Victoria has long been a hub for fringe artistic endeavour. Something about its old, cobbled streets and windswept shores paired with its vibrant yet cozy small-town feel and outlier attitude toward the avant-garde and overlooked has turned this spooky little burg into a place where a little artistic vision (and the backing of the department of Arts and Culture) can go a long way. With futuristic glowing bridges and glass condo towers juxtaposed against gothic spires and ancient cemeteries, it’s a playground for the imagination. Among this primordial coalescence is Scott Amos and his rag-tag crew of artists that make up Monkey-C Artcade.
Monkey-C is a strange, hallucinogenic trip into the bizarre and sublime. Its winding pathways bring visitors into a labyrinth of surreal “mutant machines,” ancient radios that whisper strange messages, nostalgic arcade games that have been repurposed, cantankerous machines with siren songs of glowing buttons, sudden alleyways of dizzying colours, and strange creatures.
And now the latest culmination of this mash-up is Halloween art expansion The Cult of Cute Catastrophes.
“These are the best machines we’ve ever built, because we learn new tricks with each thing we build,” he says. “There are new music machines for people to play with, and machines that will give you candy if you hit the right buttons or notes. We didn’t want to do a typical Halloween with witches and skeletons; we wanted ours to be something… atypical.”
Before Monkey-C Artcade, Amos’ machines travelled to local events like Rifflandia, as well as to events as far as San Diego and San Francisco.
“[I had] a little laboratory in Rock Bay, and we would build the mutant machines there to send out to festivals and events,” he says.
Amos struggles to define exactly what Artcade is. He says it’s not really an arcade, and it’s not really an art gallery.
“It’s an Artcade,” he says. “An interactive art gallery. It’s not shiny and slick, because it is artist-run and artist-powered. There are no screens here; everything has to be explored. We made the conscious choice to make this a very tactile experience, so that everyone is just in the moment.”
Artcade is also a place for date nights and group outings; Amos says that bringing people together is important.
“You have to engage with the people you’re with, and lots of the machines are multi-person, so it’s not like sitting passively in a dark theatre,” says Amos. “You’re going to have fun exploring with whoever you come with, as well as other people you might meet in here. Our installations build connections.”
The Cult of Cute Catastrophes
2 pm to 10 pm, various dates, until Sunday, November 2
$15, Monkey-C Artcade
artcade.ca