FIFI IH HII III III D IDI III SII AAAI AAA SDA SAAD ACA ACAD A A A AA H tk

way the world can work, for how the universe can be laid‘
out, how you can get from one universe to another with-
out going faster than the speed of light. Such diagrams
look like aboriginal bark paintings, showing you how an
emu — a nice Australian reference — goes from one water-
ing hole to another. I’ve got pictures which look identical;
it’s not scientific to make that sort of comparison.
MOORE: Apparently the unified field theory borders on
being proved true. It’s quite a remarkable intention, though
to me it seems to come at a time when science as we’ve
known it is going through a thorough transformation,
having to finally recognize the intuitive and psychological
elements. One thing about relativity is that it has a lot to
do with tricks, especially Einstein’s ‘‘observer.”’
BERECRY: It’s unfortunate we will only have an oppor-
tunity today to mention these ideas superficially because I
really think these issues are affecting the way people do
their art, apart from everything else. Once you’ve got
space and time as being part of the same continuum, how
can you deal with the concept of space as a sculptor with-
out dealing with the concept of time? We’re going through
a post-renaissance, post-perspective period and the philo-
sophical shifts will be reflected in the arts. The old laws
no longer apply. It’s not surprising that people are conjur-
ing with velocity and movement and doing performance
work, all the processes which deal with time and space
and the relationships between the two.

MOORE: So while you’re dealing with these aspects, how
much of a form of discovery takes place for you?
BERECRY: Ah, a great deal. Almost to the point where
it becomes unnecessary to make the work in the end. If I
don’t get the work actually manifested out there in a
touchable form, there’s a danger that I don’t do it at all.
I’ve been working on this piece since last August — I’ve
got to the point where if I don’t do it very quickly, I

al
m™!)
Information: ali EUCA Students N

STUDENT SERVICES IS RESEARCHING THE ~
{ POSSIBILITY OF CREATING A STUDENT HAND-
~ BOOK WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING IT
a/ USEFUL AND COMPREHENSIVE. AT THIS TIME
IT MEANS LEARNING OF INFORMATION NEEDS
THAT STUDENTS HAVE, PARTICULARLY SUCH
NEEDS NOT CURRENTLY BEING MET. HAVE
YOU FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN INFOR-
MATION ABOUT STUDENT GOVERNMENT, HOUS-
ING, ADMINISTRATION, MEDICAL NEEDS, THE
COMMUNITY, OR LEGAL MATTERS, OR MAYBE
EVEN JUST PHONE NUMBERS? IS THERE INWOR- “Ajj
MATION THAT WOULD BE NECESSARYFOR
FIRST YEAR STUDENTS; ONGOING OR @R&DU- @
ATING STUDENTS? :
IF A STUDENT HANDBOOK IS NOT TO HAVE
BLATANT WEAKNESSES, THIS WILL BE BECAUSE
WE HAVE UNDERSTOOD OUR RESPONSIBILITY
TQ SAY THAT SUCH AND SUCH INFORMATION }
lissNEEDED. IN OTHER WORDS WE CAN EXPECT
NO ONE BUT OURSELVES TO SAY WHAT WOULD
BE OF USE THROUGHOUT THE SCHOOL YEAR.
THIS IS A PRIORITY FOR ALL STUDENTS. A

— —_

()

—

PRIORITY WHICH MUST BE ACCOMPLISHED BY
26TH MARCH. WHATEVER YOUR QO) STIONS
OR INFORMATION NEEDS, LET IT BENKNOWN

BY LEAVING THESE WITH EVA ALLEN IN PER-
SON OR IN HER BOX AT THE DUNSMUIPRSTREET
SCHOOL.

won't do it at all, because I’ve learnt almost all there is to
learn about it. This piece constantly changes. I make my
works very much as tools, tools I use to manipulate my
thoughts, or to do something to my ideas, and that is their
main purpose to me. It’s almost like saying I need to do
something to my head, but I haven’t got the right tools to
do it, haven’t got the right size wrench or whatever, so I
have to make it. In that sense they’re very directly related
to the mental processes; they are directly needed and
functional and they are shaped to fit a specific way. Once
I’ve made them, I’ve in fact used them. And maybe I get
to like them afterwards. Once they’re out there and I’m
looking at them as an artifact, I can quite like artifacts as
well. This one in my kitchen takes up a lot of space but I
haven’t felt like throwing it away yet.

