Jean Swanson - Voting is a Privilege & a Duty
Saturday, October 20, 2018
 |
| Jean Swanson |
Voting for me is a privilege that I do not take lightly.
Because I was born in Argentina upon reaching the legal age of18 while living in
Mexico City and in Austin, Texas it never occurred to me to vote via absentee
ballot. In those years, the late 50s politics was of no importance to me.
Then I suddenly became patriotic and I traveled to Buenos
Aires in 1966 for my two year conscription in the Argentine Navy. The law then
in Argentina was that those in the military could not vote.
But I did “vote” in a way I would have never predicted. I
was sent with a contingent of sailors, soldiers and airforce conscripts to surround
the Casa Rosada on the 28th of June 1966. The officers in charge
gave the freely elected (and very honest country doctor) Arturo Illía an hour
to leave. He went home in a taxi.
The next day the junta abolished the Argentine Constitution
that I had sworn to defend months before in a lovely ceremony, the political
parties and pretty well declared an emergency.
Then for many years I was not able to vote because the
government in my country was a dictatorship.
By the time I arrived in Vancouver I had little respect for
politics. But once I became a Canadian citizen my viewpoint changed. Since then
and thanks to my jobs with magazines I was able to meet and photograph many of
the politicians of this country.
I fondly remember going to a local meeting at a community in which John Turner, who was running for prime minister, was the speaker. We were served coffee and doughnuts.
Today my Rosemary and I walked two blocks to vote for
Vancouver municipal elections. We were met by a pleasant man wearing a loud tie
and a huge smile welcoming us in. I could not have begun to explain to him that
in my former country and in others in Latin America the voting places would
have had soldiers with machine guns outside. The whole process was smooth and
free of bureaucracy.
I believe that some members of my family have never voted.
Perhaps someday they will come to understand that voting is a privilege not
often had anywhere else. And it is an obligation, too.
While I don’t particularly want to tell anybody whom I voted
for (that is most personal) I will make one exception. Years ago I met Jean
Swanson and I was most impressed by her when I took my photograph.
I voted for her and I will drop one more hint, my
Rosemary and I voted most feminist.
Nostalgia de Norte a Sur - a modo de cadáver exquisito
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Blog con el invitado crítico de arte - Fernando Velazco
La muestra en la Galería Vermeer cierra el viernes 19 de octubre 2018
Sánchez, Patrich y Waterhouse-Hayward: la
nostalgia como fuente del arte
Desde el 20 de septiembre se exhiben en la mítica galería
Vermeer (Suipacha 1168) cerca de 40 obras colaborativas e individuales de los
tres destacados artistas argentinos.
En los anales del
arte argentino el nombre de Juan Manuel Sánchez (1930-2016) estará por siempre
asociado al movimiento Espartaco (1959 – 1968), aquel que a través de un
muralismo autóctono pero también de la utilización de medios, soportes y
temáticas diversas promovieron la unión indisociable entre arte y compromiso
social. Luego de su exilio durante la última dictadura militar, la trayectoria
artística de Sánchez se expande, y un nuevo público logra acceder a su obra
gracias a los murales realizados en los dos países donde se radica: primero
España, luego Canadá. Es en este último país, más precisamente en la ciudad de
Vancouver, donde se produce uno de los períodos menos conocidos y a la vez más
inspirados en su vida artística, fruto de la colaboración con dos de los más
grandes artistas de esta época con los que comparte también su lugar de nacimiento:
la artista visual Nora Patrich (que además fue su mujer) y el fotógrafo Alex
Waterhouse-Hayward. Parte de este trabajo producido a comienzos de este siglo
se expone por primera vez en Argentina bajo el nombre de “Nostalgia de Norte a
Sur” en la mítica galería Vermeer (Suipacha 1168).
Compuesta por 38
obras, la mayoría de ellas corresponden a “colaboraciones” entre los tres
artistas (dicho término en español es utilizado en el blog de Alex
Waterhouse-Hayward escrito enteramente en inglés). La muestra también se
propone abordar el trabajo en solitario del reconocido fotógrafo
argentino-canadiense, siendo éste su debut en una sala porteña. A su vez, las
imágenes de Waterhouse-Hayward constituyen el hilo conductor que unen el
trabajo de los tres creadores ya que son la única constante a lo largo de la
exposición.
Cabe destacar que
algunos de los trabajos colaborativos formaron parte de una exhibición en
Vancouver a comienzos de este siglo en la Simon Patrich Gallery bajo el nombre
de “Argentine Nostalgia”. El nuevo título, “Nostalgia de Norte a Sur”, deja en
evidencia que la nostalgia que los tres artistas intentaron exorcizar a través
de sus obras viene de muy lejos, de una punta a otra del continente.
