Traces That Resemble Us was this year’s essential screening series. Hosted by the Pacific Cinémathèque, each film was chosen and often introduced by an artist whose practice is informed by or intersects with cinema. An elegantly designed pamphlet containing the exhibition text by Aaron Peck provided insight into some overlooked parts of Vancouver’s art history that formed alongside cinema and filmmaking. A concurrent group exhibition at Monte Clark Gallery brought together work by contributing artists such as Vikky Alexander, Roy Arden, Owen Kydd, Myfanwy MacLeod, and Jeff Wall.
Dan Starling, The Chorus
Media Arts at the Western Front consistently captured my attention with the arrival of curator Allison Collins. We were taken on a tour of Hootsuite prefaced by a reading by Tyler Coburn in one of their West Coast-themed boardrooms, amidst the doldrums of “summer shows” was an installation of Corin Sworn’s The Rag Papers mounted in the Luxe Hall, and in The Chorus Dan Starling delivered research in-process for a film, recited dithyrambs with the audience, and pointed out the political sub-text of Star Wars: Episode 3.
Lastly, television in 2015 is ending on a high note, reminding us that how we entertain ourselves is changing, but quality storytelling will always be the crux of our avenues of engagement. In Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling, screenwriter Max Landis and a cast of young actors attempt to explain the bizarre appeal of professional wrestling. As a wrestling fan myself, I can verify that this is a task met by much incredulity. Through Landis’ improvised narration of the career of one of WWE’s most iconic performers – Triple H – and with a cast of gender-swapped wrestlers, he attests to wrestling’s often-powerful storytelling with zeal and confronts the reminder that “wrestling’s not real, you know” with levity when he affirms that reality has never been a prerequisite to our collective desire to connect with characters and invest ourselves in alternate universes.
Steffanie Ling's essays, criticism, and art writing have been published alongside exhibitions, in print, and online in Canada and the United States. She is the editor of Bartleby Review, an occasional pamphlet of criticism and writing in Vancouver, and a curator at CSA Space. She is Akimblog’s Vancouver correspondent and can be followed on Twitter and Instagram @steffbao.
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2015 Critic's Picks
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