People told me to avoid opiate-fiends in Downtown Vancouver, so I expected tweaked out panhandlers to welcome me to my Downtown hotel. That wasn’t the case. The Listel Hotel offers a creative and unique space in the heart of Downtown Vancouver located on Robson street, only three blocks away from Stanley Park, a 20-minute walk from a water-taxi that takes you to Granville Island — location of the Granville Public Market, which is a must for foodies — and only a short, ten-minute drive to Chinatown and Gastown districts of the city. One block away from Chinatown, towards East Hastings –as advised by my friend Judy– is where you’ll experience a not-so-picturesque Pacific Northwest: 20-30something zombies scavenging for dimes, food, fixes – anything to take the edge off. It’s a scene you’ll find in any heavily populated city, but as friend noted, “Oh the seediness of it is very under the radar.”

The contrast is all around you. In Vancouver, urban development is at a magnitude only an Olympic Games can generate (Hello, Beijing). With mass urban revival comes a youthfulness seen through Vancouver’s chic shops and cafes, South Granville’s best restaurants, and exhibitions in hotels like Dina Goldstein‘s “Fallen Princesses“. From the artist:

The project was inspired by Goldstein’s observation of three-year-old girl. As a new mother she has been able to get a close up look at the phenomenon of young girls fascinated with Disney princesses and their desire to emulate them. The stories almost always have a sad beginning, with an overbearing female villain, and the end is predictably a happy one. The Prince usually saves the day and makes the victimized young beauty into a Princess.

Goldstein’s Fallen Princesses however takes a cool, but humorous look at these fairy tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict: “happily ever after” is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.

As a young girl growing up abroad, Goldstein was not exposed to fairy tales. “These new discoveries lead to my fascination with the origins of fairy tales. I explored the original Brothers Grimm stories and found that they had very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney’s perfect princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.”

The exhibition goes on until January 2010. Here’s an interesting perspective on one of the photographs, brought to you by Racialicious.

Also, request room 507 on the Gallery Floor of the hotel if you go. There’s a nice view of the Olympic rings in the harbor, seen between two generic condominiums. Watch out for the black sock I left under the bed. And try Miko Sushi across the street. The bartender at the hotel bar said, “Oh, yeah. I hear it’s good. All the hockey players go there.”

Image #2 [via Contexts]