2012 — Note: A fabricated image from a construction site in South Surrey Helma Sawatzky, The Phoenix Complex (2012) c-print. Courtesy of the artist and Elliott Luis Gallery

Art lovers: check out Beyond Vague Terrain: The City and the Serial Image, which opens at the Surrey Art Gallery this Saturday, January 14th.

Showcasing the way Metro Vancouver is always changing and simultaneously offering “beauty and banality” in its sprawling suburbs and mercurial neighbourhoods, the exhibit includes 13 artists and features video, photography, painting and drawing.

Highlights include “a grid of shimmering graphite rubbings of eroded date-stamped sidewalks on Vancouver’s Westside, a 109 foot long light box presenting a panorama of Metro Vancouver as seen from a moving SkyTrain, and an interactive photographic database of every bus stop in Surrey.” A departure from postcard-perfect views of downtown Vancouver, much of the work focuses on “street intersections, industrial dead zones, and suburban sprawl,” to challenge our ideas about urbanity, marginalization and history.

Beyond Vague Terrain: The City and the Serial Image

Surrey Art Gallery

13750 88 Ave, Surrey, British Columbia

January 14th- March 18th, 2012

By donation

Opening reception: January 14th, 7:00PM-9:00PM

Mischa Bartkow is photographer who contributed a piece on the BC Gay and Lesbian Archives for the upcoming Issue 7/8 (The Vancouver Queer History Issue, launching at The Cobalt on November 3rd). Check out more of his photography at his website, and read on to learn more about him.

Sad Mag: Where are you from?
Mischa Bartkow: I was born in Vancouver and grew up here and on the Sunshine Coast. I moved to Ontario when I was 19.

After spending 10 years in Kingston and Toronto it was time to come back to Vancouver. I knew this is where I needed to be to make my dreams come true, where I needed to share my art from. It’s been a pleasure falling back in love with this city.

SM: How did you get into photography?

MB: I’ve been shooting ever since I was a small kid. It’s how I kept in touch with my family across the ocean. I’ve always had a visual and spatial memory and photos have helped me share the way I experience the world. It wasn’t until I was older though and working at an advertising agency, being inspired by other pro photographers, that I realized it was my dream to make photography my living.

SM: What is your favourite photograph?

MB: There’s one image of dozens of lightbulbs hanging on a stark background that I made in Hong Kong. It has come to symbolize the power of creativity and positive thinking for me. It ended up being selected as a design for a Scotties tissue box, you can see it in stores now. My other favourite is an image I made in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. It’s of a decaying jalopy slowly being swallowed up by vines and the green landscape. I love making images of things most people dismiss as ugly and sharing the beauty that I feel is there. I like blurring the line between ugly and beautiful.

SM: What do you hope to achieve with your work?

MB: I hope to inspire others to make our communities more caring and progressive.

SM: What local photographers do you admire?

MB: Elisha Clement, Simon Hayter and Shannyn Higgins.

SM: What are you working on now?

MB: I’m working on an exciting project as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival that’s coming to Vancouver in October, 2012. I’m planning building sized projections of photography throughout Vancouver. We’ll be showcasing local and international photographers throughout the city.

Sad Mag presents: The Queer Cultural Awards and Show

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

8:00PM-1:00AM

Advance tickets $6, at the door $8

Full details on Facebook.

Jonathan Taggart, local photojournalist and educator with the Vancouver Urban Native Youth Association, opens his first solo show on Thursday, June 16th, at The Artwork Hub. “The Friction of Distance” presents a series of stories from the In-SHUCK-ch Nation.

In-SHUCK-ch, a nation of small three bands from the lower Lillooet River region, is in the final stages of negotiating a treaty with the BC and federal governments; Taggart’s work explores “cultural and economic implications of isolation.”

Check out the video below! For more details visit The Artwork Hub.

The Friction of Distance

The Network Hub (3rd Floor, 422 Richards St)

June 16th, 6:00PM-8:00PM

RSVP on Facebook

Rob Fougere "Parading without a Permit" event poster — Parading without a Permit

Michelle Reid: For the readers who haven’t picked up a copy of Sad Mag #6 yet, who is Rob Fougere?

Rob Fougere: I’m a photographer, artist and archivist.

MR: What’s it like seeing yourself on the cover of a magazine?

