other sights

Zero in on a new wave

By Lynn Mit­ges, Octo­ber 19, 2008 The Province

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Nes­tled among flashy ads and quick-bite movie trail­ers at Rob­son and Granville is a new expe­ri­ence from visual artist Anto­nia Hirsch called Vox Pop.

The Video project fea­tures two sep­a­rate sequences, one in which the cam­era pans the sta­dium at the same rate as the sporting-event fans’ wave would be followed.

The cam­era then rests on a sole male spec­ta­tor, who rises as if tak­ing part in the wave. Both one-minute sequences are inserted between ads.

Cre­ator Hirsch says the project cre­ates a ten­sion live action and group activ­i­ties as it screen every three min­utes, 24 hours a day for a week.

While the piece is played, there is no name, no web­site and no infor­ma­tion to iden­tify what it is or who cre­ated it.

“I play with adver­tis­ing esthetic. Look at it once, and you look at every­thing dif­fer­ently,” says Hirsch. “Just plant that seed: What is this?”

Hirsch says the spot is ideal not only for the pedes­trian traf­fic, but also because the screen is high res­o­lu­tion. It’s also fit­ting that the screen is between signs for Future Shop and Winners.

“Future and win­ners — I like that,” says Hirsch.

As the man on screen is soli­tary, Hirsch says he is tak­ing part in the wave evokes an omi­nous and unset­tling moment, yet one that is delib­er­ate and personal.

Hirsch had a spe­cific type of man in mind she wanted for the piece. He had to be in his mid-20s to 30s and Cau­casian, which plays up the stereo­typ­i­cal sports fan. He also had to be bald, which plays into the stereo­typ­i­cal sports hooligan.

“He had to be a reg­u­lar guy, so you could project your­self onto him,” she says. “The won­der­ful thing about it is that he looks more like an intellectual.”

This form of art is slowly gain­ing ground in Van­cou­ver, says cura­tor Bar­bara Cole, who helped steer the project and is a mem­ber of Oth­er­Sights, a non-profit group that seeks to cre­ate a pres­ence for art in pub­lic places.

“This is the first project ded­i­cated to cul­tural con­tent,” says Cole. “It’s really excit­ing to see what will hap­pen. It will cre­ate a dif­fer­ence between art and advertising.”

The effect is to imme­di­ately cre­ate an audi­ence when any­one looks at it. “You’re not choos­ing to go to a gallery for an art expe­ri­ence,” says Cole.

There is an open­ing event tonight at 5:30 at the Lennox Pub, across the street from the bill­board. The pub­lic is welcome.