Art Barrrrr (feel that east coast pirate accent)

After an afternoon visit to New York and Paris via The Devil Wears Prada (in honor of Mandy heading to NYC for a research trip tomorrow), I escorted the girls to a surprise happy hour celebratory drink. Local Edmonton artist Jesse Sherburne has installed a bar at the Alberta Art Gallery, fittingly called "Art Bar", and every Thursday they serve up $3.50 Heinekens and BBQ meli-melo mix. I've found my new hang-out for the summer...

Across the hall we find free admittance to the summer show, a group of UK artists including Gillian Wearing, Tracey Emin, Tacita Dean and Sarah Lucas (to name a few). Wearing's contribution is a single channel video "installation" in which she explores her chance encounter with a woman wearing a surreal white mask in downtown London. She decides to pay homage to the woman by donning a self-made mask (freakishly conjuring Franju's Eyes without a Face) and carrying around a camera to record the reactions of passers-by. The way people stare, amazed and revolted, makes for compelling footage. Impolite as it may be, how can you help but take a look when suddenly confronted with such an unusual image?

Cheers Mr. Sherburne, great addition to the summer gallery space!