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5th Annual Fall Arts Preview

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Jan • 15 • 10

More Personalities Inside: Sarah Richardson on Decorating Your Second Home + Catherine Ford on Finding Meaning in the Aughts

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5th Annual Fall Arts Preview

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a good egg

Which came first:calgary’s alternative arts scene or Peter moller? his egg Press gave this city its visual edge, While his musical exPeriments Provided our soundtrack.by Jacquie Moore

twenty-one

and your virtually unknown garage-punk band has, at long last, booked a gig at 10 Foot Henry’s, the live indie music venue in Calgary. Trouble is, you have neither ideas nor budget to brand your band or advertise the gig.

No worries, you’re told. Some guy has offered to make you a post-er, the high-end, cutting-edge calibre of which is normally reserved for the likes of The Dead Kennedys. And he’ll do it for free. Why? Be-cause one of the myriad things that turns Calgary artist Peter Moller on—has done since he was a teenaged art-college dropout—is creat-ing “cultural propaganda.” That, and he’s just a really nice guy.

Moller (who, thanks to his Danish good looks, daily yoga regime or, perhaps, an inordinate amount of time spent indoors in front of a com-puter, looks a decade younger than his 54 years) is an artist in the broad-est sense. His work is visual, auditory, big, small, quiet, loud, private and ubiquitous. If you’ve lived in Calgary for any length of time you’ve no doubt seen and/or heard his stuff whether you realize it or not.

Under the name Egg Press, Moller has produced dozens, possibly hundreds, of original posters for Calgary’s alternative arts scene since the 1970s. Even if you’ve never been to a One Yellow Rabbit performance in your life, thanks in part to Moller’s 2-D interpretations you’ve gotten a sense of the irreverent, provocative tenor of productions such as Mata Hari, Ilsa Queen of the Nazi Love Camp and Exit the King, as well as numerous High Performance Rodeos. Moller is also the man behind more than half of the 30 Calgary Folk Music Festival posters and programs, and for the past decade he’s been responsible for branding WordFest.

On top of that, Moller has been the drummer for Kris Demeanor and His Crack Band for nearly a decade and, on occasion, for the Whip It Out Ensemble. In the ’70s and ’80s he played with Calgary punk-slash band the Rip Chords and he’s frequently performed as a solo percussionist. What Moller is best known for musically, however, are his inimitable soundscapes, which have accompanied countless shows for OYR, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, Ghost River Theatre and Theatre Junction, who hired him as a member of the Resident Company of Artists in 2007.

Anytime between now and the end of the 2010 High Performance Rodeo, you can get a sense for the sort of peculiar noise that plays in Moller’s head by standing in the Epcor Centre hallway between the offices of ATP and OYR and listening—for nearly two hours if you’re so inclined—to a retrospective audio installation comprised of samples from live performances designed by Moller for some of the aforementioned theatre groups. (Alternatively, download an abbrevi-ated version for free from his website, eggpress.ca). In the same way that Moller’s posters stand alone as works of art, the loop, when heard out of the context of the stage performances its sounds were intended to accompany, makes for a completely original, oddly compelling sym-phony. Ominous percussive crescendos, upbeat dance rhythms and ambient noise are interspersed with spoken lines such as “Listen, I’m gonna have to call you right back, I’ve got Glenn Gould on the other line—yeah, that’s right, Glenn Gould!!” and an eerie monologue Meg Roe delivered in ATP’s Syringa Tree. It’s an eclectic auditory journey

it’s 1983

photo illustration & poster art by Peter Moller

For the Past 30 years, Peter Moller has been one oF this city’s Most diversiFied and hardest- working artists. he’s also a really nice guy. you can tell just by looking. by Jacquie Moore

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look into his “i”s1. the Crack band (from left to right): Chantal Vitalis, Kris Demeanor, peter Moller, Di Kooch.2. the Deadrats’ album cover Deadrats in garageland (from left to right): paul Morgan-Donald, Dave Clarke, Vlad Sobolewski, peter Moller, John Ullyatt.3. one yellow rabbit’s 10th anniversary poster (from left to right): Michael Green, Denise Clarke, Andy Curtis.4. Collaborators and friends (from top to bottom and left to right):Dan Meichel, onalea Gilbertson rachelle van Zanten, lester QuitzauKeri latimer, Dave Clarkebrigitte Dajczer, Carolyn MarkKaren hines, Doug Curtis

that tells the listener as much about the Calgary arts scene as it does about Moller, who, despite his involvement in shaping the look and sound of so many seminal perform-ances, has remained somehow on the fringe.