RF: The Sad magazine cover was actually the second time I’ve been photographed for my moustache. The first was in New York magazine a few years ago on a trip. Sad was cool because it has national distribution, so I had friends in Toronto call me to tell me that they saw it.

MR: How did you get started as a photographer?

RF: I’ve enjoyed taking pictures always, and used to walk around with a digital point-and-shoot camera taking movies of the strange things I’d see going about my day-to-day. It wasn’t until I discovered the magic of the darkroom that photography took over my thought processes.

MR: What is the best photograph you have ever found?

RF: That’s a very tough question. I’ve got some really great found negatives and it’s honestly too hard to choose or describe them in words. The one photo that I’ll always hang on my wall no matter where I live is a shot of my father from when he was 17 or 18 in a suit and tie with his hair combed over his ears. It’s a great studio shot and in the perfect brown cardboard frame with gold trim.

MR: Tell us about your upcoming show, Parading Without a Permit. How did you curate the selected images? How long did you spend collecting them?

RF: I’m always really happy anytime that I can have my photos seen outside of the digital realm. My practice as a whole explores the photograph as cultural artifact and aesthetic object. For this show I wanted to put together a set of images that captured a spirit of beauty and self-reliance. It includes some of my best shots from the last three years of shooting and some found negatives to fill in the gaps and give them some context in terms of recent history and the nature of people, like “Some things don’t change!”.

MR: What’s the advantage of having an exhibition at Collage Collage versus a mainstream gallery space?

RF: Collage Collage will let me! When I start showing at bigger galleries, I want to make sure I’m ready and that the shows are really good, and right now I still have too much to learn! The downside to Collage Collage is that I have to make the show age appropriate, since it’s a kid’s art shop.

MR: What local photographers do you admire?

RF: Scott Pommier and Bentley Wilks take great photos, both in terms of subject matter and style.

MR: Has anyone ever contacted you about a found negative with its origin story?

RF: Nope, although it’s going to be the first time most of the found photos my Collage Collage show are seen in public… for the first time in fifty-years anyways.

MR: What are you working on now?

RF: June is a busy month! Sarah Holtom and I are showing a different set of work at Boucherat Gallery in Victoria the day after Parading Without a Permit opens. Sarah has painted some amazing oil-on-wood portraits in black-and-white to complement my vintage pin-ups. We’re both also happy to be taking part in the Cheaper Show again this year. I’ve also started a framing business called PlainWoodFrames.com that is the official framing shop of the Cheaper Show, so I expect to be very busy with that in the next few weeks!

Parading Without a Permit

Collage Collage (621 Kingsway)

June 9th, 7:00PM – 9:00PM

RSVP on Facebook

DOXA, Vancouver’s annual festival presented by the Documentary Media Society, brings documentaries from around the world to some of the coziest independent theatres in Vancouver for you to enjoy. While I am as excited as the next 14-year-old boy to see Fast Five (I really am), contributing to a conversation with, “I just saw this great documentary…” has somewhat more cachet and class. If you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of great-looking films, here is a short-cut to some of my festival picks. Click for full details, including times & locations.

Raw Opium The world premiere of this heroin documentary, partly filmed in Vancouver’s DTES, looks at the international impact of the opium trade and the complexities of addressing drug trafficking and addiction. With the future of Vancouver’s own Insite threatened by the Conservative government, this is a film for anyone with an interest in our local community issues.

Detroit Wild City The rise and fall of Detroit may be a harbinger of things to come for other major cities in a post-recession era, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in this film, which follows the new generation of artists and innovators who are revitalizing Motor City.

Louder than a Bomb Can’t think of anything cuter than Chicago teens getting ready for a slam poetry competition.

!Women Art Revolution Forty years of filming political, outspoken women in the arts went into the making of this film, accompanied by an incredible soundtrack of female artists.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams Legendary Werner Herzog finally uses 3D technology for something other than exhausting your visual cortex in this documentary the oldest preserved art in the world (32,000 years old!) in Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc in France. If you like art, history, humanity, or the eccentricities of Herzog’s often imitated but never duplicated voiceovers, don’t miss it.

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

At theatres around Vancouver

May 6- May 15, 2011

Full festival details here.

