Filmmaker Justin Stephenson took fifteen years to carefully create The Complete Works — a labour of love that creatively adapts the work of internationally acclaimed avant-garde poet bpNichol. From comic book detective stories & westerns to documentaries & magic realism, and from hand-drawn animation to computer-generated images, The Complete Works wrestles Nichol’s writing off the page and projects it onto the screen. It uses bpNichol’s poetic methods on Nichol himself to create a film that
Canadian ‘para-literary agent provocateur’ gustave morin has been working in the fields of composition & performance for the last twenty years. As a maker of concrete, found, collage, typewriter & sound poetry, his creative practice always manages to the blur the borders between poetry & visual art, offering up startling hybrid works that resist conventional reading. Clean Sails, a 164 page volume of visually complex, next-generation typewriter poems composed using dozens of different typewriters — the
“The paper has to be turned and re-turned, and twisted in a thousand different directions, and each character and letter must strike precisely in the right spot. Often, just as some particular sketch is on the point of completion, a trifling miscalculation, or the accidental depression of the wrong key, will totally ruin it, and the whole thing has to be done over again.” — Pitman’s Phonetic Journal, October 1898 The typewriter has long signified
Viennese photographer Klaus Pichler’s intimate photo series, Just the Two of Us, aims to reveal the people beneath a variety of costumes without unmasking them. For adults, the act of dressing up in costume is most often associated with some form of social activity. It’s a spectacle, a transformative activity that grants us permission to temporarily play out a fantasy role in the everyday world. Costumes and disguises permit people to act in ways that
LUKE RAMSEY Pretty Problems Pretty Problems appeared in CAROUSEL 35 (2015) — buy it here
Certainly one of Canada’s most recognized artists, Michael Morris first came to prominence in the 1960s as a leading member of Vancouver’s burgeoning avant-garde. Inspired in part by the ideals of Fluxus and Pop Art, he became associated with a generation of artists who consciously rejected the national lyrical landscape tradition that had dominated the region’s art making, opting instead to work in a fully international idiom. As a creator, Morris has worked in a
Cartoon minimalist Pablo Holmberg — better known in Argentina under his pen name Kioskerman — makes four-panel comics that elude easy description. His darkly romantic strip series Edén appears in Spanish every week on his website, offering readers an ideal mix of weight & whimsy. Interview conducted October, 2014 You’ve been publishing strips on the Internet since 2004; why did you decide to start a web-comic?I was reading Tony Millionaire’s Maakies and Kaz’s Underworld online
RUTH MARTEN 3 Works 3 Worksappeared in CAROUSEL 34 (2015) — buy it here
Chip Kidd is a man of many talents, with an insider’s perspective on pop culture. Universally recognized as an American master of contemporary book design — USA Today once described him as “the closest thing to a rock star” in the graphic design world — his iconic covers offer an inventive marriage of type and found images. In addition, Kidd’s work as an editor of books of comics for the mass market have helped to
MIGUEL LEAL Mad Faces Mad Facesappeared in CAROUSEL 33 (2014) — buy it here
W.A. DAVISON Untitled Calcollages Untitled Calcollagesappeared in CAROUSEL 33 (2014) — buy it here
Extinction. Such an outrageous word, and made common thanks to that Darwin fellow and his incredible theories. The word has the connotation of chances irrevocably gone. But the utter demise of the pigeons is an impossibility. Not even man could destroy such a quantity. Nothing has an utter end — not the pigeons, and certainly not the human soul, which continues on and ever on. — Claire Mulligan, The Dark (2013) There was a time
Through his multi-dimensional assemblages, artist Aaron S. Moran attempts to represent the rapidly changing context of Langley, British Columbia — his once rural hometown, now a growing community 50km east of Vancouver. For Moran, this setting is foundational to his practice and is the primary source for gathering inspiration, ideas and materials for his chosen medium. He amalgamates and re-appropriates bits and pieces of intermediary sites that have been left abandoned by developers. Through collagist
WILLIAM JOEL DAVENPORT 5 Graphic Artifacts 5 Graphic Artifactsappeared in CAROUSEL 32 (2014) — buy it here
NADINE MAHER ∞ in Orange and Blue (2011) ∞ in Orange and Blueappeared in CAROUSEL 32 (2014) — buy it here
California-based Souther Salazar is a mixed media artist and zine dreamer whose varied projects combine the narrative aspect of children’s book illustration with a richly developed fine art sensibility. His increasingly complex artworks transport the viewer into a magical, vibrant world that is as heartwarming as it is visually striking. Souther Salazar was born in 1978 in Hayward, CA. As a teenager, he discovered John Porcellino’s self-published King-Cat Comics and Stories and was inspired to
In his most recently published studies, Austrian designer Andreas Scheiger has made some startling discoveries in The Evolution of Type. By dissecting and documenting the taxonomic ranks of the English alphabet he has not only proven that letters are living organisms and that typefaces are species, but also that B is in fact for Bone (see Exhibit 9) and M can be for both Muscle and Marrow (see Exhibit 14). Inspired by the book, The
STUDIO BERTJAN POT Rope Masks Rope Masksappeared in CAROUSEL 31 (2013) — buy it here
DANI CROSBY 3 Drawings 3 Drawingsappeared in CAROUSEL 31 (2013) — buy it here
With a career spanning nearly two decades, Norwegian cartoonist Jason is undoubtedly one of world’s finest storytellers. Known for his sparse drawing style and anthropomorphic characters, he is the creator of a series of acclaimed, award-winning graphic novels that always deliver the perfect blend of humour and heartache. Interview conducted May, 2012 Jason, can you give us an idea how you create a new work? I’m interested in how you break down the tasks, how