Salut! Pet Peeves continues with Alfie, a Burnese French Poodle cross with a taste for an unusual delicacy…

I had heard through the grunt grapevine that Linda’s Alfie was a bit of a bad boy, and what woman doesn’t enjoy that? I was looking forward to some of that bad boy charm when Linda Gorrie, (grunt’s business manager of 14 years) and Alfie, (Burnese poodle cross) dropped by the gallery for a visit one Saturday. Now, if any dog wants to tell me that he is European, even though I know darn good and well that he actually hails from Surrey, B.C., in Canada, and has no relationship whatsoever to a lecherous, mid-century cartoon skunk, who am I to argue? I just would not argue. I’m not that kind of person. No no no noooo, if Alfie wants to have a fake-y, Pepe le Pew accent, and swear that it is because he is a Burnese, French Poodle cross, well, so be it… I just like to roll with these things, it’s my way.

Now, I did not notice any spectacularly bad boy-ish behaviour during the visit, apart from a bit of basically uncalled for barking. But, I was determined as always to dig up some kind of dirt. As you might know, I had pretty much given up ages ago on finding out anything troubling about the grunt staff. They are all just so consistently nice, it’s sickening really. But surely Alfie was harbouring some dark secrets. He originated in Surrey after all. If I was lucky, maybe there’d be gang involvement!

Me: So, Alfie, how long have you and Linda been together?

Alfie: I do not care for zees details! I bark at your silly, silly questions!! Bark Bark!

Me: Alfie, have you got a little bit of an accent?

Alfie: But of course, mon Cherie! I am European by breed! Zoot Alors! Do you know nothing at all? I must bark!! Oh, sorry, I did not mean to frighten that poor visitor to the gallery… I feel so bad that she is running out ze door! Zese humans, they are more like big chickens? Non?

Me: Well, Alfie that was actually fairly LOUD barking…..but tell me, how do you enjoy life with Linda and her daughter? Anything about them really getting on your nerves? Just any little thing at all…

Alfie: I adore Linda and her daughter!! Zey are the most beautiful women in ze world!!! Every night I creep from one bed to the other, I love them so much, I cannot decide!! Zey like, a bit too much, ze HUGGING! I I must BARK every time! Too much with ze hugging!! BARK!

Me: Right. Hmmmm, so, Linda is giving you the right kinds of toys and food and everything? Lots of walks and things?

Alfie: Yes, of course! My favourite toy is ze hamburger, made of rubber. And Linda has taught me fifty of your English words for food! Although some things Linda does not understand too well. I zink she does not know the European ways…like ze poo bags for example…

My ears perked up at the mention of poo bags. I was pretty certain this could be that bad behaviour I’d been looking for!

Me: Ummm, what exactly is it about the poo bags Alfie?

Alfie: In Europe, dogs like to eat ze poop. We take ze leetle bags full of ze poop, and we TOSS them up into the air!! We eat ze poop! I do not understand why all of ze humans at the dog park hide ze poop when I come over. Zey run, but they cannot hide! I will always find ze poop!

Me: Well, that is kind of gross.

Alfie: Pah! What do you know of ze poop?! You are like Linda, you have probably never even tried la poop! So, how do you know? It is more delightful than anything you could imagine! Viva la poop!!!

Now anyone who has ever lived with a dog knows that they do enjoy smelly things. They like to rub themselves on smelly things, and sit in your car, happily stinking up the place. And I can honestly say that my old dog, Rhonda, had a habit of snacking on the kitty litter. So, I guess this is a doggy thing, I’d never met one who deliberately went after poo bags in the park… and I did not entirely believe that this was a European dog trait, but I thought it showed a lot of focus from Alfie. Dedication really.

Seemed like it might be time for a bit of a change of subject.

Me: So, Alfie, you are a Burnese, poodle cross? A Burna-doodle? Is that right?

Alfie: Gah! Stupid, silly, silly name! Are you a human doodle? What is zis DOODLE!? It is so silly, I must CHEW on zis rubber doorstopper, until it is RUBBLE!!! DOODLE!! PAH!!!

At about this point in our interview, It occurred to me that Alfie might be getting a little over-excited. He began to talk about ART, and how much he loved it, and how delicious it is, while wandering into the gallery…I’m happy to say that no art was actually harmed during the making of this interview, but I was a bit worried that the show might meet the same fate as a tasty little bag of poo.

