Title: Binocular Parallax: Recent Projects from Seattle and Vancouver, BC
Dates: September 13 – November 23, 2003
Locations: Consolidated Works, 500 Boren Ave. N., Seattle, WA, and Western Front, Vancouver, BC
Co-Curated with: Jonathan Middleton, Curator, Western Front, Vancouver, BC
Dates: September 13 – November 23, 2003
Locations: Consolidated Works, 500 Boren Ave. N., Seattle, WA, and Western Front, Vancouver, BC
Co-Curated with: Jonathan Middleton, Curator, Western Front, Vancouver, BC
Artists:
Vancouver, BC
Vancouver, BC
Fiona Bowie, Hadley Howes & Mawell Stephens, Evan Lee & Mohamed Somani, Tim Lee
Seattle
Leiv Fagereng. Jenny Heishman, Bret Marion, John Seal, Dan Webb
20x20 Polaroid Project
Polaroids by 20 Seattle artists and 20 Vancouver artists
Press release text:
Consolidated Works’ Director of Visual Art Meg Shiffler has joined forces with Vancouver’s Western Front curator Jonathan Middleton to co-curate this large-scale exhibition marking the grand opening of Consolidated Works’ new 6000 sq. ft. visual art space. The curators have chosen recent projects ranging from painting, installation, photography, sculpture and video work by emerging and mid-career artists instrumental in defining the current cultural identity and visual art landscape of each city. This exhibition will attempt to begin to bridge the distance between Vancouver and Seattle, providing visitors the chance to see what is currently being created in each city.
Vancouver and Seattle are separated by 117 miles (or 189 kilometers), and an ever tightening border. It is fair to say that the two visual art communities have never related much with each other – we are fairly out of touch with our international neighbor. To create an effective dialogue between Seattle and Vancouver, it seems necessary to examine the similarities and differences in the way art has evolved, and continues to be produce in both places. What links, for example, can be made due to the close proximity of our two cities? Is there a West Coast sensibility when it comes to art production? Likewise, how have conditions such as government funding, marketplace and political similarities/differences affected the way the art scenes in the two cities have grown?
Polaroids by 20 Seattle artists and 20 Vancouver artists
Press release text:
Consolidated Works’ Director of Visual Art Meg Shiffler has joined forces with Vancouver’s Western Front curator Jonathan Middleton to co-curate this large-scale exhibition marking the grand opening of Consolidated Works’ new 6000 sq. ft. visual art space. The curators have chosen recent projects ranging from painting, installation, photography, sculpture and video work by emerging and mid-career artists instrumental in defining the current cultural identity and visual art landscape of each city. This exhibition will attempt to begin to bridge the distance between Vancouver and Seattle, providing visitors the chance to see what is currently being created in each city.
Vancouver and Seattle are separated by 117 miles (or 189 kilometers), and an ever tightening border. It is fair to say that the two visual art communities have never related much with each other – we are fairly out of touch with our international neighbor. To create an effective dialogue between Seattle and Vancouver, it seems necessary to examine the similarities and differences in the way art has evolved, and continues to be produce in both places. What links, for example, can be made due to the close proximity of our two cities? Is there a West Coast sensibility when it comes to art production? Likewise, how have conditions such as government funding, marketplace and political similarities/differences affected the way the art scenes in the two cities have grown?
For this sort of dialogue it seemed logical to select a younger group of emerging and mid-career artists, who themselves are contending with recent local histories. In Seattle, emerging artists of ten embrace the regions’ figurative, narrative tradition but many shy away from paint on canvas in favor of the use of new media and bold graphic formats to tell their stories. In Vancouver, media such as photography and video still command a great deal of attention. This is partly due to the international success of earlier practitioners, and partly because high real estate prices have made studio-space untenable. Thus studio-based practices such as painting and sculpture are oddly marginalized in Vancouver.
Meg and Jonathan also asked 20 artists from each community to take a series of nine Polaroid’s on any subject they chose. The result is a look at the vibrant energy of young artists shaping each community, working with an inexpensive, immediate medium.
Meg and Jonathan also asked 20 artists from each community to take a series of nine Polaroid’s on any subject they chose. The result is a look at the vibrant energy of young artists shaping each community, working with an inexpensive, immediate medium.
A co-curated exhibition of the same title was presented at Western Front six month later.
