Abbas Akhavan\, Kim Kennedy Austin\, Raymond Boisjoly\, Colleen Brown\, Sabine Bitter\, Barb Choit\, Andrew Dadson\, Jason Fitzpatr ick\, Jacob Gleeson\, Andrew Herft\, Jeremy Hof\, Cameron Kerr\, Jeff Khons ary\, Jacquie Leggatt\, Sara Mameni\, Brad Phillips\, Sylvain Sailly\, Igor Santizo\, Jeremy Shaw\, Kika Thorne\, Ron Tran\, Jen Weih.
Local is an exhibition of 22 Vancouver artists curated by The Apar tment in collaboration with Fillip. The exhibition will inhabit Fillip's of fice for a week and directly responds to the studio’s location at the corne r of Cambie and Cordova Steets in Vancouver. As a commentary on current art istic practice and discourse in Vancouver\, Local acknowledges the city’s h istory of regionally reflective exhibition making. Local is meant to be a p art of this history and contribute to the ongoing discourse.
Vancouve r is recognized world wide as a city for rigorous art making informed by a rich history of research and concept driven practices. The artists included in Local are active participants in this conversation. Local is a n opportunity to bring these artists work together in a physically engaged public dialogue.
The project responds to the exhibition site. Gastown is the center of fast and furious gentrification. It is the living room of Vancouver’s disenfrancised\, densely populated with drug trafficing on str eets inhabited with newly established designer boutiques and restaurants. T he economic struggle of these conflicting service economies is clearly visi ble on Cordova Street where the impoverished try to find shelter in the doo rways of developments that will inevitably push them out. Although this con flict is not the central paradigm of all the art in Local\, an interest in the street as subject\, site-specific projects\, and sculpture that incorpo rates the material reality of this place permeate the exhibition. Economic inequality and the systems of capital are common preoccupations in Vancouve r art and Local emphasizes these investigations within this specific contex t.
The art in Local is also literally localized. The works w ere selected to express an engagement with the present tense\, the here and now. The artists in Local centralize the individual subjects of t heir work in the present by choosing common materials directly at hand\, or ganizing relational projects that place the viewer in the work\, and proces s-based projects that express their time and activity in form. These projec ts are rich in political and economic critique\, raising questions around t he import of artist labour and the value of their social antagonism.
The opening of Local is held in conjunction with the Vancouver lau nch of Five Broadsides\, an edition produced by Fillip in collaboration wit h The Apartment featuring newsprint posters by Fia Backström\, Andrew Dadso n\, Matthew Higgs\, Colter Jacobsen\, and Frances Stark. For more informati on see http://fillip.ca.
Image: Sara Mameni\, The Poster Project.
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