Poetry and multimodality, Britannia Library, 6:00-7:50, 1661 Nepier Street
Showcasing, poetry weaving, poetry on fabric and video poetry. Reading with Fiona Lam and Lauren Peat.
Arts and Poetry in the Gallery – January 21
Poetry reading as a response to the art of Olga Campbell, January 21st, 6:30-8:00 – JCC (Jewish Community Centre, Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, 950 41st Ave W., Vancouver, BC. with Cecil Hershler, Tāriq Malik and Celeste Nazeli Snowber
“DEAR ARLO – Letters to My Grandson.” A Memoir by Olga Campbell
Through visual art, poetry, prose, family recipe, and letters to her grandson Campbell responds to second generation Holocaust trauma and to the grief resulting from the premature death of her husband. The book however is not only about the exploration of the legacy of trauma, it also celebrates the power of art as a healing and transformational tool and looks at the awe and wonder and ebb and flow of life.
The screen is programmed by grunt gallery on an ongoing basis, community-based outreach, collaborations and curated programs. Screening of On the Margin of History, a video poem created in collaboration with Mohamad Kebbewar, poet, and Mary McDonald, media artist.
Location: Intersection of Broadway & Kingsway, Vancouver, on the side of the Independent Building. Time: April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2025 More information: on artists and schedule at https://www.mpcas.ca/artists-curators/
February 2024
Poetry reading
February 20, 7pm-8:30pm, Container Brewing Ltd. 1216 Franklin Street Vancouver, BC SFU The Writer’s Studio Reading Series.
A collaborative workshop with digital artists, Kedrick James, Jim Andrews. We will share our experimentation with poetry and technology, from creating a permanent digital record of multimodal poetics to layers of verses that are fragmented or disappearing. Andrews’ Sea of Po, a poetry mag-app, will allow the participants to play with the app and experience poetry in visual form as a computer art. James’ app PhoneMe invites poets and word-lovers across the globe to be part of a social network for place-based spoken poetry. My Transmedia installations will offer an opportunity for literary expression where analog and digital technologies are mixed.
At the exhibitor’s table
Only Words table with edible flowers and candle baskets
Only Words in the program
The “library bag,” my donation to silent auction at Word Vancouver
Saying good-bye is never easy, regardless of whether you are doing it with people, or with a city.
I walked to the coffee shop we like, close to the swimming pool and next to the bakery. The morning was crisp and the ice was covering the pavements making them very slippery. The colours of the foliage seemed brighter this morning, brighter yellow, brighter red. I decided to stay inside and take a coffee to go for Bonnie on my way out. The place was already full. It seems it never lacks visitors. I found my seat at one of the central long tables as all individual ones were taken. I watched people coming in, enjoying their time, having breakfast, families…
A little guy, I would say less than a year, was smiling at me from his tall chair and showing me his mother’s cell phone. She gave it to him to keep him occupied, and I think the home page with colourful icons had done the trick. That was what he wanted to show me without realizing that the screen went into a sleep mode and turned black. In the meantime, he was done with his juice, the straw was out and lost, so the remaining juice was dripping on the table though the small hole. The mother and the father were preoccupied with breakfast and the other toddler. He had a show on his own that he so joyfully shared with me. He was dipping the phone in the tiny juice pond on the table, and happily licking the telephone screen. I had fun, too.
Time for summing up the visit to Iceland: what I wanted to see? where I wanted to go? was it more? was it less? And sadness that it is over so fast. At least I feel i have a better sense of Reykjavik and it won’t be hard to find my way around, if and when I come again.
Playing with my camera: what is in the window?
A star
Mannequins in Icelandic sweaters
Figurine
Final walk up and down the streets
Mural
Icelandic Viking Leif Eiriksson
Art
Troll resting
Red boots (hope the Santa won’t need them)
Our day went into the long night. We had dinner at Islenski Barinn (Icelandic Bar), then went to a play in Harpa and after that – our last attempt to see the Northern Lights.
Checking the menu
Raindeer burger
In Harpa, two gentlemen waiting for the play
Short course on how to become Icelandic. Now we know
Sometimes it is nice to wonder through the city with no plan in mind. You go where you eyes or your heart takes you and you never know where you will end up. Comparing to our first day where we had to kill those eight hours, we are in control of our time today. We walked around Tjörnin, the city pond, coming on the other side. It is very nice and we could imagine how beautiful it is during spring or summer when everything is green or in bloom. There it was, next to the statue of Jónas Hallgrímsson, an Icelandic poet, a bench with a QR code. I was getting excited thinking that we would hear the sound of the poem, but the site was 404 – dead end.
