The exhibition “Eternal Return”, guest curated by independent curator Sunshine Frère, incorporates the work of five artists – Barb Choit, Kevin Day, Lucien Durey, Alanna Ho, and Anchi Lin
Date/Time: Nov 17 2017, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Richmond, Richmond Art Gallery | Event calendarCost: Free
Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 9, 2017, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Curator: Sunshine Frère
Eternal Return, guest curated by independent curator Sunshine Frère incorporates the work of five artists – Barb Choit, Kevin Day, Lucien Durey, Alanna Ho, and Anchi Lin – who respond to the idea of migration via research and selection of objects that are part of the City of Richmond Museum’s Migration Collection. The artists will create new work(s) based on their investigations, and will exhibit the work in the context of these objects at the Richmond Art Gallery, which is next door to the Museum. Thematically the work in the exhibition will broadly expand on the notion of the eternal return, a concept that appears in philosophy, ancient and contemporary cultures, metaphysics and science-fiction, and refers to the cyclical repetition of all things and situations.
The nature of archiving and contextualizing objects is in itself an eternal return. Observation and historical interpretation of the past becomes an apparition in the present, an ever-evolving interpretive space upon which personal, cultural and anthropological ideas are endlessly projected.
In contemporary society, it has become increasingly difficult to answer the question: Where are you from? The world is mobile; individuals migrate and relocate more frequently. Each exhibiting artist in Eternal Return is from more than one place, yet all of them currently live in Vancouver. Their interpretations of these objects from the Richmond Museum collection will be weighted, not only in the given historical/museological context of each item, but also in the sum of each individual’s Canadian and non-Canadian cultural migratory experience. Eternal Return invites visitors to explore the history of migration to the city of Richmond through the lens of contemporary art. Eternal Return will complement the Richmond Museum’s exhibition, Journey to Here, which explores where we have come from, how our history is relevant and how it influences us today.
About the Artists
Barb Choit was born in Vancouver, Canada. She lives and works in Vancouver and New York, USA. She received an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and an MA in Modern Art and Curatorial Studies from Columbia University. She has exhibited extensively. Recent Exhibitions include: Pronk Boutique at Macaulay & Co Fine Art (2016) in Vancouver, Pronk at Rawson Projects (2015) in New York, Shoes and Purses – Erica Baum & Barb Choit at Rawson Projects (2015) in New York, Bautzner 69 Façade 960 Hours (2014) in Dresden and Originals at Cooper Cole Gallery (2014) in Toronto. Choit is the recipient of several Canada Council and British Columbia Arts Council Grants and has also attended artist residencies in Austria and Vermont.
Kevin Day’s practice explores the materiality and body of immaterial data in the age of flickering signifiers. His works examine issues such as algorithmic culture, digital memories, cyber control, post-human concerns, communications, and online subcultures, focusing on the effects the digital interface has on human relations, perception, and cognition, specifically the obligatory mediation through coded language and signals. Through his work, the production and consumption of digital materials is framed as subjugation through language, the digital language of code. Day received his MFA from the University of British Columbia and is currently based in Vancouver. He has presented his works and research nationally and internationally, at locations such as the Free Word Centre, London; the University of Hamburg; Qubit, New York; Les Territoires, Montreal; and Gallery 1313, Toronto. He is a contributing author in an anthology on digital memories published through Interdisciplinary Press, London, and is a recent recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts Production Grant.
Lucien Durey, born in Regina, Saskatchewan, now lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia. Recent exhibitions include Baba’s House(2015–16), a touring Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, exhibition; Shelved (2014), presented by Burnaby Art Gallery in collaboration with the University of British Columbia and Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver; and When I Get This Feeling, performed at Hardscrabble Gallery in Vancouver and as part of Performatorium: Festival of Queer Performance at Neutral Ground Contemporary Art Forum in Regina. He holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and an MFA from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts.
Alanna Ho is an interdisciplinary performer based in Vancouver, BC. She is the Founder of the Rainbow Forecast Project, a non-profit art and community initiative. The project aims to share children’s stories, and generate contemporary art discussions by constructing their own creative ideas into large-scale public installation works. As an educator, she is passionate about engaging a welcoming creative space for children to immerse into with an experimental approach. Ho completed a BFA in Music Composition and Theory from the University of Victoria and also attended the SFU School of Contemporary Arts (Visual Arts) from 2013-2014. She has exhibited in several galleries across Vancouver and British Columbia.
Anchi Lin is an artist of Taiwanese heritage who lives and works in Vancouver. Her work negotiates and interfaces with concepts such as language, identity, gender and cultural norms. Her heritage has served as a catalyst for her exploration of these concepts. Lin received a BFA in Visual Art from Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts. She was the recipient of the Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery Emerging Artist Award and the Bob Rennie Undergraduate Award in Visual Art. She has exhibited at several galleries in both Vancouver, and Richmond.
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