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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Joyce Wieland - La raison avant la passion 1968 Quilted cotton
"Those who make a conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war... have my complete sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism."That quote is circulating a lot these days since we need some reminding.
- Pierre Trudeau (in reference to the war in Vietnam)
Joyce Wieland - Betsy Ross, look what they've done to the flag you made with such care
1966 vinyl, fabric mm, 56 x 34.3 cm
From U.S. War Resisters in Canada:
Last November, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal by two U.S. Army deserters seeking asylum in Canada after fleeing the States to avoid deployment to Iraq. In December, Parliament's Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration recommended that our government not deport conscientious objectors (and their families) if they are refusing to fight in a war that is not sanctioned by the U.N.
According to the New York Times, the House of Commons is scheduled to debate that motion next month. (b/t/w why isn't this story according to the CBC or the Globe and Mail or The Star?)
"[the] Iraq war has been immensely unpopular in Canada, and the leaders of the Bloc Quebecois and the left-leaning New Democratic Party have both come out in support of the resolution. But Canadian M.P.’s tend to vote with far more party discipline than their American counterparts, and Stéphane Dion, the head of the Liberal Party, has not yet taken a public stance on the bill. Without his support, its fate is uncertain."
Mr. Dion can be emailed at Dion.S@parl.gc.ca to be reminded that if he is worried about offending the tender sentiments of the Bush Whitehouse, we might as well re-elect Harper. ('we' being an expression as it will be a cold day in hell before I would vote for Harper):
Joyce Wieland - Lens 1978-79 Quilted cotton, 86 x 110 cm
Elsewhere, in old draft dodger news, some estimate that as many as 125,000 U.S. draft dodgers and deserters from the Vietnam war came to Canada during the 60's and 70's. A statue in honour of American conscientious objectors and the Canadians who supported them was proposed to the town of Nelson B.C., but it was opposed by American Veteran's groups as well as some local residents. For the record, since this is an art and whatever we happen to find interesting blog, the maquette for the statue is really ugly, but let's just call it relational aesthetics for the moment and state that the quality of the work wasn't the problem. (reeeeeeeeaaaaaally ugly). The latest word is that the statue will be erected at the Doukhobor Village Museum in Castlegar, B.C., which is fitting since the Doukhobors, a religious Russian communal agrarian sect, were committed pacifists with the motto: "The welfare of the whole world is not worth the life of one child"
For vintage music technology nerds, it is an event which could be described as equivalent in impact to the Second Coming: last week it was announced that audio scientists using modern technology played back a sound recording made 148 years ago, 28 years before Edison's first phonograph recording.
In the year 1860 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville was analyzing sound waves visually on a phonautograph. At that time it was inconceivable that these graphs would be ever be played back as sound recordings.
Audio historian David Giovannoni and Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory transcribed these graphs onto computer software, and were able to play back a haunting 10 second sample of a murky ghost-like voice singing the melody of an old French folk song, Au Claire de la Lune.
(posted by VB via SM)