CENTRE A
REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES 2016
A Letter from the Executive Director/Curator From Patrick Cruz’s first solo exhibition in a public gallery and the inauguration of the Canada-Korea Residency & Exchange Programme to Chang En Man and Morgan Wong’s first solo exhibitions in North America, our 2015-16 year was a year of firsts. Our exhibitions and public programming continue to grow and show leadership. In the context of Seung Woo Back’s Walking on the Line, we started off 2016 with “Diversity & The Built Environment: The Case of 105 Keefer” – an influential and well attended talk which, in accordance with Back’s work, challenged trends towards urban standardisation and specifically placed cultural implications of Chinatown’s ongoing condo boom into social and historical context. With attendees spilling out the door, and covered by multiple media outlets including Global News, this was a shining example of Centre A’s continued impact and leadership. In one part we are tackling important cultural questions of how, considering the roles of land-use, art and other factors, within our urban landscapes, intangible cultural heritage is to be sustained and meaningful diversity achieved. In another, we question the role of the artist and arts institutions in our collective cultural becoming as it is manifest within the context of urban environments and socio-political conditions. Seeing the fruits of our ongoing labour, in the wake of our leadership in recent years, we’ve seen other local arts organisations adopt Chinese language signage and shift from artist-run imperatives of individualism and the autonomy of the artist to adopting language of pluralism and community/ neighbourhood relevance. With Patrick Cruz’s exhibition, Bulaklak Ng Paraiso (Flower of Paradise), we not only welcomed Makiko Hara back as our 2016 Curator-in-Residence, but we challenged viewers to consider the potential of art historical trajectories which find root in animist cultures and experiences of colonisation. Colonisation, a fact which lies at the foundation of our every act as we engage in culture making upon the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil Waututh and Musqueam peoples, was the thematic bases of our 2016 programming. In addition to Cruz’s exhibition, in Morgan Wong’s Mean Time we saw the artist confront the weight of cultural change embodied in Hong Kong’s ongoing return to Mainland China. Meanwhile, Chang En Man reaches across the Pacific and offers an impactful elucidation of the complexities of contemporary indigenous experience in Taiwan in our current exhibition As Heavy As a Feather. Summer was a flurry of activity, with Curatorial Skills Development Co-op Student Christian Vistan’s performance packed, Centre A curatorial debut, Here I only worry about my feet, your feet, everybody’s feet featuring recent graduates Mika Agari, Keely O’Brien with Popcorn Galaxies, Soraya Pathman, Kiyoshi Whitley, Tongyu Zhao, and Pongsakorn; Dead Water Convulsion - Hong Kong 1980s an exhibition of work by Josh Hon curated by Leung Chi Wo, with facilitation by Melissa Lee; /Unpackaged Garden/ featuring Hayn Moon and Chanmin Jeong and facilitated by Christian Vistan and Canada Summer Jobs Student Aubin Kwon, marked the first Canada-side exhibition and residency of our Korea-Canada Residency and Exchange Programme with Seoul’s RAT school of ART. In August we also welcomed Chang En Man for a three week residency where, with the translation assistance of Jimmy Liang and the facilitation of Ashok Mathur, she participated in UBC Okanagan’s Summer Indigenous Arts Intensive. I am particularly proud of Christian Vistan and his project Here I only worry about my feet, your feet, everybody’s feet as it marked our third annual Graduating Artists exhibition, and the subsequently third year of our Curatorial Skills Development Mentorship. Recently, alum of this program, Vistan and Alex Cu Unjieng (2015), have begun collaborating on an exciting upcoming project. As a community of young curators grows out of this program, it makes me proud to have established a system by which Centre A is now making a meaningful contribution to the development of the curatorial and administrative skills of an emerging generation.
Adding to the breadth of our impact over 2015/2016, Melissa Lee, a member of our Board of Directors not only facilitated Josh Hon’s landmark exhibition, but also facilitated a collaboration with Slought Foundation with whom we were able to realise online exhibitions, Abounaddara. The Right to the Image, and Samson Young and Jason Lam’s Stand By You: Add Oil Machine. Over the last couple of years we have worked hard to establish a capacity to extend the reach of our work through the publication of books and in 2016, we successfully achieved publications for Patrick Cruz, Josh Hon and we have an upcoming publication projects to accompany Morgan Wong and Chang En Man’s exhibitions. Our purpose was well actualised and articulated in our programming, and advances were made in building our capacities by establishing clearer divisions of labour, a core organisational development goal set out in 2015. However, due to staffing and board constraints, unfortunately we were unable to realise a 2016 gala fundraiser, constraining our finances as we enter 2017. Still, we were honoured to benefit from the generous sponsorship of Versace and Mondivan. We are particularly grateful to Mondivan and its head Sam Lu for their visionary contribution of space, permitting the founding of Centre B, which among other activities, allowed an expanded exhibition by Josh Hon, and a 3-month long studio residency by Beverly Ho and Byron Peters. At the same time, in 2016 we were tremendously saddened by the loss of Bing Thom, a significant supporter of Centre A’s whose enduring smile and purpose-driven demeanour will never be forgotten. Our partnerships have been fruitful. In addition to our Centre B residency, over the 2015-2016 term we were delighted to welcome Karen and Peggy Ngan, and Justine and Janice Cheung of YACTAC (Young Asian Canadian Twins Artists Collective) for a one year curatorial residency in the back space of our gallery. Through our partnership with Dirk Fleischmann and Park Mijoo’s RAT school of ART, we were pleased to not only send Vancouver artist Alex Grunenfelder to Seoul, Korea for a 3 month residency, but to welcome RAT members, artists Moon Hayn and Jeong Chanmin for a few weeks during the summer. As part of our Summer activity, thanks to two grants from Canada Summer Jobs, we welcomed Gallery Assistant Aubin Kwon and Development Assistant Jourdan Tymkow to our team for 10 weeks. A robust addition to our staff, Kwon and Tymkow quickly became a part of our family, and contributed extraordinarily during a very busy time. In October of this year, thanks to a Young Canada Works Grant and our proven successes over the Summer, we are pleased to have further re-established the Development Assistant position and welcome Ruby Wang to our organisation. Underpinning all of this activity and advancements, is the very hard work of our staff, particularly Deputy Director Natalie Tan who held down the fort as I was on recurrent leaves of absence with ongoing personal and family health issues. For her contributions at that time, I will be forever grateful. I am also grateful to Cathleen Chow, who in the last quarter of 2015, generously took the time to work temporarily at Centre A and pull us through a challenging time. Through his quick learning, steadfast efforts, great sense of humour and humility, in 2016, Curatorial Skills Development Co-op student Christian Vistan applied himself and subsequently earned a permanent part-time position as Centre A’s Curatorial Assistant. Because of the efforts of this crew, our wonderful dedicated team of volunteers, our collaborators, notably Hong Kong Exile and members of our Board, notably outgoing Treasurer Jeff Lun, 2016 marked a milestone in Centre A’s recent history, confirming our organisation’s resilience in the face of significant and unpredictable adversity. Our purpose is to be a leading voice, provoking thought and spurring on cultural development as
we celebrate, defend and deepen diversity. We do this by ensuring there is a platform dedicated to contemporary Asian art in Vancouver, not just for art by artists of Asian origin, but for artistic practices that are not dependent on European or American art histories (or markets) for their legitimacy; whose work offers means for enhanced reflection on matters pertaining to contemporary cultural developments of public importance.
Centre A in 2016
Thank you to all our members, The Canada Council for the Arts, The British Columbia Arts Council, BC Gaming, The City of Vancouver, Mondivan, Versace, Bing Thom Architects, and all our other supporters for your ongoing encouragement and support.
Tyler Russell, Executive Director/Curator, Centre A
7 exhibitions 11 artists-in-residence 11 performances 13 exhibiting artists 200+ members 9,171 visitors 4 mentorship programs
Mentorship
ARTISTIC PROGRAMMING 2016
In 2014, Centre A made a commitment to developing and offering systemic intern-style learning opportunities within the organization to support the career development of emerging artists, curators, and arts administrators. We have since established sustainable and clear internship systems with four established roles: Gallery Assistant, Curatorial Assistant, Publications Coordinator, and Development Assistant. These internships, co-ops, and work placement programs provide serious, applied opportunities to work with exhibiting artists, participate in artist-curator meetings, plan and execute events, and network with curators, artists, other arts professionals, and other individuals who are involved with Centre A, such as supporters and volunteers. We strive to create a democratic, inclusive, and educational environment where individuals feel comfortable asking questions, engaging in conversations, and contributing his or her skills and intellect. This year marked our third annual Curatorial Skills Development Mentorship. A highlight of our programming, this mentorship spans half a year, and aims to teach, through application and experience, the process of creating conditions to make art exhibitions happen. In the second half of the program, the individual is mentored by our Executive Director/Curator Tyler Russell or a guest curator, culminating in Centre A’s annual recent grads exhbition. By the end of the mentorship, the individual will have gained valuable career-related experience, be capable of carrying out a variety of tasks, and engage in independent curatorial, logistic, and administration work. This year’s mentorship was funded by British Columbia Arts Council’s Early Career Development grant. 2016 was also the inaugural year of our Development & Fundraising Internship program. With guidance and instruction from Centre A staff, Board, and knowledge philanthropists, individuals gain skills in non-profit sponsorship letter writing, event planning, budgeting, campaigning, and more. By the end of the term, the individual will have a record of successful sponsorship asks and have a portfolio of events they have taken ownership of. This Summer, we were able to start this program through a Canada Summer Jobs work placement, and now we are continuing with a six-month program through a Young Canada Works grant for a recent graduate.
Walking on the Line | SEUNG WOO BACK Curated by Jeong Eun Kim November 26, 2015 - February 20, 2016 Seung Woo Back’s practice emerges from questions of truth in photography, and the perceived authority of photographic documentation. For his exhibition at Centre A, Walking on the Line, Back showcased three reassemblages of his photographic works, investigating the precarious nature of the medium of photography, offering an opportunity to gain a fresh perspective regarding our relationship to our built environment. Triggered by the continuous waves of globalization and the sense of alienation in urban cities, Back recreates convincing faux-realities that originate from his photographic documentations and archives. These constructed images distantiate themselves from the photographic truth, interestingly conversing with Vancouver’s own tradition of photographically constructed and composed realities. The work in Walking on the Line urged a consideration of the effects of the standardization of built environments and the relationship between monotony, alienation and contemporary nomadism. During their time in Vancouver, Back and guest curator Jeong Eun Kim presented an artist talk, in which they discussed Back’s previous works in relation to his works in Walking on the Line. Stemming from the themes in this body of work, Centre A hosted an impactful panel discussion titled Diversity and the Built Environment: The Case of 105 Keefer. With the backdrop of Seung Woo Back’s exhibition, we invited the public to join us in a conversation about the current challenges facing Chinatown and our approaches to heritage, diversity and urban change. Centre A welcomed Hayne Wai, urban planner Nathan Edelson, community builder Doris Chow, academic/community activator Melissa Fong, community planner Kathryn Lennon, and others to engage in a conversation specifically addressing the challenge of 105 Keefer and reflecting on past experience and contemplate ways forward for Vancouver’s Chinatown. Each panelist spoke to the importance of shared history, the protection of Chinese-owned businesses, and the preservation of the intangible qualities of the neighbourhood. This was Centre A’s highest-attended panel discussion to date at our East Georgia Street location, with over 120 people standing, sitting, or overflowing onto the sidewalk. The event was covered by Global TV, CBC’s On the Coast, and Roundhouse Radio. To supplement this exhibition, IANN Publishing produced two new publications, one containing a curatorial essay by Jeong Eun Kim. Walking on the Line was funded by Arts Council of Korea. Diversity and the Built Environment: The Case of 105 Keefer
