Last week we posted HERE part one of our conversation with Douglas Coupland. In this post, Coupland talks about his collecting habits, coming from a “guns-and-ammo” family, his interest in nuclear culture and his new TV mini-series, among other things.

Douglas Coupland’s tiny cubes of 100 stamps. Image: VoCA

Coupland brings out a bowl filled with small cubes of 100 stamps, held together with a band of paper.

VoCA: Wow, did you make all these?

DC: Oh God, no. I collect stamps, I collect Japanese stamps.

VoCA: See, you do collect! You collect tons of things!

DC: Ok, the thing is, there’s a show on A&E called ‘Hoarders’, have you seen it?

VoCA: I’ve heard of it. It’s about people who obsessively collect things.

DC: No, no. I collect. These people don’t get rid of shit. (laughs) These are people who use a paper towel and don’t throw it out thinking it might be useful in the future. People who hoard have almost always had a huge, catastrophic loss in their life, a family member usually and it’s almost impossible to get rid of once you’ve got it. It becomes for them, ‘something you can’t take away from me,’ kind of thing.

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Last night, we went to a panel discussion, hosted by the Canadian Journalism Foundation, titled Arts Journalism: Staying Critical in the Digital Age.

The panel: Taylor, O’Regan, Al-Solaylee and moderator Bronwyn Drainie. Image: courtesy Roger Cullman

Moderated by Bronwyn Drainie, Editor of the Literary Review of Canada, the panel featured Kamal Al-Solaylee, Assistant Professor at Ryerson and former theatre critic at the Globe and Mail, Seamus O’Regan, co-host of CTV’s Canada AM and host of Arts & Minds and The O’Regan Files on Bravo!, and the sharp, witty and spot-on Globe and Mail columnist and feature writer Kate Taylor.

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Ok, ok people, you pummeled VoCA for THIS post, with many comments…

Tell VoCA what you want. Image: smh.com.au

Some agreed, saying “I feel like this this revulsion I’m experiencing is the desired effect: Trecartin would endeavour to highlight contemporary culture’s more outlandish aspects by combining them all into one loathsome beast” and “bad taste, as well as bad technique are the point! Maybe that’s the case here.”

But most blasted my “poorly poorly argued and supported judgments,” my “impatience with the work’s rigor, (that) shows a complete misunderstanding for the medium, and is lazy criticism,” suggesting that perhaps “sometimes aggressively queer work makes (me) feel uncomfortable.”

There have also been numerous suggestions and comments from readers sent to me off the blog.

So, I want to say that I hear you.

I welcome your comments on what you’d like to see in a critical art blog, below.

Thanks!

It’s interesting to note, in light of Ryan Trecartin’s films and exhibitions such as the New Museum’s Unmonumental in 2008, that luxury goods makers have come together to lament the loss of quality in craftsmanship seen in recent years.

Celine’s resort collection, 2010. Image: lefistnoir.com

“All young people want to be designers and very few, makers. We want to try to change that by promoting craftsmanship in the luxury sector,” says Guy Salter, the spokesman for the alliance of companies.

All young people want to be designers, not makers.  How come?  Maybe because it’s the designer, not the maker who has been glamorized (hello, Tom Ford.) Maybe that’s why more young people want to be rockstars, or artstars, too.

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Image: VoCA

Well, we’re pleased to see that critical debate is alive and well across the pond.

Witness the Guardian’s art critic, Jonathan Jones, who says that “The truth is that overanalysing art, as opposed to intuitively rating it, carries its own dangers. You can convince yourself of anything by study and sympathy.”

Jones’ article in the Guardian. Image: VoCA

The article and particularly the many, many comments, are pretty interesting. Click HERE to read it.

About 4 years ago, we predicted the importance of mirrors in art.

Michelangelo Pistoletto breaks mirrors during a performance for the creation of his “Twentytwo less two” installation at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Image: inapache.boston.com

And then we started to see it, slowly seeping in: David Altmejd’s mirror-covered pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, Michelangelo Pistoletto, resurrected in Venice in 2009, Gwenaël Bélanger’s excellent shattering mirror video work at the Quebec Triennale, Michel de Broin’s stunning mirror-covered rock set deep in the forest…and this year, finally, we hear that the Armory featured many works with mirror.

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In Edmonton, a writer’s despair over provincial arts cuts is both convincing and less so on Government arts support.

“Alberta artists have taken the latest news of a 15-per-cent cut (to the arts) in their stride”, says Marliss Weber in SEE magazine.

Andrew Rucklidge, Sleeper, 2009. Image: courtesy the artist.

She continues, “Art allows us to express ourselves, which is an innate human desire. Without access to art, without the ability to write and draw and act and make music, or consume all of the above, we seriously limit the effectiveness of our communication abilities. We also limit our ability to persuade, to entertain, to connect with each other.”

Can’t argue with that.  She makes some good points in her article, and yet, while cities need the arts in order to thrive, her insinuation that the arts will cease without government support is troubling.

Read the full article HERE.

There will always be art, with or without government support and there should be absolutely no doubt about that.

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For a while now, VoCA hasn’t been trotting off to art fairs the way we used to. This year, the New York Amory almost went unnoticed to us. But then we noticed that some people, curators, dealers…are choosing to remain home this year, too.

New York’s Armory Show. Image: thearmoryshow.com

Is it the end of the art fair?

A new non-fair, called the Independent, is on from March 4 - 7 at the Dia building in New York, and is billed as a “hybrid model and temporary exhibition forum.” It is the subject of THIS fascinating article in the Observer.

The article states that “New York is going through a moment right now—that the glitzy, frivolous culture of the boom years is giving way to a new era of intellectual engagement and open-minded community among art lovers.”

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VoCA loves our GG.  She understands the value of arts and culture.  Last week in Montreal, Governor General Michaëlle Jean gave this statement: “Culture must be able to express itself everywhere and always, and be accessible to as many people as possible, for it bears within it our choices, our hopes, our memory and our imagination.”

I See What You Mean, the Big Blue Bear at the Colorado Convention Center. Image: denvergov.org

On the evening of March 1, culture-minded Torontonians gathered at a Town Hall meeting to protest the City Council’s rejection of BeautifulCity.com’s initiative to have taxes from advertising billboards going toward arts and culture.

Check out past blog posts on that topic HERE and HERE.

It might not seem like a big deal, but it points to the fact that the arts community must keep fighting for recognition of the importance of art in Toronto. It’s the most obvious difference between Toronto and cities like Chicago and Montreal.

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