the balcony

Hanging out the Laundry

2011-10-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

child's play on the balcony

2011-09-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

Opening on September 9th @ 7pm, Child's Play by Robert McTavish.

An interactive installation; a game with instructions about how to proceed down the balcony; art fun!

Vultures! and Sculptures!

2011-08-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

Also at the Balcony for the next few weeks: Vultures! and Sculptures! The Turkey Vultures (papier mache and other stuff) made by yours truly, perch on the balcony railing observing life below, and probably waiting for life to stop.

The Sculptures! made and installed by John Luna, as an addition to his recent lecture/performance hang outside the building in a little space made up of cedar hedging and a corrugated metal container box. It is uncertain how long these pieces will remain in place.

John Luna: Images and Thoughts; On

2011-08-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

"It was crazy! but it happened" --John Luna

John Luna's lecture/performance was intended to happen in the parking lot below Xchanges' balcony, but when we arrived and started to set up, we realized that a musical performance, perhaps ROMP, was underway just down the street, and was in fact so loud that we could barely hear one another speak. Also it was insanely hot. So, since Xchanges' gallery is closed during the month of August, we decided to move indoors where it was cool, dim and serenely pale.

The performance was in essence a group revising of a long poem written by Mr. Luna himself, during which the artist asked us, the audience, for help in moving words around, and perhaps meaning as well (it was difficult to tell--he was so firmly in charge of his vision).

It was a strange and interesting experience; disjointed, messy and almost unbearably intimate. Participants left worried that perhaps they'd insulted the artist by voicing their opinions too honestly, and perhaps they had, but one can only surmise that the artist intended and expected to make himself vulnerable to the opinions and judgements of others. Group critique situations are never a sure thing, and when a work is admittedly in progress, the delicate balance between respect and "well, this is what I think" becomes a little difficult to achieve. I've been in rooms where an artist, struggling with her intentions and form, has been set upon by her so-called support team, like wasps on something dying. It's not pretty. The ego becomes inflated, and consequently deflated, very quickly.

And so kudos to John Luna, and all the people participating, for stepping (somewhat) knowingly into that morass. There is always so much to learn, and learning is always so much a risk.

Upcoming at the Balcony: John Luna presents........

2011-08-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

“Both Balcony and Tower: A Park in Time and Grounds to Stop”

August 26th at 7:30

My proposal for the Balcony Gallery at Xchanges is to involve audience/participants in the scoring of a spoken word piece (poem) through an interactive lecture/performance.

Audience members are invited to bring folding chairs and flashlights, and may be called upon to volunteer details of their everyday lives or read passages of text aloud.

[I could do this in the parking lot, I’m thinking, and anticipate the piece lasting 30 min to an hour. The piece will also involve a visual aide or two (projectors), and possibly one sculpture.]

OPEN by Marlene Jess

2011-08-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

OPEN
Canada Day, 2011
An installation for The Balcony at Xchanges Artists' Gallery and Studios
2333 Government Street, Victoria BC
Premise: To exercise the Canadian reputation of being friendly.

On June 29th, I approached 25 businesses who reside within 3 blocks north and 3 blocks south of Xchanges and asked the person in charge if I can borrow their "OPEN" sign for a one day installation happening on Canada Day. Armed with a clipboard, intake form and pen, I introduced myself and proposed to pick
up the OPEN signs on June 30th at closing time and bring the signs back at opening time on their next business day, closing the deal with a handshake.

Of the 25 businesses:
12 agreed to participate
2 entrusted me with their flashing neon signs*
2 agreed immediately without hearing the shpiel
5 lent me signs to take that day
2 misunderstood the project and gave me signs that advertise their businesses
3 had no OPEN signs but lent me other signs because they wanted to participate
2 said the owner would fire them if they lent me signs
1 asked many questions about the life of an artist while scratching his head
1 said he understood the project and suggested I go to a superstore to buy signs
1 congratulated me on “the art of cold calling”
1 said their business was too corporate to participate
1 helped me carry signs back to the studio
1 was dryly arguing with a customer when I entered the store
1 was an old friend I hadn’t seen in 5 years
6 knew about Xchanges and its location
30 signs were gathered

THANK YOU:
Sean & Co. at Acme Supplies
Brent at Budget Rent-A-Car
Dale at Russell Food Equipment
Rob at Styles Upholstery
Lori at Verve Consignment
John at Discovery Coffee
Susan at School House Teaching Supplies
Mike at Capital Glass & Upholstery
Doug at Dunsmuir Super Service
Warren at Heat Savers Fire Place
Trena & Greg at Mid-Century Furnishings
Myrna at Godfrey’s Luggage

check out more photos and more of Marlene's work here

2011-06-07T07:28:00.001-07:00

Any Wall Any Where Any Time: Update

2011-05-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

Originally the Silhouettes mural was the backdrop to a series of Helen Rogak's oil paintings.

