David Khang: SWORDS 2 PLOUGHSHARES (CUT PIECE 2 SEW PIECE) & ANTHROPOCENE 2 SYMBIOCENE (BOMBERS 2 BUTTERFLIES)

Swords 2 Ploughshares (Cut Piece 2 Sew Peace)

Performance, 24 October 2020, 1-4pm, Gertrude Guerin Plaza, Main/Kingsway

Anthropocene 2 Symbiocene (Bombers 2 Butterflies)

24 October 2020 through 27 December 2020

 

Organized by Steven Tong

 

In Swords 2 Ploughshares (Cut Piece 2 Sew Peace), David Khang de-commissioned his butterfly-covered, bicycle-powered tank. Invoking Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece (1964), public members were invited to participate in cutting pieces of fabric from the tank, to re-purpose them into sewn masks in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The project functions as a fundraiser for legal defence of Indigenous land defenders and water protectors in British Columbia. The masks will continue to be produced until the fabric from the tank runs out. Masks can be ordered at: cutpiece2sewpeace@gmail.com

 

Anthropocene 2 Symbiocene (Bombers 2 Butterflies) is a body of work that Khang produced while studying in law school. Off-cuts from the fabric used to cover the tank were collaged with paper cut-outs to produce two thematic series composed of military and animal imagery. Metamorphosis of Turtle Island is a piece that Khang produced in lieu of an academic paper for a class on Aboriginal and Treaty Rights.

David Khang’s art practice is informed by education in psychology, theology, dentistry, and law. Khang imbeds these disciplinary codes into his work, to compose interdisciplinary languages in visual, textual, and spoken forms. In performing, Khang embodies these languages to interrogate social constructions of gender, race, and interspecies relations. By strategically switching languages and codes, Khang produces divergent and dissonant readings that re-imagine the poetic and the political.

Khang received his BSc and DDS from the University of Toronto, BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, and MFA with Empahsis in Critical Theory from the University of California, Irvine. He has taught at Emily Carr University of Art & Design (2005–2016), and Goddard College (2009-2010). Khang was born in Seoul, grew up in Toronto, and currently resides in Vancouver, where he divides his time between art practice, dentistry, and studying law at the University of British Columbia (2016 – 2021).

Heidi Meixner: UNMOVED MOVERS: THE MOVE TOWARD, AWAY AND THROUGH

10 September 2020 now extended until 29 October 2020, 7pm!
Virtual launch 10 September 2020  

“When the soul wants to experience something she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it. ” 
                                                      – Meister Eckhart

The sun, like the hub of a wheel, is an unmoved mover. The centre is static yet the perimeter rotates and the result is that we trundle – or even fly, as the case may be – onward with a cosmic momentum. The Aristotelian theory of the “unmoved mover,” which some dismiss as absurd, puts forth the idea that for every motion there is a mover and that at the mystic centre, the original mover is still. This concept speaks to the experience that the inanimate objects and images around us, occupying a seemingly static existence, can animate shifts and changes within our consciousness.
 
Rituals are created and performed in order to facilitate transformation. A “wünshelrute” (wishing rod), dowsing rod or witching rod is an instrument used to locate subterranean sources of water. In water witching, when someone suspects a valuable source lying beneath, a ritual search or sacred sourcing is performed to locate and move toward that which could nourish and sustain.
 
In A Dictionary of Symbols, J.E. Circlot writes “to leave the circumference for the centre is the equivalent of moving from the exterior to the interior, from form to contemplation, from multiplicity to unity, from space to spacelessness, from time to timelessness.” Unmoved Movers is an inquiry into the perennial and regenerative nature of symbols that are revitalized with each contemplation and explores the idea of symbol as “mover.” 
__________
 
A body of water, The many within the one, Towards centre, Darkness & light, Energetics, Towards expansion, Her proliferated reflections and The Braid are a series of painted papier-mâché witching rods that rest at the edges of the gallery, leaning with upward reaching arms, poised for conduction. These sculptures take the forked form of a Y, a symbol that has been associated with the sacred feminine and evokes both celebration and connectivity. 
 
