Madeline

March/april 2011

$9.50 cDN

KIM CATHERSEco Fashion Warrior Goddess

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Madeline Editor and Creative Director: Natalie Pagnucco

40 The Kids (In The Gallery) Aren’t All Right do children belong at art exhibitions?

51 Line and Curve Vancouver photographer Wayne Mah takes us on an architectural journey

March/April 2011

25 Kim Cathers vs Fashion Week what’s next for the Project Runway finalist

33 Australia’s Glass Darling Speaks Up we talk to Mel Douglas about her work and what drives her passion

45 Urban Gardening Is The New Black add some green to your concrete jungle

Table Of Contents

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Madeline

March/april 2011

$9.50 cDN

KIM CATHERSEco Fashion Warrior Goddess

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ON THE COVERModel Kim Cathers

Makeup and Styling Kim CathersPhotographer Kris Krug

13 Editor’s Letter

18 Contributors

32 Preview

37 Ask an Expert

49 The Must See List

61 Buyer Info

63 Final Look

Issues in Contemporary Art, Design & Fashion

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45

KIM CATHERS vs FASHION WEEKMadeline finds out what’s next for the

Project Runway finalistInterview by Atousa Ebrahimi

Kim Cathers has come a long way since appearing on “Canada’s Project Runway”, we talk to Kim about her time on the show, her recent appearance in Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week and her commitment to making more eco-friendly garments.

MADELINE: We understand you’ve recently participated in Eco Fash-ion Week in Vancouver. How was that experience for you?KIM CATHERS: In the past if I heard the words “Fashion Week” and “Van-couver” in the same sentence I would run for cover. As you may have heard Vancouver has been divided by BC Fashion Week and Vancouver Fashion Week for years: 2 events fighting for the same media, the same designers, the same buyers and absolutely refusing to join forces. Year after year I have been approached to show my collections, and year after year I pretend to not receive the emails. Taking my Fashion Week Virgin-ity last fall, I proudly showed my Spring Summer 2011 Collection “dream catcher” at ECO Fashion Week Vancouver! Backed by a big name spon-sor, and celebrity endorsement, ECO Fashion Week is off to a great start. As all my clothes are constructed from reclaimed fabrics, this fashion week is just what I have been waiting for. And I’m thrilled to be a part of the event!

Fashion Feature

Kim Cathers models a jacket from her Fall/Winter 2010 Line, Photo by Leigh Righton

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M: Tell me about your experience on Canada’s Project Runway. KC: My experience on Project Runway... haha... oh boy. Well, I don’t really know where to start. The experience itself was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The amount of stress and pressure is inde-scribable. And, truthfully if I revealed half of the things they subjected us to, I’d probably get sued. Haha. But for real, the outcome has been amazing. All the press and publicity and interest in what I am doing now has been great. I have received a lot of support from people all across Canada and it’s been awesome.

M: What is one thing that people didn’t see about you on the show?KC: I’m sure there are many things people didn’t get to see. But, the one bummer is that they never showed how much fun we all had together. We really bonded, and especially as the numbers dwindled, the group got tighter and tighter... unfortunately they only aired our grievances. But, alas, it is reality TV after all.

M: What were some positive and negative aspects about filming the show?KC: One of the most positive things for me coming off the show was how much I learned. I learned things from all the other designers, watching 13 other extremely talented people doing their craft in their own way…. was truly amazing. I noticed this most when I came home, and got back to making clothing, I found myself taking the things I had learned from the others, and really making it my own.

“It’s always hard to predict what is going to happen with fashion, and especially in a city like Vancouver”

The negative stuff? Well its obvious no? Type cast as the bitch, dealing with hate mail... all that stuff... but that stuff eventually goes away and what you have in the end is a large number of people waiting to see what you do next.

M: Do you still keep in contact with your fellow cast mates?KC: I keep in touch with a handful of them. Talk mostly online, and I have seen Brandon a couple of times.

M: What were some results after the show?KC: As I mentioned, just the overwhelming support and interest from all across the country has been so cool. I have been able to showcase my new take on fashion and design to an audience that already cares, that’s a blessing for sure.

