Fuse Launches: Canada's Newest Art Magazine Unveiled

Last nights I attended Fuse Magazine's Creative Cities launch which was strange on a number of levels. It was ironic, but I haven't decided if it was ironic in a good way or a bad way, that it should launch in the shadow of the soon to be condoized Abel Lofts. As I looked down Lisgar Street from the Mercer Union the two glowing signs seemed to sum up Queen West's current identity crisis. The first, in big letters said LSD (which stood for lighting and something I believe), the other one, right next to it, said Innergolf.ca.

All laments for the turning of Queen West into a product to sell aside, Fuse (a magazine which I was previously unaware of) looks like it is going to be excellent, with cerebral articles on the state of art in Canada and the stunning and thought provoking visuals that are necessary if your are going to have success as an art mag. This issue contains:

"Clive Robertson asks us to consider whether we’re Feeling Good About Canadian Art?, Kirsty Robertson explores The Creative Industries in Canada and Erin Morton interviews Terrance Houle about using humour to disrupt colonialist narratives. Also in this issue, Laura Paolini wonders what will happen if she falls while standing alone inside OCAD’s Sharp Centre for Design and Brendan Tang presents Kitbash.

Reviews:
Mimesis and Memory in Dot Tuer’s Mining the Media Archive by Tabitha Minns. small leaves room for thoughts to grow by Amy Fung. The Holocaust visited: Paul Antick’s itourist? by Rachel MagShamhráin."

I found it a little odd that the launch event had no speakers, no presentations, just bare white walls (and people, good ones) - but I suppose, to end where I started, any odd left in Queen West should be preserved as an endangered species.