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| William Anhang Watch Bill: CBC ARTSPOTS YouTube | ||||
 The
goal someone must have thought up was to have him enter the physical
right on Canada's 'birthday'. However, Bill does not claim any title
as a reward for thinking privately to himself that he is somehow a
thorough Canadian, and somewhat of a silent leader and on and on...However, our Bill has assumed several titles unconnected to his being Canadian; amongst them 'Man of the Year, Mouse of the Century, Stud of the Semester, Horse of Clanranalds, and most important, if not solely so, 'Spider of the age'. Between having stumbled on corner Art and his Brand of Fiber Optic Art, he feels that this contest with Spiderman, the spider's lawyer, has paid off in being integrated into the spider domain, he is indeed 'Spider of the Age'. Enough spider yarn for now... W. Anhang 2003. |
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"Anhang, born in Poland to Jewish parents
escaped with his family to Manitoba in 1939 and subsequently moved
to Montreal in 1960, where he has lived since. Working as an electrical engineer till the quit his job in 1973, he then began creative projects that took on proportions far beyond the casual art enthusiast. With no formal training, but simply listening to advice to follow his creative impulse, his home was converted in the next few years into a theatre of operations from which his visionary and complex projects have been produced for more than 25 years." David Blatherwick © 2003, Raw Vision Magazine Montreal. |
 W. Anhang weaving fibre optics. |
| "Often a works begins with a message or
historical reference in mind, be it 'the demographic history of the
Canadian people' or the reworking of the last supper. An image might
be lifted from a reproduction, altered in a computer graphics program,
and laser printed onto canvas. Then through points determined by the
artist, an elaborate pattern of led and fiber optic wires will be
woven into the canvas and wired into an external microprocessor from
which complex flashing light patterns are generated. Finally, the
work will often be painted and altered by long time collaborator Glen
Luckock the result is an object of visual density and dizzying activity.
Now, consider hundreds-literally-objects and projects having been
produced and accumulated over the course of more than two decades,
and you have billsville... to put it mildly, it borders on crazed
activity, brilliance, naiveté polymorphous intelligence and
inventiveness of a truly independent nature." "Like le Douanier Rousseau who never traveled far from his Paris neighborhood yet painted exotic far away jungle scenes, Bill Anhang is an earthbound, inter-planetary naïf. He has never fit into any category of formal art, or anti-art, or art. His particular vision is like a gymnasium performance, something portable and pragmatic, but also mysterious and with hidden dimensions." David Blatherwick © 2003, Raw Vision Magazine Montreal. |