Art au naturel

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October 15, 2013

During the evening of Oct. 3, I visited Hot Art Wet City on Main Street to peruse the gallery’s’ most recent exhibit: Boobies & Weiners: An Immature Look at the Nude, which is on until Oct. 26.

From the get go, it was obvious that the presentation space would include more than just still images, photographs, drawings, paintings and sculptures of naked body parts. Opening night is usually not the ideal time to take in an art show. In fact, the gallery was so packed with wriggling bodies of viewers trying desperately not to spill their drinks that a return trip would be in order. Luckily, HAWC founder and owner Chris Bentzen was happy to receive me the following day.

“Hot Art Wet City is meant to be accessible and fun for both viewers and emerging talent,” says Bentzen. “We rotate our exhibits to feature both curated artist selections and shows that propose a theme to creators who are invited to submit proposals.”

Boobies & Weiners falls into both of these categories. With over 80 artists displaying pieces in both showrooms, calling the exhibit an orgy for the eyes would be an understatement.

With this in mind, it is only natural that each artist take a unique position with regard to the naked human form. For some, like Vince Hemingson, photography is the medium of choice. In his work, La Lucha Libre, a tag team of oiled and buxom beauties display their signature moves in a large print mounted on aluminum. Only their faces are covered by the characteristic masks of the mexican wrestling tradition.

Still others, like ARGH!, prefer a sculptural approach. Here two skeletons are strategically positioned in a corner, one sitting with protruding golf ball eyes, and a second, kneeling and wearing a wig on her head, which is hunched over in the first skeleton’s lap. It’s the very embodiment of the boner for everyone to see.

Apart from many other tongue-in-cheek representations of our favourite genitalia, the gallery space also plays host to Art or Bust, which is curated by Jenn Brisson. This exhibit-within-an-exhibit features breast casts of women that have known someone with, or who have themselves been affected by, breast cancer. These busts will be auctioned off in order to raise money for the cause.

It is evident that HAWC is doing much more than simply elevating low brow art to a popular gallery status: it is using Bentzen’s tactics of cutting edge event development to create a social environment which fosters community values and a better understanding of underground, outsider and art brut sensibilities. Quite a satisfying change from your average one-night-stand.

Clan bounce back against Saints

By

EIC

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October 15, 2013

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After their first loss of the season, the SFU men’s soccer team was looking to get back into the win column last weekend as the team visited Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, WA. Like their record, it wasn’t a perfect effort, but the Clan pulled out a 2–1 victory against the Saints on the road, further cementing their spot at the top of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

After dropping a game against their biggest rivals, Seattle Pacific, on the road, the Clan needed a bounce-back effort as the team wouldn’t play at home again until Oct. 12 (after time of press). “We need to re-group and increase our collective focus ahead of our next match . . . This conference championship is going to be a dog fight,” said head coach Alan Koch, after the loss to the Falcons.

It took a full half against SMU for that regroup to really get going, but just two minutes into the second half, sophomore forward, Colin Jacques, opened the scoring for the Clan, giving his team a lead it would not relinquish.

“I still feel that we can play a lot better than we are right now.”

– Alan Koch,
head coach

Fellow sophomore, Ryan Dhillon, would double the Clan’s lead in the 68th minute, and a Saints goal in the 83rd minute proved to be too little to late for the home team. Freshman keeper Brendan Watson stayed solid, earning the win for SFU.

It wasn’t as pretty or dominant a win for the Clan as the team would’ve hoped, but after a disappointing loss just days before, any win was welcome.

“We are very happy to bounce back and get the win and the three points,” said Koch. “I still feel that we can play a lot better than we are right now. If we had buried our chances in the first half we wouldn’t have been in a close match at the end.”

Though the team still has much to improve on, it is still easily at the top of the conference: SFU had a 9–1 record at the time of press, second-place Seattle Pacific was sitting at 6–1–2. This ranking speaks volumes about the level of talent on the team, and to its ceiling, if there is one.

The Clan do have some ground to make up in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) rankings, as they dropped from first- to ninth-place in the Div. II poll after their defeat. But the team is built to improve on its win against SMU, and continue its trend back upwards.

