Arts

Portraits of Strength

Moira Peters talks to artist Marlon Garcia Arriaga about his paintings and the women of Panzós, Guatemala that inspire them.

The women of Panzós

The Life of A Clearcut

Max Liboiron speaks to photographer John Haney about the process of art. Slow down and take a second look.

John Haney collaborates with his environment

Hot Politics

At Vancouver's International Burlesque Festival Jane Henderson and Edie Jackson find both progressive politics and old-fashioned desire.

Women are leading Burlesque's international revivial

Please Remember Music

Thousands sing for revolution at the School of The Americas Protest in Fort Benning, Georgia. Carole Ferrari joins the chorus.

Song plays a central role at the School of the Americas Protest

Card Carriers

Max Liboiron looks at the issues raised by creative currency of Artist's Trading Cards.

Artist's Trading Cards (ATCs) are art for everyone

"Spiritual Wife" or Single Mother?

David Sanderson reviews Banking On Heaven, a film on "Arizona's dirty little secret."

The film Banking On Heaven explores polygamy and religion in Colorado City

The Rising of The Rising

Why aren't Canadian media paying any attention to international bollywood blockbuster The Rising? Rajiv Rawat explains.

Canadian film critics pass on Bollywood blockbuster's hard look at imperialism

What's in a Name?

In this interview, director Mahmoud Kaabour talks about how 9/11 affected tolerance, the making of "Being Osama", and why he left Canada.

An interview with "Being Osama" director Mahmoud Kaabour

Things Left Behind

Jennifer Chrumka peeks at random artifacts from the personal lives of anonymous strangers in Found Magazine.

What's in a Graphic Novel?

In the wake of the first wave of graphic novels, Jane Henderson looks at some recent, disparate Canadian works.

Revaluing Value

Max Liboiron looks at the Department of Behavioural Investigation's anti-copyright art movement.

The Condition of Copyright

The Architecture of "Basic Human Pleasure"

Thanks to overzealous insurance agencies, skateboarders have been driven to the margins of cities. Dru Oja Jay looks at some proposed alternatives.

Godzilla vs. Skateboarder showcases the art and politics of skateboarding

Description and Excess

An interview with Carmine Starnino

Captivating Theatre Closes

Yes Means No!

The Yes Men dish up artistic critique to straight-faced corporate audiences

A Pleasing Demeanor

This spirited Calgary native has finally found his zone.

Drawing a Response

With simpler media, complex work appears

American Patriot from Guelph?

Every movement needs a theme song.

Zen and the Art of Gender Maintenance

Are you really in love? Does your best friend really hate you? Are you an annoying person? There is now a new quiz on the market to help with an even more important question: What gender are you, really? Kate Bornstein's My Gender Workbook uses the artistically neglected literary form of the women's magazine quiz to address the realities of gender politics. Since the demographic that magazine quizzes usually address is overwhelmingly female, and a fairly specific spin on female at that, Bornstein's quiz creates a tension within women-focused "literature".

- by Max Liboiron -

Plunderphonics

Mix the Beatles' The White Album with rapper Jay-Z's Black Album and what do you get? DJ Danger Mouse's experimental CD, The Grey Album. You also get a cease-and-desist order from EMI Music. Tracks from the 3000 now-illegal copies of this CD have spawned countless downloads and are just one of hundreds of examples in the current debate over what is art and what is piracy.

- by Jane Henderson -

The Art of Second Language Conversation

When I talk to my new friend Tom, we're not just talking-- we're metatalking. When I ask him how he's enjoying the weather, he tells me he is not enjoying it at all because it has too many future tenses. "Will it rain?" he asks me. Then answers himself, "In the afternoon it may begin to rain." "It will soon be raining."
- by Linda Besner -

On to the End: Geoff Berner

Geoff Berner has played in a punk band. Geoff Berner has written for Sesame Street. Geoff Berner plays the accordion and prefers to drink scotch out of a wine glass. The canuck's latest release, We Shall Not Flag or Fail, We Shall Go on to the End, has quickly gotten the attention of campus radio stations across North America and Europe. The record features his trademark stew of diverse and previously incompatible styles.
- by Henry Svec -

Brief Notes on Death and Writing

Lessons for an Audience

Kazimi's Shooting Indians questions "authenticity"
In Ali Kazimi's 1997 documentary Shooting Indians, a whole sequence of studying is going on. Kazimi studies Iroquois photographer Jeff Thomas, who is mining the century-old works of white photographer and filmmaker Edward Curtis. The three are transformed.
by Jane Henderson

Kazimi's Shooting Indians explores representations of authenticity

Satire Under Attack

When looking silly is worse than looking evil
Webster's Dictionary credits literature as the traditional medium to use "trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm to expose and discredit vice or folly." Yet in today's multimedia world, satire has entered the mainstream via theatre, television, music, newspaper cartoons, radio, and the internet. Satire is an important tool for those frustrated by the corporate, sponsorship, and political agendas mixed up in their media.- by Jane Henderson and Max Liboiron -

When looking silly is worse than looking evil

An open letter to the National Magazine Awards Foundation

Democracy and Fascism

Myth, Propaganda and Disaster provokes controversy in Australia
Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America: A Drama in 30 Scenes made headlines because each of the major theatres in Sydney failed to pick it up for 2004, even though it completed successful runs at both The Playbox Theatre in Melbourne and The State Theatre Company in Adelaide.
- by Lynda Ng -

Myth, Propaganda and Disaster provokes controversy in Australia

Proffessor Undressor

Sumi-E Experiment (2003)

From Margin to Main Character

Deafening brings disability to the centre of mainstream fiction

I always get suspicious when in coffee shops, on buses, trains, and coffee tables, or peering out of purses, I see the same book. It seems that everyone except me is part of the same book club, and they've all picked up the assigned reading for the month. Not too long ago, this novel was The Life of Pi, and the ubiquity of this brightly coloured, incessantly discussed novel made me want to avoid it, for the sole reason that nobody else seemed to. - by Laura Cardiff -

Deafening brings disability to the centre of mainstream fiction

A Serious Lack

American Visual Artists and Bush's War
I have to admit that the abundance of American flags bothered me when I first came to New York a few months ago. And the bumpers stickers saying 'God Bless Our Soldiers' didn't ease my mind much, either. But I breathed a sigh of relief whilst walking past the offices of the faculty of my fine arts program; on almost every door was an anti-war poster from the internet.

American Visual Artists and Imperialism