{"id":19889,"date":"2020-09-16T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T19:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=19889"},"modified":"2020-09-16T08:57:40","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T15:57:40","slug":"stanzas-art-exhibit-challenges-perceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/09\/16\/stanzas-art-exhibit-challenges-perceptions\/","title":{"rendered":"STANZAS<\/em> art exhibit challenges perceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLighght.\u201d<\/p>\n

American poet Aram Saroyan was paid $500 USD (in 2020 dollars, roughly $4,125 USD) for the publication of this one-word poem in the early 1960s, and to date no poem has netted as much for its author per word. At the time, the payment and the publication of the poem were controversial, but sometimes art can serve to challenge people\u2019s perceptions, says Victoria Arts Council (VAC) executive director Kegan McFadden, who is curating the concrete is porous<\/em> exhibit.<\/p>\n

concrete is porous<\/em>, in\u00a0which \u201cLighght\u201d is featured, is part of a wider array of exhibitions called STANZAS<\/em>. There are six very different pieces in concrete is porous<\/em>\u2014STANZAS<\/em>‘ anchor exhibition, taking place at VAC\u2019s main gallery at 1800 Store Street\u2014that all approach the overlap of visual and literary arts. \u201cLighght,\u201d says McFadden, is a poem that you look at rather than read.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the reason it\u2019s so great is because you look at it and you think you see what it says,\u201d he says. \u201cYou think you read it one way, then you take a second look and it all comes into focus, or, you know, sort of falls out of focus. And that in-between space is what I\u2019m always after.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An excerpt of Jordan Abel’s NISHGA<\/em>, part of concrete is porous<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLighght\u201d is an illumination on landscape or the natural world, says McFadden, but from a completely conceptual and intellectual framework.<\/p>\n

\u201cConcrete poetry, really, is like a pared-down version of language… A word that you might have recognized and then you take a second look, and go, \u2018That\u2019s not really what that word is,\u2019 through font or through style,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

McFadden says this is a way to get to the meaning of language and expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I think, we\u2019re in a moment where everything is being questioned for very good reasons,\u201d says McFadden. \u201cSo why wouldn\u2019t art help with providing tools of how to question things in a productive way, or in a way that allows other pieces of the puzzle to come into focus?\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much going on in the world right now, says McFadden, and it\u2019s up to artists, and the VAC, to take these events\u2014namely, the COVID-19 pandemic and the uprisings around racism\u2014very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always striving to be more inclusive as an arts council; how that\u2019s going to shake out over the next couple of years will be interesting,\u201d says McFadden. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working more and more with Indigenous artists over the years, and we\u2019re really happy to be showing and showcasing [Nisga’a writer] Jordan Abel\u2019s poetry as part of concrete is porous<\/em>.\u201d (The work is viewable in the main gallery, which has physical-distancing measures in place and a capacity limit of 10. Window galleries are also available for those who aren\u2019t comfortable going into an enclosed space.)<\/p>\n

For McFadden, it\u2019s all about seeing through new lenses that the art offers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I work in art,\u201d he says, \u201cis because it\u2019s full of possibilities rather than answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

STANZAS
\n<\/em>Until Saturday, October 24
\nFree, various locations
\nartsvictoria.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLighght.\u201d American poet Aram Saroyan was paid $500 USD (in 2020 dollars, roughly $4,125 USD) for the publication of this one-word poem in the early 1960s, and to date no poem has netted as much for its author per word. At the time, the payment and the publication of the poem were controversial, but sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19889"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19894,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19889\/revisions\/19894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}