love, intimacy and (com)passion, in a geopolitical context
A monthly series of video, film, performance and ceremony events
Project curator/artist-in-residence Jayce Salloum
THURSDAY DECEMBER 15 7.30pm
Curated by Henry Tsang + Diyan Achjadi
Featuring/works by
Fred Wah, Meeru Dhalwala, Vanessa Richards, Michael Rakowitz, Chee Wang Ng 吳子雲
Our program of words, music and food will address the struggle towards generosity and openness in an attempt to provide different ways of nourishment. Gathering around food offers the potential of a communal experience, and can provide a physical bridge towards building real, corporeal community. Shared experiences create space for conversation that allows for both a sense of mutual understanding as well as an articulation of differences. Our title, Eat Rice Yet?, is the ubiquitous, pedestrian way of greeting one another in Chinese culture. One asks how you are by inquiring whether you are hungry, whether you have been fed; because if you have not, then we need to be concerned. That rice represents food is emblematic of its role in Chinese cuisine, culture and identity, as it is with over half of the world’s population that considers this ancient grain their staple, their visceral base, their place of comfort and satisfaction.
Stream it LIVE at:
thirstDays.vivomediaarts.com
ONLINE
fb event page: www.facebook.com/events/1748760138709983
fb project compilation page: www.facebook.com/thirstDaysVIVO
#thirstDaysVIVO
thirstDays is a project conceived as the rain falls and covers us in a slick substance transduced from the skies, moist. How can this, how can we, contribute to the establishing of a momentum that may have once been here in waves or pieces but over time was squandered, and defeated, with the imposition of capital triumphantly declaring its colonial (un)consciousness in our enclave by the water. Surrounded by a possible serene beauty, grief and sadness, love and hate, what encounters do we inscribe into our psyches and into our beings, what can art do to fulfil a mandate of hope and agency. What can we contribute.
The project takes inspiration from the patterns of existence to look at the mechanisms which we are part of, and relate them to all we end up being, sharing, denying, repressing and preserving. We seek that which compels us: love, intimacy and (com)passion, explorations of the commons/(un)commons; empathy and subjectivities; nourishing sites and situations; modes of agency; and subjectivities of place.
We insist on diversity and threads of collaboration, strands of ‘collectivity’/affinity, emphasizing works that have a specificity of location with resonances/meanings for others within reach and beyond. There is a socio-psycho imperative here at this site – Vancouver – grounded in what is missing and manoeuvering the gaps while referencing the historic in the present(ness) – and of the moment – with the critical reimagining of the repressed and the projection of empathy and action. – Jayce Salloum
VIVO is located in the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in a warehouse space at 2625 Kaslo Street south of East Broadway at the end of E 10th. Transit line 9 stops at Kaslo Street on Broadway. From the bus stop, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight decline. The closest skytrain station is Renfrew Station, which is three blocks south-east of VIVO and has an elevator. From there, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight incline. There is parking available at VIVO, including wheelchair access parking. There is a bike rack at the entrance. The front entrance leads indoors to a set of 7 stairs to the lobby.
A wheelchair ramp is located at the west side of the main entrance. The ramp has two runs: the first run is 20 feet long, and the second run is 26 feet. The ramp is 60 inches wide. The slope is 1:12. The ramp itself is concrete and has handrails on both sides. There is an outward swinging door (34 inch width) at the top of the ramp leading to a vestibule. A second outward swinging door (33 inch width) opens into the exhibition space. Buzzers and intercoms are located at both doors to notify staff during regular office hours or events to unlock the doors. Once unlocked, visitors can use automatic operators to open the doors.
There are two all-gender washrooms. One has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The other is a single room with a urinal and is wheelchair accessible: the door is 33 inches wide and inward swinging, without automation. The toilet has 11 inch clearance on the left side and a handrail.
To reach the bathrooms from the studio, exit through the double doors and proceed straight through the lobby and down the hall . Turn left, and the two bathrooms will be on your right side. The closest one has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The far bathroom is accessible.
Henry Tsang is a visual and media artist and occasional curator based in Vancouver. His artworks incorporate digital media, video, photography, language and sculptural elements that follow the relationship between the public, community and identity through global flows of people, culture and capital. Projects include Maraya, an eight-year collaboration that investigates the reappearance of Vancouver’s False Creek in Dubai as the Dubai Marina; Orange County, and Olympus, shot in California, Beijing, Torino and Vancouver, exploring overlapping urban and socio-political spaces; and Welcome to the Land of Light, a public artwork along Vancouver’s seawall that underscores Chinook Jargon, a 19th Century local trade language, and the English that replaced it. Henry is an Associate Professor at Emily Carr University of Art & Design.
Diyan Achjadi was born in Jakarta, Indonesia to a West-Javanese father and English-Canadian mother. Her work examines historical prints and surface ornamentation, tracing narratives of cross-cultural imaginings, influences and contaminations, retranslating and reinterpreting them through drawing, printmaking and animation. Diyan is an Associate Professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.