Art's Birthday
Celebrating Art’s Birthday is a tradition started by French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou who declared, on January 17th 1963, that Art had been born exactly 1,000,000 years ago when somebody dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Over many decades artists have continued to organise annual celebrations in the spirit of Filliou’s “Eternal Network” or “La Fête permanente”.
For the first time since 2010, Art’s Birthday will return to Western Front as a party featuring tea, cake, and screenings, noise, and performances by members of Art’s Birthday Collective: Vancouver (ABC:V).
This gathering will also serve as a thank you to the many people who have contributed to the Western Front Endowment Fund on the occasion of the Western Front’s 50th year.
About the Artists
Deanne Achong is a Vancouver based artist working in a variety of disciplines, including digital, lens-based projects and public art. Her practice draws from history, literature and digital culture, in a pluriversal context. She has sat on the board of several artist-run centers, including Other Sights for Artists’ Projects, and has taught sessionally at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She has exhibited her work in Canada, the US, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Jim Andrews is a Vancouver based net artist, poet, programmer, visual and audio artist, mathematician and essayist. He has been publishing vispo.com since 1996 and has produced a literary radio show called Fine Lines and, later, ?FRAME? for six years that he distributed each week to 15 campus/community stations in Canada.
Peter Courtemanche is a Vancouver based contemporary electronic media artist and curator. He works primarily in the realm of sound, radio-art, and interactive installation work. Much of his early sound works connect the worlds of early mechanical devices and late 19th Century inventions with computer control systems. His radio programs featured a variety of radio-art and experimental audio. More recently, he has shifted his focus to the direction of installation and computer interactive art. Peter worked at Western Front as technician and curator from 1992-2007.
Anna Friz is a Canadian educator, sound and radio artist who creates self-reflexive radio for broadcast as well as installations and performances, where radio is the source, subject, and medium of the work. Her compositions for theatre, dance, film, installation, and solo performance reflect upon public media culture, environment and infrastructure (human and extra-human, acoustic, and electro-magnetic), time perception, and speculative fiction.
Igor Santizo is a Vancouver based artist and educator interested in holism and consciousness. whose multidisciplinary practice explores experiential discovery and experimental communication. As an educator, he introduces participants to the creative process and foundational principles of visual and cultural literacy. As an artist, he investigates the dialogue between metaphysical principles and material forms.
Sarah Shamash is an artist-researcher based on the the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ Nations (Vancouver, BC). Her artworks span a variety of media including: installation, documentary, photography, sound, performance, and video. She teaches film studies, is an independent film programmer and has a focus on the archiving of films in Brazil known as “video nas aldeias”.
David Williams is a Portugal based artist who uses photographic and digital tools to explore sensuality conveyed through beauty while acknowledging the discomfort that comes as part of that manifestation. Much of his work has been informed by sexual politics. He has worked in the commercial art world, fashion, art documentation, advertising and as an academic.
Lam Wong is a Vancouver based artist and curator who works with painting, installation and performance to engage with themes such as the perception of reality, the role of art and the relationship between time, memory and space. He sees artmaking as an ongoing spiritual practice and his work draws upon his knowledge of Western art history and his interest in Taoism and Buddhism.
Acknowledgements
Presented with the Western Front Foundation.
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.