Sitting at the kitchen table in his predictably groovy old Ramsay house under one of his own paintings featuring the words “F--- Art,” Moller explains his preference for work-ing, as he puts it, “on the outside of a project.” While it would be reductive to pin this inclination solely on Moller’s experience as an immigrant (his family arrived in Calgary from Denmark in 1959), the latter perhaps helps explain the miracle of Moller’s infinitely fresh perspective on Cal-gary’s arts scene even after three decades of working with many of the same people over and over again.

“Calgary was an awesome place to grow up—my past, my musical pals and certain cultural anchors are partly what keep me rooted here,” says Moller, who came of age at precisely the time the city hit some high notes, culturally speaking, with the formation of Theatre Calgary and ATP and, in 1973, the opening of the Alberta College of Art. Moller was among the first students to attend the college, although, a year into his diploma, he dropped out to learn the art of printmaking from his dad, who ran a silkscreening business.

Ironically, Moller’s first client was Hire-A-Student, for whom he designed business cards. He went on to cre-ate letterheads and “anything you could print” for a steel manufacturer and various small businesses in town. When Ten Foot Henry’s opened a few years later, Moller found an outlet for more creative work, and joined a tribe of artists he collaborates with to this day.

“God bless Ten Foot Henry’s,” says Moller, recalling the trip to Denmark that sparked the genesis of the club. “My buddy Richard McDowell got the idea for Henry’s after we took him to the Student Club in Copenhagen. When we got back to Calgary, Richard gave himself something like a half a year to start his own version of the Student Club or he was going to leave Cowtown.” Just in the nick of time, the Funk Plaza Disco came up for rent at 509 9th St. S.W. and McDowell, who would later become a member of the One Yellow Rabbit ensemble, jumped in with both feet.

For Moller, Henry’s was far more than just a place to hang out and perform with his band. “It became like this great crucible for people like (puppeteer) Ronnie Burkett and Michael Green and some of the other Rabbits as well as a lot of musicians.” Green recalls the first time he saw Moller perform—an experience that moved OYR’s co-art-istic director (who was, at the time, a restaurant dishwasher with big dreams) to vow to do whatever he could to help him with his career. “It was at Off Centre Centre. Peter had a standard drum set on one side of the stage and, on the other, an assortment of kids’ percussion instruments and colourful junk. In between was a huge metal Coca Cola sign. Peter sat at the drum set and laid down some jazz riffs, then threw down his sticks and jumped on the sign as

he’s creative, Flexible, and Multi-talented. he knows the Folk Festso well—and he’s truly wonderFul to work with. —KerrY ClarKe, artistiC DireCtor, CalgarY FolK MusiC Festival

Spontaneous FolkMoller lists Andy Warhol as one of his artistic influences, as evidenced by the pop-art cow on the poster he created for the Calgary folk Music festival in 2003. “It was interesting doing the 2008 ad series, which included (alderman) Joe Ceci,” Moller says. “I had just bought a camera with a wide-angle lens, a cheesy desk lamp powered by a 60-watt bulb and I shot the various people who volunteered to be in the ads at the folk fest office. Sometimes as I shot, something they said would become the caption and other times, like with Joe, what they did led to the caption (below right). the process was easy and the concept was never forced—much like the relationship I’ve had with the festival over the years.”

