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We plan to post more about all of our past seasons but in the meantime, please have a look below at our events from the 2009–2010 season, the 2008–2009 season and the 2007–2008 season.
2009–2010 Season
For more info about any of the following events, please contact Kristen at gm at powellstreetfestival.com or 604.683.8240.
Spatial Poetics IX
Friday, July 9, 2010
Doors open at 7pm, performance at 7:30 pm
at VIVO Media Arts Centre (1965 Main Street)
Tickets $12, $10 for seniors and students
Info and tickets: 604.683.8240 or gm at powellstreetfestival.com
Featuring premieres of collaborative pieces by:
Catrina Longmuir with Asa Mori & Alison Maddaugh:
おこさまランチ(Okosama lunch)
Ray Hsu with Tetsuro Shigematsu: The Way of Ray
Michale Mori with mark MacGregor & Imam Habibi: Nothing is Free
Check out the Spatial Poetics IX blog
The Powell Street Festival presents Spatial Poetics IX, an interdisciplinary event celebrating collaboration, experimentation and innovation by a diverse line-up of artists.
Curated by Naomi Horii, this ninth edition of Spatial Poetics premieres interdisciplinary artwork by Catrina Longmuir with Asa Mori and Alison Maddaugh, Ray Hsu with Tetsuro Shigematsu, and Michael Mori with Mark MacGregor and Iman Habibi. This year, artists explore personal identities through performative practices, such as the collective creation of a performing personality, reliving memories on film and video, and testing romanticized stereotypes of the culturally specific performer. As if searching for a sense of authenticity, the artists collect the corny, recollect the surreal, and dismember the lines that narrate the interior/exterior experiences of the artist-body.
In Okosama lunch, landscape architect/artist Maddaugh, animator/artist Mori, and filmmaker Longmuir explore ideas of natsukashii or nostalgic sentiments by projecting pictures and animations onto sculptural elements. The performance/video piece The Way of Ray finds writer Hsu and theatre artist Shigematsu dissecting the relationship between art, propaganda, and the cult of personality. And in Nothing is Free, opera singer Mori plays out ideas about Japanese and Canadian stereotypes with musical assistance from flautist MacGregor and percussionist Habibi.
Spatial Poetics IX is a pre-festival event for the 34th Annual Powell Street Festival, held in Oppenheimer Park and the Firehall Arts Centre on July 31st and August 1st, 2010.
Chez D
Migration Foods by Artists Donning Chef Hats
May 31, 2010 at 7 pm
Gudrun Tasting Room
150-3500 Moncton Street, Steveston Village in RichmondT
ickets $35 – $40 (advance purchase only)
604.683.8240
Download the Menu
Local artists trade their instruments and paint brushes for chef hats in Chez D, where art and cuisine meet in a tantalizing feast for the senses.
For one night only, artists normally accustomed to wowing audiences in theatres and galleries will don their chef hats and coats at Gudrun Tasting Room in Steveston and create new works of edible art celebrating the theme of migration.
Commissioned by the Powell Street Festival, Chez D artists will plate delicacies in a five-course menu that pays homage to ethnic roots, migratory paths, new lands, family restaurants and neighbourhood survival foods. As event curator Michael Speier puts it, Chez D (aka Chez Diaspora) presents “a meal full of strong cross currents and pollinations here at the tastebud’s edge of the Pacific Ocean.”
Chez D artists include Open Sesame (Michael Speier), Komodo House (Margaret Gallagher and Angela Wan), Patrick Tubajon (Gudrun Tasting Room), Ari Tomita, and Cynthia Low & Leslie Komori. Vancouver’s favourite Asian conceptual synth pop duo Guimauves will perform during the night.
Chez D takes place at Gudrun Tasting Room (150-3500 Moncton Street) on May 31, 2010. The tasting commences at 7:00pm. Tickets are $35 – $40 and can be obtained through advance purchase only.
The Powell Street Festival Society gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council and the Province of British Columbia, and the community support of ExplorAsian.
For tickets or more information, call 604.683.8240 or email gm at powellstreetfestival.com.
Powell Street Festival Society and Blim present
Kaori Kasai: Ura Monchan
March 4 – 27, 2010
OPENING Thursday, March 4, 2010, 8:00 – 11:00 pm
ARTIST TALK @ 8:30pm
FLIM NIGHT: Films curated by artist Kaori Kasai, Friday, March 26, 8:00 – 11:00pm
Blim, 197 E. 17th Ave, Vancouver
More information: 604.683.8240
Download the full press release
Powell Street Festival Society and Blim present the exhibition Kaori Kasai: Ura Monchan. Using androgynous characters, Kasai creates storyboards of short vignettes about kinship, alienation, emotional boundaries and our interactions with physical environments. During her artistic residency/exhibition, Kasai will present new paintings and print-based works, curate a Flim night (film event) on March 26th, and produce a limited edition screen printed shirt available at Blim.
