Viaduct Curtain - FOUND!

Check out what I came across while riding home one evening last week, passing under Burrard Bridge: a viaduct curtain.

Thank you, City of Vancouver, for putting these huge white tarps up while you do your seismic upgrades!

new website for spacemakeplace!

Check it out!

www.spacemakeplace.com

the ball in the typewriter

10 August, 2013

An oldish Englishman who had stopped by the kiosk a few weeks ago has returned.

"How are you doing this morning," I ask.

"Oh not so well - not so well."

I just nod, not knowing what to say. His grey hair is messed up and his eyes have a far-away sorrow. Talcum powder is showing around the creases in his neck. He is mulling over what to say next.

"It's like... the ball in the typewriter."

"The ball in the typewriter?"

"Yes, remember the electric typewriter, with the ball that has all the letters."

"Yes I do remember those."

The Englishman speaks softly, protractedly:  "It's like taking the ball out of the typewriter and rolling it around.  Or it's like taking a whole lot of them and tossing them like toys..."

I nod again, imagining all the letters on the typewriter ball rolling around, and the mystery of all those unwritten words.

"Are you a writer?," I ask.

"A writer, no," he sighs, "I'm a... I'm a digger."

"Oh," I say, and then ask him if he's familiar with the group of people from the 1600s in England who were called The Diggers, who would dig up common land so they could grow things, trade with each other, and avoid the corrupt monetary system of the time.  (The Diggers and subsequent groups had been an inspiration behind the DIY trade aspect of Give and Take.)

"Oh... yes..." he says.

"And there was another similar group called 'The Levellers'," I say.

"Yes - The Levellers.  Yes,"  he says, and then he goes into a reverie recounting some pieces of history I can only vaguely follow, partly because he is very soft-spoken, and partly because these pieces are possibly still being put together in his own mind:

• "The Dutchies, a tract of land"
• "a place to make gates when it was raining"
• "a druid stone circle, with one stone in the middle, that's all Jimmy Corrigan needed"
• "The Queen, sitting and eating her muffins"
• "the land was divided up and sold by The Dutchies"
• "they didn't need to make the gates anymore"

"These are the things they don't tell you," he says after a while.

"Sounds like a good story," I say.

"Well, the same thing happens in Physics," he says, "they tell you one thing..."

At this moment a gust of wind blows and knocks down some of the cards from the shelves.  The Englishman bends down to pick them off the ground.  I thank him.

"I enjoyed that image of the typewriter ball with all its unwritten mystery," I say.

"Rolling around on the surface," he says, "spelling out something from the occult."  

And then he leaves, walking back into the library.

some more exchanges

The last day of 'Give and Take' was on Sunday August 11, another busy and fun day.  Throughout the last week of the exhibition, many people were coming with things to trade after they'd read the article about the project in their local newspaper.

Around 2pm a Barbershop Men's Choir sang a few songs in Civic Square.  This brought in a few bystanders...

Later on in the day these two boys were playing in the park.  They came over to the Kiosk and checked stuff out for quite a while.  They didn't have anything to trade, but because it was the last day and I was feeling generous, and because they seemed like sweet kids, I let them each take one thing. One kid took a stuffed dolphin toy (he said it was for his sister), and the other kid was going to take this plastic toy he's holding in the photo but then changed his mind and took a deck of cards instead.

Some of the display at about 3pm on the last day of 'Give and Take':

Later in the afternoon a middle-aged woman approached the Kiosk.  "I brought something to exchange today!" she said.  "Great!," I said. She was very excited about what she'd brought to give.  It was a plastic make-up mirror that had a paper cut-out of a 1950s model mod-podged to the front.  "I came by yesterday and saw that today is the last day so I thought I'd bring one of these mirrors that I used to make!"  "Fantastic," I said.  "When I got home yesterday I saw I still had a couple of these lying around and thought this would be a good thing to trade."  "Nice - well take a look and see what you'd like to take in exchange."  She looked around for a bit and finally decided on a shiny silvery plastic skull ring.  "I'll take the ring!"  "Ok!" I said, and started writing down the exchange.  "I think I'll be able to scare people off with this," she laughed. Before she left I asked if I could take a photo of the ring, which she was then wearing.  "Yeah sure," she said, "luckily I just had my nails done too!"(The skull ring had come the day before from one of the two little Japanese girls who had been coming every Saturday with their dad. "It's scary," the 5-year old had said to me as she put it on the counter.  In exchange she had taken a mini teddy bear.)
The very last trade of 'Give and Take' came from this mother/daughter duo.  The mother had been by a few times before, always looking for material on Muslim culture.  On Sunday afternoon she was satisfied with some spice jars, which she and her daughter took in exchange for a bright yellow rubber duck. 