Bulaklak ng Paraiso (Flower of Paradise) | PATRICK CRUZ Curated by Makiko Hara March 4 - May 7, 2016 For Bulaklak ng Paraiso (Flower of Paradise), Filipino-Canadian artist Patrick Cruz transformed Centre A’s gallery space into an elaborate immersive environment that wove together personal, political, and historical narratives that meditated on the conditions and processes of displacement, cultural hybridity and the material excess of our global culture. Driven by folk sentiment and animist proclivities, Cruz’s maximalist oeuvre mimics the destabilizing forces of modernity to consider traditions and practices of ornamentation and patterning as strategies for re-enchantment and de-stabilization. Informed by his experiences of being transplanted into another culture, Bulaklak ng Paraiso (Flower of Paradise), compounded narratives and conversations between art and culture, media and institutions, race and identity, while measuring the capacity of art to generate an inquiry within the process of globalization. In his installation, Cruz facilitated a diasporic cultural exchange through collaborative projects with local and international cultural producers, such as Dada Docot, Jean Philippe Carpio, and Casey Wei. Public programming for this exhibition included a presentation of a series of Santiago Bose video works by Hank Bull, a durational sound performance by Andrew Lee, a screening of Lav Diaz’s four hour feature film Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (Norte, End of History), and a book launch for the exhibition catalogue, Birds of Paradise which featured 13 new essays.
Performances
Elk Walks | KEELY O’BRIEN with POPCORN GALAXIES 5 performances Keely O’Brien with, theatre collective, Popcorn Galaxies is presenting Elk Walk, a large-scale public puppet intervention featuring five puppets inspired by the fossilized skeletons of the extinct Irish Elk— the largest species of deer to ever live. Throughout the exhibition, the puppets will wander in and out of the gallery in weekly walks, culminating in a July 1, 3pm derive. With a volunteer cast of puppeteers, a mixture of Chinatown locals and organizers and local theatre performers and artists, the derives through Chinatown will see the work interact with complex local histories and ongoing processes of urban change. Projections Under One’s Tongue/Hanabi | KIYOSHI WHITLEY 4 performances
Here I only worry about my feet, your feet, everybody’s feet | MIKA AGARI, KEELY O’BRIEN with POPCORN GALAXIES, SORAYA PATHMAN, KIYOSHI WHITLEY, TONGYU ZHAO, PONGSAKORN Curated by Christian Vistan June 3 - July 2, 2016 Here I only worry about my feet, your feet, everybody’s feet was a series of events, performances and artist projects curated by Centre A’s Curatorial Assistant, Christian Vistan, taking place from June 3 to July 2, 2016 at and around Centre A. This month-long program included performative, collaborative and participatory works and projects by Mika Agari, Keely O’Brien with Popcorn Galaxies, Soraya Pathman, Kiyoshi Whitley, Tongyu Zhao, and Pongsakorn. The events, performances and projects took up concerns of space, location, collaboration, displacement and gentrification through an ongoing engagement with the public. Blurring the boundaries between the gallery space and the surrounding neighbourhood, works in this series permeated the gallery walls, pushing art into the public realm. Engaging with the gallery’s neighbourhood, this string of public performances, calls for participation and collaborative projects considered our relationship with history, space and one another. Interacting with and inspired by current discussions in Chinatown about intangible cultural heritage and gentrification, this series functioned as an institutional critique of museological strategies used to frame artistic work of an ephemeral or intangible nature such as performance, collaboration and participatory projects. With projects taking place in the gallery space, online and out in the street, the series reconsidered the function of the gallery as both a poetic and utilitarian space, at times performing the function of a props room, at times a stage, and in other instances a site for interaction. Here I only worry about my feet, your feet, everybody’s feet was the third iteration of Centre A’s annual recent grad show, made possible through the organization’s recently established Curatorial Skill Development Co-op Program. As part of the co-op, emerging artist and curator Christian Vistan has worked with Centre A for a total of eight months, learning skills in exhibition logistics, gallery management, curating, design, and art writing for a public gallery.
