Since 2009, Weekend Leisure has been producing a public access television programme, The Weekend Leisure Network, which airs locally in Vancouver on Novus Network Channel 4. Each episode consists of segments that vary in style and content, from studio karaoke performances to improvised non-sequiturs, and are often the result of various collaborations with individuals in Vancouver’s arts, comedy and karaoke communities. For Public Access: 1999 & Beyond at the Helen Pitt Gallery, Weekend Leisure has curated local artists and comedians to create work that will be shown in an art exhibition taking the form of a public access television programme.
Employing an overarching theme of “science fiction”, the five participants were asked to produce works that considered the do-it-yourself aesthetic and lack of resources of public access television, responding to its limitations as a medium of democratic creative expression. The resulting video pieces – whose concepts arise from interests in found footage, community theatre, fan fiction, local news broadcasting, primitive computer animation and space travel – bring together individuals from backgrounds both in and out of the contemporary art world, extending their creative potential beyond their respective fields.
A book, co-published by Publication Studio Vancouver, contains interviews, scripts and colour reproductions of this artists’ television project. The project is also available in a special VHS edition with bonus extras.
Visit http://publicaccess.helenpittgallery.org/ for more information.
