PAUL WONG'S 10 SECONDS PROJECT


We were very excited to see the 8th installment of the 10 seconds project curated by Paul Wong. The 8th installment featured a short video and series of paintings by Doug Coupland. We have been following this series from its inception. Below you will find our favourite picks. We are looking forward to more 10 seconds installments too, as the project runs until March.
HAPPY VIEWING!


10 Seconds is a curated and commissioned series of new works by Vancouver artists that will be presented on the video screens of the Canada Line subway system. This yearlong project will run from April 2011 to March 2012. Each artist has been commissioned to create a 10-second work to be featured each month, repeating every 2 minutes over the commuter digital network and released on other digital platforms (YouTube/Facebook/DVD). If you are interested in learning more about the project please visit OnMain Gallery. 



VANCOUVER CODES BY DOUG COUPLAND, 2012


Vancouver Codes is 10 seconds of elegantly shifting codes that link to twenty pieces of data: including youtube videos, photographs of various sites such as Grouse Mountain, VanDusen Gardens, public artworks including Coupland's Digital Orca and Terry Fox sculptures, and written messages. He has also created a QR code that links towww.onmaingallery.com: all reasons to take out your smart phone, scan that screen, and see where Coupland takes you.
Douglas Coupland is a well-known Canadian writer and visual artist. His fiction is complemented by works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as 'McJob' and 'Generation X'. He has published thirteen novels, a collection of short stories, seven non-fiction books, and a number of works for film and television. Since resuming his practice as a visual artist in 2001, he has exhibited in North America, Europe and Asia. Recent major commissions include a Terry Fox memorial for Vancouver (2011), and a memorial for fallen firefighters in Ottawa (2012). http://www.coupland.com

HIPPIE CHICK BY DANA CLAXTON, 2011
 

TUNE IN. PUT ON YOUR LOVE BEADS. Hippie Chick by Dana Claxton launches April 18th on YouTube and on the Canada Line subway system video screens April 18 to April 30. Hippie Chick celebrates Vancouver's history of counter-culture using archival footage from the first Easter Be-In held illegally in Stanley Park in 1967, when a large number of hippies and supporters defiantly gathered and claimed public space.  The human "be-ins" were gatherings of hippies, a vocal and growing subculture of baby boomers rejecting the conservative values of the status quo. Hippies were seeking out new and alternative lifestyles that were anti-war and anti-establishment. Claxton has reworked the footage to suggest that one of the streams in the hippie movement's demand for social change was manifested through creative expression and collective dance. The female body is self-realized through the right to dance freely.
Dana Claxton is an interdisciplinary artist creating works in film, video, photography, installation and performance that has garnered international recognition. She is represented by the Winsor Gallery, Vancouver. She is also active as a curator and she teaches Advanced Digital Arts and Performance Art at UBC. www.danaclaxton.com

SLASH FORWARD BY MICHAEL TURNER, 2011 

Slash Forward was designed to be placed amidst commercial ads/public service announcements/breaking news. 100,000 commuters come/go, arrive/depart and stand/walk past these info screens daily. Slash Forward is repeated every 2 minutes, 24/7. Derived from the forward-slash, Slash Forward is the third stage in what began as a concretist device on Turner's bloghttp://mtwebsit.blogspot.com/ and was later adapted to 140 slashes in the Twitter-driven Digital Natives LED billboard presentation on the Burrard Street Bridge http://digitalnatives.othersights.ca/tag/vancouver/. Is Slash Forward a message, a warning? 140 bright white slashes appear graphically on deep red field, presenting the illusion of forward/backward motion. The internet has changed not only the way we experience the world but the way its script is written. The forward-slash is part of that script, and a means of navigation. For Turner, a writer who values means over ends, the doorway these forward-slashes stand in for has become a recurring motif in his work, one that reminds us to always "mind the gap."
Michael Turner is an award-winning writer of fiction, criticism and song. His books include Hard Core Logo, The Pornographer's Poem and 8x10. He is also the co-author of Fred Herzog: Vancouver Photographs.

ESCAPE VELOCITY BY CHELSEA O'BRIAN, 2011 

Escape Velocity is a liberating flight of fancy. This 10-second film blends the speed and force of a helicopter with the magic, grace and beauty of a performer suspended in-the-air. Over the last 125 years we have evolved from a wooden shantytown to a city of concrete highrises constantly exceeding the vertical limits of yesterday. What may seem inaccessible becomes possible as science, technology and the dreams of artists propel us towards new ways of seeing and experiencing the world in which we live. We will soon be flying around in personal jetpacks as we take off and land on 100-storey buildings. Escape Velocity is dedicated to all those who have ever sat in a crowded commuter train wishing they could escape the urban hell and just fly away...
Chelsea O'Brian has worked in circus, dance, film, and theatre. While attending the National Circus School of Montreal, she invented the Aerial Kite and has developed its original technique. She has toured with Cirque Plume in France as an original cast member of L'Atelier du peintre, as well as participating in the show's creation (2008-2010). From Vancouver, she is now based in San Francisco. She was most recently in Vancouver performing in the equestrian-based multidisciplinary show Cavalia www.chelseao.com

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