Perfection is expected from this team, both internally and from its fans. Perfection is unattainable now, but expect the team to find a way to make up for it.

Defence of prof teaching “preference” misses the mark

By

EIC

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October 15, 2013

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It’s a liberal cop-out to say that professors can teach solely to their “preferences” if they want to, as Gloria Mellesmoen does in the Oct. 7 article, “Professors are entitled to teach their preferences.” Professors should and do teach to their specializations, but unless that specialization is white male writers, a “preference” for white male writers in an academic sense is just veiled bigotry.

Being an academic is a privileged position. When a prof designs a reading list for a course on a specific genre or period, they aren’t just picking neato reads, they’re dictating what is worth studying in their field. When I took Early Canadian Literature (ENG 354) at SFU, Susanna Moodie and Pauline Johnson were included on the reading list because of their undeniably important contributions to Canadian literature. These early Canadian female writers would’ve been lost to history if it was taught by David Gilmour, the U of T professor who admitted to consciously omitting female authors from his lectures.

When female authors — and in the case of Gilmour, queer authors and authors of colour — go unrepresented on reading lists, it marks their contributions as irrelevant, or at least unworthy. If a department holds enough members of similar tastes, their “preferences” could remove authors from a literary canon for a generation of undergraduates.

Looking up the reviews for Dr. Deanna Reder on ratemyprof, you can see the effects of this ol’ white boys club approach to literature. Her English 101 Fall 2011 (Introduction to Fiction) course outline explicitly states, “the focus of this section . . . will be Aboriginal Fiction.” Three separate reviewers on ratemyprof had this to say: “We looked at a native comic book done in a japanese style this semester. not exactly english literature. talked too much about her race, nobody really cares.”; “I didn’t know shed make all the books native books. That wasn’t really fair.”; “Eng 101 isn’t even english, its aboriginal studies.” [Sic] to all this crap, p.s.

“Preferences” could remove authors from a literary canon for a generation of undergraduates.

Was the course material (which, for the record, was all written in English) not worthy of study because it wasn’t about a WASP protagonist? That’s highly problematic, given that there are literally millions of people writing texts in English who aren’t WASP-y assholes writing WASP-y narratives about their white people problems. If the general public, who, in part, pays these professors’ salaries continues to placate their dismissal of non-white heterosexual male voices, future generations’ understanding of literature will be incredibly limited.

Think of it this way: if a physics professor decided he wasn’t going to lecture on advancements in his field made by female, queer, and/or non-white researchers because their work just didn’t appeal to his “preferences,” he’d be a laughing stock. Empirical evidence is empirical evidence. You don’t get to pretend things didn’t happen or don’t exist because they don’t fit into your narrow world view when you are supposed to be one of the forefront thinkers in your field. The study of literature should be held to the same standards.

Professors should, obviously, teach to their areas of expertise, but as far as preference goes, like an English undergrad who doesn’t want to fulfill their medieval component, they can suck it up. When preferences deny the existence of works by differing voices in specific periods or genres, universities offer students a limited education and become complicit in this bigotry-by-omission.

Just because a professor doesn’t preach intolerance doesn’t mean they don’t passively promote it. When a student signs up for an English class, unless it’s specifically designated as a history of mansplaining, they should be able to expect a varied reading list.

Stripping down by the sea

By

EIC

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October 15, 2013

1

Forgive me in advance, ‘cause for this column I’m taking you guys to UBC (kind of). Wreck Beach isn’t technically a part of UBC’s campus, but you do have to go through it to get there.

Once you’ve found the sign demarcating the beach, you have to descend a fair number of steps through some really beautiful rainforest-y surroundings to get to the actual waterfront. Once you hit sand, the view is pretty damn breathtaking: you can turn in a complete circle and you’ll see nothing but ocean, mountains and forest. Well . . . you may see some other stuff as well, as this beach is clothing-optional.

In May, after being in Vancouver just over a month, a friend suggested a day at Wreck. I love the beach (duh) and was totally enthused until she casually said, “Oh, it’s a nude beach, by the way.”

I’m from a pretty conservative household and even if I wasn’t, public nudity isn’t really a thing in suburban Michigan. But, never one to shy away from an adventure, I played it cool and said I was up for anything. And, I’ll admit, I was curious.