Cotton fabric is pulled in measured loops through a woven backing to create the hooked rug. Here, at the edge of things is a two-part textile work that suggests adjacent thresholds or portals. Sun wheel and Nyx explore the collectively experienced transitional spaces of sunrise and moonrise and welcome contemplation of the liminal spaces occupied in the everyday.
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Heidi Meixner works in sculpture, painting and textiles. Her practice is inspired by folk art and traditions as well as alternative philosophies. Through slow-process materials and techniques, she explores the relationship between ritual and the everyday as an antidote to the pace and modes of engagement in contemporary culture. She is continuously drawn to the soft, versatile and buffering nature of textiles and is motivated by the vast history and contexts of fibre art. She lives on the traditional unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations known as Vancouver, B.C. In 2009 she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in visual arts from Simon Fraser University.

 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: A WALK IN THE PARK

WALKING PIECE

Walk in the footsteps of the person in front.

1. on ground

2. in mud

3. in snow

4. on ice

5. in water

Try not to make sounds.

- Yoko Ono, 1964 spring

The time of the COVID-19 “lockdown” has not been a walk in the park. During the last few months, those of us who are able to take walks have done so of simple necessity: to get groceries, to do laundry, and to keep sane. The recent mass outpouring of rage following the police murder of George Floyd have been a reminder (if anyone had forgotten) that walking remains a powerful symbol of solidarity. There are indeed multiple, intertwined histories of walking, including regulation of who can walk, where they can walk, and when they can walk.

With these contexts in mind, CSA would like to invite you to join us in a socially-distanced art project, to take place in Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park. Taking inspiration from Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings (1964), we invite submissions of instructions for socially-distanced walking activities and/or performances, to be completed by persons other than those issuing the instructions. Up to 30 instructions will be selected from submissions received, then freely distributed through CSA’s website as a PDF.

At 130 acres, QE is the second-largest park in the city of Vancouver. The spaciousness of QE Park will allow participants to maintain virally safe distances, while potentially allowing numerous participants to enact the same set of instructions at the same time. QE Park’s history as a former quarry makes it one of the most topographically interesting parks in Vancouver, providing all kinds of nooks and crannies where performances and/or activities could take place.

QE Park is at 4600 Cambie Street. A virtual drive-through of the park is available on Google Maps.

Submissions will be accepted, reviewed and released on a rolling basis, with a new batch released every Monday, until the end of the COVID-19 crisis. The curators may edit and format accepted submissions for clarity or brevity, in consultation with the artists.

JELENA AND THE MAGIC FLUTE: A STORY IN 12 ARTWORKS

12 March 2020 through 30 April 2020
Opening reception for the artists Thursday 12 March 2020, 6-9pm

Guest curated by Dan Starling

Jelena is an optimistic university student who spends a lot of time in coffee shops, dividing her time between serving customers and working on writing her first novel. After being offered a magic flute that has the power to turn sorrow into joy, she is at first hesitant to accept the gift and the responsibility that comes with it. But after she finds her grandmother Denise missing and a mysterious messenger delivers a note to her that uncovers the truth behind a historical assassination, the flute becomes indispensable in outwitting a group of conspirators including Humpty Dumpty and Canadian billionaire Chip Wilson whose aim is to keep the world ignorant of the truth. Will Jelena find her grandmother and save the world, or is the whole thing just deep fake news story?