Consisting of four unique perfomances over four nights, ranging from 30 minutes to four hours, Projections Under One’s Tongue/ Hanabi was a series of performative gestures that made use of the existing architecture of Centre A’s gallery space. On the days of the performances, the gallery was closed during operational hours, and the exhibition stripped of all the artwork other than Whitley’s stage curtains, giving him the opportunity to manipulate the space, and create sensory experiences for his audiences – limited to 20 people per night. Foot Note On A Few Things (day 30) | TONGYU ZHAO 1 performance Foot Note On A Few Things (day 30) happened on the 30th day of its month long participatory object accumulation from the neighborhood of Chinatown, Vancouver. Over the course of Here I only worry about my feet, your feet, everybody’s feet, visitors were asked to leave objects at the gallery for Zhao’s performance. Upon Zhao’s visit from Chicago, IL, she added additional objects, sourced locally. Through these known and unknown objects, Zhao’s purpose was to counter our collective language of understanding history and memory, and in awareness of where the feet stand: the very present moment as creation, knowledge and life happens. 30 notes acting as 30 blank scores were performed throughout the evening. For each note the artist created an intuitive active installation of play and display with the objects.
Dead Water Convulsion - Hong Kong 1980s | JOSH HON Curated by Leung Chi Wo July 6 - July 23, 2016 In Dead Water Convulsion, Josh Hon looked back at the art and political scene of Hong Kong in the 1980s. Hon, as a pioneering artist of the 1980s left Hong Kong at the peak of his career to move to Hope, British Columbia, after the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. Historically, many other Hong Kong citizens also left Hong Kong for North America at this time. Hon developed his artistic practice alongside the socio-political change of Hong Kong during the 80s. His paintings, installations, video and performance translated forms, materials, text and gestures into enthusiastic expressions that reflected Hong Kong’s fraught socio-political climate and burgeoning art scene during the pre-handover years. Curated by leading Hong Kong contemporary artist Leung Chi Wo (co-founder of Para/Site Art Space), this exhibition presented a small selection of Hon’s works from the 1980s, including video, installation and performance. Centre A released a new exhibition catalogue in conjunction with this exhibition, containing a curator’s essay by Leung, and an interview with Hon by Centre A board member Melissa Lee. Public programming included a walking tour with the artist and curator up to Centre A’s satellite location, Centre B, which housed the second half of the exhibition; a talk and screening at Simon Fraser University’s David Lam Centre, and a talk and screening of an episode of RTHK Art Magazine hosted by Centre A board member Natalie Tin Yin Gan.
/Unpackaged Garden/ | HAYN MOON and CHANMIN JEONG July 31 - August 5, 2016 From July 31–August 5, Jeong Chanmin and Moon Hayn occupied Centre A’s main gallery space as artistsin-residence. The gallery was open to the public during Jeong and Moon’s week-long residency in the space, culminating in /Unpackaged Garden/, an exhibition that opened on August 5, 9 pm, with public programming across the first 24 hours from August 5, 9 pm – August 6, 9pm. /Unpackaged Garden/ was loosely based on Jeong and Moon’s previous collaborative exhibition 24 Hours in Seun Sangga in 2015. In that exhibition the work of both artists interacted with the exhibition space–an empty market stall in a shopping area in Seoul, as well as the material history of a nearby building in the area. For /Unpackaged Garden/, Jeong and Moon occupied,negotiated with and engaged with Centre A’s main gallery space through spatial and material investigations during their open residency and exhibition: Moon through a series of sculptures, installations and a mapping project that played with the exhibition space and utilized locally sourced found materials, and Jeong in a photographic installation that re-examined the way we experience space and photography. Alongside the works and installations by Jeong and Moon, there were various events and programs throughout the duration of their residency and exhibition that took into consideration the span of 24 hours both in Vancouver and Seoul, Jeong and Moon’s home and base. Certain public programs for this exhibition were live streamed and corresponded with Korean time. Part of Centre A’s educational programming, this exhibition was organized by Canada Summer Jobs Student and Gallery Assistant Aubin Kwon, and our 2015-16 BCAC Co-op Student, Curatorial Assistant, Christian Vistan with the help of Tyler Russell, Natalie Tan, Jourdan Tymkow and RAT school of ART’s Dirk Fleischmann and Mijoo Park.
