Scarborough Archives - Page 2 of 2

Shary Boyle is a tremendously gifted and world-renowned Canadian visual artist who calls Toronto home. While it isn’t easy to describe the full breadth of her work, it’s fair to say she has spent a great deal of time exploring the figure, inspired by her concerns about and interest in class and gender injustice. She has examined a range of psychological and emotional states via sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, performance, and handmade craft to create a singular body of work. Boyle represented Canada with her project Music for Silence at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 and on Saturday April 11 between 2:00 and 5:00 PM at Boarding House Arts / Capacity 3 Gallery (6 Dublin St. N), in Guelph, Kazoo! Fest is holding a reception for Boyle’s film, Silent Dedication. Here Shary and I discuss yoga, the Venice Biennale, international recognition for a Canadian artist, growing up in Scarborough, discovering hardcore punk, originality, music and art, making money, why art is not valued highly enough in Canada, Music for Silence and The Silent Dedication, Christine Fellows and her song “Credo, White Silence,” and that was it.

Related links: sharyboyle.com vishkhanna.com

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Vanessa Dunn is the lead singer of Vag Halen, one of Toronto’s most exciting and confrontational rock bands. On Facebook, they describe themselves as “Toronto’s feminist art rock band that brings the bad with a dash of ass! Armed with a repertoire of classics, Vag Halen muff dives into the salty cock rock waters, blowing nether regions with their commitment to all things queer and all things rock.” Having seen the band myself, I can verify that that is all totally, totally true. Vag Halen storm Guelph on April 12 for a set at Kazoo! Fest at Van Gogh’s Ear. The band is on at 11:30 PM sharing a bill with Whoop-SZO, Biblical, and Legato Vipers. Here Vanessa and I discuss the pizza in Parkdale, growing up in Scarborough and celebrating the suburbs, where Vag Halen came from and what it might stand for, Katie Ritchie of the Organ, good Van Halen (David) and bad Van Halen (Sammy), how the band covers songs by different cock rock, hair metal bands who are male-centric, as an attempt to assert and understand the role of women and queer culture in such realms, the sexy, revealing attire and stage presence of Vag Halen, the power and cultural contributions of Tawny Kitaen and Miss Elizabeth, Vanessa’s acting background, whether or not we’re well past the era where musicians can get away with blatantly misogynistic and homophobic aesthetic stances, Nirvana’s decision to perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with women like Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, Lorde, and St. Vincent filling in for Kurt Cobain, why Axl Rose is the worst, most complex person, how personas or behavioural patterns in musical genres can perpetuate problematic lyrics and attitudes, running into Alice Cooper at a restaurant, Vanessa’s love of Depeche Mode and the Jesus and Mary Chain but her passion for hard rock, whether Vag Halen will ever write its own songs, the generally positive reception for the band in Toronto and Vanessa’s place as a role model, what’s new in Vag Halen’s set these days and why things are gonna get heavy at Kazoo! Fest, and nothing more.

Related links: twitter.com/VagHalen kazookazoo.ca vishkhanna.com

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