There’s something about the making of a piece that’s
almost an imperative and a responsibility. And when I’m
doing it I’m running on a really fine edge. There’s a fear
involved — and also an excitement and an enjoyment. I
think it’s something to do with what Rauschenberg
described when he was at the gallery, when he said that
the artist and the athlete are very similar in the sense that
they go beyond where they have been before, but at the
same time they have to maintain their form. You lose that
form and you’ve had it, and if you don’t push yourself
beyond that limit, it’s not good enough. Another belief is
contained in the statement it’s not how well you answer
the question but what the question is you’re attempting
to answer. Another cliche perhaps but one which to some
extent is valid.

MOORE: Given that your work’s as inaccessible as it is,
that you had the hesitancies you did about elucidating
your “‘life and art,” how do you account for the measured
success you had with the Helen Pitt Graduate Awards? It
seemed a startling moment last spring for the striving
painters and sculptors and image-makers.

BERECRY: Well, I hope they learned their lesson. Really,
look, the reason that work was successful, and I think I
can look at it objectively as a body of work, was that I
was working separately and the work wasn’t striving to
be anything — it had an autonomy to it. It had an inte-
grity to it which work that’s striving to be something else
doesn’t have. It may have a long way to go, but in that
exhibition I think that was one thing Vera Frankel was
looking for, work which had something of the individual,
something of individual development, and that’s. . . .

McINTYRE: Something of a fortunate occurrence.
You’re lucky, at least she had enough insight to become
fascinated with something that seemed to have a distance
from itself.

BERECRY: The awards are quite important yet no one
has dealt with them critically. Annually there’s the
opportunity for people to examine the institutions they’re
paying their tax dollars for, and to relate the work pro-
duced to what’s happening in the institution elsewhere in
the world, B.C., and Canada. I think that’s an exciting
opportunity. ...

McINTYRE: Yes, it can broaden things beyond the
urban or provincial scopes.

BERECRY: Questions will only be asked about the com--
petition if someone cares enough or is angry enough to do
so. And that’s always the case. I think what has to be
spelled out all the way through something like the HPG
Awards competition is the criteria that’s being used in
the selection process.

X Newsletter, Emily Carr College of Art.

the art context

Five students graduating in Fine Arts from three British Columbia
institutions will be selected to receive $3,000 apiece under a new
awards programme administered by the Vancouver Foundation.

The money was designated by the Culture Committee of the
Vancouver Foundation, which decided to use the income froma
bequest in the will of Mrs. Helen Pitt, who died in 1976, for this
purpose. The Helen Pitt Fund for Fine Arts has been providing
bursaries to fine arts students in B.C. since 1961.

Among those receiving the award was NEIL BERECRY from
ECCA. VERA FRENKEL adjudicated the exhibition. Following is
an edited version of her evaluations which appeared in the June-
July issue of VANGUARD.

It turns out that |
have to see through the work to the art energy that informs it; |
can't look at anything, because what | am looking at is, as often as
not, in its trance state, turgid, routine, laboured, clever and
strangely cautious. This is what we do to students. Often it is what
they want us to do. We give them the forms. We require them to
encompass and to overcome them, to astonish us. They almost
never do. They're too busy pleasing us.

| have been addressing myself to a body of work that mani-
fests fully and impressively a range of competences that clothe the
old person whose job it is to utter sounds, but that obscure the
voice, the energy we call art. This may be inevitable, perhaps a
necessary stage in the process of one generation handing on to the
next what it does and does not know. It is this process, i.e., the
shape of continuity, that a juror, willingly or not, must consider
in looking at the work of graduating students.

It’s a useful time to look at such work from the point of view
of survival; not so much of the artists — all the finalists who are
showing work in this exhibition are likely to survive handily; —
but of art.

| understand the Helen Pitt Bequest, administered by the
Vancouver Foundation, to be an investment in that survival. By
this means, we are given, the previous jurors and |, an opportunity
to consider important questions. Members of the public will see
the results of these considerations, and some of the work. The true
meaning of these awards remains the inevitable change in the cli-
mate of art-making that must result from the process of self-
evaluation.