Me: Well, you are probably getting ready for your walk now? And maybe a bit of a snack? I’m sure Linda is planning to take you somewhere really nice today. Thanks for coming in to meet with me, Alfie, and if anything at all comes to mind, just anything you might have a complaint about, you have my number. Don’t hesitate to call….

Alfie: Yes! I must go out for ze refreshing walk!! I seem to have a little bit of rubber doorstopper temporarily stuck in my throat… gack, cough, petoooey!

Me: It was lovely to meet you, and always great to see you Linda.

Alfie: Gurk, silly door stopper! I must go!!! Immediatement! Where is my hamburger?!!

And with that, my brief time with Alfie and Linda was over. I did hear that he recovered completely from nibbling on the doorstopper, and that he and Linda went on to have a lovely outing… I did not hear if any poop bags were consumed during that walk, so I can only imagine…

Despite his bad boy ways, Alfie charmed me completely, and Linda? Well, what’s not to like?

No, my only hope was to talk to Mary Ann, and her dog, but really, I should probably rename this whole project, from Pet Peeves, to Perfect Pets and Pukingly Perfect Owners. Really, that’s how it actually IS! As Alfie would say, PAH! Silly!

We are pleased to present the first instalment of Pet Peeves, a series in which grunt’s Gallery Assistant, Hedy Wood, investigates grunt gallery’s staff by interviewing their pets. We will post a new instalment of Pet Peeves each month. Enjoy!

It had honestly never occurred to me that there might be a pet without a peeve until I went to Dan’s place. I mean, who has a cat that is so content, he doesn’t destroy the furniture? Or wake you up in the middle of the night by sitting on your head? Or sit beside the food bowl, yelling? Well, apparently DAN has that cat! Apparently, everything is all just super duper all the time over there!

It’s not exactly that I am obsessed with finding fault with grunt staff, but really, there has to be something wrong with them. At work they are kind, inclusive, courteous and professional, while also managing to be fun…..and good looking. I mean, Come ON! Gah! How is that interesting?

No, there has to be something else going on and I figure those pets are the ones that know. Surely they are harbouring some kind of secret grudge? They’ve got to be peeved about some terrible thing the staff is doing. I just need to get to the bottom of it.

Boris and I met at the beginning of March at Dan Pon’s east end apartment. (Dan has been grunt’s archives manager for the last 3 years, and was involved with the gallery for 4 years before that in a variety of capacities. He also works as a librarian at Langara College and West Vancouver Memorial Library. He probably barely has time to even feed a cat.)

Boris is a lanky, handsome, debonair black and white cat. He also appeared to be a bit shy, but totally charming, hmmmm, I did not see how this was going to help with my particular mission. But I put my phone on record and commenced with the interview, optimistic as always, and with a pocketful of cat treats on hand.

Me: So Boris, tell me how you and Dan met.

Boris: Well, about six years ago, I had fallen on some difficult times and I was temporarily living in a shelter down in Seattle. I had been living with a big gang of cats outside a warehouse, but that situation was about to end, and I fear, all of our lives with it!  Dan and his partner were in desperate need of a feline rescue, and of course, I was looking for better accommodations, so I caught their eye when they came into the shelter. Long story short, they ended up terminating their vacation in order to bring me to their home in Canada. People just do not realize the amount of effort we cats put in to rescuing them. I had to lure them all the way to Seattle, AND disrupt their vacation.

Me: Yeah, ok, good, that’s nice, what a sweet story. But what I really want to know is do you have any complaints about Dan? Here have a treat.

Boris: Actually, there is literally almost nothing wrong with Dan. I mean he works a lot, and he could be here, spending time with me and doing things for me, but that’s about it.

Me: So, would you say everything here is all perfect and completely GOOD?!It’s just NICE and PLEASANT all the time?!!!

Boris: I have to say that I do worry a bit about Dan’s hearing. I mean how loudly does a cat have to YELL before he realizes that I need something? What if I’m hungry, or need to go outside, or the litter box is in bad condition? Sometimes I have to yell at him for ten minutes or so before he responds! But he is really so excellent in every other way, I’ve got no complaints at all.

Me: F WORD! What about snoring? That can be very annoying, or excessive gassiness and farting? Or stupid nick names? He can’t be THAT perfect!

