1989 | Dates | The Activation Map

Dates 1989

Totem Signpoles and Markers

November 14, 1989 to November 25, 1989
Discursive Event, Exhibition
Autobiographical drawings can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and resolution. In Margaret Atwood's recent novel, Cat's Eye, painter Elaine Risley returns to Toronto after several years in Vancouver for a retrospective of her work. In the process of installing and previewing the show the artist is confronted with the ghosts of her past and cones to an understanding of its tyrannies.

In a similar way Gail Carney's work on paper uses personal symbolism and allegory to evoke both conscious and unconscious dilemmas. Her personal vocabulary of symbols is not, however, self-absorbed and preoccupied but offers us images that luminously evoke common concerns. (For full curatorial statement see exhibition catalogue attached below)

October 17, 1989 to October 26, 1989
Exhibition
Kathryn Walter's redevelopment intervention was displayed in the streets of Vancouver in November 1988. She appropriated phrases from Harlequin Romance novels and placed them as footnotes on twenty different development permit applications. The phrases carried stereotypical tones of male ownership and dominance of women which when juxtaposed with the permit signs create a parallel in power structures. The intervention was subtle yet effective in drawing attention to the permit signs as symbols of the economic oppression of many inner city neighbourhoods. By bringing the documentation of the project into the gallery we can focus on the piece as a whole and discuss the issues involved in development in Vancouver. Another instalment will be placed in the street during the exhibition.

July 4, 1989 to July 15, 1989
Exhibition
Charcoal drawings and text for Orbis Pictus - both by Jo Cook, inspired by the book by Czech philosopher Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670.)