From the results of this process, | have chosen those works
through which, nonetheless, the young voice emerges; that sug-
gests to me despite my own biases, or the biases of the teachings
these artists have received, despite the horniness of ambition,
despite the acquired modes of presentations of self, despite the
terrible urgency just to be witnessed that informs much art-
making; — those works that manifest, still, despite the years of
difficult and well-meaning schooling, a voice that belongs at least
in part to itself, and if left alone, will join the continuity that we
call art.

The juror must be judged. My own preference is for a personal
exploratory, transformational, multi-layered and sometimes,
where useful, baffling: and challenging art. This is possible in all
media. It is not a function of the form, although it is necessary to
search out in each instance the form tht fits the intent, or to
invent it. It seems to me that the art energy | value can find itself
— as it has in this exhibition — in the most modest of water
colours, or, in the most encompassing inter-disciplinary embrace of
the culture and its history. It is evident in work that is highly
personal and intimate as well as in work that aspires to some
aspect of detachment and monumentality.

The most difficult task of all, in my view, has been the work
of the internal juries of the participating institutions. | can think
of no more delicate responsibility than for colleagues to come
together to assess each other’s concerns through the vehicle of
student achievement. | happen to think that the teaching of art is
among the few honorable and worthwhile activities one can engage
in. What is carried on in the sharing of insight about art is the
culture at its most resolved and re-solving, by a study of both its
most lasting and most fluid parameters. Few things are more
important.

And the money. It will go to five young artists, each of
whom will receive $3,000. This is not, in my opinion, a reward for
anything. It is an acknowledgement from me, and from my peers
who made the initial selections, that at the heart of whatever these
young artists are doing, is evidence of a gift which they are obliged
to pay attention to and to care for. This is their job. And just to
keep things clear, let me say that the competition was damned
close. Another juror might easily have decided differently.

Letters to ‘X’ (site you)

Mr. Bob Evermon

Lithography Department
British Columbia College of Art
249 Dunsmuir St.

Vancouver, B.C. V6B 1X2

Patrick L. McGeer
Minister of Education,
Science and Technology

Dear Mr. McGeer:

| write this letter to you out of desperation and frustration.
The hopes lives and careers of many of British Columbia’s future
artists could depend on action taken now to a very grave problem

in our province. | feel | can give you a little insight because of my
special view as a teacher and artist for many years at the Vancouver
School of Art. Better yet would be to talk to you personally.

The subject of this letter is the B.F.A. and M.F.A. program
at the Emily Carr College of Art, of which there is none. If you
could understand as | do the importance and weight of a degree
program to our British Columbia studio art students, | feel you
would act immediately. Whatever your feelings are about the
visual arts, | am talking about the heritage of Durer, Rembrandt,
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Van Gogh, Picasso, and our own Haida,
some of the greatest people and high points of mankind. Our
students are trying to stand on the shoulders of these great people
and you have the power to give strength to the Van Gogh’s of
British Columbia. Why should not the children of British Colum-
bia have the same opportunity to develop their potentials as other
provinces or states. There is not one studio visual art school in all
of B.C. that gives a B.F.A. or M.F.A. degree.

Our students must procure an excellent art studio program
with a degree in their pocket. This is the ticket they need to open
doors so they can prove their ability. Open doors so as not to
be penalised for not having a degree ticket for further study and
advancement. The ticket for the Michelangelos of our province,
that will open the doors to the Sistine Chapel. The great artists
of the world have to come from somewhere, why not British
Columbia?

The B.F.A. and M.F.A. programs will be stronger programs
for the E.C.A.A. and will give more incentive and a little more
depth in study to an already great program. Our printmaking
program is one of the best anywhere in the world but yet it is hard
to bring in graduate students to specialize with us without the
M.F.A. program. They want very much to study with my program
in lithography, put also in today’s world they need the degree
ticket. Many positions automatically require a degree no matter
how good: you are. Without this degree our students are cheated
out of the opportunity to study with some of the greatest minds
of our times. Our students need goals, high examples for them to
reach for; if we can draw in these great minds to our isolated
province and set these examples for our students, what arguments
could there possibly be for not procuring and encouraging this
course of excellence.

