14
ARTS
arts editor email / phone
January 27, 2014
Daryn Wright arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
Hiding just around the corner of Main Street on East Georgia is a proverbial playground made of paper, courtesy of Montréal’s Séripop (Yannick Desranleau and Chloe Lum). Having seen their work in the past, I quickly made my way to Access Gallery — like a fat kid going to the Smarties factory — knowing my satisfaction would be guaranteed with Vexations. Even from the rainy sidewalk, the window space seemed full of eye-candy. Two large accumulations of paper are given impossible weight through the use of a simple hanging device made of hardware store pulleys, netting and yellow nylon rope. Lum and Desranleau have pushed to the limit the art of silkscreening by creating precarious installations that question the printed page. Where most conventional print shows would have single framed pieces lined up side by side to be viewed individually, here the very material specificity of paper is
being explored. Folding, crumpling, crushing, pasting and layering: no creative stone is left unturned. Even the boyish pleasure of chewing up spitballs and tossing them on the wall is evoked by one of the various installations, to grand effect.
In another instance, the window space is defined from the main gallery by a wall made from paper admitting black on black pinstripes. This massive patchwork sheet then makes its way to the ground, where it coats the
floor, as wallpaper would in a typical room. As you’ve probably guessed by now, a Séripop show is anything but ordinary; it is no surprise that sitting on the somewhat tattered paper flooring is a larger than life, folded
in Maria. I’m kind of going through that since this is my first big professional job, figuring out the purpose of my life.”
Jarrad Biron Green is living a childhood dream. West Side Story has been his favourite musical since he was in the fifth grade, and now he is playing the lead role of Tony in the show’s North American tour. “It was insane to get the call for this; I have to pinch myself sometimes,” he said. “Sometimes I get caught up in the moment and then I stop and think: I’m actually on the West Side Story tour.” This is Green’s first professional job, but he is more than qualified for the part. He first played the role of Tony in a high school production, and then again as a student at NYU in one of the largest productions the school had seen.
The North American tour is a recreation of the Broadway revival version of the show, with some modifications: there is more Spanish used in the words and lyrics, as well as a bolder, contemporary representation of violence and sexuality. Green thinks that the addition of more Spanish works well and equalizes the playing field for the gangs: “It’s had mixed results, but I think it’s more believable.” The cast of this production is also young, especially in comparison to the film version, which Green said gives people the wrong idea about how old the characters are supposed to be. “The cast we have is more suitable, and we can connect with the audience better,” he said. Relating to Tony comes easily to Green. “Tony is very similar to me at this stage of my life. He’s 18 or 19, and I’m 21, so we’re close in age. He wants to become more mature and leaves the gangs behind, gets a job, and finds his purpose
1957, which Green thinks is because of the conflict between the Jets and the Sharks and the fact that it’s based on Shakespeare’s classic story, Romeo and Juliet. “The show asks, ‘how can love survive in a world of bigotry, violence, and hate?’ That message stays with you,” said Green. “At the end of the show there is a little bit of hope that there can be some change,” which is why, Green says, audiences find this show so powerful. Although the show deals with themes from Romeo and Juliet, Green explained that “the music and dance adds so much more to the piece.” Of Jerome Robbins’ choreography, Green says “[It] is still pleasant to watch, but there is something more feeding the moves.” Apart from enjoying performing a coveted role in a world-renowned musical, Green is having fun experiencing so many new cities on this tour and said that he usually has
The exhibit uses paper in unexpected, unconventional ways.
Performing in Vancouver and other Canadian cities on this tour marks another first: “I’ve been to Canada once when I was young with my parents, but I couldn’t even tell you where it was.” He’s looking forward to visiting Vancouver. “I’m a big fan of the hockey community,” he said. West Side Story has thrilled audiences since its debut in
Stephane Bernard / The Peak
up piece that recalls the paper fans so often crafted out of brochures and scraps of paper when the summer heat wave settles in. And ironically enough, the dark sheet then bumps up again, settling on two larger masses that are blowing air: inflatable baubles of bold contrasting colours. The use of both colour and form mould the gallery space into a battlefield where entropy and utopian architecture duke it out. This conflict is less a war than a healthy snowball fight between friends, as the monochromatic earth-toned sheets seem to get along with the acidic neon constructions that bolster the eye out of apathy, despite their formal differences. Other sheets are pasted on the wall over and over again, in different patterns and colours, with the last of these rippling under the pressures of accumulation. They sag and distort, demonstrating the limits of their flexibility, and calling us to doubt the structure of the gallery itself. Lively and somewhat apocalyptic all at once, Vexations is a paperwork jungle gym.
time during the day to explore. He’s soaking it all in, enjoying every minute of his first professional tour, and says, “It’s been a blast so far.”