Mean Time | MORGAN WONG September 9 - October 15, 2016 Two years ago this September citizens in Hong Kong flooded and occupied areas of the city, an expression of frustration with the ongoing deterioration of One Country, Two Systems, and in particular, to challenge a provision that candidates for Hong Kong’s Chief Executive are selected by an electoral college heavily populated by members with close ties to Beijing. It was an extension of earlier protests against the Moral & National Education (MNE) curriculum. MNE is a policy that aimed at nurturing students’ patriotism towards China and cultivating their “sense of belonging to the motherland.” Concurrent with the release of this policy, materials were produced that not only eliminated the Cultural Revolution and the horrors of The June 4, 1989 incident, but further sought to inform school aged children that the Chinese Communist Party was an “advanced, selfless and united” ruling group while bemoaning democracy’s flaws. The US political system, for instance, is said to cause suffering because of inter-party bickering. True as that may be, and as flawed as the American system may be, to teach children that things are better when people have neither voice nor the agency to implement democratic will, and that moral citizens are citizens who unquestioningly accept the enlightened benevolence of the CCP, is a little beyond the pale. Understandably, concerned students and their pro-democracy supporters hit the streets to tell the authorities where they could shove their curriculum. Though these pro-democracy, pro-Hong Kong forces were able to delay implementation of the MNE, it was only a tiny victory in a war whose loss was, through a 1984 agreement between Hong Kong’s former British Colonial rulers and Chinese authorities in Beijing, may have already scheduled for July 1, 2047. In a manner echoing 1997 handover anxieties and post-Tiananmen trauma, these events were forcing a young generation to come to terms with a long life in socio-political limbo-space where they would be resisting a fate whose seal they may, through long persistent effort, one day overcome. Featuring a pair of works, The Remnant of My Volition (Force Majeure) (2014) and Frustration of Having More than Two Choices to Make in Life (2013), in Mean Time, Wong reached beyond the Hong Kong specific context and invited viewers to consider the inevitable, merciless persistence of time, and to, despite life’s absurd and overwhelming circumstances, dare hope in its possibility. This exhibition will be accompanied by a publication featuring three new essays, to be released in 2017. Public programming included an artist talk by Wong and Vancouver-based artist Howie Tsui during SWARM weekend.
As Heavy as Feather | CHANG EN MAN Co-Curated by Makiko Hara and Tyler Russell November 12, 2016 - February 11, 2017 Chang En Man’s practice is characterized by a dynamic interplay between story, tradition, and the struggles of indigenous peoples in the face of ongoing experiences of colonization. Chang employs a critical approach to representations of traditional indigenous practices. Through video, performance and social practice, she unearths the complex interconnections between indigenous peoples and cultures and land, creating a space for the assertion of contemporary expressions of indigenous identity. Therein, she takes a look at the convoluted results of colonization, that over time, have come to result in complicated interactions between settler and indigenous communities, and multi-layered experiences of identity. This exhibition, As Heavy As a Feather, takes place in response to a research trip Chang took through British Columbia in the summer of 2016. Through this trip she participated in the UBC Okanagan’s Indigenous Arts Intensive and traveled throughout the province, including, importantly, to Unist’ot’en territories: a site of indigenous title assertion, cultural revival and healing in the face of Northern British Columbia’s oil and gas development projects. She observed that, like in Taiwan’s situation, there is a grey zone where development projects are met with anxiety, anger and anticipation while supposed economic benefits are weighed with the risks of cultural and environmental loss. As Heavy as a Feather consists of two parts. The first, is the result of over three years of engaging with the Fudafudak indigenous community (meaning “a glittering place” in the Amis language) in Shanyuan Bay on the east coast of Taiwan. Like in many indigenous communities throughout the world, the Fudafudak community struggles to sustain social and cultural continuity as it interfaces simultaneously with capitalist and outsider activist interests. In the quest for economic revitalization and thereby wider community empowerment, the area is struck by the dilemma of accepting large-scale investments for projects that may be harmful to the environment and affect traditional ways of life. The resulting tension attracts participation