The idea for the exhibition is to generate a sequence of works by different artists that builds a narrative in their accumulation. The works were selected sequentially following the "monomyth"; the description given by Joseph Campbell of a narrative sequence in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces that determines the plot points common among stories. The structure is so pervasive that it saturates our popular entertainment. The "stages" are, in simplified form:


Artist 1. Stephen Waddell

Stage 1. ORDINARY WORLD


Artist 2 - Claire Geddes Bailey

Stage 2. DISRUPTION also known as the “CALL TO ADVENTURE”


Artist 3 - Luke Parnell

Stage 3. QUESTIONING also known as the “REFUSAL OF THE CALL”


Artist 4 - Rosamunde Bordo

Stage 4. DECISION (to act or not) can be encouraged to act by a “MEETING WITH THE MENTOR”


Artist 5 - Tom Richardson

Stage 5. UNKNOWN also known as “CROSSING THE THRESHOLD”


Artist 6 - Michael Lachman

Stage 6. HELP OR TESTS FROM ALLIES OR ENEMIES, whom they meet on their journey.


Artist 7 - Marina Roy

Stage 7. QUESTIONING THE CONSEQUENCES (of the decision, “Can I go back to the old life?”)


Artist 8 - Rowan Melling

Stage 8. THE FINAL TEST/ ORDEAL


Artist 9 - Diyan Achjadi

Stage 9. REWARD (new knowledge)


Artist 10 - Stephanie Gagne

Stage 10. ROAD BACK


Artist 11 - Shelley Rothenburger

Stage 11. RESURRECTION


Artist 12 - Liljana Mead Martin

Stage 12. MASTER OF TWO WORLDS


Stephen Waddell received his MFA from the University of British Columbia in 1994, and has exhibited in galleries and institutions including Monte Clark Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Espai d’art contemporani de Castelló in Castello, Spain, Kunstforum Baloise in Basel, Switzerland, the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, and C/O in Berlin. Waddell’s works are included in the permanent collections of the Armand Hammer Collection in Los Angeles, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, and numerous others. Waddell’s most recent books include Dark Matter Atlas (2017) published by Distanz and Hunt and Gather (2011) published by Steidl. In 2019, Waddell won the Scotiabank Photography Award. The artist lives and works in Vancouver, B.C. Canada.

Claire Geddes Bailey makes videos, structures, sounds, cakes, and texts. Dwelling on the narrative qualities of materials, words, symbols, and spaces, her work often addresses legibility. She sees a parallel between surfaces of objects and the texture of language. Claire holds a BA in English literature and visual art from UBC. She lives and works as an uninvited guest on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Luke Parnell is Wilp Laxgiik Nisga’a (House of Eagles) from Gingolx on his mother’s side and Haida from Massett on his father’s side.  His artistic training is both traditional and classical - he apprenticed with a Master Northwest Coast Indigenous carver and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from OCAD University and a Masters of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. His medium is predominantly wood, however his materiality is determined on a project by project basis. Northwest coast Indigenous art is the basis of his practice and praxis, centering on narrative, specifically transformation narratives.

Rosamunde Bordo is an interdisciplinary artist invested in exploring narrative possibilities through collections of objects and images, appropriated/ready-made texts, and a practice of creative writing. She is currently an MFA candidate in visual art at the University of British Columbia. For her thesis she is working on an ongoing project called The Denise File which is an investigation of a woman known to the artist through a collection of postcards. Within this sprawling multidisciplinary project, she explores love and desire, the role of mediation, and the construction and conflation of factual and fictional narratives. She is also cofounder of everydaystollen, an experimental podcast series. She is currently based on the traditional unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, known as Vancouver, B.C.

Tom Richardson’s practice explores intersecting themes in art history, narrative, music, and politics. His work has found itself in various forms ranging from exuberant multi-channel installation, single channel video, sculptural assemblage, drawing and painting. Richardson was a cofounding member and organizer of Duplex, an artist run gallery and studio facility in Vancouver. Richardson’s work has been exhibited and screened internationally, recent solo exhibitions include Big Industrial Zoetrope, VIVO Media Arts Centre, Vancouver (2018), Rehearsal for a Synthetic Theatre, Field Contemporary, Vancouver (2017), The Bureau of True Vision, Spare Room, Vancouver (2016).

