Helen Reed

We are pleased to announce our August installment of CAG Reads, a book club where artists invite us to read alongside them. Each month an artist proposes a book for our collective reading pleasure, culminating in a virtual hangout where the artist leads a wide-ranging discussion grounded in their chosen reading material. 

This edition of CAG Reads will be hosted by artists Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed. Since 2006, Reed and Jickling have collaborated on projects that span photography, video, public installations and printed matter, as well as intergenerational research projects such as the ongoing *Big Rock Candy Mountain*. Jickling and Reed have exhibited and performed widely, with both individual and collaborative work appearing in venues such as the Portland Art Museum, The Power Plant, Smack Mellon and the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2017 they released *Multiple Elementary* (YYZBOOKS), a publication that explores the elementary school classroom as a site of invention and reception of contemporary art practices. 

For this month’s installment, Reed and Jickling have chosen the novel *Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl* (2017) by Andrea Lawlor. Set in 1993, Paul Polydoris is a young, queer shapeshifter who transforms his body and gender at will as he crosses the country in an adventure filled with pleasure, connection and loss. Focusing on the musical references that appear throughout the novel, Jickling and Reed will pair selections from the book with a playlist of songs for an online listening party.

### Getting the book

As this event explores* Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl* through music, it’s OK if you haven’t read the book! For those who are interested in picking up a copy, here in Vancouver, both [Massy Books](https://www.massybooks.com/) and [Pulp Fiction](http://pulpfictionbooksvancouver.com/) are happy to order copies for you. Massy Books is offering the book for $23.99 +GST (7-day order window). Pulp Fiction is offering the book at $16.07 + GST (10- to 14-day order window).


A cover of a book titled "Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl" by Andrea Lawlor. It is pink and shows a face of a person. 

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Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed present Andrea Lawlor

CAG Reads

Over the course of April, artists Helen Reed and Hannah Jickling have led Ms. Persoon’s Grade 6/7 class on weekly explorations of the human senses as they relate to experiences of taste. Analyzing flavours in chocolate bars, evaluating kid-centric candy advertising, and exploring relationships between smell and memory, the students have been encouraged to question marketing tactics to children, issues of consumption, and what it means to mark the scents around us as only “good” or “bad.” Through olfactory adventures and taste-making brainstorms, the class have brought these explorations together to develop ideas for their own soda creations.

Please join Hannah, Helen and the students on May 3 for a soda-tasting celebration at Strathcona Elementary! 


A still image of hands placing cans of soda on a green backdrop. 

Helen Reed

Talks & Events