Kasai’s new works in Ura Monchan include paintings and prints of a character named Monchan. Monchan is a complicated character whose name is derived from a combination of the Japanese colloquial term for monster, or “Mon,” and “chan,” the suffix used at the end of a name to denote endearment. Monchan reflects the artist’s struggles of acceptance and sense of self as a landed immigrant in Canada. This delightful character was conceived during a period of difficulty in Kasai’s life and became a source of comfort when the artist felt lonely or isolated. On the surface Monchan is the epitome of calmness, but on the inside, Monchan faces emotional turmoil. Unlike the eponymous character epitomized in Kasai’s forthcoming children’s book, Monchan’s Bag, Monchan is not perpetually cute, cuddly and happy. Entitled Ura Monchan, or “reverse side of” Monchan, this exhibition reveals the behind-the-scenes version of Kasai’s child-friendly Monchan. Ura Monchan depicts a complex, non-gender specific, and self-questioning character who represents Kasai’s struggles with self-expression in an often-alienating culture.
Kasai 2010 children’s book, Monchan’s Bag, is published by Simply Read Books. Her works have been exhibited at Giant Robot, Little Otsu and SOMARTS (San Francisco), Compound Gallery (Portland), gallery 1 (Japan), and the Powell Street Festival (Vancouver) at Helen Pitt Gallery.
On opening night, Thursday, March 4, Kasai will give an artist talk at 8:30 pm. Kasai will also curate FLIM night on Friday, March 26. Come watch Kasai’s selection of films, and view new works produced during her residency at BLIM; entry fee: sliding scale of $7 – $10. Blimited: Limited Edition Screenprinted shirt by Kaori Kasai available at Blim for month of March. Images available upon request.
This is the launching event for the Powell Street Festival’s 2010 season of events. Follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/powellstfest Blim: www.blim.ca
Media contact: Kristen @ 604.683.8240 or gm at powellstreetfestival.com
The Powell Street Festival Society gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts, Department of Canadian Heritage, and City of Vancouver Office of Cultural Affairs.
2008–2009 Season
For more info about any of the following events, please contact Kristen at gm at powellstreetfestival.com or 604.683.8240.
Darrell Oike
REASSEMBLING THE SACRED:
an exhibition of clay spheres and mandalas
Opening Reception with Artist in Attendance
Saturday May 2, 2009 from 4 to 6pm
Exhibition runs from April 28 to June 20, 2009
Numen Gallery
1058 Mainland Street, Yaletown
604.630.6927, www.numengallery.com
Gallery hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 11 to 6, or by appointment
Presented by Numen Gallery and co-sponsored by Powell Street Festival Society and ExplorAsian.
Come view Oike’s pit-fired, cracked, sewn and bound mandalas and sculptures. Inspired by Hindu and Buddhist sacred geometry and patterns and a vision of healing for the earth and her inhabitants. Darrell Oike is a mixed media artist based in Haida Gwaii and Vancouver, B.C.
Mixie & the Halfbreeds
by Adrienne Wong and Julie Tamiko Manning
Directed by Maiko Bae Yamamoto
June 18 to 28, 2009
at The Vancity Culture Lab at The Cultch
1895 Venables Street
Produced by Neworld Theatre in Association with The Powell Street Festival
Performances:
Wednesday – Saturday, 8:00pm
Free Preview June 18, 8:00pm
PWYC Matinees Saturday, June 20 & Sunday, June 28 2:00pm
Tickets $20/18 (+ service charge) 604.280.4444 or www.ticketmaster.ca
Info: www.neworldtheatre.com
Afternoon Discussion on Saturday June 20, after the matinee:
A discussion with mixed race artists of different disciplines about how identity informs artistic practice and creative process. Marcus Youssef moderates with panelists Julie Tamiko Manning (theatre), cellist Cris Derksen and Jay Hirabayashi (Kokoro Dance).
GENERATION MOVEMENT: Collaboration & Collection
Exhibition: August 1st to 14th, 2009
Opening: Friday, July 31, 8pm
Artist’s Talk: Thursday, August 6, 6pm
Helen Pitt Gallery
102-148 Alexander Street, Vancouver)
Wednesday-Saturday, plus Sunday August 2
noon to 5 pm
More information: 604.683.8240
Generation Movement is an interdisciplinary collaborative exhibition of contemporary Japanese Canadian performance-based works in which contemporary artists Kaori Kasai, Cindy Mochizuki, and Rafael Tsuchida collaborate with a non-artist member of their own family in another generation. The exhibition is curated by Lyndsay Sung.