Local comedian Kevin Lee (you might remember him from the the first Sad Comedy Show!) answers Michelle Reid’s questions about Shit Harper Did, a brilliant push to defeat voter apathy through a combination of humour and cold, hard facts. Margaret Atwood tweeted about it so you know it’s good. Tomorrow, May 2nd, is the general election, and if you’re feeling undecided, visit Shit Harper Did and get informed.

Michelle Reid: Who are the masterminds behind Shit Harper Did?

Kevin Lee: We are a collection of Vancouver filmmakers, comedians, actors, activists and artists interested in reminding people why Canadian politics should matter to Canadians. You know, obvious stuff.

MR: Did you do a lot of research before launching the site or were you all pretty well-versed in the shit Harper has done?

KL: There was plenty of shit that sat, still steaming, right on the surface (e.g. contempt of Parliament), and other shit that had to be dug up (e.g. cuts to women’s advocacy) and plenty of shit that was handed to us in little plastic baggies by the people who supported the site. Shit party!

MR: Are you finding that a lot of people were unaware of just how terrible he is, or does the popularity indicate that a lot of people have been unhappy with the government for awhile?

KL: A bit of both. The news cycle moves so quickly and is pitched at such a dull drone that most people either miss or ignore these things. That and the politicians are experts at doubling the drone so no one cares anymore about their explanation of their controversial or plain horrible decisions.

Also, many people hear something Harper did that they don’t agree with, add a drop to “dislike Harper” bucket and forget it. These people end up being unhappy with Harper, but not knowing why, they just accept that they don’t like him and so they can often feel unmotivated to do anything about it.

Both groups found something beneficial out of our website which we feel pierced the drone with comedy (and, yes, profanity), and served up a plate of hot steaming facts. I realize I might’ve conjured the image of hot shit on a platter, and I’m okay with that, because that’s what it is.

MR: Any response from Harper responders?

KL: On the first day of the website’s launch, crash, and subsequent relaunch, I made the mistake of delving into the locus of all Intelligent Discourse known as YouTube comments, and boy howdy I learned never to do that. But several Harper supporters would occasionally post to the Facebook page and stir up discussion and that’s all part of the healthy democratic dialogue, no matter how much name-calling and childish vitriol get spread around by both sides. People are talking? Good.

The Georgia Strait implied (and then retracted!) that Shit Harper Did was an ad agency stunt. Have you encountered any other skepticism about the motivations behind the site?

There seem to be a few people with the impression that we’re some sort of company, running focus groups and calling casting agents to populate the videos. Others claim we’re a Liberal conspiracy unit. If we were launching the site today (the weekend before Election Day) those same people would be calling us an NDP conspiracy unit. Really we’re just a bunch of scruffy hipsters who started a band, and our band website, which featured a few facts about Harper, blew up, so we just went with that instead.

MR: Where do the ideas for the videos come from?

KL: So many videos of celebrities urging youth do to something. Why should we believe them more than the youth themselves?

Also, Air Bud 4: Seventh Inning Fetch.

MR: Who did that drawing of Harper holding a kitten? Why does it scare me?

KL: Because he has that look, you know, the look. Like you just walked in the room and he was hunched in the corner, lips smacking and talking like Gollum and you accidentally knock a book off a desk and he spins around holding the tiny kitten, smiling like nothing was up. You just leave the book on the floor and back out of the room slowly, and back all way to your nearest voting place.

Check out Shit Harper Did here. And don’t forget to vote, Monday, May 2nd!

I am an Alicia Tobin fan forever: not only did she provide my favourite excerpt in Charlie Demers’ Vancouver Special, but she is also the Vancouver performer most likely to talk about sharks on stage. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Alicia transform a crowd from semi-normal individuals to a uniformly hysterical (laughing and crying) mass, be sure to catch her at the Sad Comedy Show 2, happening Thursday, April 28th, at the Cobalt.

Who is Alicia Tobin?

I am your friendly neighbour who wants to say hello but looks down instead, I want to be your friend, but I also want to be alone with a large bag of ginger snaps. I like how they are spicy and sweet and crunchy all at the same- not a lot of snacks can do that.

How did you get into comedy?

When I was really small- maybe 8 pounds- my parents would dress me in a little tuxedo, push my body into a doll stand, and tape a tiny microphone to my little baby fist. I was doing stand up before I could stand up- my head was still soft and it smelled like the best thing ever- so if I bombed I just let people smell my baby head.

