17.12.05-26.02.06
PRESS KIT
INDEX
exhibition
archive
list of rtists and works on displayp. 4
publication
Snow Flakes & TV Signals
p. 2
p. 3
p. 9
p. 10
INTERTIDAL : VANCOUVER ART & ARTISTS
17.12.05 – 26.02.06
In the winter of 2005-2006, the Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art MuHKA will host a major survey show of
contemporary art from Vancouver, BC – the first of its kind outside Canada, and the first of such ambitious scope in
Europe.
In spite of – or, more probably, exactly because of – its spectacularly isolated location on the northern shores of the
Pacific, Vancouver has, in recent decades, grown into an important center of contemporary visual arts. Home to artists of
such critically acclaimed stature as Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham, Ken Lum, Jeff Wall and Ian Wallace, all of whom have
exhibited extensively in Europe and the Americas, Vancouver has firmly established itself as an international art hub of
the first order. Although some of the aforementioned artists will of course figure prominently in the exhibition,
“Intertidal” explicitly seeks to address the wide-ranging riches of art practices that have been developing in Vancouver
since these figureheads first came to the fore some ten to fifteen years ago, and focus on the irreducible heterogeneity of
artistic production of recent years. A grand total of sixteen artists, many of them still relatively little known in Europe,
are invited to contribute existing works or create site-specific new work for the exhibition. Taking into account the
historical primacy of photographic practice in ‘Vancouver art’, the exhibition will boast its fair share of photographic
works, films and video projections; a series of drawings, paintings and sculptural works, however, will complete the
picture of a city survey dedicated to documenting an arts ‘scene’ characterized by a rigorous commitment to the politics
of the image and imaging as such.
Vikky Alexander, Roy Arden, Scott McFarland and Kelly Wood ‘represent’ the photographic paradigm as a cornerstone of
much Vancouver-based art practice; two historical photo-based works by Ian Wallace define the parameters of the city’s
well-known brand of conceptual art, commonly referred to as “photo-conceptualism”. Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham,
Damian Moppett and Judy Radul present highly accomplished video and film works that enact the ambiguities ingrained
in British Columbia’s ‘supernatural’ landscape, whereas the works of Rebecca Belmore, Brian Jungen, Tim Lee and Ron
Terada deal with the ambivalences and mixed blessings of ‘culture’ and (sub)urbanization. A conscious re-engagement
with more ‘traditional’ modes of production such as drawing, painting and sculpture, take up centre stage in the artistic
practices of Geoffrey Farmer, Liz Magor and Steven Shearer.
Throughout the exhibition, there will be displays and panels providing ‘background’ information on Vancouver and the
Northwestern Pacific as a whole, shedding more light on the general cultural conditions of Vancouver’s rise to art world
fame in the eighties and nineties – the central storyline behind the exhibition’s geographic rationale.
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ARCHIVE
In a historical introduction to the actual exhibition titled “Intertidal Archive”, co-curator Scott Watson has assembled a
number of unique documents that help to establish a context for the local arts scene in Vancouver from the late sixties to
mid-seventies, a key moment when conceptual art ‘officially’ enters the Pacific Northwestern cultural consciousness and
the foundations are laid down for what would become, a decade and a half or so later, the ‘story’ of the “Vancouver
School of Photo-conceptualism”. This archive includes photo-documentation of Robert Smithson’s Glue Pour (1969), a
work realized on the occasion of Lucy Lippard’s seminal 955,000 exhibition of contemporary art at the Vancouver Art
Gallery (the catalogue of which will also be on view in the vitrines); various ‘historical’ photo-documents by Michael de
Courcy, Christos Dikeakos, Dean Ellis and Iain & Ingrid Baxter’s crucial N.E. Thing Company; various paraphernalia from
the Morris/Trasov Archive (now at UBC’s Belkin Art Gallery); and documents of artworks and/or performances by Tom
Burrows (in the so-called “intertidal zone” from which the exhibition derives its title), Roy Kiyooka and Glenn Lewis. Pride
of place is taken up by Jeff Wall’s pivotal Landscape Manual from 1969, a casual manifesto of sorts of Vancouver’s
idiosyncratic photo-tradition to come; Ken Lum’s early Entertainment for Surrey (1978), and Robert Kleyn’s Architecture
of the Fraser Valley from 1972, featuring contributions by Rodney Graham among others. Last but not least, the Intertidal
Archive also includes a rare gem of local pop lore – the eponymous debut album by Vancouver’s no wave pioneers
UJ3RK5, a band that at one time featured the musicianship of Rodney Graham, Jeff Wall and Ian Wallace.
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LIST OF ARTISTS AND WORKS ON DISPLAY
Vikky Alexander
Model Suite, 2005
C-print
101,5 x 152 cm (x4)
Courtesy the Artist and State Gallery & Projects, Vancouver
Roy Arden
Crow, 2000
Gelatin silver print
71 x 89 cm
Courtesy Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver
D’Elegance (#1), 2000
Gelatin silver print
40,6 x 51 cm
Courtesy Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver
D’Elegance (#2), 2000
Gelatin silver print
40,6 x 51 cm
Courtesy Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver
Gutter with Rags (#1), 2000
Gelatin silver print
35,6 x 28 cm
Courtesy Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver
Gutter with Rags (#2), 2000
Gelatin silver print
35,6 x 28 cm
Courtesy Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver
Supernatural, 2005
DVD for projection, sound (video installation)
Dimensions variable
Courtesy Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver
Rebecca Belmore
The Named and the Unnamed, 2002
Video installation
Dimensions variable
Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of Bristish Columbia, Vancouver (purchased with the
financial support of the Morris and Helen Belkin Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Program,
2004)
Stan Douglas
Every Building on 100 West Hastings Street, 2001
C-print
120 x 488 cm
Courtesy Ringier Collection, Zürich
Nutka, 1996
DVD for projection, quadraphonic sound (video installation)
Courtesy the Artist & David Zwirner Gallery, New York
Geoffrey Farmer
Nieuw werk
Courtesy the artist & Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Rodney Graham
Edge of a Wood, 1999
DVD for projection, sound (video installation)
Dimensions variable
Courtesy Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
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Linden, Ronse, 1989
Monochrome colour print
230 x 180 cm
SMAK, Gent
Ponderosa Pine II, 1991
C-print
234 x 190 cm
Belgacom Art, Brussels
Ponderosa Pine III, 1991
C-print
234 x 190 cm
Belgacom Art, Brussels
Brian Jungen
Void, 2002
Coleman coolers, wooden pallet, light, metal clamps
221 x 244 x 69 cm
Collection Bob Rennie, Rennie Management Corporation, Vancouver
Courtesy Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Tim Lee
Untitled (Ted Williams, 1942)
2002
DVD, monitor, plinth
Dimensions variable
Courtesy the Artist & Tracey Lawrence Gallery, Vancouver
The Jerk, Carl Reiner, 1979
2004
C-print
213 x 183 cm
Courtesy the Artist & Tracey Lawrence Gallery, Vancouver
The Jerk, The opti-grab, 1979
2004
C-print
43 x 50 cm
Courtesy the Artist & Tracey Lawrence Gallery, Vancouver
Liz Magor
Wrap, 2003
Polymerized gypsum, fibreglass
254 x 88 x 84 cm
Courtesy the Artist & Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto
Scott McFarland
Fountain Study, Late Fall; Cedrus atlantica, Acer palmatum, 2004
Digital C-print
101 x 280 cm
Private collection, Brussels
Orchard View, Late Spring; Vitis vinifera, Wisteria, 2004
Digital C-print
101 x 305 cm
Collection Heinz & Simon Ackermans, London
Trapping, Ernesto Gacutan Positions against Fauna, 2003
Digital C-print
105 x 126 cm
Collection of Giverny Capital Inc., Montréal
Inspecting, Allan O 'Connor Searches for Botrytis cinerea, 2003
Digital C-print
105 x 126 cm
Collection of Daniel Faria, Toronto
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Spraying, Norman Whaley Applying Aphid Solution, 2003
Digital C-print
105 x 126 cm
Collection of Joe Shlesinger and Samara Walbohm, Toronto
On the Terrace Garden, Joe and Rosalee Segal with Cosmos altosanguineus, 2004
Digital C-print
105 x 126 cm
Collection of Gerda Neubacher, Toronto
Damian Moppett
1815/1962
2003
DVD for projection, sound; poster; models (video installation)
Dimensions variable
Courtesy Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Judy Radul
Downes Point, 2005
Five-channel projection (video installation)
Dimensions variable
Courtesy Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Steven Shearer
Pete, 2001
Acrylic on canvas
106 x 71 cm
Courtesy Hauser und Wirth Collection, Zürich
Sniffer, 2002
Acrylic on canvas
43 x 32 cm
Courtesy Hauser und Wirth Collection, Zürich
Larry in Germany, 2004
Oil on canvas
50 x 130 cm
Courtesy Collezzione Nunzia & Vittorio Gaddi, Lucca
Playground, 2001
Acrylic on canvas