Boris: Sometimes they call me Flatfish, which has to do with my elegant, low slung hunting posture, but I kind of like that. And no, no particular gassiness that I have noticed….

Me: Come ON! There’s got to be SOMETHING!! You’ve been together for what? Six years now?

Boris: My word, you certainly are a very persistent person, dogged almost…..all right then, I do think it would be very nice of them to get me a little kitten buddy…..there, I said it! Oh, and they might want to do something about the condition of my scratching post, it’s a tad shabby…I don’t say these things as complaints at all, more like helpful suggestions….

Now, I have to say that by this point in the interview, I was beginning to grind my teeth. My own good opinion of Dan was completely unaltered, and Boris was ready to get out for a bit on his neighborhood patrol. And what kind of dirt had I dug up? Absolutely zero, zilch, zip nada! Everything was just a little too good around Dan’s and it was getting on my nerves. Definitely it was time to leave.

While I was grumpily riding the #4 back to my place, I thought about Meagan and her “protective” bulldogs and the way they vigilantly guard her house. That must be a terrible situation. Goody. I planned to call her as soon as I got home….

Jeremy and Sus Borsos – The Blue Cabin Exhibition

ARTISTS: Jeremy and Sus Borsos

CURATOR: Glenn Alteen

OPENING RECEPTION: June 14, 7 – 9 PM

EXHIBITION DATES: June 15 to July 28, 2018

THE BLUE CABIN SPEAKER SERIES:

Wednesday, June 20 at 7:00 p.m.
Artist talk with Jeremy Borsos
Artist Jeremy Borsos will give a talk describing the restoration of the small 1920’s building known as the Blue Cabin. The talk will focus on possible translations of the cabin’s history.

Thursday, June 28 at 7:00 p.m.
Daniel Francis | Squat City: A Brief History of Squatting Around Burrard Inlet
Author and historian Daniel Francis will speak about the history of squatter villages on the region’s foreshore.

Saturday, July 7 at 2:00 p.m.
Carole Itter in conversation with Krista Lomax
Artist Carole Itter will present an informal talk about her artwork and writings during her 35 year-long residency at the Blue Cabin. She will be joined by artist and editor Krista Lomax.

Thursday, July 12 at 7:00 p.m.
Other Sights for Artists’ Projects, The Foreshore
Artist Jen Weih and curator and artist Vanessa Kwan will speak about The Foreshore, a project produced by Other Sights, in collaboration with Access Gallery and the Contemporary Art Gallery.

Thursday, July 19 at 7:00 p.m.
The Blue Cabin Project
Blue Cabin founding partners Glenn Alteen, Esther Rausenberg, and Barbara Cole will discuss the Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency project.

*To keep up to date with The Blue Cabin, please sign up for a separate newsletter online here.

When Jeremy Borsos and his wife, Sus, took on the remediation of the Blue Cabin, we at grunt never expected what would eventually come out of it! Using historical materials, they took the structure apart, methodically cleaned every inch, and replaced the rotted out bits. They insulated the walls and fixed the floor. Essentially, they treated it as an archaeological site, collecting its history in scraps of newspapers and mouse nests and, in an archival process, painstakingly saved what remained. The humble structure revealed itself slowly over the six-month period of the restoration and culminated – when they took up the floor – in the discovery of almost 40 posters that had been put there in 1927 to prevent the floor from squeaking.

In this exhibition, the Borsos’ present a body of work that documents this journey, while providing us a history of the cabin before Al Neil and Carole Itter’s tenancy, and offering us new insights into the earlier inhabitants— squatters, and marine workers on the foreshore.

Jeremy Borsos attended Emily Carr School of Art and the Art Students League in New York. His practice is multidisciplinary and includes writing, photography, installation, painting, and video. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. Together with his partner, Sus, the Borsos have developed a meta-historical use of salvaged architecture, constructing multiple dwellings and ancillary structures.

Sus Borsos was born in Denmark and studied statistics and computer sciences at Copenhagen University before managing Scandinavian Stage Design, where she oversaw the creation of stages for major events in Europe. After relocating to Canada in 1992, she worked with her husband, Jeremy Borsos, on constructing their Mayne Island home created from salvaged architectural fragments. Sus has also worked in digital film editing and design, and image output for reproduction.