We stopped at the bakery where I had my coffee with klena, Icelandic twisted doughnut.
Latte with klena
Just like many other tourists, I thought the Sun Voyager (Solfarid) is a Viking ship, but it is “a dream boat and an ode to the sun. It represents the promise of undiscovered territory and a dream of hope, progress and freedom”. The day on the seashore is perfect for taking photos: foggy, misty, mysterious, just like you can imaging Iceland. We dropped by Harpa again, which was in the vicinity, for a break.
Nothing but the ocean
A few vessels
Sun Voyager
The details of Harpa (from below)
Harpa’s wall
More floors that we could not explore
On my way out from Harpa, I caught a glimpse of this girl carrying her instrument. We followed her for a short bit, and then went our separate ways. As we were crossing the street, we noticed that this misty rain that just started was not rain, but snow! It didn’t last long, but it was my first snow this year, and in Reykjavik!
Musician
When you search for “what to eat in Iceland”, they definitely recommend Icelandic hotdog. So, we couldn’t leave this country without testing it. It was worth it!
The famous hotdog place
Even the tables have these wooden “hotdog trays”
A puffin eating his hotdog
The stroll took us to the museum that had two parts: the oldest Reykjavik house and the settlement. It seems that the latter was build on the actual archeological dig with the discovered settlement (built similar to turf houses). I like museums as they are often ahead of everyone else in terms of using technology for display or interaction. This time, in the first room, there was a model of the part of the city and two viewers mounted on a stalk. Just like with those used in the city, the device magnifies objects seen through its lenses, however, it is not just magnification. Another layer of images is added to what you can see. So, even though they are not in the model, you can see people interacting on the streets and hear them talking. The second interesting way of using technology was with long illuminated strips of images, and small digital squares embedded into them with short videos. I also spent time with no-tech objects, like this loom or a board game that looks like chess.
Mural on the museum wall
Video embed into the exhibition
Loom
Board game
From the oldest house
Oldest house study
I did find the ways to spend a bit more money on souvenirs and something for myself: I wanted to find true Icelandic yarn. I couldn’t buy a lot. The prices here are so high that I had to limit myself in my desires. I don’t know yet what it will turn into, but it will be a part of Iceland that came (and stayed) with me.
Most of the day for me was resting. In the evening, we joined the tour for Northern Lights which we booked on Monday (today is Thursday), cancelled every day since. We walk around the lake to the bus stop. A couple of shots on the way.
Christmas house for my collection
In the park
Sleeping swans
Reykjavik by night
Despite the very optimistic guide in the bus, and apparently clear sky, the nature decided not to cooperate and present us with the Northern Light show. It was really shy this night.
We got home after midnight. The temperature was around 0, so we were almost running from the place we got off the bus to the place we are staying.
This day was a day of travelling to reach glaciers and ice caves. We had to get up early as we had about 5-hour drive to Skaftafell on the south-east side of Iceland, right under the glacier. This gave us a chance to experience sunrise in Iceland. Today, it was at 8:51, 10 minutes later than three days ago when we arrived. How many photos can you take? We stopped so many times as the next scenery “picture” in front of us seemed always different and better than the last one.
Most of it still covered by lava rocks, but then patches of cultivated land, farms with sheep, cows and many, many horses (which we didn’t stop to pet and I didn’t take photos of). Some powerful waterfalls and some less, but still so pretty to see shooting out of the mountain. The closer we were getting, the more of white peaks we could see, calling… We had to stop and walk on that green moss. The rocks are very sharp and hard, but the moss is actually so soft and our feet were just sinking into it. I took a short video as I was so surprised to of how soft all that was.
What did this whole island look like when discovered, with no roads and no human settlements? Thinking about Floki (from “Vikings”) who, when thrown by the waves on the shores of Iceland, thought that he died and that that was Heaven (or their version of heaven). Then he walked and walked to try and find someone but Iceland was completely uninhabited.