Calgary Folk Music Festival

alternative spaces

Golden Calgarianshere’s what Calgary’s indie arts scene looked like in the 1980s when venues such as the Calgarian, off Centre Centre and ten foot henry’s were bringing in cutting-edge acts from all over North America as well as foster-ing local talent, including Moller’s band the rip Chords (that’s him above, circa 1983, in a pullover his mother knit for her husband before their son was born). Moller recalls his process in creating the William burroughs poster for pleiades theatre: “I totally ripped off Avedon’s photo of the great burroughs, but had a blast silkscreening it by just shifting the screen and playing with multiple printings. the event was everything you would hope for had you had the opportunity to attend.”

twenty-four

if it was a launch pad to get him over to the kids’ toys—it made this huge bong sound and, for the rest of his per-formance, the sign served as the metallic heartbeat of the show as he went back and forth between the instruments.” True to his word, Green has collaborated with Moller for nearly three decades, tapping into his talent as a sound artist and as “one of the city’s leading graphic designers and visual artists.”

Many more of Moller’s Ten Foot Henry’s friends benefited from their connection to a guy with a pen-chant for “making interesting and provocative stuff for other people” and who came complete with his own printing press. Moller created posters for many of Ron-nie Burkett’s early shows as well as for bands including The Golden Calgarians, The Slip, The Mules and Same Difference (featuring Diane Kooch and Chantal Vitalis who, along with Peter, now make up Kris Demeanor’s Crack Band). Thirty-four years later, Moller smilingly refers to Egg Press—now a full-fledged digital design firm—as “the company that wouldn’t die.”

If Moller owes his father a debt of gratitude for steering him toward printmaking, he’s doubly indebted to both his parents, Paul and Elin, for a lifetime of cli-ché-shattering support for an artist’s life. “They’re artists in their own right—they paint and sketch—and they’re incredibly supportive of everything I do,” he says. In-deed, Moller’s 80-something-year-old parents proudly sat through a Theatre Junction performance for which their son not only composed a score, but stripped off all his clothing onstage (clearly, when Moller makes a rare foray out from behind the wings, he goes all out). “They were totally comfortable with that—come on! They’re Danish!” He adds that his parents—whom he describes as “bottomless pits of positive energy”—used to attend all the OYR shows they could and, afterwards, would write reviews of the performances in a book that they would hand over to the Rabbits to read. “They particu-larly liked the stuff that leaned far left,” Moller says.

Content as Moller is to work as a designer-for-hire, branding, illustrating and inventing atmospheric sound for “places that didn’t exist before” for shows such as ATP’s upcoming Tyland (part of Playrites Festival of New Canadian Plays), he admits his happiest place has always been behind a set of drums. “Nothing can ever go wrong when I’m there.”

You can visit Moller’s happy place at this year’s High Performance Rodeo, when he acts and plays drums in a performance with Kris Demeanor called Buzz Job, about real-life Calgarian Cal Cavendish, an embittered musician who once shovelled horse manure and a pile of his own records out of a plane over Calgary. The story is close to Moller’s heart as he once—you guessed it—made a poster for the guy.

Gravitational Pullthis was part of a series of 10 posters created by Moller for a display at the telus World of Science a few years back. “I was trying to have fun with the idea of gravity, so if a kid saw it he’d think it was funny.” As is the case with all of Moller’s favourite clients/projects, the World of Science gave the artist free reign to run with whatever fantastic ideas he came up with.

assorted artistic endeavours

twenty-five

Comrades in DesignMoller designed this striking book cover (above) for award-winning Calgary-based performer Karen hines, as well as posters for her various projects as her alterego pochsy. Moller says when he and hines collaborate, “we sorta turn into russian spies circa 1969—she calls me petrov and I call her comrade, which is what she is.”

Selfless PromotionMoller created this promo sheet for Kris Demeanor’s critically accaimed 2002 CD lark. Coming up with the logos, posters and ad campaign was a joyous act by Moller on behalf of his longtime bandmates. “I’m so lucky to know and play with Kris, Chantal (Vitalis) and Di (Kooch). We truly love each other. the playing is natural and unforced. We hear each other. We are brothers and sisters.”

It’s a Famly AffairIf he’s learned nothing else in his career, Moller has learned this: “When there’s no budget for doing a photo shoot and hiring models, turn to your family and loved ones. they’ll work for nothing!” Case in point: the third poster from the left features Moller’s father, paul. this year will mark a decade of collaboration between Moller and Wordfest.

