BY JOHN FITZGERALD
Vancouver, British Columbia, which legions of visitors and locals love for its stunning views and relaxed lifestyle, is making sure culture is a major part of the 2010 Winter Olympics (Feb.12-28) and 2010 Paralympic Games (March 12-21).
The resort town of Whistler, situated 78 miles north of Vancouver, is set to host the Alpine skiing and other outdoor events with Vancouver staging such hugely popular draws as figure skating, short track speed skating and hockey.
But if you can tear yourself away from rink side or a ski hill, there are plenty of other diversions to thrill the senses. As part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, dozens of projects are being featured for the Games, including dance, digital programming, theatre, visual arts and of course, music.
American R & B artists India Arie and Raphael Saadiq will hit the stage as will Inuit throat singer and recording artist Tanya Tagaq, the Moscow State Chamber Choir and STREB Extreme Action. The New York-based dance company is known for its incredible jumps and live action stunts.
A solo exhibition entitled The Surgeon and The Photographer by internationally renowned Vancouver contemporary artist Geoffrey Farmer is being mounted at the city’s Catriona Jeffries Gallery (though March 6). The gallery, located in a converted warehouse in the city’s East Side False Creek area, exhibits emerging as well as top-ranked Canadian and international contemporary artists.
Vancouver is sprinkled with a variety of intriguing public art, installed specifically for the Games. Entitled Endlessly Traversed Landscapes, an exhibition curated by Toronto artist Natalie Noonan has provocative poster art displayed at locations all over Vancouver, based on the context of the image. Canadian artist Sandy Plotnikoff, for example, shows a beautiful Italian landscape with the words Holidays Cancelled. The poster has been set up in Vancouver’s gritty downtown East Side.
There are numerous outdoor sculptures on show in public spaces, including a 20 foot high polished stainless steel statue entitled Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head by Beijing artists Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang. The Gao brothers’ satirical piece depicts Mao Zedong as a bare-breasted female trapeze artist balancing atop the head of Vladimir Lenin.
New York-based sculptor Dennis Oppenheim’s stylish piece Arriving Home has been installed outside the international terminal at Vancouver International Airport. And a 6,000 square foot hand-painted mural created by Taiwanese artist Michael Lin covers the northern façade of the Vancouver Art Gallery overlooking the Georgia Street Plaza, the city’s largest square.
The museum is centrally located on Hornby St., not far from the Fairmont Vancouver, Shangri-la Hotel Vancouver (with its Market by Jean-Georges restaurant), and hip Listel and Opus hotels. Home to a major collection of works by noted Canadian painter, the late Emily Carr, the Vancouver Art Gallery is presenting a special Olympics exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings on loan from the Royal Collection by Queen Elizabeth II.
Don’t miss Québéçois director Robert Lepage’s intriguing and lushly visual production The Blue Dragon that’s being staged at Simon Fraser University’s new Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre. Sequel to The Dragons’ Trilogy that helped launch Lepage’s international career, The Blue Dragon, set in contemporary Shanghai, features the return, after 20 years, of the principal character in the 1985 production.
You may also want to visit the Inuit Gallery of Vancouver in the city’s bustling historic Gastown neighborhood which is chockablock with bars, restaurants, lounges and galleries.
Check out Yaletown, a seven block area easily walkable from downtown that used to be a rail yard and repair facility in the 19th century. Many of the warehouses are now converted lofts and there are more patios and martini bars than you can shake a swizzle stick at. Try Bluewater Café and Raw Bar for delectable fish and seafood and Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill, named 2009 Restaurant of the Year by Vancouver magazine. Coastal People’s Fine Art has an impressive collection of artwork, including masks, totem poles, jewelry, glasswork and sculpture on show and for sale.
If you can tear yourself away from one of Whistler’s numerous watering holes in the evenings during the Games, a good bet is NIX, Theatre of Snow and Ice. Performed on the shores of the ski resort’s Lost Lake (brrrrrrrr!) in what’s billed as Canada’s first theatre of ice and snow, the production, which ends Feb.27, is the creation of writer and director Kendra Fanconi. With a snowman death scene, a flaming tuba, and a love story to boot, the play tells the story of two survivors and an arsonist as they move through the fireworks at the end of the world. Mitts and booties recommended.
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