tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post7078346121223955774..comments2023-06-27T01:34:35.359-07:00Comments on Ted Burke LIKE IT OR NOT: Babbling from the Art Opening;Art, democracy, historyTED BURKEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16610296721891201100noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-29479777846271325402007-05-17T16:44:00.000-07:002007-05-17T16:44:00.000-07:00Gorgeous essay.I think geography has something to ...Gorgeous essay.<BR/><BR/>I think geography has something to do with the cultural conception of art. I grew up in Ottawa, where art is Fine Art, is the Ballet, is the National Gallery, the dead Masters. Ottawa is stiff, conservative, and firmly attached to History. Vancouver, where I've lived most of 20 years, is its opposite. The city is just over 200 years old, and, like most youth, it has no respect for the past. It's a city that would shuck off its history like last-season's fashions. It's a city with its face pressed into the wind at the edge of the unfolding world. The population of Vancouver is a patchwork assembled from various elements of subculture. The fringe is mainstream, is passé. In Vancouver, art belongs to the artisan, to the glass-blower, to the potter, the pyrotechnic artist, the mask-maker, the stilt-dancer. Our Vancouver Art Gallery is a joke, but the annual Art Walk, where one can visit the live/work studios of dozens and dozens of artists and artisans, is a revelation and an inspration. People who wear fleece and cordura to the Symphony will hang original art in their homes. In Vancouver we have art without History, without apology, with little of the self-conscious betrayal of self so easily adopted by those striving for significance. I love it here, the constant sense of renewal, the constant surprise, as of gardens bursting with spring blooms. It's art that truly belongs to the proletariat. Who needs history?Dawn Coyotehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05878588090733942606noreply@blogger.com