Peter’s a real renaissance guy. he’s extraordinary. he’s a Prince to work with, he’s Patient, he’s Forgiving and he just goes with it. he also works his buns oFF. —anne green, DireCtor, WorDFest

WordFest

twenty-six

Pulling Rabbits Out of His Hat After 25 years, Moller is still challenged by and exuberant about working with the rabbits. “have I mentioned I’m lucky?” he says. egg press had been going for a few years when oyr was born; in those early days, says Moller, “they let me do whatever I wanted, and a series of fairly interesting posters resulted.”

Posters For Everyone!Moller’s resumé touches on pretty much every theatre, dance and literary event that’s taken place in Calgary over the past quarter-century. As he says, “there’s so much cool cultural stuff that can be supported in our burg, you just have to go out and do it.” Moller, who calls the old trout puppeteers “wonderful fellow-freaks,” created the image for the istvan poster by simply placing the puppet “face down on the scanner”—voilà! As for the appropriately distorted face on the poster he created for bug Incision (who, small world, performed in grandstand during the first week of the 2010 High Performance Rodeo), Moller says, “the nearest model is never very far away—just turn the camera on yourself.”

one Yellow rabbit

random acts of Collaboration

when Peter shows us a Poster For an oyr show he’s not just rePresenting the PerForMance. he’s becoMe a collaborator on the Piece. —MiChael green, Co-artistiC DireCtor, one YelloW raBBit

2010 high PerForMance rodeotheatre, dance, films, a peep show, wine and music, including Peter Moller’s ambient, acoustic experience, Warning: Sound. For more info and tickets visit hprodeo.ca.

fri jan 15

Smooth: French Electro Soul The French trio blends pop, soul, funk and hip-hop. It’s a combination that generally results in a packed dance floor. MR. 10 p.m. $9-$15.

fri jan 15 to sun jan 17

Last Stand to Reason Improvised physi-cal comedy that finds funnymen Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez boarding the Stanton Bullet, a luxury train hurtling toward disas-ter. LT. Times vary. $25 - $28.

fri jan 15 to sun jan 31

Warning: Sound A unique musical installa-tion containing the very best works of local theatrical sound designer Peter Moller. In the +15 Skywalks of the Epcor Centre. Free.

fri jan 15 and sat jan 16

Buzz Job: The True Story of Cal Cavendish On April 11, 1975, folk singer Cal Cavendish dropped 100 copies of his latest record and 100 pounds of horse manure from his single-engine plane onto 9th Avenue. Kris Demeanor and David van Belle revive the tale. VS. Times vary. $25 - $28.

White Cabin A mixed multimedia per-formance by AKHE, pioneers of Russian Engineering Theatre, that is brimming with images of Russian icons, silent films and acrobatic chaos. TJG. 8 p.m. $25 - $35.

In Paradisum Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie present three dances choreo-graphed by James Kudelka. MBT. 8 p.m. $39-$45.

sat jan 16

Snowblower A free party at Olympic Plaza with Mr. Scruff, Pretty Lights, Beats Antique and Bruno Changkye. 5 p.m. Free.

sun jan 17

The He/She Plays Playwright Sharon Cavanagh looks at the unending battle of the sexes. TBG. 2 p.m. Free, but donations welcome.

Two Bit Oper-Eh?-Shun An oratorio created by Onalea Gilbertson and composer Marcel Bergmann based on stories shared by clients of the Drop-In Centre. GPC. 7:30 p.m. $22-$28.

mon jan 18 to sun jan 24

This is My City: Art Exhibition A dis-play of work originating in the City of Calgary’s year-long program pairing homeless people with artist mentors. CC, CHA and Glenbow Museum. Free.

tue jan 19 to sat jan 23

Blind Date When a Parisian clown gets stood up, she does what any gal would do—she improvises (with an audience

member). LT. Times vary. $25-$28.

