Art's Birthday

Jan 17, 2023
Field:

Gathering, Performance

 Location:

Grand Luxe Hall, Western Front / Online

 Time:

7:00 p.m.

Description:

For the first time since 2010, Art’s Birthday returned to Western Front as a party featuring tea and cake, as well as screenings, noise, and performances by local members of Art’s Birthday Collective.

Celebrating Art’s Birthday was a tradition started by French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou who declared, on January 17, 1963, that Art had been born exactly 1,000,000 years prior when somebody dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Over many decades, artists have continued to organize annual celebrations in the spirit of Filliou’s “Eternal Network” or “La Fête permanente.”

Over the course of the afternoon, artists Igor Santizo, Peter Courtemanche, Anna Friz, and Hank Bull presented a variety of live improvised sound events, which were broadcast from the Grand Luxe Hall and shared with others celebrating the event around the world.

In the evening, a gathering took place that featured screening materials by artists David Williams, Sarah Shamash, and Deanne Achong, as well as a poetry reading by Jim Andrews. Lam Wong presented a performance dedicated to the late Michael Morris as Bryan Mulvihill (aka Trolley Bus) prepared a tea service. Bull concluded the event with a full-body piano performance, playing the song “Happy Birthday.”

This gathering also served as a thank you to the many people who contributed to the Western Front Endowment Fund on the occasion of Western Front’s 50th anniversary.

Hank Bull leans into the soundboard of a baby grand piano with its lid propped open. He is reaching over to play the keys with his left hand while his right plays the strings with a wooden mallet.
Hank Bull plays the strings of a baby grand piano with a drumstick. A microphone is placed facing the soundboard to capture the sounds. Bull’s reflection is seen in the propped-open lid of the piano.
Hank Bull lays beneath a baby grand piano, reaching up from below to play the keys. The piano’s lid is open, revealing a mallet sitting on its tuning pins.
A close-up of Hank Bull’s hand wielding a mallet extending towards the strings of a baby grand piano. Two aluminium baking sheets sit atop the piano’s tuning pins.
Hank Bull plays a baby grand piano while Igor Santizo, who is sitting on a green blanket covered in percussive instruments reads off a page into a microphone. They sit in front of a large white screen with an unoccupied leopard print chair between them.
A look over the shoulder of Igor Santizo as he reads text from a page. He sits on a green blanket layed out on the floor alongside percussive instruments and two microphones.
Holding bells attached to strings in both hands, Igor Santizo stands on a green blanket in front of a white screen. On the blanket are several percussive instruments and two standing microphones.
Anna Friz plays a harmonica into a microphone connected to an assortment of electronics and a mixing board sitting on a table.
A look over the shoulder of Anna Friz as she plays a small modular synthesizer sitting on a table beside a sound mixing board, effects pedals, a harmonica and a microphone.
Peter Courtemanche sits by a sound mixing board. He is wearing headphones and looking down at a laptop.
Lam Wong leans over a large piece of paper on a tabletop to scribe names in pencil as part of a performance. Also on the table is a digital tablet, a wooden round, a wooden colour bar, a singing bowl, a photograph, and tea paraphernalia.
With a pencil in hand, Lam Wong reads off of a digital tablet as he leans on a table covered in a large sheet of paper. There are names scribed halfway down the paper. Also on the table are paint brushes, a book, a sponge, a wooden colour bar, a jug of water, a champagne flute, a singing bowl and assorted tea paraphernalia.
A close up shot of Lam Wong pouring water into a ceramic teapot. The teapot is sitting on a tabletop covered with a tea-stained paper on which several names have been scribed in pencil. Also on the table is a stack of tea cups sitting on a coaster, a sponge, a pen and a wooden colour bar.
Jim Andrews gesticulates as he recites a poem into a microphone. He dons a hat made from the pages of a newspaper.
Standing in front of a microphone with her cellphone in hand, Zainub Verjee addresses an audience. Sitting behind her are some audience members and a young boy sitting at a piano wearing a hat made of newsprint.
Hank Bull looks towards the camera with a grin as he plays a baby grand piano with his butt. In the background, members of the audience are seen smiling.
Wearing a blue blazer and a hat made of newsprint, Randy Gledhill stands behind a table set with wine glasses, champagne flutes and wine bottles. With a waiter’s cloth draped on his arm, he prepares to open a bottle of sparkling wine.
Meghan Latta and Anna Tidlund, who is wearing a newsprint hat, cut into two separate cakes set on a table among bright pink plates, an orange balloon and champagne flutes. Bryan Mulvihill pours hot water from a thermal carafe into a gilded teapot. Beside him stands an audience member eating a piece of cake off a bright pink plate. The pair stand beside a table filled with tea pots, tea cups on a tray, a woven basket and a red tea cosy with dragon embroidery.
Bryan Mulvihill pours hot water from a thermal carafe into a gilded teapot. Beside him stands an audience member eating a piece of cake off a bright pink plate. The pair stand beside a table filled with tea pots, tea cups on a tray, a woven basket and a red tea cosy with dragon embroidery.
Many people converse over tea and cake in a large hall. The light of a projector shines from the far end of the hall towards the camera. In the centre of the image, two people examine a photograph in front of a table covered in a large sheet of paper on which many names have been scribed in pencil. Als on the table is assorted tea paraphernalia, a champagne flute, a jug of water, several paint brushes, ceramic bowls, a wooden colour bar, a sponge, a bottle of ink. a coaster, a pencil and assorted calligraphy items.
Lam Wong leans over a table covered in a large piece of paper to scribe the names listed on a digital tablet to his left. Wong writes in pencil as a child wearing a newsprint hat stands beside him wielding a marker looks down on his drawing of a creature. Also placed on the table are assorted tea paraphernalia and ceramics, a jug of water, a coaster, a singing bowl, and calligraphy items. Many people converse over tea and cake in the background.

Captions:

Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.

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