What do you love best about performing?

I like it when I am on stage and I look into the crowd and I can see all of the people who like sharks too.

What is the worst place you have ever performed?

My brand of comedy does not lend well to the annual soccer league spaghetti dinner. No one said that there would be children there- and nobody said there would be parents there.

What is it about Vancouver that produces so many funny people?

I dunno, the kind of funny people we have here is magic. Mostly white magic- but some people are so good you know it’s black magic.

Where do you get your inspirations?

Just every day stuff. Mostly watching people in the grocery store while I punch loaves of bread.

Funniest thing you have ever seen?

Once, I saw someone that had a huge bandage around their ear, but it was round and puffy- like a hamburger bun. So, it looked like the person had taped a hamburger bun to their ear. The tape was also all over their head to keep the bandage in place. I think I fell down I was so excited. I laughed until I cried, drew pictures of this person, and told everyone I met that day about hamburger bun ear. I bet their ear was actually really badly hurt. I think this was in 1992. I remember it like it was yesterday.

I hear you like animals. What would be your ultimate animal hybrid?

Oh this is easy- I would be a Gowl: an owl, cause I like eating mice and a little goat because I’m a good jumper.

Sad Comedy Show 2

The Cobalt

917 Main St

8:00PM – 1:00AM

$10 at the door (includes a year subscription to Sad Mag!)

Have you ever gone to Science World and thought, “This would be more fun if there weren’t any children?”

You can admit it, there’s no judgment here. Adults need time to play too without a legion of squalling infants underfoot. So on May 6th you’ll be delighted to know that you can party like it’s 1986 (important: you don’t have to dress like it’s 1986) in honour of the 25-year anniversary of the Expo, and enjoy an all-adult evening at Science World

It’s not just a party for those of us who go nuts for physics games and logic puzzles: Amanda McCuaig, communications coordinator for Science World, thinks anyone with a passion for the arts will be inspired by the science too.

The original name of the Science Centre is the Arts, Science and Technology Centre. The arts comes first in it because being creative and thinking creatively is a huge part of innovation. I think that it goes both ways– there’s a huge creative group in Vancouver who can benefit from thinking about things differently, and getting a different angle on approaching things creatively, from science.

Between exploring the exhibits you can rock out to 80s covers, screen print the Expo 86 logo or famous Science World dome (BYO t-shirt!), watching special films created for the Expo, and see Hubble on the IMAX screen. I’ll be camped out all night in the Eureka Gallery, playing with the light-wave harp.

Expo 86′ Quarter-Century Lookback

Science World

1455 Quebec St

Friday, May 6 7:00PM-10:30PM

Full details on Facebook. Tickets available here.

Special thanks to Bob Kronbauer for demanding a party to make up for his missing out on Expo 86, because his parents went without him.

You can’t argue with the premise of 100% Vancouver – turning statistics about our city into performance.

100 typical Vancouverites, chosen carefully to represent the different demographics of Vancouver to create a portrait of the city (drawn 1/6000th to scale), enter a stage set up with signs marking Vancouver neighbourhoods. They introduce themselves to the audience and describe a precious object that they have brought with them before standing in their neighbourhood. The performers range in age by about ninety years and the youngest children bring stuffed animals or iPods. The older performers have family photos and keepsakes. The oldest participant holds a century-old lamp.

I admit that I’m skeptical. After all, I see a mixed cohort of Vancouverites clutching at various objects every day, but it’s not theatre – it’s called riding the bus. And while the concept is clever, the execution is flawed – some performers are visibly fatigued by all the stage crossing, and the youngest children aren’t sure what to do. But it’s impossible not to be genuinely moved while watching your neighbours reveal personal, intimate details.

Performers take turns asking questions to the audience and the performers about their lives and beliefs, asking them to identify or not with the statement. Signs appear on either side of the stage, reading “ME” or “NOT ME,” and the performers flow towards the side that describes them. Sometimes the performers stand together and raise their hands, or sit around the stage. A camera projects an image of the performers from above, creating a human pie chart.

100% Vancouver reveals the strangeness of impersonal, abstract statistics. A question like, “Have you suffered from a mental illness?” or “Have you been a victim of violence?” is divorced from the people it describes when rendered as a percentage. But the individuals on stage are the data, and the audience and performers are connected by transcendent moments of recognition and comfort.

