Jenny Hawkinson, Denise Hawrysio… The Basement Show

The Basement Show explores the engagement between art practice and community in Vancouver. Located in a temporarily vacated basement studio managed by BC Artscape Sun Wah in Chinatown, the basement is part of a historic area undergoing rapid change and development. This exhibition surveys some of the practices in Vancouver that engage with or document this changing experience in local communities.

Jenny Hawkinson’s Waver follows Vancouver residents throughout the city as they engage in the guerrilla acts of flag raising and flag waving. The concept grew from a residency in Belfast. Unlike the Canadian flag, which is seen as a celebration of national identity, flags in Northern Ireland are aggressive place markers connected to politics and sectarianism. This flag represents the disenfranchised and the displaced. Vancouver has a layered history of displacement and a cul- ture of activism. Knowing that white flags are charged and have been misused in the past, the text is used to evoke universal human experiences.

Jaymie Johnson, Unit 060 – 268 Keefer Street, April 10-21, 2019: Completed throughout the course of the show, this accordi- on book documents the daily detritus specific to the Sun Wah Centre and those who enter the gallery space. Each day, beginning on April 10 and ending on April 21, Johnson collects plastic and plant derived debris found on the ground immediately outside and within the gallery space and draws this newly collected material onto a new page in the book. The public is invited to participate by contributing any detri- tus carried with them into the gallery space – emptying pockets and bags to leave pieces of paper, wrappers, take-away cups, etc – all of which will be documented in the following days’ drawing.

Excavator Speakers I and II were completed by Denise Hawrysio during a residency at the Print Media Center at the University of British Columbia in 2007. The images exist as performative prints resulting from planned non-art situa- tions. Two copper plates were marked by land excavator operators working on a construction site in Vancouver, the text overlayed on the image is chosen from conversations overheard during the event. The printed images serve as a record of a continuing and changing event, as the images were later used to create placards for “Collective Street Action”, a performative protest carried out by volunteers in Montreal. This work is part of Hawrysio’s ongoing advocacy for the accessibility of art making.

In 2018 Janet Wang began studying the impact of development on Chinatown as a participating artist on the 10 Different Things public art project organized by ECUAD, Living Labs, CityStudio and the City of Vancouver. She conducted her research through interviews with community stakeholders, resident workshops and walking tours with cultural advocates. From this she created a Chinatown toile pattern which has been wheatpasted and draped between the Georgia Viaducts. Blanket Fort is a continuation of this project, an amorphous shelter inviting visitors to occupy the work.

Alex Achtem’s recreational products were assembled over the course of eight months as a resident artist at the Second Beach Fieldhouse in Stanley Park. Situated in a former Vancouver Parks Board office, Achtem assumed the role of an unofficial public servant and began collecting materials from the park and beach. She used the foraged materials to make objects that aided in the activities she saw on a daily basis. In this work she is interested in the activities we find ourselves doing in nature, do these activities aid in our relationships with the environment or push us further away?

Washing Hands with Soap in the Shape of my Mother’s Hands has been performed by Marika Vandekraats three times before, twice at Robson Square and once at the Calgary Memorial Library. The performance involves the artist washing the hands of volunteers with soap that she has cast in the shape of her mother’s hands. The idea stems from her mother’s recent hand operations to remove traces of melanoma, and the worry that her hands would change and feel different. Marika transfers this feeling into soap, using a material that changes with every interaction, the hands getting smaller and fingers getting thinner over time until they have been washed away. By sharing this care with strangers she initiates an intimate experience in an otherwise impersonal public space.

Underground Assembly’s Vending Machine Experiments consists of repurposed vending machines that disrupt conventional notions of gallery spaces and art economies. Within these small containers, artists subvert roles and expectations, mediating their roles as artists, curators, business owners and fabricators. Satirizing the business of art and the quick and mass production of many items, these cultural dispensing machines sell affordable and con- sumable artworks including (fan)zines, tiny sculptures, text art, drawings, handmade toys and other creations. These creations have been placed in public spaces in Vancouver and allow the artists and the participants to explore social, political, and scientific issues in a lighthearted way.

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