Together, Sus and Jeremy have constructed a number of buildings using period architectural salvage. They have most recently completed a full remediation of the Blue Cabin, the studio component of a soon to be launched floating artist residency in Vancouver, Canada. Among Jeremy and Sus’s current creative projects is the redesigning and rebuilding of a studio and living space in Athens, Greece. They live and work on Mayne Island, British Columbia, and in Athens, Greece.

The Blue Cabin project is led by grunt gallery, along with Other Sights for Artists Projects, and Creative Cultural Collaborations (C3). This program has been supported by the Hamber Foundation.

Download the PDF of the catalogue and essay by Scott Watson

Jeremy Borsos on the Blue Cabin remediation, October 3, 2017 at 7 pm at the Seymour Art Gallery.

(more…)

SHOPTALK: TRUST

Friday, November 28th
5pm – 7pm
Location: grunt gallery
116 – 350 E. 2nd Avenue
**Note the new venue!**

This season, Theatre Replacement and The Chop have partnered with Music on Main and grunt gallery to continue our series of candid discussions with artists from here and across Canada. Together we’re investigating some of the issues that come up between us and our various disciplines; what issues can we all talk about? And where are the places that we all get stuck, or revel in, or persist?

This, our second talk of the series, investigates trust as an artistic commodity. As artists experiment with duration, site-specificity, process and participation, ideas of sociability and engagement have become central to many aspects of contemporary practice. Outside the traditional confines of the white cube or the black box, the proscenium stage or the concert hall, these new frameworks depend on connectivity as a component of creative success, and trust– that basic element of human connection– underlies it all.

Four practitioners including visual artist Zoe Kreye, performance maker Caroline Liffmann and theatre artist Andrew Laurenson will talk through some of their current projects and the role that trust plays in the development of their work.

Zoe Kreye creates inter-disciplinary art projects that explore transformation, collective experience and negotiations of public space. Her work looks to engage the public in relations and aesthetics, with the goal of building inclusive, bottom-up associations that have the potential to be small catalysts for change within dominant social systems. Often looking outside the realm of art, her projects take the form of clubs, workshops, rituals, dialogues and journeys. Her focus is to encourage people towards self-reflection and a deeper engagement with themselves and society. Recent projects include Unlearning Walking Club (Unit Pitt, Vancouver), Unlearning Weekenders (<rotor>, Graz, Goethe Satellite), Soft/Union (The Apartment, Vancouver), Eat Talk Connect (City of Richmond) and Überlebenskuns.klub (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin). She completed a Masters in Public Art at the Bauhaus University Weimar, specializing in community engagement and participatory strategies and co-founded the Process Institute, the Berlin-based artist collective. She currently lives in Vancouver and teaches Social Practice at Emily Carr University.
http://zoekreye.com/

Andrew Laurenson is Artistic Producer of Vancouver’s Radix Theatre, an inter-disciplinary collective that creates socially-relevant performance work. A former small-town radio announcer, Andrew also dabbles in acting, writing and video production. Recent projects include TBD, a three-week long immersive theatre experience based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
http://www.radixtheatre.org/

Caroline Liffmann is a Vancouver-based contemporary performance maker, choreographer and improviser who collaborates on short works for the stage, the screen, and all manner of public places. Her practice is influenced by over 20 years of dance and movement training, most notably in contemporary dance technique, improvisation, physical theatre, and multi-disciplinary collaboration, and she holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from McMaster University. Caroline graduated from Vancouver’s MainDance in 2003, and was honourably mentioned for the Holy Body Tattoo BC Emerging Dance Artist Award in 2004 & 2005. Her dance theatre work has been presented at BC festivals and series such as Dancing on the Edge, the ROMP! Festival of Independent Dance, with Light Box at Dances for a Small Stage, and with Nervous System System at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival’s Club PuSh. In 2013 Caroline was an Artist in Residence with the Roundhouse Community Dancers, and at the Scotiabank Dance Centre with Light Box. She is currently facilitating, teaching and creating community-based dance projects and performances with MovEnt, Joe Ink, and Made in BC – Dance on Tour, as well as working with children, youth and families at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

SAVE THE DATE!
Music on Main hosts Friday, February 13

http://theatrereplacement.org/
http://www.thechoptheatre.com/
https://grunt.ca/
http://www.musiconmain.ca/

grunt gallery is very pleased to launch their newest project website:

thisplace.grunt.ca

This site is the culmination of work from the Background/ThisPlace exhibition project, the website will continually grow and evolve by user participation. We look forward to how visitors choose to engage with this site by re-tracing past routes and adding photos and videos of their own along the way.

