«POP ART IS FOR EVERYONE»

In a chapter heading in Generation X, (Douglas) Coupland might have declared “Shopping is Not Creating,” but now, 48, he finds himself in agreement with younger artists for whom “to use retail as a mode of creative expression just seems utterly natural.” Besides the clothing and accessories, twenty regular Roots stores across Canada — as well as pop-up shops in Toronto (at 680 Queen Street West) and Vancouver (at 36 Powell Street) operating until July 28 — will carry furniture designs, such as tables with line tower bases and tops of concentric circles inspired by rinks for hockey and curling.Ever since he was a child, Coupland was interested in pop art and the magic of commerce. As a teenager in 1979 visiting New York for the first time, he went to the Fiorucci store, an emporium famous for its colourful array of products. It “blew my mind, like a Leo Castelli gallery had exploded, and these were the fragments that came out of it.”

-Toronto Star
July 8 2010