Give us the tools to help create excellence. Give us the tools
to attract the Picassos, Goyas, and Rauschenbergs of the future to
British Columbia. Give us the tools to help make a great art
school, a history making art school.

If this letter seems dramatic, that’s because it is meant to be,
for it comes from every fiber of my body. My life is art, being an
artist and teaching the best | know how.

Sincerely,
R. Evermon

copy Head of Lithography, E.C.C.A.

Robin Mayor

Tom Hudson

Vancouver X Newspaper
received March 5, 1979

Dear Makara and ‘X’:

Thanks for telling us all about the poem in the last issue,
and then not allowing our impressionable little minds (are these
still the formative years?) to be strained by the awesome task of
deciding for ourselves. Taking on the chore of protecting us
seems. . . what?. .. paternalistic? condescending? | don’t know,
‘make up my mind for me, what should | think? Do you think,
“well, it’s okay for us to see this stuff ‘cause after all we’re so
evolved, but all those masses out there. . .””

As for those words ‘‘cunts’” and ‘‘pricks’’ and ‘‘fucking,” |
find most poems that I’ve seen using them as a joke, in the same
manner kids go “‘pee-pee, poo-poo,” to shock, hardly offensive, at
worst boring. But that’s not to say that excellent poems aren’t
written using them. Is this one of them? 1| don’t know, some
special interest pressure group kept me from finding out. Why,
maybe a great poem could be written that ‘‘. . . compares the taste
of women’s bodies (unfavourably) to food. . .”’ (Lord knows,
sometimes they do. . .) But maybe it’s an offensive poem. How-
ever, like Huxley’s savage (in Brave New World) who defended his
freedom to be unhappy in spite of the ‘‘paradise’’ totalitarian
society, | defend my right to be offended as well as pleased,
even to be bored, if that’s all the poem offers.

Perhaps ‘X’ will show some balls (oops, sorry ladies) and
get it published somewhere else. I hear that some copies had it
as an insert. Right on, but halfway, ‘X’.

Anyways, who are the goddamned editors of this paper? The
editors?) Why don’t you give Makara their own little column in
the paper on a regular basis where they can expound their own
specific beliefs? Actually I’d be interested in reading it.

Makara, | don’t like seeing any person or group treated with
disrespect either, but it’s a hard fact of life, and it can’t be ignored,
only dealt with by looking at the exploitation right in the eye —
on an individual basis. I reject the liberties that you have taken,
whatever the best intentions were.

—Bruce Archibald

P.S. According to your logic, those Elizabethan sonnets with the
sentiments like, ‘‘How shall | love thee,” and then going on about
nipples like rose buds and skin like milk or whatever, would be
equally objectionable. You negate the poet’s tool of metaphor.
Besides, as well as... oh hell. . . that’s all | got to say.

Bruce: On the one hand, one has the right to choose for oneself;
on the other hand, does one have the “‘right” to be offensive in
the sense noted? Artists seem to choose principles or codes by
which to live and work, and Makara being no different, have chosen
their own guiding principles. Our working relationship with
Makara includes having to decide about all sorts of issues, includ-
ing content of material sent to them. In this instance, this rela-
tionship took its course, where we recognized that Richard’s
adamancy would persist and the piece would make it into ‘X’
anyway. Half of the 500 copies distributed included his poem, as
he felt that would be sufficient for gathering reactions. He was,
himself, unclear of his intentions with the poem; at the same time,
once hearing of Makara’s reaction, he felt that such work as his
was just what ‘X’ needed to sell newspapers. Though there were
some lovely spots in his piece, and though he expresses some of
his own self-limitations and jealousies, one is left to ponder if
indeed his thoughts were getting at anything. What other more
tempestuous issue is there among participants of liberal demo-
cracy than censorship and the accompanying moralistic problems.
In fact, ‘X’ newsletter seems to be much of the same tradition,
no matter its best intentions. ae

We did not find “By the Deep Fryer” offensive, though there
are attitudes we find objectionable. Perhaps the writer experiences
a confusion towards his (ancient) muse. The question is: has the
writer learned from his situation and the criticisms, has he dis-
entangled his expectations from his en eee what is
the price of rice in Newfoundland. Hmmmmm. ry, 2
co-editors

