Submitted. A series of special events that connect into the popular current bill bissett exhibition are gaining significant traction at The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford.
Pictured at right: Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Adeena Karasick
“Based on the engaging and overwhelming participation in the recent bissett exhibition opening and his succeeding reading, we expect capacity audiences at the upcoming related public events, which we are pleased to offer mostly for free, thanks to financial support from the Vancouver Foundation and Canada Council for the Arts,” says Kate Bradford, curatorial assistant at The Reach.
The bissett related series continues on Thursdays, May 22 and June, 2014 at 7pm with Poetry and Cinema – screening and lecture with Dr. Carl Peters, guest curator of the bissett exhibition. Explains Dr. Peters: “Cinema has always played a significant role in bissett’s painting and poetry. In these sessions, we will consider bissett’s exploration of image and text in the context of the cinematic image – from Brakhage to Buñuel – and its influence on bissett’s art and writing.”
On Thursday, May 29 at 6:30pm, it is a reading with George Bowering. When thinking of the two faces of modern contemporary literature in BC, bissett and Bowering jump immediately to the mind. Bowering, Canada’s first Parliamentary poet laureate, will read from his groundbreaking body of work in prose and poetry.
Then on Saturday, June 21 at 1pm, Dr. Carl Peters returns; this time with Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Painting. His curator’s talk will reveal the stories behind some of the bissett paintings and images. It will also explicate bissett’s whole aesthetic practice. “It took me a decade to write the book, textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett; it took me five years to plan and organize the exhibition,” admits Dr. Peters.
The bissett series crescendos on Saturday, June 28 at 12:30pm with Spoken Word & Bubbly with Adeena Karasick. This is the only ticketed bissett event at $10 per Reach Friend and $15 for future Friend. In true Karasick style, she will engage guests with her words and invite them to celebrate over appies and bubbly while closing this successful exhibition of bill bissett. Karasick is a poet, media-artist, professor of Global Literature at St. John’s University in New York and the award-winning author of seven books of poetry and poetic theory, including Amuse Bouche: Tasty Treats for the Mouth and The House That Hijack Built. She has lectured and performed worldwide and regularly publishes articles, reviews and dialogues on contemporary poetry, poetics and cultural/semiotic theory. To register for this event, please click here.
About artist bill bissett. Born in Halifax and now living in Toronto and Vancouver, bissett is a unique figure in the history of Canadian literature and art. He is a renegade poet, the author of over 60 books of poetry and a free-spirited artist who contributed to changing the landscape of Canadian poetry in the 60s and 70s.
Experience the textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett exhibition daily (except Mondays) at The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford, 32388 Veterans Way, and participate in the bissett event series by registering at www.thereach.ca