from indigenous and non-indigenous activists alike. A prominent example is the widely known Meiliwan Resort development plan, a project that has been the subject of ongoing protests since its announcement in 2004. In this portion with a folk song and a traditional Taiwanese indigenous kite--symbolic of mutual aid and long distance travel--the viewer is invited into the Fudafudak landscape and encounters layered narratives with the juxtaposition of two video works. One video features the Fudafudak elders who sang the Ngayaw song and tapped childhood memory and shared traditional stories as they tried to help Chang learn how to make the kite. The second video is an interview with her friend, a young non-indigenous female social worker engaged in indigenous rights activism. Through these parallel narratives the artist reveals a grey zone asking how individuals can reflectively locate themselves within the complex processes of developing healthy relationships between indigenous and nonindigenous communities. In the shadow of this kite she presents the second part of the installation, an editorial project in-progress; a site of dialogue where oral tradition, performance and academic practice inform a trans-pacific conversation between North American and Taiwanese communities on key issues including: contemporary indigenous identity, the complexity of settler-indigenous relationships, and means for realizing comprehensive de-colonisation. Initiating dialogue, Chang invited Anchi Lin, a Vancouver-based artist of Taiwanese indigenous descent, to be part of the exhibition. Lin’s work, which will be exhibited in the back gallery is a new video piece entitled, A Glass of Wine: Excerpts from an hour conversation between Anchi and En-Man, an informal and intimate conversation with Chang. After the exhibition at Centre A, As Heavy as a Feather will travel to Los Angeles, California where it will be presented at the Taiwan Academy Gallery. This exhibition is funded with the assistance of Taiwan Academy, Department of Cultural Affairs Taipei City Government, Ministry of Culture (TAIWAN), Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Vancouver, and the Canada Council for the Arts Visiting Foreign Artists Program.
Residencies
Residencies
YACTAC in the Back
Canada-Korea Residency and Exchange Program with RAT school of ART
September 2015 - September 2016 Active in a private space since 2010, the Young Asian Canadian Twin Artist Collective (YACTAC) are an important youth driven curatorial and artist collective who have been quite instrumental in kickstarting of a number young artists careers including Patrick Cruz. In early 2015, they moved to a new location which they subsequently lost. Not wanting to see this institution disappear, we offered them Centre A’s back kitchen/bar/ reception space for a one year residency to exhibit micro exhibitions, and hold special programming. Programming Included: Exhibitions Sub Rosa, Jessica Jang NOTES on TWO SIDES of Intuition, Perrin Grauer Events Yactac Craft Explosion S. EX. Stationery Exchange Jewellery making workshop with Jessica Jang
Annual
Centre A and the RAT school of ART (Seoul, Korea) have established a new annual exchange and residency program. This new, unique collaboration highlights the role of contemporary artists in transnational, AsiaCanada relationship building, and creates new opportunities for cultural productivity, and the contestation and contemplation of ideas. The RAT school of ART offers a master class certificate along with a one of its kind study program in Korea. It believes that Seoul is a great city for artists. RAT facilitates exchange with artists/ institutions abroad and fosters the potential of Korean art. The RAT school of ART was founded in 2014 by Dirk Fleischmann, who has been teaching art at Korean universities since 2009 and taught classes as a visiting professor at Lasalle College of the Arts (Singapore) and Emily Carr University (Vancouver). Other exchange programs of the RAT school of ART include a unique collaboration with Frankfurt’s’ Städelschule coordinated by renowned artists Tobias Rehberger as well and Philippe Pirotte. This year, the RAT school of ART hosted Vancouver-based artist and designer Alex Grunenfelder for their 2016 program. Grunenfelder took part in RAT’s study program from March 1 to June 15, 2016. For the duration of the residency, RAT provided Grunenfelder with free tuition as well as free accommodation in an apartment in the heart of Jongno-District, downtown Seoul. During his time in Seoul, Grunenfelder was given the opportunity to share about his practice to the Seoul art scene, with a solo lecture as part of the RAT school’s RAT Talks and a solo exhibition and publication launch titled “25.47m2” as part of the RAT Lab series. In exchange, Centre A hosted a residency in Vancouver with two RAT members, emerging artists Hayn Moon and Chanmin Jeong, from July 31-August 5, 2016 that culminated in the exhibition, /Unpackaged Garden/.