PIII III III IAI AAS I SAI SSSA ISIS ASI AISIASISSCSCSICSICSICSISASASIASCA AIK

‘way the world can work, for how the universe ean be laid’
‘out, how you can get from one universe to another with-
‘out going faster than the speed of light. Such
look like aboriginal bark paintings, sho

‘emu — a nice Australian reference — goes from one water-
ing hole to another. I've got pictures which look identical;
it’s not scientific to make that sort of comparison,
MOORE: Apparently the unified field theory borders on
being proved true. It's quitea remarkable intention, though
to me it seems to come at a time when science as we've
known it is going through a thorough transformation,
hhaving to finally recognize the intuitive and psychological
clements. One thing about relativity is that it has a lot to
‘do with ticks, especially Einstein's “observer.”
BERECRY: It’s unfortunate we will oly have an oppor-
tunity today to mention these ideas superficially because 1
really think these issues are affecting the way people do
their art, apart from everything else. Once you've got
space and time as being part of the same continuum, how
‘can you deal with the concept of space asa sculptor with
‘out dealing with the concept of time? We're going through
a post-renaissance, post-perspective period and the philo-
‘sophical shifts will be reflected in the arts, The old laws
no longer apply. It’s not surprising that people are conjur-
ing with velocity and movement and doing performance
‘work, all the processes which deal with time and space
and the relationships between the two.

MOORE: So while you're dealing with these aspects, how
much of a form of discovery takes place for you?
BERECRY: Ah, a great deal. Almost to the point where
it becomes unnecessary to make the work in the end. If |
don’t get the work actually manifested out there in a
touchable form, there's a danger that I don't do it at all
I've been working on this piece since last August — I've
fot to the point where if I don’t do it very quickly, I

Information: all ELA Stuaents.

STUDENT SERVICES IS RESEARCHING THE ©
POSSIBILITY OF CREATING A STUDENT HAND.
BOOK WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING TT
USEFUL AND COMPREHENSIVE, AT THIS TIME
IT MEANS LEARNING OF INFORMATION NEEDS
THAT STUDENTS HAVE, PARTICULARLY SUCH
NEEDS NOT CURRENTLY GEING MET. HAVE
YOU FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN INFOR:
MATION ABOUT STUDENT GOVERNMENT, HOUS.
ING, ADMINISTRATION, MEDICAL NEEDS, WHE
COMMUNITY, OR LEGAL MATTERS, OR ES E
)

4)

EVEN JUST PHONE NUMBERS? IS THERE
MATION THAT WOULD BE NECESSARYFOR
FIRST YEAR STUDENTS; ONGOING OR @RADU- =

‘ATING STUDENTS?
IF & STUDENT HANDBOOK IS NOT TOHAVE.
BLATANT WEAKNESSES, THIS WILL BE BECAUSE

WE HAVE UNDERSTOOD OUR RESPONSIBILITY
79 SAY THAT SUCH AND SUCH INFORMATION
ISINEEDED. IN OTHER WORDS WE CAN EXPECT"
NO ONE BUT OURSELVES TO SAY WHAT WOULD
BE OF USE THROUGHOUT THE SCHOOL YEAR.
1S A PRIORITY FOR ALL STUDENTS, A
BRIORITY WHICH MUST BE ACCOMPLISHED BY
26TH MARCH. WHATEVER YOUR OWESTIONS
Of INFORMATION NEEDS, LET IT BEKNOWN
BY LEAVING THESE WITH EVA ALLEN IN PER:

SON OR INHER BOX AT THE DUNSMUIMSTREET
SCHOOL.

lo

won't do it at all, because I've learnt almost all there is to
learn about it. This piece constantly changes. I make my
‘works very much as tools, tools I use to manipulate my
thoughts, or to do something to my ideas, and that is thei
‘main purpose to me. It's almost like saying I need to do
something to my head, but I haven't got the right tools to
do it, haven’t got the Fight size wrench or whatever, so T
hhave to make it. In that sense they're very directly related
to the mental processes; they are directly needed and
functional and they are shaped to fit a specifie way. Once
I've made them, I've in fact used them, And maybe I get
to like them afterwards. Once they're out there and I'm
looking at them as an artifact, I can quite like artifacts as
‘well. This one in my kitchen takes up a lot of space but I
haven’t felt like throwing it away yet,