It’s funny, the way that nakedness makes us panic. In theory, we’re all mature and confident enough to be unphased by the human body in all its exposed glory; in reality, that kind of vulnerability is scary as shit. It’s not so bad in a sexual context: you’re in the moment, you’re caught up in the sensations, you’re seeing without really seeing, responding to an animal-like urge. But, nakedness outside of sex, existing unabashedly in a social context? That’s a different story.

It’s funny, the way that nakedness makes us panic.

That messes with our sense of civilization, of normalcy. It’s the animal edging into the societal, and it makes us uncomfortable. But Wreck Beach celebrates naturism or nudism — a political and/or social movement defending social nudity.

Nudism is tough for a lot of us to take seriously. There are plenty of stories, movies, etc. where nudism is the punch line of a joke, which might explain my childish reaction upon arrival at Wreck: an outburst of giggling.

But after about an hour, I couldn’t help but notice how comfortable people were. I know that’s not a groundbreaking statement — “nudists are comfortable in their own skin” — but I’d never seen that kind of self-confidence in real life. I’m not about to advocate naturism in everyday life, but in a safe, isolated spot like Wreck, it was kind of awesome.

Sagging breasts, flat butts, thighs marked with cellulite, the human body and all of its flaws on display without shame . . . there’s some kind of magic associated with that kind of liberated space.

The first time I went to a life drawing class, I sketched a naked woman in her 40s. I remember being struck by her grace and beauty. It was an imperfect beauty to be sure, but, looking at my friends’ drawings, it was clear to me that the flaws held the most interest, the most mystery, the most beauty.

It sounds cliché: beauty is in the eye of the beholder and whatnot; but in the midst of all the perfect images we’re bombarded by daily, I was completely dumbfounded to realize that I, myself, saw her blemishes as beautiful.

Wreck is an isolated space, tucked in the folds of nature, offering a momentary respite from society’s judgmental eye. I guarantee people beachcomb there for varied reasons but, for my part, it was a relief to see people strutting instead of hiding. An eye-opener and no mistake.

Letter from the Editors

By

EIC

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October 15, 2013

5

Dear Joseph,

Re: “Letter to the editor –

Sept. 30, 2013”

In your letter to the editor published two weeks ago, you discussed the unfairness of the inclusion of a site link in the article “Bright ideas for shifting your body clock,” claiming that by providing direction to a service The Peak was not upholding its policy of being impartial. Although your point is an important one, we, the news team, would like to take this opportunity to outline our policies and explain our actions.

You claimed that “it makes no sense” that the paper would refuse to advertise a political cause, while still publishing the website of a service, as well as actual advertisements. To us, it makes all the sense in the world.

We do not advertise political causes because, as independent and unbiased news reporters, we cannot reasonably align ourselves with anything political. Not only would this inhibit our news reporting, but could bite us in the future if we have to objectively report on a related event.

Providing web addresses of activist groups is different from giving students a link to a website which is the exclusive focus of a non-solicitous article, such as “Bright ideas.” The article links students to a research initiative by an SFU professor, not a cause, which happens to provide a free service.

While we won’t cover the existence of activist clubs, we can cover their effects or events, provided they are noteworthy and relevant. Your club is combating racist immigration policies? That’s not news. Your club held a rally of hundreds of people on campus for your cause? That’s news.

This week we’re running a story about a huge event that was organized in part by Sustainable SFU. While we don’t follow their activism with continuous stories, covering the event was right up our alley.

You also critique the idea of objectivity in news, stating that “there is a point . . . when one must stop being ‘objective,’ and start being fair.” In news, there is never a point to stop being objective. Objectivity is fairness. If we started aligning ourselves with causes that we personally agree with, we would be accused of not being fair to others. Once we stop being objective, our credibility is lost.

This is the very reason why The Peak wasn’t able to support the movement to close down SFU campuses for the Truth and Reconciliation Committee when we were approached to do so. However, we did cover the TRC’s closing event, the Walk for Reconciliation, which saw tens of thousands of people walking together through downtown Vancouver.

