D
@ vA

Chandler Walter
Contributor

keen

his game is seriously fun. That’s

honestly the best way to describe it
and it’s honestly what a Spider-Man game
should be.

While the other A-list superheroes
may show their grittier sides from time to
time (think Iron Man, or the always broody
Batman), Spider-Man has consistently
been displayed as the web-slinging, clever-
quipping, downright friendly superhero
we've all come to know and love (no, I’m
not counting Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man
3, I’m just not), and that’s exactly the guy
that we get to play in this newest addition
to the franchise.

 

 

Image of ‘Spiderman’ via PushSquare.com

Marvel's Spider-Man makes the
much-appreciated move of placing the
player in the suit of Spidey eight years into
his illustrious career of fighting crime in
New York City. A bold move to make, to
be sure, with the worry that the player will

 

Have an idea for a story?
M arts@theotherpress.ca

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before?

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..and more!

Friendly, amazing, and pretty damn fun

» ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ video game review

be overwhelmed by all of Peter Parker's
already-available abilities, yet the storyline
and seemingly infinite collectables work
to ensure that many of the cooler, more
difficult manoeuvres are locked away for
later in the game.

By difficult maneouvres I don’t mean
just combat, either—though there are
plenty of combos, stunts, and attacks to
master that are just so badass it hurts
(the bad guys, that is)—I also mean that
additions to traversal abilities are unlocked
throughout the game. While the web-
slinging, skyline-hopping, skyscraper-
sprinting travel system is already amazingly
fun off the get-go, the unlockable moves
mean that getting from point A to B really
doesn't ever get old.

What’s also cool about the story taking
place eight years after Peter first donned
the red suit is that there is some serious

Faux Fauvism comes to

Amelia Douglas Gallery

» Josh Byer’s ‘Le Néon’ is brilliantly, intricately imaginative

Caroline Ho
Assistant Editor

Vancouver-based artist Josh Byer brings
to the Amelia Douglas Gallery an
exhibition bursting with bold colours and a
myriad of possibilities.

“Le Néon: The 1st Canadian Exhibition
of Faux Fauvist Art” is Byer’s first large-
scale solo show. Opening on September
13 and running in the Gallery until
October 20, “Le Néon’” features dozens of
fantastically colourful artworks in acrylics,
inks, and mixed media. The works range
from small, six-inch squares packed with
dizzyingly dense colours and patterns
to larger, expansive pieces that promise
vibrant stories.

Byer’s distinct, richly-hued style of
“Faux Fauvism” is a technique he invented
about 10 years ago, he told the Other Press
via phone. The style blends elements
from a variety of genres including cubism,
pointillism, street art, and folk art, as well
as taking inspiration from the vivid colour
schemes and technological trends of the
80s, the era in which the artist grew up.

His art also evokes what he described
as “urban daydreaming” about visions of
the future.

“I think we'll reach a point where we're
reorganizing urban spaces, and some of
my work tries to explore what those spaces
might look and feel like,” he said.

Examples of this urban imagination
can be seen in works like CITY and The Cat
Who Stole the Sun.

Yet another source of artistic
inspiration and influence stems from
Canada’s bilingual heritage, according

to Byer, who grew up in Ottawa learning
French from an early age. Having more
than one language available allows one

to frame ideas and approach problems
from different angles, in visual art or other
avenues of life.

“The idea of learning to think in more
than one language creates a more robust
imagination,” he said. “There’s ways of
exploring concepts in French that don’t
exist in English and vice versa.”

The exhibition title “Le Néon” speaks
to both this bilingualism and to the
brilliant palate of hues in Byer’s work.

Among the many pieces, some suggest
to the viewer particular settings with
almost dreamlike, haunting familiarity,
such as Hallway; others like Self Portrait
as a Windswept Campsite are more
whimsically enigmatic. The show even
contains two spirit boards that Byer
created—Red Cat Spirit Board and Skeleton
Shack Spirit Board—which he said are
intended to portray a “less creepy and more
fun perspective” than
typical horror-influenced
spirit boards, subverting
the Halloween aesthetic
with pop art skulls and
bright colours.

To select the pieces
to include in “Le Néon’,
Byer said he chose from
his catalogue partly based
on which ones had been
received well through
online galleries, news
sites, and message boards
such as Reddit, where he
often shares his artwork.

“There’s some images I
felt some people who knew me
from that [online] world would
want to see on exhibition, so
I tried to make sure I would
accommodate that audience,”
the artist said.

He also said he views his
art and technique as a vital tool
in his life, a tool very worth
discussing with others.

“I think a lot of people
use art as a therapeutic
means of working through
issues, starting discussions
with people of building and
expanding communities,”
said Byer. “I would like to be
an advocate for all of these
applications. It’s a way to have
that conversation publicly
with people I haven't met yet. I
think that’s probably one of the
greatest things art can do.”

backstory that the player gets to find

out throughout the course of the game.
Questions are brought up and eventually
answered, bad guys appear who have it
out for our masked vigilantes, and Peter
has some hilarious insults to shoot the
bad guys’ way because he’s already been
fighting them for years.

I haven't finished the game yet—I’ve
probably only clocked about 10 hours in the
three days since the September 7 release—
but I like where the storyline is heading.
Honestly, even if the story was lacklustre
(which it’s not), or the combat was slow
and boring (again, it’s not), the game
would still be seriously fun to play simply
for the web-slinging traversal system alone.

Which is probably the most important
thing about a Spider-Man game, when it
really comes down to it.

Art by Josh Byer; photos by Billy Bui