M: Can you tell us about your label? And the inspiration behind it?KC: My designs are a 100% recycled ECO friendly line of products that are made with the intent to preserve and restore our beautiful Mother Earth. I believe that it is of utter importance for each human to live con-sciously and responsibly. What I mean by that is this, as an inhabitant of this planet, I believe that we need to be aware of our impact on the earth and make decisions everyday that show this consciousness. Things like buying local organic food, recycling, composting, planting trees, using recycled products, using our money which is our most powerful vote for

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things that promote the preservation and restoration of the Earth, its inhabitants and its people. It is my belief that we are in all this together, that there is no divide between humans, we are all flowing in the same stream of light and the sooner we can all realize this, the sooner we

can start to change the future. I have committed my design career to following this path and only producing things that fit into this ideology. I receive all my fabric from “Our Social Fabric”, which is a textile recycling initiative that I am on the board of directors of. Every sale I make, I give 10% directly back to the organization.

BELOW AND LEFT: Oufits from the Kdon Fall/Winter 2010 Line, Photo by Leigh Righton

“I have committed the rest of my design career to promote and produce things that help rebuild and sustain Mother Earth”

M: Where do you see the industry in Vancouver in the future?KC: It’s always hard to predict what is going to happen with fashion, and especially in a city like Vancouver that can be known to be fickle at times. I would like to say the future of the Vancouver fashion industry would be a bigger and better movement than what is already starting. Locally made and produced products, at a reasonable price that incor-porate fashion and recycling. Recycled fashion doesn’t need to stay at music festival granola level, there is much room for it growth and be considered relevant fashion along side “new” products.

M: What makes Vancouver such a great city to live in?KC: My favorite part about Vancouver is its close proximity to the gulf islands. The voice of Mother Nature is often drowned out by the goings on of the city and it’s just a short ferry ride to reconnect with the soul of existence.

M: Last words?KC: Ask yourself, what are you doing. Like for real...What Are You Do-ing? Do your actions have purpose, do your thoughts include others, are you doing everything you can today to make tomorrow better? If you can begin to make changes to answer yes to all of those questions, then you are on the right path. I have committed the rest of my design career to promote and produce any and all things that help rebuild and sustain Mother Earth, because without her, we will certainly all fail to exist. ✦

Visual Art Feature

Australia’s Glass Darling Speaks Upit’s time you got to know Mel Douglas — if you don’t alreadyInterview by Andrew Page

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“I find beauty and poetry in the ordinary things that represent or allude to changes in the terrain,” explains Douglas. Her new series is a meditation on the landscape that surrounded her during a recent residency in northern Scotland. “The changes that occur,” Douglas continues,

“within the landscape…have inspired me: the quiet shadows that appear with the last light of day and the shimmer of fading light across a body of water.”

Madeline: Tell us more about your latest work?Mel Douglas: My latest body of work was inspired by a recent residency at Northlands Creative Glass in the north of Scotland. It was my first trip to the Highlands and I was really taken aback by the landscape. In the image, I’m working on a series of panels inspired by the dry stone bridges and Cairns found in Caithness. I was completely blown away by the craftsmanship and beauty of these an-cient structures, the meticulous and unforgiv-ing way each stone was held into place by the next, and the way the harsh environment aged these structures. I was also intrigued by the way these constructions were positioned in the landscape, with the rolling hills and vast open spaces framing these historic beauties.What also interested me were the changes that occur within the landscape with the fading light: the quiet shadows that appear with the last light of day; and the shimmer of fading light

across a body of water. I find beauty and poetry in the ordinary things that represent and allude to changes in terrain, and the effect that time and light has upon them.Being in the quiet and solitude of Northlands, surrounded by dramatic landscape, I had the time and space to take in these changes which often pass me by without being noticed.

Madeline: What artwork have you seen re-cently that has inspired you and got you thinking about your own work?Mel Douglas: After seeing an amazing retro-spective exhibition of Australian/New Zealand artist Rosalie Gascoigne’s work in 2009, I’ve become a big fan. Rosalie primarily made as-semblages composed of materials she found while scavenging in the Canberra hinterland. I love the way she combines materials and transforms discarded refuse into timeless beauty. I also love the work of Ellsworth Kelly, especially his shaped canvases.

RIGHT: Incline 2 2010 - blown, coldworked and engraved glass 13.625” x 14.875” x 14.875”ABOVE: The artist working in her studio, Photos by Stuart Hay

The forms are slick and refined, not a thing out of place. I am usually not one for bold color; however the singular bold palette he uses en-hances and purifies the shapes.Agnes Martin is another artist whose work I’ve been looking at a lot recently. I enjoy and identify with her emphasis upon lines, grids, and fields of ex-tremely subtle color. I love and admire the way she retained small flaws and unmistakable traces of the artist’s hand. There is nothing better than being drawn to something that, at first glance, looks so perfect, yet the longer you look, the nuances of the artist start to stand out. I also love the way her canvases shimmer in the changing light.Lastly an old favorite and constant reference for me is British potter Han Coper. His con-structed forms are so well-balanced and pro-portionally perfect. I’d love to own one.