Our responsibility to the SFU public isn’t to educate them about your cause, at least not in the news section. It’s to provide unbiased, fair coverage of happenings on campus. We cannot champion causes, however obvious they may seem, because that would mean giving up that mantle.

Finally, you suggested that our editorial board take “necessary steps to evaluate its political responsibility, and to put into place explicit, accessible guidelines as to what our responsibility is or is not.” We’ve actually already done that. In our Submissions Policy, it’s stated that “The Peak will not publish content that is sexist, racist, or otherwise hateful or prejudiced.” This statement is published on the second page of every paper we print.

The news section does not have a political responsibility, beyond adhering to those guidelines, and doing our utmost to cover the political events on campus that affect students’ lives. It’s why we run coverage of SFSS and GSS elections, and it’s why we printed a guide to the most recent provincial election.

Our paper does make political statements — lots of them — but you won’t find them in the news section. For that, you’ll have to look in opinions, features, and humour.

Here’s a recommendation for you: please don’t equate us not heralding the causes you champion with The Peak not publishing political content, or not being fair.

Sincerely,

Alison Roach & Leah Bjornson

News Editor and

Associate News Editor

Your movie nitpicking and pedantry sicken me

By

EIC

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October 15, 2013

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On Sunday, Oct. 6, Neil Degrasse Tyson was fresh off of seeing Gravity and, bent on fulfilling his role as Premiere Pop Scientist, he slathered Twitter with scientific correctives. He later clarified that he viewed the right to scientific criticism as a big compliment to any science-fiction movie, but the damage had been done, and criticisms of scientific accuracy now plague discourse surrounding a humanist sci-fi spectacle movie.

One can only endure the needling of philistines so long and, as a lover of Gravity, I’m not ashamed to admit that tears of outrage filled my eyes. I blinked them dry and focused on the troglodytes’ misinterpretations of the factual duties of “hard” sci-fi. “Do you enjoy poetry?” someone said, and when I looked up I saw a stranger speaking to me. “Yes,” I lied, though I had never enjoyed it; it seems to me that without the law of grammar there’s no real point to language.

She kept on, asking, “Do you speak French?” “No,” I said. Then, with ill-informed politesse, “But please go ahead anyway.” She started reading, and her pronunciations drifted over me without meaning. I was halfway through having her translate and explain each line when the bus stopped. As I got off, I weighed the experience’s value, and concluded that it was a wash. Then I remembered that time is fleeting and realized that the whole affair was probably a net loss.

Soon, I was in the office and online again, scouring comments on Gravity and its orbital inconsistencies. Where they seemed especially misguided, I posted replies that concisely detailed my view on the limits of suspension of disbelief. This got tedious, and I was relieved when my pocket buzzed with a message asking when I was free. It’s hard to know how to turn down someone you have only dated once (sort-of-twice), but I decided that a text was too impersonal and meeting in person too grandiose. I opted to do nothing; anyway, gradually trimming off their expectations seemed better than sudden disappointment.

It was a good time-kill; in the meantime, someone had responded to one of my comments on Gravity. As the argument blossomed and branched, more and more inconsistencies in logic and tone went up for grabs. I dove into my role with pride: too many people lean on intellectually dishonest hairsplitting to fill their wasted lives. Someone has to show them the light, and if not me, who?

‘National Geographic’ to follow Playboy into energy drink market

By

EIC

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October 15, 2013

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NEW YORK — Taking the logical next step for a magazine company facing the decline of print media, National Geographic has announced that they will soon be releasing their brand’s first ever energy drink.

Inspired by fellow periodical turned drink Playboy, National Geographic hopes that their new beverage National Geographic: Unnatural Energy can help further promote their brand and make them the fortune their boring, insightful, well-researched magazine never could.

“We really hope this works out — the whole magazine racket has gotten pretty tedious,” explained Declan Moore, National Geographic society and magazine president. “An energy drink will be so much easier. No more travelling or researching and we definitely won’t have to proofread anything since no one would drink these things if people actually looked at the label.”

While the drink has not yet been created, Moore has already developed an iconic yellow can and hopes consumers of energy drinks are as stupid as he assumes and will buy their product based on recognition alone.

While the actual flavour is expected to essentially be a direct copy of the Playboy Classic drink, according to Moore, it would not be the first time they’ve copied from Playboy.

