I recently interviewed Zoe Peled and Heidi Iro, major players in this year’s CHEAPER SHOW no. 8. Myself and these (now famous) Vancouver art enthusiats met at Gene to chat about the local art scene, artist collaboration, the success of the CHEAPER SHOW, and their roles in seeing this city’s artists truly flourish. Not only are they involved in many driving forces that make up the Vancouver art scene, but they also have their own practices that are in full swing…oh, yeah, and, they are AMAZINGLY KIND AND SWEET!
Zoe is fabulous
About Zoe Peled: Zoe so too many things and all at once. But since she does them so damned well, she gets away with excellence! Zoe is a Vancouver-born artist and a recent graduate of Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design’s Photography program. Zoe writes for the Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, in addition to several local arts publications. For over a year, she has sat on the board for CARFAC BC, a national organization that defends the legal and economic rights of artists. Headed towards a curatorial career, Zoe has worked with the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Jeffrey Boone Gallery. In May, she was one of several ECIAD students to open Plank Gallery. Situated in Vancouver’s Down Town East Side, Plank aims to contribute towards the revitalization of the community through the arts. The folks at Plank are in the DTES and are taking up some of the Lighthouse building. The bottom floor is dedicated to the gallery and the rest is shared studios.
Heidi is fabulous
About Heidi Iro: Producer Heidi Iro hails to from Vienna, Austria. After 6 years in the film industry, she spent 4 years working as part of the Red Bull Canada marketing team, coordinating their promotional teams and being part of the production team organizing large-scale events. In 2007 Heidi launched Trick17 Productions and her first brand event, The Trick17 Stop Motion Film Competition. Heidi and Trick17 Productions are currently developing a number or projects involving the Vancouver artist community. She is also a member of The Cartelera Talent House. This Cheaper Show was her first solo event of this scale and she feels like she was able to pull off the vision.
Much of our conversation was focused on their goals of ‘creating more artist realizations’. Heidi believes that all artists have a vision, not just of what they will create but how they want their creations to function in a public space and she wants to be the one to ‘provide the perfect platform for these realizations.’ Both ladies strongly believe in helping artists realize their dreams and want to give each artist access to more mainstream audiences. They really want to see are more artists living off their work. For this creative economy to thrive, there must be more coverage and all events and shows must be more open and less isolated. Essentially, all art is under-promoted in this city and the Cheaper Show is a true way to tackle some of these obstacles that have held back this Vancouver scene.
Loaded Bow: How does the Cartelera House function as a collective space?
Heidi Iro: We are 14 people ranging in mediums from photo to producers to writers to painters. I share a space with Jules, who is a writer. The collective space makes us do constant work and there is always work being done around you. We offer work in collaboration and we drive each other. The space offers a chance for a little mentoring, which is a good thing and there is so much inspiration. It is really great!
LB: How was the CS team compiled?
HI: Graeme Burglund asked me to produce it. I asked Zoe and from there she took on so much initiative of her own. Zoe is just one of those people who can work well with her own initiative. She organized all the applications, took over volunteer coordination, got “in kind” donations. She is really just amazing! It was really natural that Megan would help curate since she has been a part of it for so many years. Jesse helped so much. Adam’s passion is architecture so he helped build the bar. Everyone just really found their strengths and made it happen. It was a lot of work from a lot of people. It shows you that a handful of people, efforts and energy, interest and commitment can make something happen.
Zoe Peled: There were 6 of us that worked really well together and were never not positive. Graeme is such a force, such a team player. You really pass the point of sanity.
HI: I had a few low points and people really brought me back up!
LB: Heidi, you worked to secure the location, how was that process of getting the infamous Storyeum?
HI: The space we were looking for needed to be really ‘core’. It had to have great lighting, clean walls, washrooms and a bar/sales desk and so on for it to really work. The city owns it, so we had to go through them. I found “city guy” who runs it and he showed us around. We loved it, so we brought the whole team of us and “city guy” was really helpful and supportive of the arts. It needed construction and some lighting stuff done. It was a lot to get done in two weeks!
LB: What are the best parts/hard parts about working in a partnership?
HI: There are no bad parts. It takes a lot of organization, but really our group was just doing it because we all love it.
LB: You work not only together as a samll group of people determined to put this show on, but work in temporary partnership with 150+ artists and 40+ volunteers. What are the difficult parts about this?
HI: Until about a week before the show, we don’t really know if we have a show. Or how the show we have will look. All artist apply though there are some we approach to ask them to be in it. It is based on TRUST: What kind of show do we have? How is it going to look? Part of it is that the responsibility is really split. We have to make sure that everyone has done their part so that we split up all the work.
LB: What is still missing the Vancouver Art Scene?
ZP: People in Vancouver have really stopped complaining and are realizing they can create something themselves.
Still missing: Locations. Though we are seeing some great new ones like the Post. Publications. We have some but not enough. Characters. Critics, writers, publicists.
HI: Artists really need to start making it here. Why does everyone want to leave? People want to go to NY or San Francisco to make it, but first you should be supported by your own city. You want to be building a base and be a part of the revolution in your hometown. If artists want to be a part of the revolution that is happening here, it only comes from the hard work and initiatives of people.
LB: Will you make it bigger? What does it lose/gain in the growth you have already seen?
HI + ZP: It’s not about making it bigger, it’s about keeping it strong. If you get too big then you run the fine line of becoming an art fair, and this is not our goal. The show is not necessarily annual because we don’t want people to wait all year until the next one to buy cheap, local art. We want buyers to follow the work, find the galleries that represent these artists or buy from the artists and really seek them out all year long. It is the responsibility of the buyer to find the value in the art, to find the worth of art. Art can make you happy. The Cheaper Show works because there is something there that the buyer and viewers can really respond to.
LB: Graeme Burglund is the man who heads up this show every year, and has for the past 8. I have noticed that this show stands out not only in the way it is professional and exceptionally organized, but it is beautifully and smartly curated. What kind of leadership does Graeme offer?
ZP: Graeme reinforces QUALITY. He reinforces that quality is essential and in that, combined with curating with Megan, they offer a great variety showing different materials and good work.
LB: What does the show do for artists?
ZP: There is a worth in the show for the artists, many get galleries or commissions from it. The website alone distributes so many hits to the artists websites, it’s unreal!
CREDIT: All photos are by Julia at http://juliakozlov.wordpress.com/
zoe+loadedbow