‘There's something about the making of a piece that’s
almost an imperative and a responsibility. And when I'm
doing it I'm running on a really fine edge. There's a fear
involved — and also an excitement and an enjoyment. I
think it’s something to do with what Rauschenberg
described when he was at the gallery, when he said that
the artist and the athlete are very similar in the sense that
they go beyond where they have been before, but at the
same time they have to maintain their form. You lose that
form and you've had it, and if you don’t push yourself
beyond that limit, it's not good enough. Another beliet is
contained in the statement it’s not how well you answer
the question but what the question is you're attempting
{ answer. Another cliche perhaps but one which to some
extent i v
MOORE: Given that your work's as inaccessible as it is,
that you had the hesitancies you did about elucidating
your ‘life and art," how do you account for the measured
success you had with the Helen Pitt Graduate Awards? It
seemed a startling moment last spring for the striving
Painters and seulptors and image-makers.

BEREGRY: Well, [hope they learned theirlesson, Really,
look, the reason that work was successful, and I think i
can look at it objectively as a body of work, was that 1
ing separately and the work wasn't striving to
bbe anything ~ it had an autonomy to it. It had an inte-
sity (0 it which work that’s striving to be something else
doesn’t have. It may have a long way to go, but in that
exhibition I think that was one thing Vera Frankel was
looking for, work which had something of the individual,
something of individual development, and that’s. .

MeINTYRE: Something of a fortunate occurrence,
You're lucky, at least she had enough insight to become
fascinated with something that seemed to have a distance
from itself,

BERECRY: ‘The awards are quite important yet no one
hhas dealt with them critically. Annually there's the
‘opportunity for people to examine the institutions they
paying their tax dollars for, and to relate the work pro-
duced to what's happening in the institution elsewhere in
the world, B.C., and Canada, I think that’s an exciting
opportunity.

McINTYRE: Yes, it can broaden things beyond the
urban or provincial copes.

BERECRY: Questions will only be asked about the com:
petition if someone eares enough ois angry enough to do
So. And that’s always the case. I think what has to be
spelled out all the way through something like the HPG
‘Awards competition is the criteria that’s being used in
the selection process.

X Newsatter, Emily Carr Collage of Art.

the art context

ive students graduating in Fine Arte from three British Columba
Insinutons wil be seleted 10 recese $3,000 eplece under 4 new
{wards programme administered b) she Vancouver Foundation.

The money was designated b» the Culture Committee ofthe
Vancouver Foundation, which decided fo use the income from
‘bequest the wll of Ss. Helen Pitt, who dled in 1976, for this
purpose. The Helen Ptt Fund for Fine arts har Deen providing
Dursrtes to ine arts students in fC. nce 1961,

“Among those receiving the award wat NEIL BERECRY from
"CCA. VERA FRENKEL adfudeated the exhibition. Follow it
‘an edited version of her essuations which appeared in the Tae:
Sy tue of VANGUARD,

1 turns out that 1
hha to se through the work to the art aneray that informs it |
an’ look et anything, because what lam looking ti often at
fot, in its tance state, turgid, routine, laboured, clever. a
Strangoly cautious. Ths is whet we do to students, Ofton itis what
‘they want us to do. We give thom the forms. Wo require them to
fncompass and to overcome them, to sstonih us. They almost
ever do. They're too busy pleasing us

‘have been adresing myself to 9 body of work that mani:
{ests flly and impressively a range of compatences that clothe the
‘old person whore job it to utter sounds, but that obscure the
‘oie the energy we call art. This may be inevitable, perhaps ¢

‘dows not know. Its this process, La,
shape of continuity, that a juror, willingly or not, must consider
In looking at the work of graduating students,

W's useful time to look at such work from the point of view
of survival; not s0 much of th artists ~ all the finaliate who
‘Showing work in this exhibition ae likly to survive handily:
butofert

| understand the Helen Pitt Bequest, administered by the
Vancouver Foundation, 19 be an investment in that survival. By
{this means, we are given, the previous jurors and I, an opportunity

ns, and some of the work. The true
‘meaning of these awards remains the inevitable change in the et.
mate of artimaking that must result from the process of el

