The Way to D.I.Y.
An artist talk by Germaine Koh as part of the Koerner Artist in Residence Program
5:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Room 102, Frederic Lasserre Building
6333 Memorial Road, University of British Columbia
The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited and advanced registration is required: REGISTER
COVID-19 prevention protocols will be in place, including mandatory masks for the duration of the lecture.
The 2021-2022 Koerner Artist in Residence, Germaine Koh, will present an overview of her artistic practice and current projects, which range from hacking and reprogramming consumer objects through laborious process-based work, to construction projects, interactions with the natural environment and public-space interventions. She will present her work through the lens of some of her work’s foundational principles, which include approaching practice as an amateur, proceeding through experiential play, valuing vernacular knowledge, and defending the right to D.I.Y.
Germaine Koh is an internationally active artist and curator based in Vancouver, on the ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Her work adapts familiar objects to create situations that look at the significance of everyday actions and common spaces, and which encourage connections between people, technology, and natural systems. Her current projects include Home Made Home (http://homemadehome.ca), an initiative to build and advocate for alternative forms of housing, and League (http://league-league.org), a participatory project using play as a form of creative practice. From 2018 to 2020 she was the City of Vancouver’s first Engineering Artist in Residence. Her exhibition history includes the BALTIC Centre, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Para/Site Art Space, Frankfurter Kunstverein, The Power Plant, The British Museum, the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, Plug In ICA, Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Liverpool, Sydney and Montreal biennials. She has received the Shadbolt Foundation VIVA Award and been shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award.
The Koerner Artist in Residence Program is made possible by the generous support of the Koerner Foundation and a private BC based foundation.
Image: Germaine Koh experimenting with concrete admixtures, summer 2021, photo by Ian Verchere.