But then the wind intervened and Helen's paintings were found in the parking lot below. Fortunately, no damage done.

So, Cheryl McBride and Betty Meyers, the muralists, came back with their chalk and their paint to finish the Silhouettes.

Now, Helen's paintings are in the stairwell.

Beautiful renderings of Satellite Channel.

Giving the people on their way up to Xchanges a moment's pause.

To breathe.

Any Wall, Any Where, Any Time: the opening

2011-05-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

the people mural, detail

detail of the people mural painted by betty and cheryl

helen's landscape paintings adorning the people mural

on the balcony

helen, cheryl and betty (the artists)

ashley culver and helen rogak

Any Wall, Any Where, Any Time

2011-05-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

Helen Rogak, Betty Meyers and Cheryl McBride @ the Balcony

In situ installation of black tar paper and paint begins May 10th

Opening Reception May 14th @ noon

BALCON Y 2011

2011-03-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

The BALCONY @ Xchanges is looking for one more artist to complete our 2011 season. If you've got an idea for the BALCONY let us know. We'll pay you a hundred bucks and make you some funky little books. The available show time is August 15 to September 15.

opening october 14th, 7pm

2010-10-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

s e c o n d s t o r y

S K A I F O W L E R

"I have recently started a new series of acrylic paintings, which are colourful abstracts with references from nature, science and my back alley. Reminiscent of such painters as Kandinsky, Gorky and Chagall, they are renderings of imagination, leaning towards lofty and

airy--perfect for a balcony setting. As a scenic painter for theatre I have a great deal of experience producing work for the theatre audience, ie. being aware of sight lines and context--not all theatre is played in a black box; parks and plazas become the realm for the bard." -skai fowler

Skai Fowler is a Vancouver based visual artist and has been exhibiting her work since 1987. She works both in photography and painting. Her photographic subject has been the female nude with a recent foray into abstract architectural imagery. Her acrylic paintings are abstract expressionist with an obsession with transformation.

Skai graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1985 and exhibits nationally and internationally. After working for many years as an arts administrator she now works as a scenic artist in the local theatre community, teaches digital photography and is an Adjunct Professor, teaching scenic painting at UBC Theatre and Film Dept.

2010-10-02T21:32:00.001-07:00

Send us your proposals for Balcony art.

send:

-10 images (CD or hardcopy)

- statement and proposal for exhibit

- CV

- SASE

to:

the BALCONY gallery

2333 Government St.

Victoria, BC
Deadline is January 15th, 2011

all the world's a stage

Honouring the Spirit: Emilio Portal

2010-09-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

It was raining and the cityscape was black and wet and studded with points of light: traffic light, street light, windows. Down below the dull concrete gradually receded to nothing in the night. Only the faint shapes of the white carpet cleaning vans remained visible. Under the yellow security lights of the balcony we were dry and warm. By the time the artist took his place centre stage, there were about 30 people, mostly young and damp, and crowded into an imperfect semi-circle in the narrow confines of the balcony.

The balcony belongs to Xchanges and is not the first place one would think of in regards to an art gallery. It is long and narrow and painted yellow, with faux stone accents. People often show up at opening nights frustrated and sweaty because it’s difficult to find. It doesn’t have any street front; on the Government Street side, it’s behind what used to be a furniture store and on the Douglas Street side it’s behind the DQ, but you have to take the driveway beside the DQ’s driveway to find your way in.

The one thing the balcony does have is a truly incredible view of the city. On a sunny day, the sky is huge and blue and the whole of downtown Victoria is there to see. The Blue Bridge and the Bay centre roof, the Clock Tower, the 7up sign and the hotels over on the Songhees. Some people even claim to see the Empress. Closer in you can see the industrial activity up on Bay Street, the gravel trucks and the bleached out machine shapes. Down below is a concrete courtyard full of cars and busy people coming and going, delivering and cleaning and working. It’s cheerful.