“The TV channel, the interesting articles, the naked people . . . we got it all from them,” Moore explained, “now, I know we may not be as sexy as Playboy, but we guarantee that just like everything else we produce our energy drink can be just as effective in getting the job done as theirs, as long as you keep an open mind.”

Moore also speculated on the future of a ‘print-to-drink’ trend in media by saying, “Playboy is the biggest innovator in our industry and I wouldn’t be surprised to see every magazine become some sort of energy drink within the next five years, if not sooner.”

Happy Surrey family shocked to discover their neighbour lives in “the ghetto”

By

EIC

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October 15, 2013

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SURREY — Despite living within six feet of him for the past seven years, a local middle-class family from a nice, normal neighbourhood has only now become aware that the man who lives next door to them is in the ghetto and struggling to get out.

Joel Harrison, who lives with his wife and three kids in Surrey’s Newton area — an area they have always believed to be a pretty typical suburban town — was absolutely shocked when he found out that their 29-year-old neighbour, Duncan Stevens, lived in a “real shitty part of town.”

“I couldn’t believe it,” explained a flabbergasted Harrison, mystified by the revelation. “I always just figured since he lived on the same street as us, we were in the same place but now that I found out the truth, I thank God I don’t have to live where he does.”

According to Harrison, Stevens revealed his tough living conditions one night when they were all returning home at the same time.

“We had just been flying a kite at the park when we saw Duncan coming down the street complaining about an encounter he had on the bus,” Harrison said. “Although I wasn’t too shocked to hear that there was a homeless person yelling at a bus stop, which happens occasionally in my town too, I knew he must be from a different world when he mentioned how he ‘grew a thick skin living in the streets.’”

“It didn’t click for me right away and I asked him if he had grown up in Detroit or Somalia or something but when he said ‘no, I mean here . . . you know, it’s pretty damn ghetto’ I realized how close-minded I had been.”

It was then that Harrison said he realized that “the ghetto” isn’t really like on TV or in the movies or in the dictionary under the word “ghetto.”

“It’s not a fixed place, you don’t have to be part of a minority . . . anyone can find themselves in the ghetto if they’re not careful,” Harrison said, in a frightened voice. “I’m just relieved that the people who seem to get stuck in them near me are almost exclusively local rappers.”

As if the revelation about Stevens wasn’t enough of a shock, Harrison soon discovered that he and his family knew plenty of people who came from ghettos without having had any idea. While browsing through his Facebook page he discovered that Stevens wasn’t the only one listed as currently living in “the ghetto.”

“It’s insane, I couldn’t believe how many of my friends from the same socioeconomic class as me were so hard off,” Harrison continued, as he scrolled through page after page of people complaining about the “ghetto-ass” and “welfare” conditions they lived in. “Lots of them are really educated too. How do you end up in a ghetto after getting a degree from ‘The School of Hard Knocks: University of Life’? It’s ridiculous!”

Harrison said with the number of ghettos popping up all around BC, he’s now in constant fear about where he can safely take his family, who have never experienced these kinds of third-world conditions.

“It’s so hard to keep track. First I read from people in Newton that Newton is the most dangerous place in the world, but then I turn to my friends from Whalley and it turns out that Whalley is the worse” Harrison said, dumbfounded.

“Then I read from people in New Westminster who say that Surrey is nothing compared to the shit that goes down where they are, but then again that’s child’s play when matched up against what it’s like in East Pender Harbour according to this guy I know from East Pender Harbour . . .”

Exhausted by his discovery that he lives in such a dangerous world, Harrison quietly excused himself to rejoin his family for a backyard-barbeque, saying in conclusion, “It’s scary out there for a lot of people . . . I’m just so glad I live in a nice community. I can’t even imagine having to live in some of these places, like next-door, what a rough area!”

SFU Volleyball win first conference match of 2013

By

EIC

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October 15, 2013

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It is a day that every team counts down to, and, thankfully for the SFU volleyball team, it came three weeks earlier this year than it did in 2012. The Clan women were able to get in the conference win column as they won their first GNAC match of the season, beating the Central Washington Wildcats in five sets.