Date: Thursday May 29
Time: 7-10pm
Location: grunt gallery, 116-350 East 2nd Ave,

THURSDAY MAY 29

grunt gallery announces the official launch of the Background / ThisPlace website.

Background / ThisPlace is a collaborative project that revisits a conceptual project created by Michael de Courcy in 1972, entitled Background/Vancouver. Forty years later, artists Emilio Rojas, Guadalupe Martinez, and Igor Santizointersect the original project with new ideas regarding identity, history, and social intervention.

Join us at grunt gallery for the launch reception, the newly created website will be accessible in the gruntKitchen Media Lab. Artist Eric Angus will be presenting his new live audiovisual performance 49.2500° N, 123.1000° W built around audiovisual documentation from across the greater vancouver area.

Concept:

On October 30, 2012, Vancouver artists, Emilio Rojas, Guadalupe Martinez, and Igor Santizo, revisited a conceptual created in 1972 by Michael de Courcy entitled, “Background Vancouver”.  Background / Vancouveris a photo-mapping expedition of Vancouver by Michael de Courcy with Taki Bluesinger, Gerry Gilbert, and Glenn Lewis on October, 30 1972. The project consists of the four artists walking three separate paths documenting their experiences in photographs. The project resurged in 2012 when Michael de Courcy launched the website Background / Vancouver project, exposing this unique perspective of Vancouver’s 1972 identity to new audiences online. 40 years to the day,three new artists (Rojaz, Martinez and Santizo) came together to forge a new, fourth path that intersects with the original paths which revisits ideas about Vancouver’s identity and history. The retrospective project was named, ThisPlace / Vancouver.

The group explores the aspect of the social; through conversations, meetings and experiences with people met during the expedition on October 30, 2012. The artists document their experiences using video, sound, and still-based images. A new dialogue emerges that reflects on how choices about documentation, narratives and mapping, from the past to the present, inform a contemporary perspective of Vancouver. The artists question how one tells a story of identity and an ever-changing urban landscape that is inclusive to varied experiences based in history, people, and artists from the past and to the present. Several multi-media and performance-based projects by Emilio Rojas, Guadalupe Martinez, and Igor Santizo will be concurrently exhibited at grunt.

Exhibition:

May 10- June 8, 2013, grunt gallery exhibited this retrospective and collaborative project. In addition to the new works produced by Rojas, Martinez and Santizo, grunt also exhibited the photo mural conceived and produced by Michael de Courcy as part of an ongoing photographic documentary project of Vancouver’s artists collective, Intermedia society.

Subsequent artist talks and panels took place in May to help inform an ongoing discourse (Check grunt.ca for more details). Discussions held at these meeting were recorded so that they could contribute to the web-based component of this project which was to be launched later in 2013.

Click here for more details.
formatnoauto.com

Background/ThisPlace talks:

Tuesday May 14
Social Cartography: Am Johal and Sarah Shamash
Saturday May 18
Background / Vancouver artists’ talk: Michael de Courcy, Glenn Lewis and Grant Arnold
Thursday May 23
Sound walk (5pm) // Mapping and Sound Panel:  Vincent Andrisani and Randolph Jordan
Saturday May 25th
ThisPlace / Vancouver artists’ talk: Emilio Rojas, Igor Santizo, Guadalupe Martinez // Potluck Dinner

PDF Download – Background_ThisPlace PRESS RELEASE

Website:

The artists worked with web developer, Archer Pechawis, to create a new website that maps the themes explored with Background / ThisPlace Vancouver. The website utilized images, video, sound and google maps to retrace the original paths from Michael de Courcy’s project as well as the new forged paths.

