Broken Glass

The West Broadway Sally Anne opens at 10am. A number of us converged there shortly after that, on Friday, and found a store worker sweeping up broken glass. "Come back at noon," she said.

Another glass panel kicked in.

Glass is taking a beating in Vancouver. People are frustrated, angry. Glass produces dramatic lines when kicked, and a sound frequency that says, through clenched teeth, "I'm giving way."

If the glass doesn't fall from its frame, it is sometimes taped over. Sometimes plywood is added, and that's an ugly sight, one I am seeing more of these days.

Two Galleries

On Saturday I drove west to Kitsilano for Anne Low's noon-7pm opening at Unit 17. I arrived early (1pm), not expecting to see anyone apart from the gallerist, Tobin, whom I caught up with.

Anne's two previous Vancouver exhibitions (Artspeak, then the CAG) began first with an installation that amounted to a witchy story (events/objects supplied by the artist, narrative determined by the viewer), then a more formal, if not grander treatment of events/objects. The Unit 17 show is more spare than twee, with Anne taking pure or abstract forms and adding to them decorative elements made of incongruous materials (wooden tassels, for example). As with Liz Magor's work, the aesthetic (pleasure) level is high enough to satisfy. And that is how I left the gallery -- satisfied.

From there to Ceremonial|Art on West Broadway, where Sarah was in the midst of installing work by Chief Henry Speck, Cole Speck, Pat McGuire and Corey Bulpitt, who was in the gallery as well. It was a pleasure meeting Corey, whose carved work I admire. Sarah pointed out a Pat McGuire piece I hadn't seen before and I knelt down to spend some time with it. Not a canoe on the water but the reflection (deflection? infection? intervention?) of its painted surface.