In the Gallery

1.

Curated by Charo Neville

Presented as part of Bright Light
www.bright-light.ca

by Access Gallery | www.vaarc.ca

Opening Reception:Friday 12 February 2010, 7 – 10 PM

13 February – 20 March, 2010

Access Gallery is pleased to present a new work by Osvaldo Yero as part of Bright Light: a temporary public art project commissioned by the City of Vancouver that involves fourteen local art organizations. Guest curated by Charo Neville, Passage is one of a series of cultural projects that will be on view through the months of February and March along the Carrall Street Greenway in the Downtown Eastside. Yero’s project will be visible from the street during the day through the window of Access Gallery.

Peering through a revealed slot in the otherwise darkened window the viewer will experience intense flashes of light, created by flickering LED lights which momentarily highlight knife blades set against a black backdrop in a completely darkened room. The brief beams of light on the spikes of metal suggest the reflection of light created from a lighthouse beacon, announcing a vast dark sea. Engaging the individual senses, yet disorientating the viewer and evoking the feeling of being alone in the middle of a dark ocean at night, the work offers a sense of solitude within the public space of the street. Its contrasting beauty and brutality also incites inevitable reflections about violence and self-preservation in the marginalized neighbourhood in which the work is situated.

As an immigrant to Canada from Cuba, Yero has consistently been concerned with themes that relate to his experience as part of the growing Cuban diaspora. Since living in Canada, Yero still frequently visits his homeland, where many of his family and friends continue to live with limited possibilities to leave. Like the paradoxical freedom and panic that swimming in a wide dark ocean may induce, Cubans are legally bound to their country, which is both home and prison. Many who try to escape across the ocean do not survive, or arrive on the other side only to be returned. The metaphor of death prevails in Yero’s practice. The title of the work, Passage, reflects these ideas – water is evoked as the dual possibility of freedom and death.

This new work also addresses myriad issues of integration and dislocation facing immigrants to a new country. Exhibited during a global event promoting nationalistic pride through marketing terms such as “dream,” “discover,” and “celebrate,” the installation in turn speaks to the underlying complexities of these utopic ideals.

This project will also include a forthcoming exhibition catalogue, to be published by Access Gallery, in collaboration with the artist and the curator.

Access Gallery gratefully acknowledges the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, the 2010 Legacies Now’s program, Innovations, our members and volunteers. Access is a member of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres.

2.

Presented by Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad

Access Gallery, in collaboration with Britannia Art Gallery and neighbouring businesses, presents Life After Doomsday, a multi-site project by Calgary-based artist Jason de Haan.

Taken from a 1960s nuclear survival guidebook, the title of this project reflects the artist’s central concern of “overcoming problems.” Throughout this multi-site work, de Haan humorously and pensively imagines what is possible after the end of days. Drawing from metaphysics, popular culture, philosophy, and history, his work explores the untapped energy of materials. Hopeful, yet sometimes absurd, his arrangements of items such as rocks, mirrors, crystals, and books evoke spiritual and mystical attempts to attain a higher order and achieve the miraculous in the face of looming disasters.

At Access Gallery, de Haan presents two sculptural works that focus and reflect energy while referring to ideas of the commune and the social pact.

Britannia Art Gallery features de Haan’s new work Internal and external acceptance of change, awareness of higher spiritual realities, unconditional love and acceptance of others, the realm of miracles. Made of paperback science fiction novels and cut stones, minerals, and crystals, this sculpture highlights the metaphysical properties of its materials.

A special edition of drink coasters will be distributed at local pubs Irish Heather, Shebeen, and Salt.

The artist and Access Gallery will host two reading groups at the Britannia Art Gallery on 10 February and 10 March 2010 to address several histories, phenomena, and implications directly related to this project. The reading materials will be available for pick up before each group meets. Please contact access@vaarc.ca for more information on the reading group.

Jason de Haan is a multidisciplinary Canadian visual artist whose work includes installation, sculpture, drawing, and bookworks. Recent exhibitions include Clint Roenisch Gallery (Toronto, ON), Galleri Kling and Bang (Reykjavik, Iceland) and Museo de la Ciudad (Queretaro, Mexico). Upcoming solo exhibitions include Odd Gallery (Dawson City, YK) and The Khyber ICA (Halifax, NS). He will also be participating in the upcoming Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art (Edmonton, AB). de Haan is a member of the collective UGIV, and with Scott Rogers is co-director of Pocket Projects, an artist multiple commissioning project. He is represented in Toronto by Clint Roenisch Gallery.

Access Gallery gratefully acknowledges the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, the 2010 Legacies Now’s program, Innovations, our members and volunteers. Access is a member of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres.

Images and works courtesy of Clint Roenisch Gallery.