Photos:

http://megaphonemagazine.com/articles/681/vancouver-now-and-then-forty-years-apart-artists-trace-each-other-s-steps

Biographies:

Michael de Courcy –
http://www.michaeldecourcy.com/background-vancouver/project.htm

Artist, educator, curator. Michael de Courcy was born in Montréal in 1944. He studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Montréal and the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design). In the late 1960s, during his formative years as an artist, de Courcy was a core member of the Vancouver artists collective known as the Intermedia Society. While there, he produced an extensive Intermedia photo documentary project which he has since developed into a web installation entitled The Intermedia Catalogue (2009). […read more]

Glenn Lewis –
Artist, educator. Born in 1935, Glenn Lewis graduated from the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design) (1958) with honors in painting, drawing, and ceramics. Subsequently, he received a teaching certificate from University of British Columbia (1959) and he studied ceramics under Bernard Leach in St. Ives (Cornwall, England) (1961-1964). Lewis has worked in video, performance, film, ceramics, photography, sculpture, and writing. He was an active member of the avant-garde art scene in Vancouver during the 1960s, producing work that blurred the boundaries between media and between viewer and artist. […read more]

Emilio Rojas –
http://www.performancero.com/

Emilio Rojas was born in Mexico City, (ca.1980s) ,he is an interdisciplinary artist, working primarily in performance, interventions, video, installation, and sculpture. His works explore the relation between the artist and his audience, interacting and exchanging roles, while involving the communities that surround the spaces he engages with. Rojas requires the participation of the viewer, in order to set in motion the metaphors that unveil the intricacy of his art. The intrinsic relation with the body has been both his subject matter and medium. Exploring the mental and physical limits of his being, Emilio re-evaluates language, gender, activism, traditions, identity, ritual, displacement, migration and sexuality. Emilio Rojas is currently living in Vancouver, Canada, where he is exploring collaboration, alternative exhibition spaces, with a focus in social practice and public interventions.

Guadalupe Martinez –
http://www.guadalupemartinez.com/

Guadalupe Martinez is an Argentine-born artist based in Vancouver. She obtained her BFA at the Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte and is currently pursuing an MFA at University of British Columbia. Her research combines three-dimensionality, performance, and site-specificity by creating works that mnemonically activate found materials; reanimating their meaning into new structures of signification and resistance.  Martinez has attended residencies at Hammock Residency (BC), The Banff Centre for the Arts (AB), The STAG (BC), Elsewhere Collective (NC), and The Vermont Studio Center (VT). Her work has been shown in Argentina, Mexico, US and Canada. She is currently working as a Teacher Assistant at the University of British Columbia and is a member of the LIVE Biennale’s Board of Directors.

Igor Santizo –
http://about.me/igor.santizo

Igor Santizo is a creative free agent living and working in Vancouver. He teaches & facilitates: creative process, foundational principles, cultural literacy and more … while encouraging students with their creative potential, emerging selves and budding art practices. By way of his artwork, he has sought a complimentary dialogue between: metaphysical principles & material forms. Currently, he is exploring through drawings: variations of an abstract motif, allusion to cthonic force.

Developed with the participation of British Columbia Film & Media and the British Columbia Arts Council.

A special thanks to Modo The Car Co-op for supporting the transportation component of ThisPlace / Vancouver.

grunt gallery presents a retrospective and collaborative project based on Background / Vancouver, a photo-mapping expedition of Vancouver by Michael de Courcy with Taki Bluesinger, Gerry Gilbert, and Glenn Lewis on October, 30 1972. The project consists of the four artists walking three separate paths documenting their experiences in photographs. The project resurged in 2012 when Michael de Courcy launched the website Background / Vancouver project, exposing this unique perspective of Vancouver’s 1972 identity to new audiences online. grunt will be exhibiting the original photo mural conceived and produced by Michael de Courcy as part of an ongoing photographic documentary project of Vancouver’s artists collective, Intermedia society.

On October 30, 2012, Vancouver artists, Emilio Rojas, Guadalupe Martinez, and Igor Santizo, revisited this conceptual project.  40 years to the day, these three artists came together to forge a new, fourth path that intersects with the original paths which

revisits ideas about Vancouver’s identity and history. The retrospective project is entitled, ThisPlace / Vancouver.

The group explores the aspect of the social; through conversations, meetings and experiences with people met during the expedition on October 30, 2012. The artists document their experiences using video, sound, and still-based images. A new dialogue emerges that reflects on how choices about documentation, narratives and mapping, from the past to the present, inform a contemporary perspective of Vancouver. The artists question how one tells a story of identity and an ever-changing urban landscape that is inclusive to varied experiences based in history, people, and artists from the past and to the present. Several multi-media and performance-based projects by Emilio Rojas, Guadalupe Martinez, and Igor Santizo will be concurrently exhibited at grunt.

