4 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 15, 2015

Artist creates
for himself

Former Langara student
makes art for personal
gratification first

By VINCENT MATAK

rt is all about pleasure, for award-
Pprisine artist Jeremy Hof.

The former Langara College
student returned to campus on Oct. 7
as part of a speaker series organized by
the fine arts department. His talk fo-
cused on the creative process behind
several of his latest works.

“I do this for myself,” he said. “But
when I take these objects and they end
up being beautiful, pleasurable things
which maybe can translate to giving
someone else pleasure, that exchange
of pleasure is more important to me
than any kind of subjective critique.”

Hof discovered his passion for art in
2004 while studying fine art at Langara.
He then transferred to Emily Carr Uni-
versity of Art + Design where he grad-
uated with a fine arts degree.

Hof’s work has been featured in the
Vancouver Art Gallery, the National
Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and The
Power Plant in Toronto. It landed him
the top spot in the 2008 RBC Canadian
Painting Competition—a $25,000 prize.

Stephanie Aitken, a fine arts instruc-
tor who helped organized the talk, said
Hof “nicely exemplifies” the multi-dis-
ciplinary approach to art taught at Lan-
gara.

“He’s also very honest in how he
talks about his practice,” she said add-
ing that Hof doesn’t rely on psychologi-
cal, metaphysical or literary elements
to justify his art.

“There isn’t any contrivance or pre-
tension,” she said.

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JOCELYN ASPA (left), VANCOUVER RABBIT AGILITY CLUB (right) photos

A rabbit (left) competes at the Rabbit Festival on Oct. 10. Another rabbit (right) trains in advance of the festival at the BC SPCA.

Bunnies bounding fur glory

Cuddly critters impress crowds with agility, grit at Rabbit Festival

By BEN BENGTSON

nimal lovers saw rabbits jump
through hoops and perform im-
pressive displays of agility, at
the 11" annual Rabbit Festival.

The festival was organized by the
Vancouver Rabbit Rescue & Advocacy
organization and held at the Scottish
Cultural Centre in Marpole.

Rabbits participated in a timed
course of jumps, tunnels and walkways,
in a unique form of entertainment
known as rabbit agility. The rabbits
and their owners were members of the
Vancouver Rabbit Agility Club.

Glenn Arnason, a rabbit trainer and
co-founder of the club, first came to the

festival four years ago as a spectator.
He runs one of its most popular attrac-
tions.

“Lop-eared rabbits—the ones with
the droopy ears—they seem to be real-
ly talented at this,” he said.

Spectators, young and old, gathered
around the course throughout the day
to watch rabbits of varying sizes and
colours navigate the course.

Arnason said people who keep rab-
bits as pets love them for many rea-
sons.

“Rabbits are smart; they can learn to
do things. They are active, interesting
and intelligent animals,” he said.

Audience members were encour-
aged to ask rabbit-related questions

after the show.
“We fill them in about all sorts of
things about owning a rabbit,” he said.

The club meets for training every
Saturday at the Vancouver branch of
the BC SPCA.

“We want to try to get rid of some of
the myths of them being an easy-care,
low maintenance pet—which is not
true. They require a lot of care,” Olga
Betts, president of Rabbit Rescue & Ad-
vocacy, said.

Although her goal is to educate the
public, she said that people return to
the festival year after year simply be-
cause it is fun.

See langaravoice.ca for exclusive video

66

They are
active,
interest-
ing and
intelligent
animals
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VANCOUVER
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