Nuria's Blog: July 2008

Weltmeisterschaft der Sandskulpturen-Künstler - Harrison Hot Springs

Vom 02. bis 07. September 2008 findet in Harrison Hot Springs, gute anderthalb Autostunden östlich von Vancouver gelegen, zum 19. Mal die Weltmeisterschaft im Errichten von Sandskulpturen statt. Im Anschluss an den fünf Tage dauernden Wettbewerb bleiben die Kunstwerke dem Publikum noch mindestens bis zum 19. Oktober erhalten. Dabei hilft ein Spray namens WeatherTect II. Es sorgt dafür, dass sich das Wasser in den aus Sand gebauten Skulpturen nicht so schnell verflüchtigt. WT II ist biologisch abbaubar und wurde ursprünglich von der US Navy entwickelt, um die Erosion von Sanddünen zu stoppen. Allerdings ist auch WT II machtlos, wenn die Skulpturen von vorneherein nicht sachgemäß gebaut wurden. Dass es am Harrison Lake weder Ebbe noch Flut gibt ist ein weiterer Grund für die längere Lebensdauer der außergewöhnlichen Arbeiten.

Best of Vancouver

3D Strassenkunst - Julian Beever

Julian Beever is an English artist who is famous for his art on the pavements of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. Its peculiarity? Beever gives his drawings an anamorphosis view, his images are drawn in such a way which gives them three dimensionality when viewing from the correct angle. It's amazing !!!

Krazy! The Delirious World Of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art - Vancouver Artgallery

Krazy! The Delirious World Of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art is the first exhibition of its kind, a groundbreaking project that offers unique and dynamic insight into the world of comics,animated cartoons, anime, manga, graphic novels, computer/video games and visual art. Spanning a century of artmaking, the works in this exhibition reveal an extraordinary history of production, one that is poised to redefine the scope of visual culture in the 21st century.With outstanding examples of original sketches, notes, concept drawings, final production drawings, animation cells, three-dimensional models and published works, KRAZY! promises a rare insight into the mind and method of some of the finest artists at work today. With generous support from Vancouver Foundation.

The exhibition is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery with co-curators Bruce Grenville, Tim Johnson, Kiyoshi Kusumi, Art Spiegelman, Seth, Will Wright, Toshiya Ueno and exhibition design by Atelier Bow Wow.

Zhang Huan: Altered States is the first museum survey of Zhang Huan, encompassing major works produced over the past 15 years in Beijing, New York and Shanghai. Zhang Huan is best known for his early body-based performances, both controversial and poetic, most of which involve physical endurance. He moved to New York IN 1998 and established himself as one of the most important and widely recognized expatriate Chinese artists. More recently, Zhang returned to China and founded a studio in Shanghai, where he has expanded his medium.The exhibition includes more than fifty works of photography, sculpture and painting tracing the evolution of Zhang Huan’s artistic practice to examine his personal, cultural and artistic negotiations in response to his immediate environment. It presents the experience of a singular artistic voice across diverse cultural domains—a voice that speaks from a unique vantage point in the contemporary art world.

Bridal Falls

MUSTANG

Blackout days in July

JULY 14
9 am

An electrical circuit is shorted in a manhole under the 500 block of Richards Street in downtown Vancouver. The resulting underground fire causes another circuit to fail, and another, and another.

The effects of this power outage have gone far beyond Vancouver.

Nancy Berton, owner of Gardecor Inc., a Colorado-based outdoor products company, said its websites were also down due to the Vancouver outage.

"This is a major economic loss for the day in sales as we are in our peak season," Berton wrote in an e-mail.
BC Hydro said the outage is affecting about 4,400 customers. However, some of those customers are large office towers, so the number of offices affected was believed to be much greater.

Restaurants that had to throw out perishable inventory were hardest hit by the power failure, says the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

The CFIB estimates about 4,800 small businesses in downtown Vancouver lost power, and that group alone suffered a financial hit totalling $36 million.