An email you can file under "indie sleaze" and "Canadian content."
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Hi, Art!

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Hi, art lovers!

 
Still from the animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Two characters in an anime style appear in closeup. The character at left wears a surprised expression. Character at right looks to the figure at left with a smirk.

Netflix

 
As someone who still dreams of owning every available colour of American Apparel disco pants, I’m a sucker for stories about the “indie sleaze” revival. And there’s one thing — one extremely Toronto thing — that always triggers my nostalgia for the era. It’s not the taste of Sneaky Dee’s nachos or even old Facebook albums of sloppy nights at the Dance Cave. It’s Scott Pilgrim.

Both the original graphic novel and the 2010 Edgar Wright flick (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) perfectly bottled the hipster-dirtbag psychogeography of early aughts Toronto. I actually dug out my old Motorola Razr while working on this email, hoping I’d find some grainy snapshots from when the movie was filming around the Annex neighbourhood. Sadly, my amateur paparazzo snaps of Michael Cera filming at a Pizza Pizza have been lost to time, but there is suddenly a bounty of fresh Scott Pilgrim-related content all over CBC right now. It’s because of the new animated series that’s streaming on Netflix, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, the show is not a beat-for-beat remake — as much as the first episode might dupe you into thinking so. (Find further in-depth spoilers at the link.)

The series reunites the stars from the original movie. (Day 6 got the story behind that casting coup.) And director Edgar Wright is back as well. (He’s an executive producer of the show. Hear him on Q.) If you start bingeing the series this weekend, yes, that totally is Metric covering Sarah McLachlan in Episode 2. And here’s one more detail that might seem obvious all these years later: Scott Pilgrim is kind of a dink. (For more on that, here’s series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley in conversation with CBC News.)

More nostalgic links that you can file under “indie sleaze” and/or “Canadian content”: Nylon is bringing back its print edition (while new forms of girl media are apparently flourishing on Discord). Who’s that wonderful girl? Mona from Nanalan’! CBC’s Nanalan’! (Bah, I wish I could’ve added this shirt to our gift guide!) 
 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Surreal watercolour painting. Focus is a realistic portrait of a female figure with pink hair. Her eyes are closed and she appears in profile, holding a hand to her ear. She is enveloped by a swirling marbled pattern and small figures of winged fairies, some with psychedelic blooms where their heads should be.

Yan Zhang

Land of Silence by Yan Zhang. It’s one of the prize-winning works appearing in the Art Gallery of Mississauga’s annual Juried Show of Visual Arts. See it there through Jan. 14.
 
Ceramic sculptural artwork hanging on a white wall. It is spiky and pale green and multiple pebble-like forms are embedded in its surface. It frames a cracked mirror. A grey pebble is embedded in the centre of the mirror. Cracks radiate from its place.

Kaley Flowers

It’s been a minute since CBC Arts last checked in with Kaley Flowers, but I’m loving the stuff she’s been sharing on Instagram lately. Kaley’s still mining digital nostalgia, but her new ceramics have a way more organic feel, like something dredged from a magic swamp. (Related reading: When did illustration get so gross?)
 
Photo of two sculptures on white plinths in a white room. Both pieces have pink sculptured bases suggesting the torso of a woman. Sculpted flowers, braids and snakes adorn the forms. Both are topped by long blonde wigs.

Yvonne Kustec

Sisters by Yvonne Kustec. She’s showing this piece at Norberg Hall in Calgary as part of the group exhibition Natural Surroundings.
 
Abstract painting in shades of pink, red and orange.

Anahita Akhavan

Pistil from Anahita Akhavan’s new solo exhibition, Weaving a Garden. It’s up at Toronto’s United Contemporary until Dec. 23.
 
Landscape photo in the desert. The Pyramids of Giza rise from the dusky horizon. In the fore, a metal sculptural art installation suggesting curves and hills and pyramids.

Azza Al Qubaisi

And finally, an otherworldly photo captured earlier this fall at Forever is Now, a desert exhibition in Egypt. This is Treasures by Emirati artist Azza Al Qubaisi.
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Headshot of the artist Kablusiak. A black-and-white photo that's been tinted lavender. The artist, who uses they/them pronouns, has dark straight hair that's been cut into a mullet. They smile at the camera. Their chin is tattooed with four vertical lines and they wear earrings and facial piercings.
Courtesy of the artist

Kablusiak on their Sobey Art Award win: ‘You dream about this stuff when you’re an art school kid’

 
The Calgary-based artist plans to invest the $100,000 prize in their practice. But first, they’re going to Costco.
 
Medium shot of the dancer Karen Kain. A white woman wearing a black dress with enormous puffy pale pink sleeves. She throws her head back and laughs with an open mouth, her silver hair falling down her back.
Christopher Sherman/Swan Song

Want to know how tough ballet really is? Ask Karen Kain

 
The dance icon wants to empower the next generation of artists. She spoke to CBC Arts about Swan Song, the docuseries that captures her final production for the National Ballet of Canada. (BTW, here’s where to stream it on CBC Gem.)
 
Collage of items featured in the 2023 CBC Arts holiday gift guide. Clockwise from top left: a pair of brown-framed sunglasses; a printed jaquard beanie in blue and beige; painted Converse low-top sneakers; a pair of embroidered patches depicting a cringeing cartoon face split in two like a "best friends" heart necklace; a printed cotton robe in green and yellow check print; a flat-lay photo of illustrated cards, fanned out in a circle.

Warby Parker, BBE, Baggins, Meera Sethi, Kate Austin Designs, Ffembroidery

 

The CBC Arts holiday gift guide

 
Cozy robes! Custom sneakers! A personalized portrait … made of pie?! Shop one-of-a-kind gifts inspired by the stories we’ve covered this year.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Chief Lady Bird

@chiefladybird
Colourful still from an animated film. Three dancers in traditional Indigenous dress appear on a green field under a blue sky. A radiant pattern of pink and blue lines and circles cuts across the composition.

Chief Lady Bird

If geoblocking kept you from watching CBC’s How to Lose Everything earlier this year, good news! It’s now available on YouTube, and you’re looking at a still from Chief Lady Bird’s contribution to the series, a short film called Heart Like a Pow Wow. Watch it here.
 

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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
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XOXO CBC Arts
 
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