Covered with dust
Open faucet
Standing out
Me on the top of green moss
Green moss sea
With white peaks
Finally, the hike up and I was walking on ice! We were immediately divided into smaller groups (I was blue) with our own guide. I named him “Elf” but, I didn’t share it with him. I couldn’t wait to go down the ice steps into the caves where glacier’s water drips from the cave ceilings – the cleanest water on Earth. I had a sip from my hand, while some were filling their water bottles.
Ready for the cave
Elf showing us how we can pose with a walking axe as a moustache
Stairs to the caves
Leaning on water wall
In the cave
Ice carving
The next was a walk on the glacier which ended with a spectacular view of the sunset.
One of the groups ahead of us
Fissures
Climbing
Sunset view
Looking down on the way back
The drive back to Reykjavik was long and very quickly through the pitch black
If I was wondering what Iceland’s gift to me would be this time, this was it, this journey today, destination – ice.
Anything more fascinating than nature and our mother Earth? From volcanic crater, to Thingvellir National Park, to Geysir, Gullfoss waterfalls and Secret lagoon for another hot pool soaking. The landscape changes as we drive around, red rocks, black rocks, green moss covered rocks…
on the road
just rocks
lonely goat
Good that everything is well marked and the signs are easy to read. We still liked our GPS more.
Directions
The colour of the Kerid volcano lake was dark green today. The crater was created by a volcanic eruption some 6,500 years ago. Iceland is one of Earth’s most volcanically active areas. On average, Iceland experiences a volcanic event every four years. There are about 130 volcanos (most of which inactive, luckily) that are visited by many tourists. Kerid, being so close to Reykjavik is probably the most famous. We walked around the rim of the crater. It is also possible to walk down to the lake itself, but we moved on to our next destination.
Thingvellir National Park is theonly UNESCO World Heritage Site on Iceland. They say that “looking upon the face of this cliff is to literally look at the edge of North America. If you drive through the park, you will ascend on the other side adjacent to another wall; this is Eurasia. The valley in between, in which Þingvellir is contained, is the rift valley.” In some ways, we were touching Canada. Everywhere you looked, there was either water or cliffs. As I am still amazed by the size and hight of trees in BC rainforest, so was I am fascinated by these humongous plates of rocks, full of cracks. They look like they will start crumbling down, but, despite of their shifting and movement due to the tectonic plates, they have been here for ages. Apparently, you can go snorkeling in Thingvellir, which must be a memorable experience.
Due to the numerous volcanos, the whole Iceland benefits from geothermal energy. Over 85% of housing in Iceland is heated by natural geothermal heat from hot springs common in most parts of Iceland, making Iceland one of the least polluted countries in the world. I imagine the boiling lava finding its way through the ground we walk on, trapped in the depth of the Earth, like a giant dragon. Finally, through some holes, it finds a relief – a geysir. I watched this famous one on the field eight years ago, and it still shoots up with equal energy and it seems equal pace, every 2-4 min. I hope you can recognize the people around the geysir, which will help with recognizing its size.
A walk on the dock or Reykjavik, watching the ships in the marina.
The highlight of the day was a visit to Harpa, a concert hall and conference centre in Reykjavík. The exhibition “Circuleght” was on. The installation was a combination of real-time interactive visuals inspired by eight elements: lava, basalt, glacier, water, flora, algae, microorganism and volcanic gas. It is always exciting and inspirational to see different ways people combine new technology and art. The movement of the audience triggers the movement of the visuals on the walls, so you can keep on playing with it.
We spent some time soaking in one of the geothermal pools in the city. I started with a really hot one 43.6 degrees but I couldn’t stay for long. While relaxing in the hot water (there are five hot tubs, steam and sauna) we watched the steam rising from the surface of the water and the stars above us. The temperature on a digital display ranged from 6.1 to 6.4 degree celsius. I used the opportunity to jump into the swimming pool (25m in length) where the water temperature was still pleasantly warm 27-30 degrees and made ten laps. As I don’t swim in the Pacific, this was a nice exercise.
On our way home, we were passed by numerous scooters. Not a lot of people on bikes around, but scooters are fine and it seems good vehicle to get from one part of the city to another. Most of them seemed rental and they were everywhere, against the wall, on the grass, on the pavement… They are just left there, like an abandoned pet for someone else to take them and “adopt” them for a very short term.