Zoltan

Finally!  A taker for the Juicy Danger goes to Burning Man DVD which has been at the Kiosk since day one of 'Give and Take'.  The guy who took it also took one of the Tarot card books (here since first week) and a children's book called Crazy Canadian Trivia (which has also been here for quite a while).  

In return, he gave three packs of homemade incense, a fluorescent yellow softball, and a sheer black and gold scarf.  He also wanted to give a bag of unopened kitten food but I declined that one because of the 'no food' rule.  

He was a jolly character, with medium length curly hair, probably in his 40s with two big fluffy white dogs which he referred to as his kids.  The guy's name was Zoltan.  I was so pleased that Juicy Danger finally found a home that I asked Zoltan if I could take a photo and he kindly obliged.

Give and Take update

David took some great photos at the 'Give and Take' opening reception on Friday; I have just posted them on my website here.

Below are some photos of recent items which have come and gone.  On Saturday morning we received a (nearly new) coffee grinder, with the explanation "I don't drink coffee anymore."  This was exchanged for a (new) tube of toothpaste.  "I could use this!," she said.

The tube of toothpaste had come on Thursday from a young man and his girlfriend who were passing by and took a keen interest in a clunky purple toy camera which had a missing cable - they thought they could find a cable to fit.

In related news, this interview about the KIOSK aired today on Monocle 24 - listen at 0:40:40!

Give and Take - July 16 to August 11

The first day of the 'Give and Take' installation at the Burnaby Art Gallery Offsite Project KIOSK went very well.

The inaugural exchange was with a fellow named Bob, who gave the double cd Don Williams GOLD and took the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in return.

Come check out the installation and 'give an item, take an item'!  The kiosk is located in front of Bob Prittie Library Metrotown, Burnaby (map on flyer below).  It will be open most days between now and August 11.

Exhibit launch event will be on
FRIDAY JULY 26, 6-8pm.

the KIOSK has launched!

The KIOSK project launched on Thursday evening, with Gaye Chan as the first artist presenting her performance SWEAT.

Commissioned by the Burnaby Art Gallery - BAG offsite for Summer 2013.
Curated by Shaun Dacey.
Site: Bob Prittie Metrotown Public Library.
Design: spacemakeplace
Construction:Mark George/Nagy-Ne
photo credits: Rebecca Bayer and Gaye Chan 


The next KIOSK artist launch party will be on Friday, July 26:  Rebecca Bayer Give and Take

kiosk construction progress

Pictured here with Helen Reed - one of the 6 artists who will be using the kiosk this summer.

Construction by Mark George/Nagy-Ne
more here

a materials walk at hadden park

map detail - with Laura Kozak

kiosk!

coming soon



















more info here

make less bad make more good

Ten Fifteen Maple is finally happening!

The renovations are now complete at the 1015 Maple St. studio and we (Josh, Justine, Billy, Kristen, Rebecca) have started working on our individual and collective projects.  It's great, even on rainy days.  Here's a link to our website for the latest goings-on: www.tenfifteenmaple.org

Check out DG's before/after photos !
(sneak preview here:)

making models

RB and DG busy at 222! 

Our new website is set to launch later this Summer. Please stay tuned!  In the meantime, recent works by RB here and DG here.

'to surface' online project

New online project to surface shares photos and links on the topic of surface as a verb.
Check it out here!  mhamm soundSail

website update

www.rebeccabayer.com

happy accident

1015 Maple renovation update

The renovation of our residency fieldhouse at Hadden Park is taking longer than expected... but it'll be great once finished!  The first two photos below were taken on February 2nd: old floor gone, some walls stripped back.  The third is from just the other day: new floor in, new walls, and surfaces freshly painted.  The five of us are very excited about moving in - crossings all fingers and toes that it will happen soon.  I have been busy planning for upcoming projects - can't wait!  Note these photos are taken through the window as door locks have been changed during the reno too.

preliminary sketches

Preliminary sketches for a kiosk project that will be happening at the Burnaby Art Gallery (off-site) this summer: six artists, six programs, six locations, one kiosk.

old ideas new ideas

This morning I tried to find the hard copy of a paper I'd written during my first year of Architecture School.  Instead, this particular page fell out of one of my binders.  It's a bunch of random ideas taped onto a plastic sheet in summer 2005.  Post-Katrina, Bush-Era angst (and hope).