Kawasaki Exit Rodeo hosts One Yellow Rabbit add their contribution to the smor-gasbord. The new work centres on the

dark side of Japanese social-networking sites. BST. 8 p.m. $19-$25.

wed jan 20

This is My City: Showcase Cabaret Performances by members of the drama club, standup workshops as well as the Drop-In Centre Singers and the Found Sound Orchestra. At the Central Library. 6:30 p.m.

thu jan 21

Soundasaurus—Negativland The first day of the three-day experimental media fest features a screening of Adventures in Illegal Art, which looks at 20 years of Negativland’s culture jamming. EAT. 7 p.m. $12.

thu jan 21 to sat jan 23

Skins: Bodies for Sale W&M Physical Theatre presents an in-your-face dance “ripped from the headlines of the Polish press.” DSW. 10 p.m. $19-$25.

fri jan 22 Soundasaurus—Eklektika Day 2 of the experimental media fest features Adam Tindale, Clinker and others. EAT. 7 p.m. $12.

fri jan 22 and sat jan 23

Power Play: Homelessness This piece of Forum Theatre comes out of a weeklong workshop whose participants have been homeless in Calgary; part of the This is My City project. CPT. Times vary. Pay-what-you-can.

sat jan 23

Bravo!FACT Screening The Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent brings a smorgas-bord of short films to town. USS. 2 p.m. $14 in advance, pay-what-you-can at the door.

This is My City: Open Art Workshops This is where the This is My City program-ming gets hands-on, giving folks that chance to make a little art. The sessions happen at the Drop-In Centre and the Mustard Seed. To register, call 403-604-3476.

Soundasaurus—Jeremy Owen TurnerThere’s nothing like “an alien opus performed by avatars in the virtual world of Second Life” to wrap up three days of experimental media work. EAT. 7 p.m. $12.

sun jan 24

This is My City, This is Your City: Symposium The year-long project con-cludes with a seminar to discuss central issues like “can the arts be used to address social justice?” CPT. 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free but registration required: thisismycity.calgary@gmail.com or 403-268-4545.

Art Matters The topic of discussion is, “What is the power and purpose of using the arts to engage in social issues?” CPT. 2:30 p.m. This event is free but those wishing to attend must RSVP to 403-268-4545 or thisismycity@gmail.com.

tue jan 26 to sat jan 30

PIG: A Backdoor Peep Show Evangeline Evangelista’s travelling rock ’n’ roll prayer tent is also a peep show and a “prairie gothic rock opera.” VS. 8 p.m. $19-$25.

wed jan 27 to sun jan 31

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre returns to town with this adaptation of Sartre’s existential classic that combines live action and theatre. MBT. Times vary. $39-$55.50.

thu jan 28 to sat jan 30

Dedicated to the Revolutions This is a low-tech—ukulele, tin-can telephones and Jenga—look at seven scientific revolutions. BST. 8 p.m. $25-$28.

Tono A dance and musical blend of three indigenous cultures—Chinese, Mongolian and Canadian. TJG. 8 p.m. $39-$45.

sat jan 30

Wine Stage One Yellow Rabbit’s annual fundraiser combines fine wine and fine dining. At the Hotel Arts. 7:30 p.m. $99.

Warning: Sound Enter Peter Moller’s wonderful world of sound: bask in two decades’ worth of the transporting ambient noise that gave countless local stage performances—everything from Macbeth and Beowulf to The Pillowman—their startling, romantic, eerie atmospheres. Until Jan. 31, Epcor Centre hallways. Free.

venues: BsT Big Secret Theatre, Epcor

Centre, 225 8th Ave. S.E. CC Centre Court,

Epcor Centre, 225 8th Ave. S.E. CHA City

Hall Atrium, 800 Macleod Tr. S.E. CPT

ConocoPhillips Theatre, Glenbow Museum,

130 9th Ave. S.E. DsW Dancers’ Studio

West, 2007 10th Ave. S.W. eAT Engineered

Air Theatre, Epcor Centre, 205 8th Ave.

S.E. GPC Grace Presbyterian Church, 1009

15th Ave. S.W. LT Lunchbox Theatre, 160,

115 9th Ave. S.E. MBT Max Bell Theatre,

Epcor Centre, 240 9th Ave. S.E. MR

Marquee Room, Uptown Stage & Screen,

612 8th Ave. S.W. TBG TrépanierBaer

Gallery, 105, 999 8th St. S.W. TJG Theatre

Junction Grand, 608 1st St. S.W. uss

Uptown Stage & Screen, 612 8th Ave. S.W.

vs Vertigo Studio, 161, 115 9th Ave. S.E.

S