El primer grupo de
obras responden a trabajos realizados a partir de fragmentos fotográficos. Es
decir, que la imagen elegida al azar por Waterhouse-Hayward es el germen del
que nace la inspiración de Juan Manuel Sánchez y Nora Patrich que continúan la
misma a modo de cadáver exquisito. Se destaca la serie compuesta a partir de
fotos del cielo raso de la Vancouver Public Library: “Un libro y una flor” (Sánchez/Waterhouse-Hayward)
y “Por los Ojos” (Patrich/Waterhouse-Hayward). En la primera, Sánchez hace uso
de tres de estas imágenes para crear el conjunto de estambres de una flor en
las manos de una de sus emblemáticas figuras femeninas. Por su parte, Patrich
las utiliza con el fin de crear los ojos de un rostro femenino. No es de
extrañar que sea la mujer el eje central sobre el que giran estos trabajos. De
hecho, constituye la conexión más fuerte en la producción artística individual
de los tres artistas. Sin embargo, en este punto uno podría preguntarse si
solamente se trata de una nostalgia por las mujeres argentinas. En realidad, es
mucho más expansiva pero sólo a través de ellas se proponen evocarla. Tal es el
caso de “Doña Flor” (Patrich/Waterhouse-Hayward), que deja atrás el surrealismo
de las obras anteriores. Desde un fragmento fotográfico de la parte frontal de
un cuerpo femenino con un abanico colorado, Nora Patrich imagina y compone el
resto del cuerpo. El título alude a la famosa novela de Jorge Amado y podría
suponerse como una alegoría entre el pasado perdido y el futuro ineludible y de
la convivencia de ambos tiempos en uno. Es al menos una de las lecturas que
pueden realizarse ya que la búsqueda de la nostalgia argentina en cada obra
resultaría una tarea inútil. En primer lugar, esta añoranza constituyó el motor
por el cual tres artistas argentinos se reunieron en la otra punta del
continente para trabajar juntos.
Las mujeres son
también el centro del segundo grupo de obras expuestas: las fotoperformances. Se sabe que frente a un hecho artístico
efímero la fotografía ocupa un lugar destacado, ya que actúa como testimonio
vivo de una acción que sólo puede sobrevivir a través de su documentación. En
el caso particular de las fotoperformances, la fotografía pasa a ocupar un
lugar importante en el proceso creativo, debido a que se trata de acciones
artísticas que fueron realizadas con el fin de ser fotografiadas y de esta manera
perdurar en el tiempo. A diferencia de Yves Klein que cubría el cuerpo de sus
modelos con su famoso azul para que dejaran su huella corporal impresa sobre el
lienzo, las modelos de Sánchez, Patrich y Waterhouse-Hayward están pintadas
como sujetos extraídos del lienzo. Estas pinturas vivas se destacan además
porque se puede apreciar el trabajo en conjunto de los tres artistas. Por
ejemplo en “Julia”, donde Sánchez aparece junto a una de sus modelos,
“Santosantas”, también conocida bajo el nombre de “Santas Conchitas”, donde los
modelos representan a una santa pagana, y “Carmencita e Itzel”, cuya impresión
sobre una cartulina plateada le otorga tres dimensiones.
Por otro lado, la
nostalgia ocupa un lugar más consciente en las fotografías individuales de Alex
Waterhouse-Hayward. Con excepción de sus icónicas imágenes de Liv Ullmann y
Werner Herzog, todas ellas evocan diferentes hechos, lugares y objetos de
índole nacional y expresan un mismo sentimiento por la patria añorada. Obras
como “El diván psiquiátrico” (intervenida por Nora Patrich), “Los Granaderos”, “Recoleta”,
“Alfonsina y el mar” y “El Hornero”. Es importante mencionar el hecho de que
algunas de las historias detrás de estos trabajos pueden encontrarse en el blog
del fotógrafo (alexwaterhousehayward.com) que funciona como una suerte de
epígrafe ampliado.
Para terminar es
menester regresar a la trayectoria artística de Juan Manuel Sánchez. Es posible
que uno tienda a pensar en estos trabajos realizados a partir de la
experimentación artística como un alejamiento a los postulados espartaqueanos que
pretendían construir un arte social meramente revolucionario, con una marcada
presencia de sus raíces argentinas. Sin embargo, es preciso recordar que el
Grupo Espartaco también apoyó la experimentación artística a través de
acciones, conferencias y afiches. Y después de todo, ¿acaso no es la nostalgia
parte de la idiosincrasia argentina?
Yarilo's S'Wonderful Rhapsody in Blue
Monday, October 15, 2018
After a two week stay in Buenos Aires with my Rosemary I
felt nostalgia for it as soon as we returned to Vancouver. While there, my friend Fernando
Velásquez who works at the Teatro Colón offered us two tickets. We were short
on time so I declined his kind offer. The music played by the Orchesta
Sinfónica de Buenos Aires was a program of 19 th century music that
did not excite me.