From the results of this process, | have chosen those works
‘through which, nonetheless, the young voice emerges; that su.
{gests tome despite my own bioses, oF the Disses ofthe teachings
‘these artists have recived, despite the hominess of ambition,
despite the acquired modes of presantations of slf, despite the

mney just to be witnessed that informs much art

rt 10 itself, and if let alone, wil join the continuity that we
“The juror must be judged. My own preference ifr parton
oratory, ansformationl, multileyered and sometimes,
‘ihre usaf, betting and challenging art. This is possible in
‘media. I it not a function of although its necessary to
Search out in each instanes rm the fit tho Intent, oF to
Invent it. 1 seems to me thatthe art energy I value an find Isat
35 has in this exhibition — in the most modest of water
colours, oF, inthe most encompassing intr alaciplinary embrace of
the culture and its history. It evident in work that ix highly
personal and intimate as well as in work that aspires to some
pect of dotachment and manumentaity
‘The most dificult task of all in my view, hasbeen the work
‘of the internal juries ofthe participating Int
‘f no more delicate responsibilty thon for collegues to come
{ogather to assess each other's concerns through the vehicle of
‘dent achieverent. | happen to think thatthe teaching of artis
‘mong the few honorable and worthufile activities one can engage
in. What is carried on in the shoring of insight about arti the
culture tits most resolved and resolving, by a study of both its
‘most lasting and. most fluid parameters, Few things are more
‘And the money. It will o to five young artists, each of
‘whom wil cai $3000. This snot, in my opinion, a rowerd for
rom my peers
| solections, that a the heat of whatever these

{eo pay attntion to and to care for. Theis their Job. And just to
kop ‘things car, lt’ me say that the competition was damned
close. Another juror might easily have decided dtferenty,

Letters to ‘X’ (site you)

Mr, Bob Evermon
Lithography Department
‘ritsh Cotumbs College of Art
249 Dunant Se.

Vancouver, BC: VOB 1X3

Patrick L. MeGeer
Minster of Bduestion,
‘Science and Technology

Dear Me. MeGeer

| write this letter to you out of desperation and feustration,
‘The hopes lives and careers of many of British Columbia's future
ast could depend on action taken now to. very grave problem

In our province. fel can give youa lite Insight because of my
Special view asa teacher and ats for many Yeareat the Vancouver
School of Art. Better yet would be to talk to you personally.
“The subject ofthis letter is the BFA, and M.A. program
atthe Emily Care Collegeof Art, of which there is none. If you
‘ould understand as 1 do the Importance and weight of degree
program to our British Columbia studio art students, | fee! you
‘would act immediately. Whatever Your feelings are about the
Visual arts, am talking about the heritage of Durer, Rembrandt,
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Van Gogh, Piatto, and our own Haida,
Some. of the’ greatest people and high points of mankind, Our
Students ae tying to stand on the shoulders ofthese great people
land you have the power to sve strength to the Van Gogh's of
Why should not the children of Brith Colum-
bia have the same opportunity to develop ther potentials as other
provinces or states, There I not one studio visual art schoo in all
‘FBLC. that gives a B.FLA. or MLPA. degre,

‘Our students must procure an excellent art studio prosram
with a degree In ther pocket. This s the ticket they need to open
foors to they can prove their ably. Open doors 30 as not to
be penalised for not having a degree ticket for further study and
Advancement. ‘The ticket for the Mihelangelos of our province,
that will pen the doors to the Sistine Chapel. The great artists
of the world have to come from somewhere, why ot British
Columbia?

‘The B.F.A. and M.F.A. programs willbe stronger programs
for the E.C.A.A. and will give more incentive and

program Is one ofthe best anywhere inthe world but yet ts hard
{to bring in graduate students to specialize with us without the
M.F.A. rogram. They want very much to study with my prosram
in lithography, put also in today's world they need the degree

ticket. Many postions automatially requir a degree no matter
hhow good-you ae. Without this degree our students ae cheated
‘ut of the opportunity to study with some of the greatest minds
‘of our times. Our students need goals, high examples fr them to
teach for; if we can draw ln these great minds to our lated
Province and set these examples for our students, what arguments
ould there possibly be for not procuring and encouraging this
‘course of excellence

“Give us the tools to help create excellence, Give us the tls
to attract the Plcasos, Goyas, and Rauschenbers ofthe future to
British Columbia. Give us the tools to help make a great art
school a history making at schoo

If this eter seems dramatic, that’s because i is meant tobe,
{or it comes from every fiber of my body. My life is art, being an
artist and teaching the best 1 know how.

