[image_spread img_url="https://ahva.cms.ar ts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/07/Sai-Di-Sun-and-80-Consonants- 2023-image-courtesy-of-Sai-Di.jpg" caption="Sai Di\, Sun and 80 Consonants\ , 2023. Courtesy of the artist." width="content"]
August 5–September 9\, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday\,
August 4\, 7–9PM
Public critique with Kimberly Phillips: Monday\, Augu
st 14\, 2–4PM
Access Gallery
222 East Georgia St.
Va
ncouver BC
Tuesday–Saturday: 12–5PM
Curated by Ophelia Yingqiu Zhao 赵盈秋
There is a secret anthology that imagines a planet populated by art objects as senti ent\, living creatures. Upon this celestial body\, hidden from the human ey es\, an alternative order of living unfolds the exhibition: The Book of Imaginary Beings. Taking its title from a book by Jorge Luis Borges\, t he exhibition space hopes to become what the book would characterize as: “a place filled with beasts\, that children encounter tigers without fear.” T hrough the glimmer in the eyes of the Imaginary Beings\, this exhibition in vites you to enter into the physical presence of art objects as living crea tures. The Book of Imaginary Beings is a group exhibition that featu res works by artists Sai Di\, Marcy Friesen\, Woojae Kim\, Josh Steinhauer\ , and Katayoon Yousefbigloo.
How can we re-encounter art objects a s if they are animated\, sentient creatures? How can we create a physical r elationship with the sentient beings outside of our own finitude?
< p>If it is believed that materials encapsulate memories in physical forms\, a constellation of stories will arise from the prism of an imaginary reali ty. Experimenting with a variety of material research\, such as mycelium ne tworking\, sound vibration\, laser transfer technique\, electro-kinetics\, and sensual archive\, five artists provide us with a glimpse into an animat ed sphere in which art objects tell their own stories:a story by
Sai Di that imagines space as a mandala cosmos\;
a story by Mar
cy Friesen that shares the paranoia of eating the granny’s poisoned soup\;<
br />a story by Woojae Kim in conversation with Seren Bradley
on listening to the maple forest that covered the downtown area\;
a story by Josh Steinhauer that alludes a Saskatchewan prairie ghost to
the ghost of a machine\;
and a story by Katayoon Yousefbigloo
that scavenges the fragmented golden mystery of a never-solved crime. <
/p>
(how can we enter into an art obj ect’s story\, if the story is in itself the material?) (How can we become p art of the story before we start to project\, encode\, mystify\, and make i t a story of our own?) (Is it ever possible?) ( thereafter\, how can we co -exist?)
In the five stor ies that comprise The Book of Im aginary Beings\, each work will re-emerge as their own storytellers\, intimately embodying sounds\, images \, tastes\, consciousness\, and spirits in their physical relations to us\, with the hope that our co-existence will become temporal\, energetic\, and successive in space.
Sai Di is a Chi nese Canadian artist who builds living systems and multi-media installation s to decode the present reality at the intersection of science and ecology. Her work develops poetic nature/techno synthesis at the threshold of senso ry perceptions through discursive material experiments\, sound and performa nce gestures. She is an active member of the performance group Cuerpo Colle ctive which enquires how the body may exist within the very function of art production as a means for healing and decolonization. She holds a BSc degr ee from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and a BFA fro m the University of British Columbia.
Marcy Friesen is of Swampy Cree and Welsh ances try and currently resides on a mixed farm with her family near Carrot River \, SK. She comes from a long line of traditional master beaders and talente d creative family members. Threading through beads\, leather\, and furs\, F riesen draws the viewer into an intimate experience using her honed skills and intuitive sensibilities toward material\, colour\, and presentation. In Friesen’s practice\, the natural and synthetic come together in ways that are inclusive of the contemporary condition\, transforming ways of understa nding and expectations of cultural production. In June 2021\, Friesen had h er first solo exhibition\, S0E 0L0\, at Fazakas Gallery in Vancouver\, BC.< /p>
Woojae Kim combines his research on biology with somatic experiences. He is currently making Makgeolli to learn about microbiology\, and the histories and relat ionships between living creatures and the land. Through words used in both scientific and cultural discussions\, such as “colonization”\, “culture” an d “diversity”\, he observes how we relate to each other and to non-human ot hers. Kim received an MFA from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. He lives in Vancouver\, on the unceded territories of the xwm əθkwəy̓əm\, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ílwəta First Nations.
Josh St einhauer is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans drawi ng\, painting\, printmaking\, photography\, multimedia sculpture\, and perf ormance. He began making art as a young boy\, drawing throughout class time \, and giving works away to friends and family. Steinhauer’s artistic pract ice emerges from a varied array of fields and lived experiences\, through w hich he navigates the complex elements of human existence within our constr ucted ecosystem. Steinhauer received a BFA in Visual Arts from the Universi ty of British Columbia.
< strong>Katayoon Yousefbigloo is an interdisciplinary artist an d musician working with degraded media to reverse-engineer cultural narrati ves and mythologies. Her work often takes shape in media installation and p erformance\, but leaves ephemera of text\, music\, and merchandise. She is a founding member of the experimental art collective Liquidation World\, an d holds an MFA from the School of Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser Univers ity.
With support from t he Killy Foundation and the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History\, Visual Art and Theory in collaboration wit h the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Colu mbia.
[buttons][button link_text="Visit Access Gallery fo r more information" link_url="https://accessgallery.ca/programming/book-ima ginary-beings"][/buttons]
LOCATION:Access Gallery GEO:49.278474;-123.098805 URL;VALUE=URI:https://ahva.ubc.ca/events/event/the-book-of-imaginary-beings / ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ahva.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2023/07/The-Book-of-Imaginary-Beings_Exhibition-featured-image-715x402.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:20230312T100000 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR