Works fest continues to captivate
Citywide festival features over 40 exhibits, hundreds of artists and a host of venues
Poised in direct line with the Legislature in Capital Plaza, a plump golden pig made of oil-based products stares to the north with glowing eyes, its skin a tight mesh of six-pack plastic rings. A political statement?
Well, yeah — but one with more ambiguity than you might imagine.
Returning for her second year with one of The Works Art and Design Festival’s signature installations, Emily Carr graduate Yong Fei Guan is a sculptural political cartoonist of sorts, her pink garbage lions last year opening conversations about everything from China’s sudden refusal to buy our messy recyclables to the rather abrupt takedown of the Harbin Gate for ongoing round-the-clock LRT construction, driving powerless City Market Apartments dwellers mad for years now.
Like the best of The Works’ works, Golden Pig tells an Edmonton story — and yet it’s open to interpretation.
“This year is the Year of the Pig, my first motivation,” says Yong, born in China and now an Edmontonian. “In my culture it’s a festival pig: happy, celebrated, and an indication of luck and good fortune. Generally a positive image, you know?
“But the longer I live here, I also realized pig has negative meanings, like a corrupt cop being called a pig. If you call someone a pig, it means fat or greedy or lazy. So I was really interested in the dichotomy of the cultural meaning. I want to bring all these meanings together.
“The six-pack rings are representative of what is happening in our culture right now, in this moment — of our single-use plastic crisis. They’re also made out of oil, which our economy depends on.”
Golden Pig’s shifting meanings make it the perfect mascot for this year’s festival, which runs under the title Decode: As You See It.
As festival artistic director Amber Rooke puts it, “I see through my lens; you see through yours. While there’s no obligation to agree with another viewpoint, there may be much to gain by considering it.
“There’s an emphasis when talking about creative works on ‘getting it.’ But maybe we don’t always have to get art. It may seem like there’s one code to crack, but in the end you’re moving through an experience, gaining perspectives and creating new contexts. I see that as worthwhile.”
Every year I have the privilege of being assigned to go see all of The Works’ dozens of installations: 40 exhibits with hundreds of artists through 25 venues. This year, speeding through mud and hail and thunderstorms, I rode my bike all over town and while I’d say any of the shows are worth a look — from Harcourt House’s group show to Adam Slusar’s nostalgic paintings at the YMCA to Alley of Lights’ video stills by Sister Knox Dancers — along with Yong’s Golden Pig, here are a few shows that stand out, especially worth catching in the festival’s last days running through Sunday.
Capital Boulevard Legacy Public Art Project (108 Street from 99 Avenue to 104 Avenue): If The Works is going to have the nerve to claim existing public art as part of its art buffet, I’m going to double down on checking out the promenade between the Legislature and Grant MacEwan, especially Sandra Bromley’s 13-slab sandwich Sentinel in front of El Mirador, each rock representing a Canadian political region.
Drawn In, Capital Plaza: A performance piece wherein Stephanie Medford draws on wood then carves it away to the floor, even with the artist absent this one affects the senses — especially the smell of wet wood in the midst of this thunderous spring. Her final performance is on Canada Day at 3 p.m., her tent tucked away north of the giant coliseum of bright doors by Jose Luis Torres, which is also worth exploring for its abandoned-midway, haunted house vibe.
Dyscorpia: Future Intersections of the Body, Enterprise Square Galleries (10230 Jasper Ave.): Especially at the artist-run centres, many of The Works’ shows are absorbed from outside, and Dyscorpia is the best of them. I’d lay a substantial bet that this multi-room heavy-hitter group show curated by Marilene Oliver and Sean Caulfield will win the annual Edmonton Visual Arts Prize next May, so do not miss its multi-faceted look at how we humans are becoming the machines surrounding us. Resistance is useless!
Negotiating “Asian-ness” in Canada, Norquest College (10215 108 St.): A very nasty racial slur greeted me when I walked in here, which is the point in this group show curated by Yang Lim. From manga comics to projections and sculpture, this is an art show cousin to Gene Luen Yang’s brilliant American Born Chinese graphic novel. Especially watch for Kim Huynh’s Her Moon on Your Shoulders, using the kind of lenticular tech found in old Cracker Jack boxes that turns photography into a moving dance. Hearts.
Relapse, Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts (9225 118 Ave.): With its unpretentious yet ambitious community of artists, many of whom glowingly overcome developmental challenges, any group show at the Nina is always terrific, and the visual conversations between the collective and various career professionals is extra magnificent this time, including standout pieces by Katryna Dixon, Paul Freeman and Hilary Mussel. Holly de Moissac — also in Dyscorpia and with an intricate show called Naturalisms across the street at the Bleeding Hearts Art Space — has a mesmerizing drawing on the wall here, too.