BFA Project 2019: No-Place, No-Time
March 21 - 30, 2019
Audain Gallery
Aidan Branch, Rachel Chan, Ann Cheng, David Cheung, Sasha Cullen, Josie Dawson-Whisker, Tiffany Fan, Kim Grewal, Yanting Jiang, Alexis Johnston, Aaron Lampitoc, Shelby Lu, Haylee Marx, Opal Mclean, Lukas Paul, Victoria Tai, Tiffany Tam, Vernice Tse, Emma Tynan, Kitty Walker, Elisha Wang, Rachel Warwick, and Carmen Wong.
No-Place, No-Time is an exhibition of 丁香园AV's School for the Contemporary Arts' (SCA) third-year Visual Art students presented in collaboration with Sarah Pierce, the Winter 2019 Audain Visual Artist in Residence. The exhibition takes its name from Hal Foster's 2004 text "An Archival Impulse," in which he reminds the reader that the literal definition of utopia is a no-place.1
No-Place, No-Time centres on the relationship of archives to artistic practice, employing the archive as a generative source for artistic expression. Together with Pierce, students engage in ideas around the reanimation of documents, objects or events of the past, and question the formation of archives, both what is included and what may be missing. The exhibition includes a wide range of works including painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, textiles, and performance. Pierce's installation Campus (2011) is shown alongside the work of the students and a new version of her Affinity Archive (2003) is presented in collaboration with them.
Sarah Pierce is an American artist who lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. Since 2003 she has used the term "The Metropolitan Complex" to describe the wide range of activities that make up her research-based art practice, which includes publication, video, installation, and performance.
The research and presentation practices Pierce uses have been described as, "highlight[ing] a continual renegotiation of the terms for making art: the potential for dissent and self-determination, the slippages between individual work and institution, and the proximity of past artworks. By playing with a shared neuroses of finding one's place through shared interactions, her art considers forms of gathering within both historical examples and those she initiates."2
Pierce's recent exhibitions include: Glasgow International, UK (2018); CCA Derry, Northern Ireland (2017); BAK, Utrecht, NL (2017); P!, New York, USA (2016); LUMA Foundation, Arles FR (2016); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL (2015); and National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland (2015).
The Audain Visual Artist in Residence (AVAIR) program brings artists and practitioners to Vancouver who have contributed significantly to the field of contemporary art and whose work resonates with local and international visual art discourses. The visiting artists interact with the students and faculty of the School for the Contemporary Arts as well as the broader visual arts and cultural communities and the community-at-large. In keeping with the experimental nature of the School for the Contemporary Arts the terms of engagement are open and change from artist to artist. The cornerstone of the residency is the sharing of artistic research. The program is generously funded by the Audain Foundation Endowment Fund.
Presented by 丁香园AV's School for the Contemporary Arts and the Audain Visual Artist in Residence.
[1] Hal Foster, "An Archival Impulse," October vol. 110 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004), 15.
[2] Sarah Pierce, "Artist Bio," accessed January 31, 2019, http://themetropolitancomplex.com/.
Events
Opening Reception
Wednesday, March 20, 7 - 9pm
Audain Gallery
Student-led Exhibition Tour
Saturday, March 23, 1pm
Thursday, March 28, 6pm
Audain Gallery