Statistics become the tool for building community, reminding us that we have been a community with a shared and complex history all along. The atmosphere is reverent, respectful, and non-judgmental. If these audience memebers have ever written a hateful comment on a CBC article about addiction or incarceration, you wouldn’t know it from their steady, heartfelt applause.

100% Vancouver
Part of the PuSh Festival
SFU Woodward’s Theatre
Remaining Performances:
January 21st & 22nd, 7:00 pm

Photographs by Theatre Replacement (Vancouver).

One of the many delights awaiting you at the Sad Comedy Show on January 13th is local funny lady Morgan Brayton. Read on to learn the best thing about being a Canadian performer and where the professional funny people go to laugh. You can find more of Morgan here and here.

Michelle Reid: Tell us a little about yourself.

Morgan Brayton: I am very small. I live in a hollow tree and only come out at night to pee in the shoes of naughty children while they sleep. When not casting magic in the Enchanted Forest, I am a comedian, actor, writer and bookkeeper.

MR: How did you get into comedy?

MB: I kept trying to be a serious dramatic actress and people kept laughing. If you can’t beat ’em and all that.

I’d been acting professionally for a number of years but then, in 1995 or so, I joined a 14 member all-female sketch comedy collective called Girl Parts. After a while, some of us branched out and formed a troupe called 30 Helens.

Sketch comedy was the first time in my life I ever felt like, “Oh, HERE’S where I’m supposed to be!” Comedy is belonging for outsiders. Except for ventriloquism. Ventriloquism is belonging for people who justifiably don’t belong anywhere.

MR: What do you like best about performing?

MB: The money. I make so much money as a Canadian comedy performer it’s obscene.

MR: What do you like best about the Vancouver comedy scene?

MB: I like that there’s no pressure to succeed. You don’t have to worry about someone seeing you and giving you a TV series or anything. It really allows for freedom of creative expression.

MR: What do you like least?

MB: When people don’t understand sarcasm.

MR: What show or performance of yours has been your favourite?

MB: I played a dancing ladybug in an opera when I was 5. I know in my heart I will never be that good again.

Since then? Well, there is a thing that happens in comedy that I compare to surfing–which makes no sense because I’ve never been surfing and can’t even swim. It’s where you have waves of audience laughter coming at you and you really feel like you’re riding those crests as far as you can and it’s absolutely the best feeling in the world. Except you’re also leading the waves so maybe it’s more like dancing.

Okay, there’s a thing that happens in comedy that I compare to dancing–which makes no sense because my wife never wants to go dancing with me anymore. It’s where you feel like you’re Kanye West and you’re surrounded by a bunch of very pretty, very hungry ballerinas. Except you don’t hate women so maybe it’s more like – look, I like a show when people laugh and think and feel a little more connected to other human beings at the end of it.

That’s the purpose of comedy, as far as I’m concerned. That and making obscene amounts of money as previously mentioned.

MR: What are some acts or performers besides Morgan Brayton worth checking out around town?

MB: Any chance you get to see Jan Derbyshire perform is a chance you should grasp. Brilliant, funny, brave, smart, great writing, captivating performing, snazzy shirts.

Graham Clark is a national treasure and the fact that Vancouver still has him is luck that will not last. Emmett Hall always feels like he came out of nowhere, no matter how much I anticipate his hilarity. Rosa Parks Improv doles out some pretty smart, sassy comedy for a bunch of girls. Paul Anthony’s Talent Time, the Hero Show and the Sunday Service are always surefire laughs. Alicia Tobin delights me to no end.

Vancouver also has a fantastic burlesque scene that features broad comedy with the added benefit of occasional nudity. Screaming Chicken’s Taboo Revue Burlesque Variety Show and the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival are great places to discover burlesque and its brand of playful comedy. This is an incomplete list and I offer no money-back guarantees, even though I can totally afford to do so because of all the money I make doing comedy.

Check out Morgan’s act at The Sad Comedy show this Thursday, January 13th at the Cobalt.

Author Archives: Michelle Reid

Beyond Vague Terrain

Mischa Bartkow

The Friction of Distance

Parading Without a Permit

Picks from DOXA, Part I

Shit Harper Did

Alicia Tobin

Expo ’86 Quarter-Century Lookback

100% Vancouver

Morgan Brayton