On Canada Line subway system video screens April 18 to April 30, 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.
We are ecstatic to launch 10 Seconds, a yearlong series celebrating Vancouver 125 with this homage to the rebels of the Summer of Love. The be-in was the precursor to today’s flashmob; many aspects of hippie culture have been assimilated by contemporary mainstream society. Claxton focuses on the undulating movements of a hippie chick with long flowing hair. The black/white film unearthed from the CBC archives was shot by Stan Fox.
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
10 Seconds is a commissioned series by Vancouver artists that will be presented on the Canada Line April 2011 to March 2012. A new work will be featured each month, playing every 2 minutes over the commuter digital network, to over 100,000 commuters per day. Prepare to be surprised, seduced and interrupted.
Follow us on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/offonmain and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pageS/On-Main/200712499969520/. On April 30th at 1:30 pm join Canadian Art Foundation Gallery Hop for Paul Wong in conversation with Carol-Ann Ryan at the Vancouver City Centre SkyTrain Station (Granville/Georgia).
10 Seconds is curated by Paul Wong and presented by On Main in partnership with InTransitBC. Commissioned by the City of Vancouver Public Art Program with the support of Vancouver 125 and the participation of the Government of Canada.
