FUSE

Last Friday I finally checked out FUSE, which is an event that's been taking place at the Vancouver Art Gallery for several years now. It takes place on select Fridays starting at 8pm, running to 2am and features performances from local artists and groups, while a DJ spins tunes throughout the night. And of course, you also get to walk around and look at the current exhibits in place.



Right now, Reece Terris' Ought Apartment installation takes up the entire staircase, with each floor representing a different decade of style and design, from the ground level 60s inspired home to the 2nd floor 70s shagalicious digs, up to the 3rd floor's 80s explosion of pleather, carpeting, and marble.

Models dressed up according to their respective decades roamed the installation, including a friend of mine who looked fabulous both in her 60s June Cleaver-esque dress as well as in her 80s hairsprayed up-do. Local dance troupe The House of La Douche performed to RuPaul's "Put The Bass In Your Walk" while the men's choir Chor Leoni serenaded the crowd. Later on, an electric celloist dazzled the crowd in the main lobby, while the hipsters upstairs were busy belting out tunes like "Jet" and "I Will Always Love You" in the "ironic karokee lounge."

The exhibits themselves were mediocre - uninspiring photography showings. The Ought Apartment installation is currently the best thing at the Art Gallery right now. Keep your eye out for the next FUSE event.

Afterwards, we made our way to the cafeteria which is constantly buzzing during lunchtime with the downtown business crowd, but on this particular evening had transformed into a makeshift bar with the hip and not so hip coming together to drape themselves along the steps of the gallery, wine glasses in hand, laughing and conversing on a perfectly warm soon-to-be summer night.