Extended Anniversary Installation
Museum of Metaphors
Hadley Howes (Vancouver) and Maxwell Stephens (Vancouver)

As a special commission to celebrate Open Space's 30th Anniversary, Hadley Howes and Maxwell Stephens will decorate the foyer of the gallery as a Rococo ‘ode to the patron’. They will specifically reference singerie, a satirical style of decorative painting from the 18th century in which monkeys are depicted performing human activities. This site-specific, trompe l’oeil installation, which invites the viewer to be complicit with decorative deception, will be part of the collaborative duo's ongoing investigation into representation, illusion and illustration.

Titled Museum of Metaphors, the installation will consider the architectural structure and the functionality of the foyer as a place of entry and passage. Both artists have been working together in collaborations and on installations for years and it is often impossible to differentiate where one artist’s input begins and the other’s ends. Their interest lies in the cross-over between fine and decorative arts, public and private spaces, taste and authority, as well as alternative spaces for installation. The artists are also interested in how the process of production informs representation.

Howes and Stephens will search through Open Space’s archives of past performances and activities in an effort to reference directly and incorporate Open Space’s history in their work. Although humourous, this project reconsiders and explores established notions of technique, western art history, representation and illusion.