GENERATION MOVEMENT is about the relationships (and ways of relating) between generations; the show attempts to disperse some generational misunderstanding, as well as to explore the boundaries between artists and non-artists, the art of the everyday and the common understanding of what or who an artist “is.”
The artists and non-artists in GENERATION MOVEMENT worked towards developing a greater understanding of each other through this collaboration. Cindy Mochizuki shares a set of drawings of her family’s living room, with three perspectives done by different family members; she also presents a video performance work of the family singing the same song in three different panels. Rafael Tsuchida presents a sculpture based on his attempt to understand his father’s past occupation as a chicken sex determiner, together with a sound piece using audio he collected over his last trip home at Christmas visiting his parents. Kaori Kasai’s installation brings together the work of her own drawings and the work of her amateur photographer father. This project truly helped bridge a huge gap between the estranged pair.
TRACES: Projecting Neighbourhood Stories
Saturday, August 1, 9:15pm, Free night-time screening
Woodland Park (700 Woodland Drive, Vancouver)
Traces: Projecting Neighbourhood Stories is a living history project about the Strathcona and Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhoods. Fusing video, animation and shadow puppetry, youth and artists collaborated in creating multi-media artworks based on conversations with long-time neighbourhood residents. As dusk sets in at 9:15pm on Saturday, August 1st, Shout!WhiteDragon warms up the stage with bluegrass tunes before the screenings at 9:45pm. Pre-festival screenings also held on July 24 and 25, 9:00pm, corner of Hastings and Jackson Streets.
JLS Frame I, Shima Iuchi, 2009
Spatial Poetics VIII
Saturday, September 19
with a performance at 7 pm along streets of Japantown, and an installation at 8:30 pm at Vancouver Japanese Language School
Japantown streets: map (see below)
Vancouver Japanese Language School & Language Hall, 487 Alexander Street
More information: 604.683.8240
Featuring premieres of collaborative pieces by
Shima Iuchi & Jean Routhier
Mark Soo & John Kosrud (with musicians Evan Arntzen, Saul Berson, Michael Braverman, Bruce Freedman, Graham Ord, and Bill Runge)
DOWNLOAD detailed info about Spatial Poetics VIII
Powell Street Festival Society presents the eighth annual Spatial Poetics, an interdisciplinary event that celebrates collaboration, experimentation and innovation. This year’s end result is a collection of 2 new works that explore ideas of memory, space, community, and dialogue by emerging and established Asian Canadian artists and collaborators. Spatial Poetics VIII combines works by partnered artists, Shima Iuchi and Jean Routhier, and Mark Soo and John Korsrud. Elaborating upon the Festival theme of Migration, this edition of Spatial Poetics’ artists engage with new and experimental locales, including the streetscape of Japantown and a rooftop location overlooking the docks of Vancouver. Iuchi and Routhier present a video and audio work, while Soo and Korsrud present a conceptual musical performance in the Downtown Eastside. Exploring the literal and virtual migrations between spaces and within dialogue, Iuchi, Routhier, Soo and Korsrud provide new perspectives of familiar landscapes. Given that the Powell Street Festival relocated in August 2009 outside of our normal home in Oppenheimer Park, this is an opportunity to explore the Japantown neighborhood under a different premise.
Kamloops-based visual artist Shima Iuchi and Vancouver sound designer Jean Routhier present a video/audio based installation piece that explores ideas of memory and communication. Tracing the vocal and migratory patterns of transient orca whales, the artists speak to the duality of dislocation and communion that embodies cultural and linguistic migrations.
Local visual artist Mark Soo and musical director and composer John Korsrud present a conceptual piece of a sonic line drawing. 6 saxophonists pass a musical phrase from one to the other, capturing, losing and reconstructing from memory the musical phrase. The resulting acoustic line bisects and bridges imaginary and concrete spaces through this historic and fragmented area.
On Saturday, September 19th, we encourage you to view the performance and installation back-to-back. The performance will first take place along the streets of Japantown and the installation will be open for viewing on the 5th floor of the Vancouver Japanese Language School.
To best experience Drawing Line on the streets of Japantown, walk up and down the sidewalks marked in pink on the map to capture the lines of music that will travel between musicians. The first 2 musicians will be stationed on Railway between Gore and Jackson streets; 2 more will be situated along Alexander between Jackson and Princess, and the final two will be located on Princess between Powell and Alexander streets.
