Culture: Art Goes Superflat, A Dylan Thomas Christmas, Women in Love

Image by: Kate Wilson

Kate Wilson 

Toronto-based artist Kate Wilson launches a new wall-drawing installation this month in the Greater Victoria Art Gallery’s contemporary LAB project space. The work, Collages in Motion and Artificial Dreams, is an ode to Japan’s superflat movement, a postmodernist art movement that uses flattened-out forms of Japanese animation and graphic design to explore globalization and the perceived shallowness of consumer culture. Wilson uses the structural ideals of superflat by challenging audiences’ perception of space while blurring the distinction between real and abstract, combining computer-drawn images with hand-drawn art. Dec. 4 to Jan. 17, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

A Dylan Thomas Christmas

Even if you can’t remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when you were 12 or whether it snowed for 12 days and 12 nights when you were six, remember that this concert – which sees the Vancouver Chamber Choir pairing traditional Christmas songs and carols with excerpts from Dylan Thomas’s holiday classic A Child’s Christmas in Wales – only has two showings. Read by Welsh-born actor Russell Roberts, the timeless prose poem recounts the enchanting and humorous Christmas memories from a grandfather to his grandchild. It’s a 
refreshingly simple tale (no Arnold Schwarzenegger battling 
reindeer here!) with a lyrical flow ideally suited for the singers 
of the chamber choir, under the direction of Jon Washburn. 
Dec. 18 and 20, Ryerson United Church.

A Beautiful View

Daniel MacIvor’s two-person play, A Beautiful View, follows the complicated on-off relationship of two women, Michelle and Liz, who meet serendipitously. As intimacy grows, so do the complications, and the concept of love is dissected with both humour and humanity. In a recent interview, MacIvor says he found inspiration for the play in the sex lives of 20-somethings, noting that they’re more polyamorous and less likely to define their sexuality than older generations: “That shows some sort of social evolution. People are just more open to a living experience, as opposed to having to fit inside a box.” Dec. 4 to 13, Performance Works; Dec. 16 to 19, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, rubyslippers.ca

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