Centre B Studio Residency
Residencies
Publications Birds of Paradise Patrick Cruz
Essays by: Allison Collins, Nathan Crompton, Dada Docot, Chaya Ocampo Go, Paul de Guzman, Makiko Hara, Jenn Jackson, Steffanie Ling, Heidi Nagtegaal, Jasmine Reimer, Charlie Satterlee, Jacobo Zambrano. Book design by Jake Lim, organized by Patrick Cruz.
Dead Water Convulsion - Hong Kong 1980s Josh Hon
Centre B Studio Residency September - December 2016
Our inaugural, 2016 Centre B Residency sponsored by Mondivan, supports the practice of two local artists engaged in work emerging from investigations of Asian-Canadian identity and the ongoing transformation of Vancouver’s urban environment. Taking place from September to December 2016, this residency will culminate in an artist talk on December 10th at 4pm.
Curatorial essay by Leung Chi Wo, literary reportage by Melissa Karmen Lee, historical timeline, and documentation of works. Edited by Melissa Karmen Lee, book design by Natalie Tan.
Participating artists are Beverly Ho and Byron Peters. Beverly Ho is a Chinese-Canadian artist based in and from Vancouver investigating her cross cultural settler identity through a mix of traditional and found materials. She is involved in community organizing in Chinatown with its elderly Chinese residents against gentrification and displacement. Interested in signage, text, and language, Ho works through notions of meaning, message, and understanding. Her working process is intuitive and unpredictable, and she often subverts normalized Western tropes in creating her own landscapes and spaces. She makes in the muddy area that is her identity to address the thousands of years of Han Chinese history she carries. The disconnect Ho feels between her physical appearance and heritage because of nearly three generations broken off from tradition is a result of the Cultural Revolution and ensuing migration of her family. She is working in the past and the present, towards the future. Byron Peters is a Vancouver-based artist and writer of Chinese-Canadian and European descent. His practice critically engages labour and materiality in the context of emerging technologies; economic imaginaries; prison education; and the effects of gentrification and displacement. During his residency at Centre A, Peters will be working with shifting geographies in Vancouver in relation to social histories of exodus and succession, and speculative notions of ‘the crowd.’ His works take the forms of sound, video, sculpture, and writing, and have been presented at ICA Miami; The Southbank Centre, London; The White Building, London; The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York; and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. His current project Added Value, an audio score for an unviewable film, will be exhibited at Oi, Hong Kong, in November 2016.
Nail Spot Artist book by Hayn Moon
Content contributors: Avneet, Sahand Mohajer, Chelsea Yuill, Wendel Vistan, Christian Vistan, Chanmin Jeong, and Pongsakorn.
Centre A Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art 229 East Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z6 t: (604) 683-8326 e: info@centrea.org www.centrea.org
STAFF
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Tyler Russell Executive Director/Curator
Karen Zalamea President
Natalie Tan Deputy Director
Paul Crowe Vice-President
Christian Vistan Curatorial Assistant
Natalie Tin Yin Gan Secretary
Ruby Wang Development Assistant
Kevin Harding Treasurer Melissa Lee
PUBLIC FUNDERS
2016 ANNUAL SPONSORS
2016 PROGRAMMING SPONSORS