Museum of Metaphors
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.
The Argument Machine
April 19-26
The Argument Machine
Chris Baker (Victoria, BC)
Vertical Gallery
Chris Baker’s The Argument Machine is a box that resembles some form of briefcase or luggage. Inside it the viewer can see a light, knobs, some levers, a VU meter—all encased in a bronze/gold metal casing. Sounds of computerized voices emit from this peculiar machine and they argue about art, technology and their personal qualms with each other. The work is about the progress of technology and its limitation—i.e. we can make a computer think but we can’t make it feel, and in reality anything it says or thinks is essentially regurgitated human information, never original thought.
The Argument Machine
Chris Baker (Victoria, BC)
Vertical Gallery
Chris Baker’s The Argument Machine is a box that resembles some form of briefcase or luggage. Inside it the viewer can see a light, knobs, some levers, a VU meter—all encased in a bronze/gold metal casing. Sounds of computerized voices emit from this peculiar machine and they argue about art, technology and their personal qualms with each other. The work is about the progress of technology and its limitation—i.e. we can make a computer think but we can’t make it feel, and in reality anything it says or thinks is essentially regurgitated human information, never original thought.
The Advice Bunny
April 8 to 19
The Advice Bunny
Valérie Lamontagne
Performance: The Advice Bunny Talk Show, Friday, April 11 @ 8pm
Artists Talk: Saturday, April 12 @ noon
Advice: April 8 to 12, noon - 5pm, first come, first served
Who/What is The Advice Bunny? The Advice Bunny is a woman (Valérie Lamontagne) dressed as a pink bunny who gives advice on various problems. People spend hours speaking to the Advice Bunny, confessing, complaining and venting out their frustrations. Because of the anonymous nature of the Bunny suit, as well as it’s completely non-intimidating nature, a certain intimacy is achieved very quickly which plays into some of our collective childhood fantasies of speaking to our stuffed animals. The Advice Bunny is also a trope for how one may interact in society as a woman. For this reason, the Advice Bunny suit pushes the expectations of a charming and unproblematic female physicality to its most absurd limits. However, the Bunny makes good use of this presumed innocence in order to pass on her philosophy and beliefs.
The Advice Bunny
Valérie Lamontagne
Performance: The Advice Bunny Talk Show, Friday, April 11 @ 8pm
Artists Talk: Saturday, April 12 @ noon
Advice: April 8 to 12, noon - 5pm, first come, first served
Who/What is The Advice Bunny? The Advice Bunny is a woman (Valérie Lamontagne) dressed as a pink bunny who gives advice on various problems. People spend hours speaking to the Advice Bunny, confessing, complaining and venting out their frustrations. Because of the anonymous nature of the Bunny suit, as well as it’s completely non-intimidating nature, a certain intimacy is achieved very quickly which plays into some of our collective childhood fantasies of speaking to our stuffed animals. The Advice Bunny is also a trope for how one may interact in society as a woman. For this reason, the Advice Bunny suit pushes the expectations of a charming and unproblematic female physicality to its most absurd limits. However, the Bunny makes good use of this presumed innocence in order to pass on her philosophy and beliefs.
Dream Sequence
April 11-18
Dream Sequence
Jennifer Crighton (Victoria, BC)
Vertical Gallery
Jennifer Crighton’s Dream Sequence is an exploration into what motivates and defines individuality and personal identity. The work explores how our waking and sleeping dreams affect our reality in the present. If humans are shaped by environment and genealogy, what aspects of the self are available for personal interpretation and reconstruction? The overlapped transparent images used in Dream Sequence map the internal world of a dream.
Dream Sequence
Jennifer Crighton (Victoria, BC)
Vertical Gallery
Jennifer Crighton’s Dream Sequence is an exploration into what motivates and defines individuality and personal identity. The work explores how our waking and sleeping dreams affect our reality in the present. If humans are shaped by environment and genealogy, what aspects of the self are available for personal interpretation and reconstruction? The overlapped transparent images used in Dream Sequence map the internal world of a dream.