Much is said about how boring Vancouver is and how it is a
cultural wasteland. Those who have this opinion perhaps do not get out at night
to explore what our city has to offer.
Consider the Yarilo Contemporary Music Society’s program
last night at the Orpheum Annex which was the third and last of a series commemorating
the 75th anniversary of the salvation of Bulgarian Jews.
Many Bulgarians were in attendance including one of the
performers, Kristian Alexander who plays and played a mean jazz piano.
Had jazz enthusiasts been informed of this concert
(sadly our conventional media radio, TV and newspapers are in sad decline) they
would have enjoyed one of the best ever (that I have heard) renditions of
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The folks from Yarilo with pianists Jane Hayes,
Anna Levy and clarinettist François Houle combined Gershwin’s orchestration for
two pianos with one for piano and clarinet.
François Houle answered my question 1:30 PM:
Did you people combine the two piano version with the one
piano and clarinet version of the Rhapsody? Not too important but I am about to
write my blog and would like to have my facts straight and accurate.
3:45 PM
Kinda. There are all sorts of arrangements of the
rhapsody. We just basically assigned the main themes to the instruments
available. The iconic clarinet lines
played on the clarinet, obviously, but also some of the brass and other various
parts were spread around the three pianos and the clarinet...
If you consider that perhaps one of the best reasons to
listen the Rhapsody in Blue (up there with Ravel’s part for trombone in his
Bolero) is the dazzling clarinet beginning, imagine having the clarinet being a
sharing star with two pianos!
But that was not all. Behind the two Steinways there was
another piano (Kristian Alexandrov), a set of drums (Joel Fountain) and a stand-up
bass (Brent Gubbels). There was also a dashing blonde wearing a pair of black
pumps that made me feel 30 years younger.
This quartet at certain sections of the Rhapsody (the
explanation for the method used “a re-envisioning” taken care by Alexandrov) would subtly come in (as the
two pianists and clarinets went silent) to play five Gershwin classics:
Summertime, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Someone to Watch Over Me, S’Wonderful
and I Got Rhythm. Except for I Got Rhythm where Houle sat in an improvised on
the tune, the other songs were performed by Shannon Gaye whom I noticed had a
stellar talent in placing her microphone so that her singing was sweet (when it
needed to be) and big (when that was the case). Summertime to me seemed fresh
not only because of her singing but because I was dazzled by Alexandrov’s jazz
piano.
Opening the program (and in honour of all those Jewish
composers of Broadway and not Broadway) was Paul Schoenfield’s 1990 Trio for
Violin, Clarinet and Piano. It had a generous amount of Klezmer sound and I
felt that at any moment I would stand up and attempt to imitate (out of context
as it is Greek!) Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek. It was here that I noticed Houle's lovely clarinet, a rich brown with golden keys. My friend alto saxophonist Gavin Waker (who knows almost anything as if he had known of this concert he would have been there) told me a local man makes these clarinets.
For me just about any concert in Pyatt Hall (not far from
the Annex) and the Orpheum Annex are always rich in sound, intimace, surprise
and wonder.
 |
| Joan Blackman, Jane Hayes, Anna Levy and François Houle |
If only my folks at the Colón would take notice as well
as those in this city who say it is boring.
I had but one disappointment, Jane Hayes Steinway escaped
unscathed the evening’s performance. Hayes will never let me forget (and I
thank her for this) that the piano is an instrument of percussion.
My apology to fine bassist (and singe, too!) Brent Gubbels that from my seat he was always blocked from my view.
 |
| Kristian Alexandrov |
 |
| Shannon Gaye & Kristian Alexandrov |
 |
| Jane Hayes |
Aconitum carmichaelii 'Arendsii’ & Rosa 'Benjamin Britten'
Thursday, October 11, 2018
 |
| Aconitum carmichaelii
'Arendsii’ & Rosa 'Benjamin Britten' October 11 2018 |
My friend Nora Patrich has taken some of my hostas (on
the fly!) back to her home in Bella Vista a suburb of Buenos Aires. None of
them have survived as they get confused with the change of seasons. I (and my
Rosemary) are no different as we try to adapt to the rapidly happening
Vancouver fall from our most pleasant Buenos Aires spring.
Today, a day of intense sun and the promise of more had
me walking around the garden. One of Rosemary’s favourite plants is the deadly
poisonous Aconitum carmichaelii
'Arendsii’ which is a perennial that is 7 ft high and blooms about now,
bringing an intense blue into our fall garden. I also spotted an English Rose
(a new one we bought this year) Rosa ‘Benjamin Britten’. I have no idea if the
bud would open in the next few days. I cut it and I believe that the contrast
in colours is most beautiful.
|
