Concrete poetry
The CBC also has quite a beautiful photo essay up today on the work of architect Arthur Erickson, whom I had never heard before but who is clearly pretty brilliant based on these nine buildings. What really gets to me, though, and I think there's something to be drawn from this that I'm not going to be able to really get into before leaving for work this morning, is what guest curator Nicholas Olsberg says on the last page about Erickson's design for a combined square and law courts:
There is a sort of cultural, ideological, political moment in Canadian history which Arthur is totally in tune with [here], which basically says not just that we are not Americans, but that the world is something we look at, that we think about and we treat with respect. And that nothing is invisible, that nothing stays secret.
If that is (or has been, or should be) a central part of Canada and being Canadian, does it begin to become clearer exactly why Harper's recent actions frighten and anger me so much?
There is a sort of cultural, ideological, political moment in Canadian history which Arthur is totally in tune with [here], which basically says not just that we are not Americans, but that the world is something we look at, that we think about and we treat with respect. And that nothing is invisible, that nothing stays secret.
If that is (or has been, or should be) a central part of Canada and being Canadian, does it begin to become clearer exactly why Harper's recent actions frighten and anger me so much?