Following her studies at Australian

National University School of Art in

Canberra, Douglas has exhibited

work at galleries in Australia, the

United States, Italy and Singapore.

Her work has been featured in

numerous international publications

and is included in the permanent

collections of the National Gallery

of Australia in Canberra and the

Corning Museum of Glass in New

York. Her delicate, subtle work has

earned Douglas many grants and

awards, including the 2002 Ranamok

Glass Prize. ✦

TOP: Incline 4 2010 - blown, coldworked and engraved glass 15.75” x 12.5” x 12.5”BOTTOM: Unfurl 2009 - blown, coldworked and engraved glass 12” x 17” x 11.875”, Photos by Stuart Hay

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Do Tell

Urban Gardening Is The New BlackAngelina Theilmann

My experience with Gardens can be traced back to my Baba. That’s my Ukrainian Grandmother, now 94, whose tomatoes were always the talk of the summer collection and whose sugar snap peas could be counted on for the classic texture and flavour you would expect out of a pea. I can remember strutting up and down the rows of the garden while admiring the best new designs in vegetables, and I loved running around the perimeter like a paparazzo and circling the playful snap-dragon flowers that Baba planted every year.

You might have a good guess at how this childhood experience relates to design styles that are becoming more and more well,bountiful... in our urban landscapes. Just as ‘Victory Gardens’ popped up during WWI and II to meet the need for fresh veg during the war, more people in today’s world are discovering and rediscovering what generations before us knew, that getting your hands dirty is not just fashionable, but therapeu-

tic and downright sensible as well. Today we have cities full of would be gardeners, green thumbed citizens and entrepreneurs who are planting the town green. These people are making concrete changes to our built landscapes, minus the concrete and plus the make-shift greenhouses. In a world of rooftops, balconies and old parking lots, new cultivated installations are popping or while old ones blossom. From community gardens to inner-city farms, wherever you look the urban experience in post-industrial cities is evolving. Just as furniture, fashion, and cars play on past to shape the latest style, we are reviving what was en vogue, or more accurately, part of life, in many cities’ and individuals’ pasts: gardening.

It turns out that growing things ourselves is not unlike the “little black dress” that we forgot about. It is an old standard that will do you good for the rest of your life. And sometimes, the same dress can remain on its hangar, in a box, or in the back of our mind for quite some time. Wheth-er we’re in our twenties or sixties, many of us have been exposed to varying degrees gardening, farming or outdoor exploring. These experi-ences, easily lost or forgotten, are often replaced by the conveniences and distractions of city living that make up our daily routines. (Please refer to pre-cut bagged carrots, movies and dinners out, Costco, shop-ping…etc.) So, with a change of perspective, place or circumstance, the same dress you thought was useless in your twenties might now be that quintessential ‘je ne sais quoi’ in your daily urban life. This, just as our modern day ‘urban back-to-the-land movement’ has many urbanites looking to invaluable knowledge learned from Grandmothers, fathers and childhood experience. And, as the experts are saying, green really is the new black. And for argument’s sake, let’s superimpose a pair of rubber boots into the space that dress once hung.

As cities developed and suburbs proliferated, for the most-part, grassy strips alongside the sidewalk were just that. Victoria, B.C.-based “guerilla gardening coop” sees these spaces differently. Besides suc-

PREVIOUS PAGE: Argyle Women’s Rubber Boots and Apple, Photo by UnknownBELOW AND RIGHT: Model Shelby, Photo by Kelsey MacKintosh

cessfully selling curbside-grown produce at local farmer’s markets, they’ve been enlisting public participation to create a new looks around town. Their blog recommends a do-it-yourself recipe for “seed bombs” to rejuvenate an abandoned lot or a boring strip of grass. They tell you how to mix powdered clay and wildflower seeds indigenous to the area, add a bit of water and voilà... rain them down onto empty pieces of land and dirt around your city for a chance at making the grown landscape a bit more “natural” while adorning it with a little more citizen pride.