The Clan got off to a hot start, topping the visitors in a hotly contested first set, winning 25-21. The Wildcats, a nationally ranked program in 2012, were fierce competitors battling back and shutting SFU down in the second and third sets by margins of nine and four, respectively.

But it was in the fourth set that this 2013 team showed their new-found confidence and potential as the teams traded points throughou a long, hard set. The set went past the usual winning mark of 25 points, as the Clan battled to hold the Wildcats from the win before finally scoring two consecutive points to force the fifth set with a win of 30-28.

SFU took charge in the fifth, hungry for the victory, as the score quickly became a seven-point margin in the home team’s favour. The Clan took the match three sets to two, winning the fifth set decidely, 15 to 8. The win brought SFU’s record to 1-2 in the GNAC, an early season victory for a team that has historically suffered in conference play, bringing hope and excitement to the team.

Unfortunately, two days later, the Clan were unable to hold their win streak, falling to the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders in four sets. The home team put NNU away in the first set before ultimately dropping the final three for the loss. All four sets were very competitive battles.

Over the course of the weekend, Brooklyn Gould-Bradbury had 94 assists, 61 in the CWU game alone, as she led her team to their first GNAC victory of the season. Alanna Chan and Alison McKay tallied 45 and 27 digs respectively on the defensive end while Kelsey Robinson led the offence. She recorded 32 kills and 36 digs over the weekend while Amanda Renkema had 25 kills and 10 assisted blocks and Madeline Hait added 29 kills.

Tilting toward one another

By

Peak Web

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October 15, 2013

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With two world premieres by Jorma Elo and Emily Molnar and a remount of Johan Inger’s Walking Mad, Tilt is an evening of three distinct contemporary ballets.

Walking Mad had its Canadian premiere with Ballet BC in March 2012, and they decided to remount it based on the audience’s response: “It’s a very successful work that has won awards,” explained artistic director Emily Molnar. “It received such a good response and this is a good opportunity to revisit the work and go that much deeper.”

When the audience watches the piece this time around, they’ll have the chance to see many other layers and experience something new. “There’s always a fine line with how many times you can do it again,” says Molnar. Not every work can be remounted, but some deserve to be.

Walking Mad deals with humanity; Inger began with the Socratic idea that “our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness.” The piece transitions through the three points of a relationship: from first love, to uncertainty, to knowing someone so well and nothing ever changing. Set to Ravel’s “Boléro”, Molnar said the work is “full of deep emotion.”

“The artists have grown and matured [since the first staging],” said Molnar. This time around, they have a chance to delve even deeper into the subtleties and idiosyncrasies of the choreography.

It’s about our relationship to space and ourselves.”

Emily Molnar, artistic director of BC Ballet

Molnar’s new work, as yet untitled, is a full company piece set to the music of German composer Dirk Halbrich. Molnar met Halbrich when she was dancing at Frankfurt Ballet, and she describes his work as interesting, experimental electronic soundscapes: “His music has created an environment for the work.”

During the creative process, a few pieces of literature were brought into the studio for inspiration, including some Emily Dickinson poetry and Art Objects by Jeanette Winterson. “This piece is also about relationships . .. it’s about our relationship to space and ourselves,” Molnar explained. She turned 40 this year, so the work is about aging, as well as liberation. It is also simultaneously about collapse and growth, and she tried to approach this in a philosophical way.

As a collaborative effort with the dancers, the final piece retains elements of their own improvisation encouraging deeper engagement — they have a personal stake in it. Molnar said that she is proud her company has matured enough to be able to pull something like that off.

All three works in Tilt deal with relationships in some way, but each from a very different starting point and in a unique way. All the choreographers have similarities and overlap in their histories (for example Molnar and Inger were at the National Ballet of Canada together), but they have all moved from their classical lineage to contemporary ballet, and they have their own ways of expressing ideas.

When the audience walks out of Tilt, Molnar said she wants them to feel like they experienced something meaningful, whatever that may be. “I want them to find meaning and feel welcomed to feel whatever they’re feeling. The only thing they need to bring is themselves and an openness to the work.”

Show dates: Oct 17-19
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Link: http://www.balletbc.com/performances.html