45,7 x 61 cm
Courtesy Eva Presenhüber, Zürich
Satanic Rampage, 2001
Acrylic on canvas
40,5 x 51 cm
Courtesy Ringier Collection, Zürich
Longhairs, 2004
Crayon on paper
36 x 28 cm (x5)
Courtesy Eva Presenhüber, Zürich
Mouth Breathers, 2005
Silverpoint on paper
36 x 28 cm (x3)
Burger Collection
Courtesy Galerie Eva Presenhüber, Zürich
Boy’s Life, 2004
Digital C-print
178 x 166 cm
Courtesy Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich
X-Mas Trees, 2005
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Digital C-print
124,5 x 89 cm
Courtesy Galleria Franco Noero, Torino
Ron Terada
Stay Away From Lonely Places, 2005
White neon, plexi-glass, aluminium & steel
322 x 83 x 47cm
Courtesy Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Learn Photoshop, 2005
Digital C-print
33 x 38cm
Courtesy Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Learn Video Editing, 2005
Digital C-print
Courtesy Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Ian Wallace
La mélancolie de la rue, 1973
Hand-tinted photograph
157,5 x 104 cm (x 3)
Courtesy of Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
At Work, 1988
DVD for projection, poster, colour photograph transparency
Dimensions variable
Courtesy the Artist & Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Kelly Wood
The Continuous Garbage Project, Year 4: March 15, 2001 – March 14, 2002
2002
C-print
50,8 x 40,6 cm (x 55)
Courtesy Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
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PUBLICATION
As befits an arts ‘scene’ world-renowned for its high level of theoretical, discursive literacy – and for fostering many
artists who have themselves become highly respected writers and thinkers on contemporary art – a catalogue will be
published on the occasion of said exhibition, featuring essays and articles by some of Vancouver’s (and Canada’s) most
distinguished critics, theorists and writers. Not only documenting the exhibition as such, but the history and current
flowering of Vancouver art as a whole, this book should indeed be regarded as a reader instead of merely a catalogue,
and will surely set a standard for any future research on Vancouver art.
Judy Radul and Ian Wallace both uphold the time-honed tradition of critical artist’s writing; as co-curators of the
exhibition and co-editor of its ‘reader’, both Dieter Roelstraete and Scott Watson have contributed lengthy essays on the
artists and artworks in the exhibition; acclaimed art historians Shepherd Steiner and WilliamWood have written on
different aspects of the local art scene, while Vancouver-based curator Monika Szewczyk ponders the role of
‘performance’ in the city’s visual arts. Reid Shier, currently chief curator at Toronto’s Power Plant, has written on the
work of a new generation of artists emerging in the mid-to-late nineties. Finally also Michael Turner, playwright,
scriptwriter and local man of letters, has contributed to the “Intertidal” book with a literary take on the exhibition’s
overarching theme.
The book has been designed by Vancouver-based graphic designer Robin Mitchell, and is published in close collaboration
with the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia.
The publication will be presented at the museum on the 17th of December and will be for sale for € 25.
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SNOW FLAKES & TV SIGNALS
Concurrent with the exhibition, MuHKA_media will present an extensive film- and media program, entitled “Snow Flakes
& TV Signals”. The main focus of the program will concern Canada’s rich film tradition as seen from the point of view of
(Edmonton-born) Marshall McLuhan’s media studies.
The program includes over twenty titles of various known and less well-known directors, from David Cronenberg and
Atom Egoyan (both operating from Toronto, the nerve centre of the Canadian Film industry) to Inuit filmmaker
Zacharias Kunuk and experimental filmmakers such as Michael Snow and Guy Maddin. In addition to this program a
separate film and/or documentary section grafted on the specific theme of Vancouvers ‘Intertidal Zone’ as a free port of
dissident traditions will be organized towards the end of the exhibition.
The MuHKA_media program is curated by Edwin Carels.
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