MULTIMEDIA ART PROJECT A SONIC STREET STROLL
Collaborative work explores the theme of transition
Stephen Lyons is a Juno awardwinning musician with Fond of Tigers, bandleader and sideman, Offseason Records independent label head, and all around creative collaborator based in Vancouver. For the past few decades, he has been actively involved in collectively run spaces where artists come together to develop and produce projects.
One thing that these spaces all have in common is that they are, by their very nature, transitory.
The Lower Mainland’s hyperactive real-estate market has now made finding somewhere to set up a practice/project development zone next to impossible.
As our world-class urban boutique encroaches on neighbourhoods that once were the domain of local artists, we see gourmet vegan ice creameries and craft brew tasting rooms replace gritty warehouses where the next noisy art punk powerhouse is born.
Today, it’s unimaginable that West Fourth Avenue was once an area for edgy live music clubs and gritty cafes, or that downtown once hosted many active after-hours spaces where the electronic and industrial scenes kicked off.
As artists were moved out and empty luxury condos moved in, the Clark Street corridor became a focal point for artists.
The ClarkWalk Project is Lyons’ concept of how to document and preserve the legacy of, arguably, the last area of the city to contain affordable rental space for artists to operate in. Even if the area becomes another manicured glass tower trough for investment, at least the memory will remain.
Q Explain the ClarkWalk Project.
A It’s a sound and photo documentation-art project taking place on Sept. 29, where people are encouraged to download a curated soundtrack composed by local artists to listen to as they make their way from Sixth Avenue down to Powell Street, venturing no further than one block east or west of Clark Drive, according to the provided map. Along the walk, they are taking photos, hashtagging them #clarkwalk, and uploading them to various social media sites. At the finish, a volunteer in a ClarkWalk T-shirt will take people to an exhibit of curated photos by eight local photographers who have completed the walk already. A live music performance inspired by the photographic works will follow with Limbs of the Stars, Sara Gold and others.
(Note: Donations graciously accepted and there will be merchandise from contributing artists for sale too.)
Q There are a dozen contributors to the ClarkWalk soundtrack, many very well known (Veda Hille, JP Carter, Skye Brooks & Paul Rigby, Emily Best, Sara Gold). How did you develop that?
A Initially, I thought I would do most of it. After I asked people if they wanted to do it, suddenly I had a dozen artists commissioned. They all know the cheque is in the mail. I am hoping to have the project continue with a possible film, the online gallery/ archive and more.
Q So will the next few weeks following the walk determine what you do afterwards and how you will leave the archive up as something of a digital preservation of the changing area?
A I want to mark the neighbourhood transitioning before it’s gone for good. In the last two years, what was a no-go zone is now filled with foodie places and fewer and fewer of those affordable locations where you can go in and make the noises and messes required to make art without concern about complaints, etc. Artists need spaces to work, and if they aren’t there, where do we go to?
Q If you (artists) have to go, where do you go?
A That becomes the existential question. When you are trying to work on and build your practice and also, maybe, present it on occasion where you can reach an audience, where is that going to be? In the larger picture of the city, it’s not just the area we operate in — the artist’s spaces — but also where the small business bookkeeper’s offices are and so on.
Q Rezoning and development doesn’t just affect the cultural community, it reaches into all aspects of independent businesses too, I guess?
A Many of my collaborators over the years have opted to leave here altogether or take on more mainstream, higher-paying gigs and that means making different kinds of art. I like to believe that the art that I and others make is important to the overall picture of culture here in this city and Canada, but it’s not competing for the charts or a moneymaking endeavour in itself. It’s a developmental process that yields multimedia results such as ClarkWalk and it’s getting squeezed out.