Dave Willekes’ shows his work at eBar with Burn Planetarium
Written by Josh Doyle

“I’ve tried to not treat art with as much preciousness as I have in the past, and that sort of influenced how I used different mediums. That’s how the whole coffee thing came about,” said Dave Willekes, explaining some of the bizarre techniques behind his new and old art, both of which he’ll be showcasing at eBar this Thursday.
Willekes art will be featured at eBar before a live concert featuring Guelph’s Burn Planetarium and Waterloo’s Tyson & the Trepids.
Willekes graduated from the University of Guelph’s studio art program in 2007 and has been busy ever since making waves in the Guelph scene with his unique approach to visuals. The biggest wave he’s made came in the form of a show called Le Cyc.
Le Cyc, showcases a dystopian society powered by bicycles, and the imbalance of power within it. The show’s haunting combination of still frames, all done by Willekes and all done using coffee and wine, has an alluring effect when put to music provided by an indie orchestra. The show is a multimedia collaboration with an indie undertone, featuring vocal performances, a six piece orchestra, and nearly 400 images hand painted by Willekes. All of his work will be available for your viewing pleasure at eBar this Thursday.
“For Le Cyc, the overarching theme was to never become complacent with the circumstances that you’re in. You have to continually be questioning your surroundings and the power structures around you,” said Dave explaining a bit about the show.
Le Cyc went on tour beginning in September 2008 and didn’t stop until December 2009, hitting everywhere from Willekes’ hometown of Guelph to Montreal, and just about everywhere in between. If you missed it, don’t fret – they’re looking to book some performances for this year as well.
Willekes’ latest work isn’t the multimedia bombardment Le Cyc was, and the paintings aren’t done using coffee and wine. This time he used ink, along with lemonade and orange juice. It seems Willekes can’t get enough of these unexpected sources of colour. What motivates an artist to include these strange ingredients in his work?
“There’s colour and pigment in pretty much everything around us,” he noted. “So I just got into the habit of using everything around me, and often they would give me really unusual results, which ultimately are more interesting to look at. You kind of get the chaos of these random elements drying on a page.”
It makes sense, when you consider that experimentation is a huge part of the evolution of art.
“Having a cup of some left over lemonade, you think, lets see what happens if I throw some ink in there and put it on the page. Its got this strange effect and I think, ‘wow, I couldn’t have done that if I tried to.’ It’s sort of like embracing the randomness of other elements that you can’t expect.”
As of late, Willekes has branched off from his work in Le Cyc and has been putting energy into new projects, some of which will appear at eBar.
“Overall I guess those pieces are overlapping other art I’ve done in the past.” He added that his work is partially a response to what some call graffiti, and the art that comes into existence as part of normal city life.
“In the streets, art is always covering itself. It’s like this evolving organism the way we see walls and the way they are continuously overlapping and changing.”
Visit the walls of eBar and check out Willekes’ newest work and then hear the music of one of Guelph’s tightest local groups.