This is the final festival event for the 33rd Annual Powell Street Festival.
Media contact: Kristen @ 604.683.8240 or gm at powellstreetfestival.com
2007–2008 Season
Merge / Frozen–Melt: Contemporay clay and glass exhibition (BC/Japan)
May 3–June 1, 2008
Numen Gallery
The three artists in this show, Miyuki Shinkai, Hidenori Ebina and Naoko Takenouchi, are searching for a way to navigate the waters of both Western and Eastern philosophies. This functional art exhibition will give the artists an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate their Japanese identities, to honour the roots they have grown in Canada, and to encourage the next generation to merge, with sensitivity, the aesthetics from their respective cultures. download the press release.
Tiny Lines For Smaller Movements
Lucky’s Gallery, 3972 Main Street
June 7–July 3 (opening Friday, June 6 at 8 pm)
Curated by Lyndsay Sung
The card you made for Grandma and Grandpa for their anniversary, the handmade paper greeting card bought from Tonari Gumi (Japanese Community Volunteers Association) seniors, the paper cut-out of Mariah Carey, the drawing you made on a take-out menu. This exhibit will present works that highlight the smaller, quieter movements of handmade design and artwork, including handmade cards, drawings and paper art. Conflating simple birthday cards and quiet drawings into artwork, the show will exhibit commissioned works from several generations of Japanese Canadian and Asian Canadian artists, highlighting the art and design of everyday life. Curated by integrated media artist Lyndsay Sung, commissioned artists will include Maiko Tanaka (Ontario), Rafael Tsuchida (BC), Yuriko Iga (BC), Cindy Mochizuki (BC), Madoka Hara (BC), Lynda Nakashima (BC), Kathy Shimizu (Manitoba/BC). Tonari Gumi seniors will also be invited to contribute their work. Download the press release.
Spatial Poetics VII exhibition/performance
OPENING Saturday, July 12th, 2008 with performances at 7:30pm at Hunt and Gather, and at 8:00pm at Nouvelle Nouvelle
Hunt & Gather, 225 Carrall Street
Nouvelle Nouvelle, 209 Abbott Street
Various poster-boards around Gastown
More information: 604.683.8240
Spatial Poetics is an interdisciplinary event that celebrates collaboration and innovation in the use of text, visuals, music, and performance by an eclectic mix of Asian Canadian artists. Artists are commissioned to create new work that may be beyond their suggested discipline and are encouraged to speak from multiple spaces/places, both new and revisited. The end result will be a diverse collection of works by established artists and emerging artists. Contributing greatly to the SENSU Festival theme, this edition of Spatial Poetics will present a series of durational installations in the form of a walking tour between several storefronts in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Curated by Miko Hoffman, participating artists are Natalie Purschwitz, Vanessa Kwan and Madoka Hara. Download the press release.
Commercial na Art! Ocean Fresh!
Exhibition: August 1st to 15th, 2008
Helen Pitt Gallery
102–148 Alexander Street
Tuesday–Saturday, noon–5 pm
OPENING: August 1, 2008 @ 8 pm
Artists from Japan will be in attendance
ARTIST’S TALK: August 2, 2008 @ 2 pm
Artist Erika Kobayashi with Curator Aya Takada
More information: 604.683.8240
Commercial na Art! Ocean Fresh explores Japanese mass culture and commercialism through the works of five emerging Japanese artists using photography, illustration, video, sculpture, painting, and comics. Curated by Aya Takada, the Artistic Director of Birdo flugas project and birdo space in Shiogama, Japan, the exhibition features works by video artist Chikara Matsumoto, photographer Itaru Hirama, visual artist Yusuke Gunji, comic book artist Erika Kobayashi, and rock art illustrator Toru Morooka. Download the press release.
Shugo Tokumaru & Mia Doi Todd
Saturday, August 2, 2008 @ 8 pm (doors open at 7:30 pm)
Firehall Arts Centre (280 East Cordova Street)
TICKETS @ THE DOOR: $15/$10 (students, seniors and PSF members)
More information: 604.683.8240
Performing solo on guitar, saw, stringed instruments, percussion, toys and more, Shugo Tokumaru is a quiet and talented force to be reckoned with. Known for his atmospheric, poppy, psychedelic-folk songs fronted by lovely vocals, he has released two albums internationally and has been acclaimed in such prestigious publications as The Wire and Rolling Stone. The Powell Street Festival welcomes this emerging artist to the main stage in his debut performance in Canada. Download the press release.