Michael Lachman is an artist based in Vancouver, BC. His works take the form of sculptural installation, video, drawing and printmaking. He explores the mythos constructed through storytelling and questions the authority of the storyteller. He is particularly drawn to stories of duplicity and the unreliable narrative, which materialize through projects that are both investigatory and fictional, and at times draw from the esoteric and speculative.

Marina Roy is a Vancouver-based artist and writer, and associate professor in Visual Art at the University of British Columbia. She works across a variety of media — drawing, painting, sculpture, video, and animation. Her artwork investigates the grotesque at the intersection of language, image, and materiality; and her research interests include ecology, post humanism, and biopolitics. In 2001 she published Sign After the X (Arsenal/Artspeak); her newest book Queuejumping (Information Office) will come out in October 2020. In 2010 she was recipient of the VIVA art award.

Rowan Melling's research-based practice is rooted in and informed by literature and philosophy. Recently, he has started oil painting as a way to critique the multiplying culture of corporate self-actualization and self-branding. Motivated by his alienation and a desire for something less bad, Melling seeks alternatives to the entrepreneurial-self in his work. Melling has studied at the University of British Columbia.

Diyan Achjadi's practice in drawing, printmaking and animation considers surface ornamentation, historical prints, and illustrations as pictorial archives, and the potential of these forms as sites for knowledge transmission. She has exhibited widely at galleries and film festivals across Canada and internationally. Recent projects include Coming Soon!, a year-long commission for the City of Vancouver Public Art Program, and NonSerie (In Commute), part of How far do you travel?, a year-long exhibition on the exterior of public buses, commissioned by the Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG) in partnership with Translink BC. Diyan received a BFA from the Cooper Union (New York, NY) and an MFA from Concordia University (Montreal, QC), and is an Associate Professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.

Stephanie Gagne is a Vancouver-based artist. She received a bachelor of fine arts degree in visual arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and a master of fine arts degree in interdisciplinary studies from Simon Fraser University. Her interests include popular culture, sexuality, neighbourhoods and childhood nostalgia. Stephanie's interdisciplinary projects involve sculpture, photography, drawing, and video.

Shelley Rothenburger was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario and now resides in Richmond, B.C.  She began formal studies in art in 1989 at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Fine Art in 1995 majoring in Painting. She continued her art education in 1997 upon entering Graduate School at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and completed her formal studies with a Master of Fine Art degree in painting in 2000. She has had multiple solo, juried and group exhibitions nationwide, most noted being a juried exhibition at the Art Gallery on Ontario in Toronto in 1996 and a solo exhibition at the Nickel Museum in Calgary in 2000.  Her work is represented in the University of Alberta Master of Fine Art Collection, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection and also in private regional, national and international collections.

Liljana Mead Martin is a visual artist living and working on unceded Coast Salish territories, Vancouver. Through sculptural and choreographic processes she explores connections between memory, embodiment, material and geography. In recent sculpture she deals with the external and internal environments as interchangeable forms engaged in a constant exchange, with reference to injury, resilience, loss and survival. Martin’s artworks and performance have been exhibited at The Klondike Institute for Arts and Culture (Dawson City YT), Artscape Gibraltar Point (Toronto Island ON) the Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax NS), Dynamo Arts Association (Vancouver), Recess (NYC) and the Nanaimo Art Gallery (Vancouver Island).

Dan Starling’s work plays with the conventions of narratives through intervention, extrapolation and reconfiguration to produce exciting juxtapositions that encourage critical engagement. Based in research, Starling’s work deals with how historical and contemporary aesthetic forms frame the narratives that in turn influence how we see ourselves individually and collectively. Starling has studied at Emily Carr University and Städelschule, Frankfurt, and has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. Starling’s work was most recently shown at Wil Aballe Art Projects, VIVO Media Arts Centre and the Libby Leshgold Gallery, Vancouver.