Anodyne
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
 
Urban Camera Obscura

To Emily Carr, the "outside judge" for this year's grad show awards. No shortage of good work on display (Rachelle Sawatsky's projection; Shan Powell's Smithsonian glass cube of False Creek seawater and toxic sediment; Matt Sinclair's goofy cartoon reformulations of late-50s "expressive" gestural painting; Kristi Malakoff's trompe-l'oeil "orchard" of fake fruit trees and paper birds, literally springing off the bird-patterned wallpaper serving as its backdrop). But the real surprise came after lunch, when our administrative assistant pointed out Matthew Griffin's circular camera obscura on the hill above the hotel.

Up the steep grass slope in the windy afternoon, and up the shaky painted metal stairs (diving board steps, pinched from some local pool?). A huge silver circle, shaped like the world's biggest can of tuna, with small portholes in its side. The door creaked. We wiggled in and tugged it shut behind us.

A panorama on the interior walls. The world inverted. False Creek's huge glass towers, thunderheads massing along the North Shore mountains, green inverted trees, rocking right to left in the wind. Buses passing along the undersides of bridges. Wind blowing in steady gusts, the structure rocking a little in the wind. All of us glancing nervously around as the wind gently shook us, like kittens in a mother cat's mouth.

Thanks, Matthew Griffin!
- posted by cjb @ 10:05 PM


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