Sincerey,
RiEvermon

copy Head of Lithography, E.CEA.

‘Robin Mayor
Tom Hudton

Vancouver X Newspaper
received March $, 1979,

Dear Makara and

“Thanks for telling us all about the poem In the last issue,
land then not allowing out impressionable litle minds (are these
Stl the formative yeast) to be strained by the awesome tsk of
Aeciding for ourselves. Taking on the chore of protecting us
seems. «what? pateralistie? condescending? | don't know,
make up my mind for me, what should I think? Do you think,
"wel, is okay for us to see this stuf ‘use afterall we're 50
‘evolved but all those masses out there...”

‘As for those words “cunts” and “pricks” and “fucking,
find most poems that I've seen using them a8 a joke, inthe same
manner kids g0 "pee-pee, poorpoo,” to shock, hardly offensive, at
‘worst boring. But thats not to say that excellent poems aren't
Written using them. Is this one of them? I don’t know, some
Special interest pressure group kept me from finding out.” Why,
maybe a great poem could be written that". compares the tase
{oF women’s bodies (unfavourably) to food..." (Lord knows,
Sometimes they do...) But maybe it's an offensive poem. ‘How:
‘ver like Huxley’s savage (in Brave New World) who defended his
freedom to be unhappy in spite of the “paradise” totalitarian

Idefend' my right t0 be offended as well as pleased,
‘be bored if that's al the poem offers
Perhaps °X' will show some balls (oops, sory ladies) and
set it published somewhere else. hear that some copies had it
san inert. Right on, but halfway,

‘Anyways, tho are the goddarined editors of this paper? The
caivrs?” Why’ don't you give Makara thelr own litle column in
the paper on a cegular basis where they can expound thei own
specific beliefs? Actually I'd be interested in reading it

Makara, I dont lke seeing any person or group treated with
icespect either, but its a hard fact of life, and it ean be ignored,
‘only dealt with by looking atthe exploitation right in the eye ~
‘on an individual basis. Ureect the liberties that you have taken,
‘whatever the best intentions were

ce Archibald

PS. According to your loge, those Elizabethan sonnets withthe
Sentiments like, "How shall love thee,” and then going on about
ripples like rose buds and skin like milk or whatever, would be
aually objectionable. "You negate the poet's tool of metaphor.
Besides, aswell as... oh Rll. thats all got to say.

‘Bruce: On the one hand, one has the right to choose for oneself
fon the other hand, does one have the “right” to be offensive in
the sense noted? Artist seem to choose principles or codes by
Uihich to lve and work, and Makara Being n different, have chosen
their_own guding.prineiples. Our working relationship with
Makara includes having to decide about all sorts of issues, includ-
Ing content of material sent to them. In this Instanee, this rl

Hlonship took its course, where we recognized that Richard's
Mamancy would persist and the plece would make it into °°
Snyway. Half of the 500 copies aistributed included his poem, as
he felt that would be sufficient for gathering reactions. He was,
himself, unclear of his intetions with the poem: at the same time,
‘nce hearing. of Makara's reaction, he flt that such work as his

ras just what "X” needed t0 sell newspapers, Though there were
Some lovely spots in his piece, and though he expresses some of
his own sef-imitations and jealousles, one islet to ponder if
Indeed is thoughts were getting at anything. What other more
tempestuous issue is there among partilpanis of liberal demo.

In fet, °X" newsletter seems to be much of the same
ro mater its best intentions

We did not find "By the Deep Fryer" offensive, though there
ar attitudes we find objectionable. Perhaps the writer experiences
2 confusion towards his (ancient) muse. ‘The question is: has the
‘writer learned from his situation and the critics, has he dis

the price of rice in Newfoundland. Henmmem.

eel