There are a few trees visible, a line of hardwoods living in holes in the sidewalk along Government Street and right now the leaves are in the early stages of turning red. They might be poplars but they’re not the trees that once lived where the city now rules. Mostly it’s all brick and concrete with a few empty wild looking lots. No sign of what used to be before this land became, first, Fort Victoria and then eventually just Victoria, and a victim of dominance.

It is for what used to be (and what is still there) that Emilio Portal made a cajon to play on the balcony last night. A cajon performance to honour the spirit of the forest. Historians believe that the cajon first came into existence in Peru in the 1800’s, made by Spanish owned slaves forbidden to possess musical instruments. The cajon is a box-like instrument and was easily fashioned from discarded shipping crates or ubiquitous household items, like dresser drawers, and could be easily disguised as just more of the same. It is a profoundly poetic act, to play the instrument of the dominated, the enslaved, in honour of a forest, once thick and tall, and ending only at the ocean, now destroyed utterly.

A few months ago, when Emilio’s performance was still in the planning stages, I was invited to visit him in his studio at UVic. The studios are small but private. He had a table in there and a window, two chairs and a wall full of shelving units. We talked about television and the way that TV has made entertainment something to be watched rather than something to be organized and acted. He showed me a photo of an old Indian man in traditional clothes that he’d saturated in beeswax. On the top of the shelves, circling half of the studio, there was a line of flattened pizza boxes, grease side out. It was a slight shock to realize that they were pizza boxes; at first I thought he’d made the grease circles, or that they were a part of his beeswax work.

On one shelf he had stacks of dirty 2x4’s, some of which he’d planed down to reveal beautiful wood. He showed me one piece, he said it was mahogany, that had been used briefly for pallets and then discarded roadside for firewood. It is this reclamation of beauty and also usefulness that seems so essential to Emilio’s work and his thinking. It is not about recycling as in collecting the bright and colourful detritus of the consumer world and imbuing it with artfulness. It is not about reusing earth destroying plastics and polyurethanes; it is about remembering the natural gifts, the wood, the water, the earth and our abilities to use those gifts, our natural talents. It is about reaching out and bringing back to life the ideas, the gentleness, and the spirituality that precede the consumer world as we know it, the dominating world as we know it. It is a show of respect for making and keeping and being.

Last night, the drumming began quietly, and unannounced. People stood on the balcony together talking and laughing, in the dark but out of the rain, eating some of the meal prepared by Emilio’s soon-to-be bride, when suddenly he very simply straddled his cajon and began to play. Everyone gathered around, watching and listening and waiting for revelation. And the drumming, although gentle, did take us to a place beyond the city. The yellow security lights became firelight, the darkness breathed of Douglas fir and silence. The drumming turned into a heart beat. A steady strong heart beating, there. When it stopped we were left with silence, the silence of cars passing in the wet night. No one spoke, no one moved. We were quiet together, for a few brief moments, together.

to honour the spirit of this forest

2010-09-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

portalstudio

2010-09-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

2010-08-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

the rubber will be fluid and free to move with the wind....

2010-08-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

Jillan’s use of recycled rubber ... alludes to the gluttonous waste of the oil industry. We are surrounded by oil based products...it's everywhere and in everything. This exhibition pokes fun at the absurdity and abundance of this rubber waste by constructing innovative rubber art and interactive environments out of this highly viable and perfectly reusable material.

conventional wisdom:opening night

2010-08-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Jillan Valpy in her sea of painted rubber

music and friends

on the balcony

black and pink rubber

2010-07-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

"peculiar notes....[are] not supplied in nature. They must be supplied conciously...one must see the note which needs to be supplied, one must supply the missing note, and then proceed". --- Mr. G.

watch KitSum Cheng here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoP9zzrTNQ&feature=related

2010-07-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

Flagging The Balcony

2010-07-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

"A balcony is intended to be a poetic space-for breathing fresh air and soaking in the Sun. However, being a perfectly utilitarian balcony, like the ones in common North American motels or Japanese two story apartments, sometimes it ceases to be known as a balcony; for the balcony is the hallway and the hallway is the balcony. Although it may be a space that is sparsely trafficked, it speaks precisely to the idea of 'presence' ". ---KitSum Cheng

images from scope

2010-06-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

2010-06-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

SCOPE by VASA

2010-06-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

The second installation at the BALCONY gallery is SCOPE by VASA.
A series of scopes mounted to the balcony railing reveal alternate visions of the cityscape.

