Building Opportunities with Business is hosting an official Cultural Olympiad art installation. The piece called Sheng High is by the artist Trimpin and we hired six local residents to act as gallery sitters. In order for them to be a better resource I decided to create a list of answers to anticipated questions and request made by tourists visiting Chinatown and Vancouver for the first time. I then decided to make it a blog post so that people could find the info online before coming to 163 East Pender if they are so incline.
Trimpin at BOB
Where can I access the internet?
The nearest cafe with free wireless is Waves on Main & Pender. Several other cafes have free wireless. BOB is making available bandwidth to guests so they can update Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, just ask the gallery sitter for the password.
Where can I buy coffee?
Again Waves is the closest specialty coffee shop. There are many more in the neighborhood, with Smart Mouth on Water Street being a staff favourite.
Where can I buy batteries?
Dollar Giant right next door has cheap batteries of many sizes.
Where can I buy memory cards and other electronic paraphernalia?
London Drugs has an excellent audio visual department including a wide assortment of memory cards for your electronic devices. They are located a few blocks away in Woodward’s. They also have a one hour photo lab.
Mitzi’s right next door above Dollar Giant serves Western food. Gastown has many bars and restaurants and a staff favourite for lunch and breakfast is Deacon’s on Main and Alexander. There is also a food court and several restaurants in the International Village shopping centre offering Western and Eastern food including fast food such as McDonald’s and Quizno’s.
How do I get out of Chinatown?
There is a bus stop right in front of BOB. The following buses stop there: 4, 7, 19, and 22. All of those head West back towards the business district and the shopping and entertainment district on Granville Street. There are bus stops all around the intersection of Main & Hastings. Useful buses include the 3, 8, and 10. Cordova Street has a number of buses running East but you’re probably better off taking a Hastings bus or going up the hill to Broadway and catching the Express. 163 East Pender is within walking and biking distance of the Stadium/Chinatown Skytrain station. It is approximately six blocks South West from here. The Skytrain goes downtown and out to Burnaby. You can transfer to the Canada line at Granville or Waterfront and head to Richmond that way. Translink has a website you can use to plan trips.
The artist is still installing his work on the main floor of 163 East Pender but if you want to get an idea of what it will look and sound like, as well as how the piece interacts with itself, the room, the viewer, try watching the following YouTube video.
Remember Trimpin: Sheng High will be open free to the public until the end of February as part of the Cultural Olympiad here in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown.
Building Opportunities with Business is proud to play host to an official Cultural Olympiad event featuring world renown artist Trimpin.
Trimpin (born Gerhard Trimpin 1951 in Istein, Germany, now part of Efringen-Kirchen) is a Seattle, Washington-based kinetic sculptor, sound artist, musician, and composer, most of whose pieces integrate both sculpture and music in some way, and many of which make use of computers to play these instruments.
The piece being display in our coworking/event space at 163 East Pender is called Sheng High. Our space was chosen by the Cultural Olympiad staff and the artist himself due to being situatied in historic Chinatown and having the necessary high ceilings to allow the piece to be displayed and function.
The artist himself has journeyed North form his home in Seattle to personally install the work in our space. He will be finished shortly with the exhibit open free to the general public from January 29 to February 28. As part of the installation BOB negotiated the employment of six residents in a part time capacity as greeters and caretakers of the space. Rumors of a private reception attended by the artist himself to take place this week are probably true.
