I went to the opening of an exhibit at the Western Front entitled “Shopdropping: Experiments in the Aisle”. This was some of my favourite kind of art: the culture-jamming, guerilla-style work that gets out in the real world, messes with people’s heads, and questions assumptions. All with a healthy dose of humour! There was the co-opting of the Victorian Stroll held annually in Troy, NY. It’s an event where locals dress up in Victorian garb and promenade around the historic district – a nice, charming, fun and educational event. Unless you want to learn about labour history in Victorian times, or how Troy was a centre of child labour and worker abuses. Such non-bourgeois issues weren’t represented in this narrowly-focused look at the past. So a bunch of folks showed up as the “United Victorian Workers”: dressed as 19th-century agitators and activists, with authentic, hand-stenciled signs demanding fair wages and worker rights, and handed out “historical” pamphlets detailing the social ills of the time. Brilliant! In a stunningly ironic yet sadly predictable repeat of history, the “historically dressed” – but real – cops were asked to remove the protesters. Sigh… no lessons learned there. There was a lot of stuff involving hand-made or modified packages being introduced to real store shelves – like the Mussolini doll in Wal-Mart, or representations of big-brand items crafted in ceramic by children. One woman planted mock magazines with her photo and first name – “JENNY” – on real newsstands, commenting on our celebrity obsessions… But my favourite was a video of the cross-country dinner odyssey of Marc Horowitz, who managed to write a dinner invitation and his phone number on a whiteboard displayed in a Crate & Barrel catalogue (a popular furniture, housewares and gift store in the US). Sure enough, the calls came in, and he hit the road in his camper to meet – and have dinner with – a whole cross section of interesting folks. Best of all, you can view the video online here! Also check out Marc’s very interesting and sometimes bewildering website. The exhibit continues through November 25 – I highly recommend that you check it out.