Magnify the sphere of influence to learn about inspirational doers such as Maryland-born and Milwaukee-based Will Allen. Basketball player turned internationally recognized urban farmer, his organization grow-ingpower.org has met with such success and recognition, that he has just partnered with US First Lady Michelle Obama. This after over 25 years of mentoring and inspiring diverse demographics on the limitless-possibilities that farming can offer, in operating “Growing Power”. On his farm, the last urban farm in Milwaukee, he has been able to engage and inspire youth whose lives might otherwise have been disproportionately headed to the streets. Projects have included turning an underused church parking lot into a functional garden, and in turn providing a can-vas full of potential to the immigrant elders who make up that church. Or, his garden crew showed how an overnight project installing turf and flower-planting a once destitude bit of neighbourhood definitively solved problems of drug-dealing and car theft in that areas. He explains that

the instant beautificuation and thus, ownership this action brings to an area plants a sense of pride and involvement with a neighbourhood that might not have existed. He jokes that car thieves must have thought that people were staring at them, when in reality, people were probably admiring the flowers.

In short, the redesign of our neighbourhoods by organizations and social change artists worldwide can most-certainly be looked upon at as an important principle of design. Whether this trend has caught on because of food security concerns, compelling visionaries’ actions or simply due to an ancestral instinct to connect with nature, this trend is establishing its roots in a city near you. Just like eco-fashion weeks now light up runways the fashion world, your neighbour’s bean stalk may soon start to light up your urban world. By enabling and encouraging people to turn off the TV and start pulling out weeds in their neighbour’s small garden, or planting some tomato starts, or helping out in community gardening efforts … we can perhaps have a hand at designing a healthier future for our cities, fashionably. Now go find your rubber boots. ✦

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“It turns out that growing things ourselves is not unlike the ‘little black dress’ that we forgot about.”

Rant

Although most of my articles focus on artists -- the intricacies of their work and ideas -- after an experience I had recently at PS.1, I felt compelled to turn the lens around 180 degrees, and focus on the audience. All the artwork I mention (except the Chapman piece) was in the museum.

I’m going to make a generalization here: parents who bring their young children to contemporary art exhibits are out of their minds. First of all, contemporary art tends to be dangerous, if not physically, then psycho-logically. It tries to shake people out of old habits of thinking. This is fine, as long as you are grown up enough to have developed your own patterns of thinking. Three and fours year-olds, however, don’t need to have their psyches shook up. They live in a scary, half-real fantasy land. They believe in monsters under the bed. There is no way in hell they can benefit from contemplating Paul McCarthy’s life size photos of pre-op transexuals with erections. Nor from McCarthy’s various takes on

Nixonmasks and castration. They don’t have the capacity to process this information. Seeing it can only lead to fear, nightmares and possibly worse. Rows and rows of pig fetuses linked together with tubes filled with yellow fluid, moreover, are not ideal for children to witness. Again, too much information into a brain that’s too tiny.

And then there’s the physical danger some contemporary art poses. On Sunday, when I was traversing the open studio tour at PS.1, I saw an albino boa curled up underneath a heat lamp in one of the exhibits. He was not enclosed in glass. People could walk up and touch him if they so wanted. Or they could stumble across him, as he was placed

THE KIDS (IN THE GALLERY) AREN’T ALL RIGHTChristine Hamm

“Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be [contemporary artists] psycho-killers.”

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awkwardly on the floor. The boa was about medium-sized and posed no real threats to adults. My point is, there were a least three young children bouncing around the installation, touching everything as their mothers scolded them in vain. These mothers, and the father who wheeled his child in a stroller into the room of McCarthy photos, did not appear especially abusive or stupid; they just seemed to lack understanding of what it means to be a child.

The museum is not to blame. They actually posted signs that warned against bringing children into the exhibit. Let me make it clear: I am strongly against censorship of any kind regarding art and art institutes. Adults can choose not to go see an exhibit if they find the premise offensive, or they can leave if they don’t like what they see. Children are forced to stay with their parents. ✦

ABOVE: Crying toddler, Photo by Unknown

LINE AND CURVEVancouver photographer Wayne Mah takes us on an architectural journeyEdited by Natalie Pagnucco

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ABOVE: The Chan Centre, UBCPREVIOUS PAGE: The Vancouver Public Library Main Branch

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ABOVE: Georgia StreetFOLLOWING PAGE: The Conservatory, Queen Elizabeth Park

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Madeline would like to thank the following contributors:

Atousa EbrahimiChristine Hamm

Stuart HayKris Krug

Kelsey MacKintoshWayne Mah

Andrew PageLeigh Righton

Angelina Theilmann