February 2006 – VORTEX

© February 2006 - Blue Man Group- VORTEX Review By Bryen Dunn, Toronto - Info@bryendunn.com

I’m not quite certain why, but Blue Man Group has delved into the world of an art curator. VORTEX, noted as their first annual art competition in Toronto took place on February 6th at the oh-so-artsy, Drake Hotel. A call went out to artists of any age to submit a piece of work in any medium that would “challenge established expectations”.

Now what exactly does that mean?A list of chosen curators were put together to decide which lucky individuals would walk away with some of the over $5000.00 up for grabs.VORTEX: 1. A spiral motion of fluid within a limited area, especially a whirling mass of water or air that sucks everything near it toward its centre. 2. A place or situation regarded as drawing into its centre all that surrounds it. 3. The greatest art competition ever.

Shamsi Shahrokhi took top honours in the Adult (18+) division with Rendezvous, an exploration of Toronto's multiculturalism whereby she used TTC transfers as the background to depict images of individuals she encountered during her travels around the city. This process is known as Heat Drawing and accomplished by using a heated object to burn the image into a paper based background.

Runner-Ups in the Adult division were Ljuba Adanja's Deep Sleep and Sol Friedman's Qbert. By far, the most interesting piece was created by Lulu Hazel Turnbull, who won the Youth Division (12-17) with Red & Black No. 12. Turnbull used ink on canvas to delve into her fear of the social dilemmas facing our global community, including war and overpopulation. Remember, this is the Youth Division! Overall, the works were not extraordinarily different or outstanding, but the event did serve its purpose.

All winners will now have their work displayed at the Panasonic Theatre (651Yonge Street) where Blue Man Group is currently performing their amazing “theatre, ritual, performance art, comedy, rock concert and dance party rolled into one.” Visit http://www.blueman.ca/ for more information and tickets.

This story was published on juicystuff.ca