Aubrey Burke
Luc Palmer
Heather Lohnes
Andrea Zittlau
Jessie Jakumeit
Ashley Culver
Julie Gennai
Everett Wong

SCOPE opens June 17th at 7pm. Artists' talk begins at 7:30.

Thoughts on a Faded Ruffle by Brian Grison and others

2010-06-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

Poor faded ruffle. Since it's May 14th debut, the Ruffle has undergone a dramatic change. In the constant rain the Ruffle has faded from a garishly girly pink, to a non colour, an indefinable white. People at Laura Dutton's opening last night were only barely aware of the Ruffle at all. The Ruffle is almost invisible now, almost non existent. It's interesting to see a piece of art so vulnerable in this way. To change colour over the course of several weeks, and therefore meaning is both problematic and fascinating at once. The change of colour was not intentional, was, in fact, not even considered as a possibility. And yet the change, the uncontrolled change is somehow satisfying and even spiritually evocative. The Ruffle fulfilled it's life cycle.

The following is an excerpt from an email in which Brian Grison discusses his thoughts on the Ruffle,

"I was not especially impressed by Ruffles. A ruffle refers, among other
things, to a particular kind of collar. However, when first viewing the
installation from the level of the parking lot, I immediately got the
distinct, and much more interestingly erotic, connotation of crinolines
and frilly girls' underwear - which I did not mind at all in my hidden
adolescent male soul. I remember how dedicated I was to looking up
girl's uniformed legs as they climbed the stairs ahead of me at private
Catholic grade school. If the nuns had known that my diligence to get
to class had more to do with being an eight year old peeping Tom, they
would have been shocked. I thought to myself that the installation
needed images of lovely female legs protruding below all that
frilliness, but I suppose that wasn't the artists intention. As a
matter fact, it was rather difficult to understand what the artist's
intention was. From up top, the ruffle was not as interesting - let
alone noticable - as the little frilly flower things that (I think)

held it in place; I liked them more than the frill itself. As a matter

back, the lumpy special spherical things on top of the railing were

even more interesting. They must have been intended more for anchoring

than formal or aesthetic purposes - but I quite liked their wonky,

perching personality. They even gave me ideas of other technical uses

an artist could make of that railing." - Brian Grison, art writer

the Ruffle: Musings on the Nonsensical

2010-05-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

A 100 foot pink ruffle is, as one observer observed, nonsensical. And it's true, an enormous ruffle created to fit an uber-utilitarian balcony is in fact ridiculously impractical. It is not, however, without meaning.

A ruffle is a decorative touch, a frill, a confection. This ruffle, the Ruffle, is made up of layer upon layer of pink netting, bordered with a line of pink cotton flowers and over-sized sequins. It is a fluffy extravagance, a pink cloud, fluttering gracefully above a very practical and very sheltered little parking lot usually left to automobiles in repair and carpet cleaning vans. Most of the people who inhabit this space are men. After business hours it's mostly just stragglers, either people passing through or else stopping to use a dark corner for some private reason.

In spite of being 100 feet long and being attached to a balcony, the Ruffle is really very traditional. It is entirely reminiscent of weddings and ballerinas and tutus. the Ruffle speaks to us of girl/woman dreams of being a princess, of being beautiful, of being romanced. Frothy dreams. Fantasies.

In discussing the Ruffle, some have referred to the parking lot/courtyard as masculine, but that designation is perhaps a trifle easy. After all, concepts of masculinity and femininity tend to be more fluid and richer than they have been in the past. The parking lot is masculine in the same way that the Ruffle is feminine. These are the extremes of male and female: being masculine means spending all of one's time fine tuning cars on a patch of oily cement, while being feminine means to love all that is pink, ruffly and decorative. These stereotypes are absurd of course, but given the right circumstances, they are oh so romantic, n' est-ce pas? Think romantic comedy...boy meets girl, or in this case, 100 foot ruffle meets auto-mechanic haven and sweet havoc ensues.

