Author Tags: Art


Articles: 1 Article for this author

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stan Douglas - City of Vancouver Book Prize Finalist
September 18, 2003

City Book Award Finalists Selected

Four books that contribute to a greater understanding and appreciation of our city and its rich history and culture have been selected as the finalists for the 2003 City of Vancouver Book Award. One of the honoured is: Stan Douglas: Every Building on 100 West Hastings edited by Reid Shier, with essays by Christina Ritchie, Jeff Sommers, Nick Blomely, Neil Smith, Jeff Derksen and Denise Blake Oleksijczujk (co-published by the Contemporary Art Gallery and Arsenal Pulp Press)

The City of Vancouver Book Award is a $2,000 prize that has been presented annually since 1989 to authors of books in any genre that demonstrate excellence and illuminate Vancouver's history, unique character or the achievements of its residents. The number of titles submitted this year was the largest in the history of the award. Mayor Larry Campbell will present the award in Council Chamber on Tuesday, October 21, 2003.

The 100 block of Vancouver's West Hastings Street is the gateway to one of the most contested and controversial inner-city neighbourhoods in North America - Vancouver's infamous and impoverished downtown eastside. Lining the south side of the block are Edwardian-era buildings which have born the brunt of shifting market forces over the years. Developed in the wake of Vancouver's "emergence" as the terminus for the country's national railroad, the buildings in the area have been in decline since the 1930s, when the locus of the city's commerce began moving. But the "story" of the 100 block is not strictly one of global market forces, nor does it belong to those who, through whatever political stripe, lay claim to it.

The book is based on a monumental-sized digital print of the 100 block of West Hastings Street by Stan Douglas, one of Canada's most distinguished contemporary artists, who utilized current technologies to create a 16'�3' panorama of epic scope, photographing each building and compositing the individual prints to assume a fantastic, impossible perspective; which is reproduced in the book as a removable full-colour poster, 5½" tall and 30½" wide.

Essays by Denise Olekszijuk, Nicholas Blomley, and Neil Smith use Douglas's photograph as a template for assessing the state of Vancouver's contested downtown eastside; its moral, economic and social implications. Ultimately, how can art affect society in a meaningful way? Scattered throughout the book are additional images highlighting Vancouver's history as well as work from other artistic ventures that informed Douglas's project. Using the work of one of the art world's most celebrated and accomplished visual artists, the book unravels the dynamics of history and sociology, combined with photography and art, to create a compelling and visually arresting document that informs our understanding of what makes a neighbourhood.

ISBN: 1-55152-135-0
Number of Pages: 80
Price Can: $22.95
Price US: $22.95