this show is dope, yo

If you're looking for 'something' to tweak your perspective about mindblowing drugs and visual art, check this out.

Clint Burnham* joins forces with visual artist Jeremy Shaw for a lecture/discussion about DMT drug use Saturday, Oct 9 at 2pm at Presentation House Gallery in North Van.

DMT - Description
A white, pungent-smelling, crystalline solid.

Physiological effects
Resembles LSD, but sympathomimetic symptoms like dilated pupils, heightened blood pressure, and increased pulse rate are more common and more intense.

Psychological Effects
Like LSD but often more intense. Since it is not taken by mouth, the effects come on suddenly and can be overwhelming. The term "mind blowing" might have been invented for this drug. The experience was described by Alan Watts as like "being fired out of the nozzle of an atomic cannon". Thoughts and visions crowd-in at great speed; a sense of leaving or transcending time and a feeling that objects have lost all form and dissolved into a play of vibrations are characteristic. The effect can be like instant transportation to another universe for a timeless sojourn.

About Jeremy Shaw (from the PH website):

Vancouver artist Jeremy Shaw (aka March 21) interprets the youth subcultures – rave, skateboard and hiphop/grafitti – that he participates in. His new video installation, DMT, is an intense octagonal space that highlights the disjunctions of social communication. While watching the subjects high on the hallucinogenic drug, DMT, and reading their attempts to describe the out-of-body experience, we become both seduced and repelled by these hyper-real portraits.

A recent graduate of Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Jeremy Shaw (aka March 21) exhibitions include The Theme for Tonight (Tracey Lawrence Gallery, Vancouver), Video Heroes (Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, Montreal and Cambridge Galleries) and I Am A Curator (Chisenhale Gallery, London). He is also an electronic musician and has an extensive discography.

DMT
by Jeremy Shaw
Sept 16 - Oct 24, 2004
Presentation House
333 Chesterfield Ave.
North Van, 604-986-1351

* Clint Burnham is a writer and critic who teaches literature and popular culture at Capilano College. His most recent publication is Airborne Photo, 1999.