The opening reception will take place on May 10, 2013 (7-10pm) and will run until June 8, 2013.

Subsequent artist talks and panels will take place in May, following the opening exhibition, to help inform an ongoing discourse (Check grunt.ca for more details). Discussions held at these meeting will contribute to the web-based component of this project will be launched on October 30, 2013.

Click here for more details.

Tuesday May 14

Social Cartography: Am Johal and Sarah Shamash (7pm)

Saturday May 18

Background / Vancouver artists’ talk: Michael de Courcy, Glenn Lewis and Grant Arnold (2pm)

Thursday May 23

Sound walk (5pm) // Mapping and Sound Panel:  Vincent Andrisani and Randolph Jordan (7pm)

Saturday May 25th

ThisPlace / Vancouver artists’ talk: Emilio Rojas, Igor Santizo, Guadalupe Martinez (2pm) // Potluck Dinner (5pm)

PDF Download – Background_ThisPlace PRESS RELEASE

Artists:

Michael de Courcy –
http://www.michaeldecourcy.com/background-vancouver/project.htm

Artist, educator, curator. Michael de Courcy was born in Montréal in 1944. He studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Montréal and the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design). In the late 1960s, during his formative years as an artist, de Courcy was a core member of the Vancouver artists collective known as the Intermedia Society. While there, he produced an extensive Intermedia photo documentary project which he has since developed into a web installation entitled The Intermedia Catalogue (2009). […read more]

Glenn Lewis –
Artist, educator. Born in 1935, Glenn Lewis graduated from the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design) (1958) with honors in painting, drawing, and ceramics. Subsequently, he received a teaching certificate from University of British Columbia (1959) and he studied ceramics under Bernard Leach in St. Ives (Cornwall, England) (1961-1964). Lewis has worked in video, performance, film, ceramics, photography, sculpture, and writing. He was an active member of the avant-garde art scene in Vancouver during the 1960s, producing work that blurred the boundaries between media and between viewer and artist. […read more]

Emilio Rojas –
http://www.performancero.com/

Emilio Rojas was born in Mexico City, (ca.1980s) ,he is an interdisciplinary artist, working primarily in performance, interventions, video, installation, and sculpture. His works explore the relation between the artist and his audience, interacting and exchanging roles, while involving the communities that surround the spaces he engages with. Rojas requires the participation of the viewer, in order to set in motion the metaphors that unveil the intricacy of his art. The intrinsic relation with the body has been both his subject matter and medium. Exploring the mental and physical limits of his being, Emilio re-evaluates language, gender, activism, traditions, identity, ritual, displacement, migration and sexuality. Emilio Rojas is currently living in Vancouver, Canada, where he is exploring collaboration, alternative exhibition spaces, with a focus in social practice and public interventions.

Guadalupe Martinez –
http://www.guadalupemartinez.com/

Guadalupe Martinez is an Argentine-born artist based in Vancouver. She obtained her BFA at the Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte and is currently pursuing an MFA at University of British Columbia. Her research combines three-dimensionality, performance, and site-specificity by creating works that mnemonically activate found materials; reanimating their meaning into new structures of signification and resistance.  Martinez has attended residencies at Hammock Residency (BC), The Banff Centre for the Arts (AB), The STAG (BC), Elsewhere Collective (NC), and The Vermont Studio Center (VT). Her work has been shown in Argentina, Mexico, US and Canada. She is currently working as a Teacher Assistant at the University of British Columbia and is a member of the LIVE Biennale’s Board of Directors.

Igor Santizo –
http://about.me/igor.santizo

Igor Santizo is a creative free agent living and working in Vancouver. He teaches & facilitates: creative process, foundational principles, cultural literacy and more … while encouraging students with their creative potential, emerging selves and budding art practices. By way of his artwork, he has sought a complimentary dialogue between: metaphysical principles & material forms. Currently, he is exploring through drawings: variations of an abstract motif, allusion to cthonic force.

Article:

http://megaphonemagazine.com/articles/681/vancouver-now-and-then-forty-years-apart-artists-trace-each-other-s-steps

Developed with the participation of British Columbia Film & Media and the British Columbia Arts Council.

A special thanks to Modo The Car Co-op for supporting the transportation component of ThisPlace / Vancouver.