In reality it is not at all a case of boy meets girl. It's a case of girl invades boy's tidy but spare boy space with what is a parody of girly-ness. It is a provocation; it is a verb as well as a noun. It intentionally attempts to provoke a response. the Ruffle, being pretty and delicate and an extreme version of femininity is everything that the space in which it exists is not. In a cement courtyard frequented by male auto-mechanics, the Ruffle becomes strident and immodest, demanding the attention of all. The men who work there are forced/seduced into turning their eyes towards something pretty and pink, something nonsensical, when instead they should be focused on cement and auto bodies.

It is from this sense of discord that we are able to draw even darker parallels. the BALCONY gallery is located near Bay and Government Streets. This is a neighbourhood well known for sex workers, women of all ages, standing curbside, waving down men as they pass in their cars. The prostitute, like the Ruffle, is another extreme example of the feminine. The prostitute is the wild woman, the outlaw woman, in love with sex and drugs and parties. Or so we often assume. Of course there are many reasons why women turn to sex work. Some because they really do love sex, some because they're forced into it by a pimp, some because they are drug addicted, some because they're earning their way through medical school. Probably a lot do it because they were abused as girls and don't yet realize that there are other ways to be valuable.

the Ruffle and the woman/sex worker occupy entirely different ends of the femininity continuum. Ruffles are associated with little girls and female goodness (brides and aprons and panties), while sex workers, obviously, are considered dangerous, to families, to men, to themselves. One thing they do have in common, however, is a need for attention and probably approval, from men. the Ruffle, not by it's own choice, mind, is a disruptive force in a quiet peaceful work space most frequented by men. The prostitute bargains for sex/money on the street with strangers. She displays her feminine charms, whether prettiness or youth or a heartbreaking despair, to attract men. Ostensibly she wants to earn money, but she provokes in many, her customers and others, feelings of anger and disgust. She exists like the Ruffle in an ugly environment, unprotected and vulnerable.

Then and again, maybe these musings are a stretch too long. Maybe the Ruffle is no more than a ruffle should be: pretty, frothy, fun and flirty.

making art for a balcony

2009-12-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

The Balcony Gallery is located in an urban/industrial site overlooking an enclosed parking lot filled with cars in various states of repair. Outside of this enclave are two very busy roadways and a multitude of busy establishments including a brewery, a furniture store, a fast food outlet, a gas bar, a pawn shop and various other businesses. This balcony is very utilitarian in purpose, serving primarily as a thouroughfare.

Traditionally, balconies have been much more than utilitarian. Although, it is true that in many cultures around the world, the balcony plays a somewhat homely role in the domestic lives of city dwellers. The balcony, in that case, often spans the public/private divide, allowing for less formal meetings between neighbours, for instance. The balcony provides extra room for people living in confined spaces; it can be used as a storage space for apartments. The balcony is also a place for nature; for breathing fresh air, for taking in the view and for growing pots of flowers and herbs.

Aside from the added space, the balcony is architecturally decorative, being very often an addition of great beauty and romance. The lacy wrought iron balconies of New Orleans' French Quarter are renowned. But balconies are also a beautiful and romantic place to be. They are purely human, designed, originally and most probably, for the pleasure of seeing, and for being seen.

Great leaders have often used the inherent drama of the balcony to address their followers; popes, czars and princes have all blessed or frightened or delighted their subjects from the relative safely of a balcony. The balcony is an essential scene of action and romance in both the story of Rapunzel and in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In fiction, the balcony has also been used as a place to hide, to eavesdrop and to spy. Characters in movies often plunge suicidally from balconies; sometimes, in more redemptive scenarios, they are saved instead. In fiction, as well as in reality, the balcony is a place of drama, tragedy, acts of rescue and of love.

The balcony as a human space is evocative; the balcony when considered historically, romantically, dramatically, is a powerful imaginative tool. This particular balcony, Xchanges' balcony, is especially interesting because of it's essentially anti-romantic nature, it's almost anti-human surroundings. In the courtyard beneath Xchanges there are no topiary gardens or winding walkways. The space is, as stated, purely utilitarian. It is busy, it is grey, it is cement. On this balcony, the human drama must be reinvented. This balcony is a space that is not domestic, that is not beautiful, that is not spectacular, and yet it is still a balcony with all the theatrical potential of a stage.

Please contact Christine in case of questions or concerns.