ARTIST TALK: Undercurrents by Kristin Man
Apr.
6

ARTIST TALK: Undercurrents by Kristin Man

ARTIST TALK
Undercurrents Exhibition by Kristin Man
Moderated by Josema Zamorano.

DATE: April 6, 2024 from 2-3pm
COST: FREE EVENT (by donation)

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Artist Statement

“The sea is the symbol of the collective unconscious, because unfathomed depths lie concealed beneath its reflecting surface.” (1) Dr. Carl Jung

Centred on locating her own “Self (2)” amidst a passage through six countries and ongoing global upheavals, Kristin Man began this series with a couple of questions: “What would the impact be on my consciousness if I were able to see my mind as a radiologist can examine an x-ray?”, and “What form would my art take if I were able to combine my inner and outer Seascapes?”

In February 2023, while pursuing her advanced yoga teacher training certification program, Man contacted a local university-based neuroscience laboratory to make simultaneous investigations in the studies of philosophy-bodywork and science. The goal was to explore the potential paradoxes and parallels and perhaps, to find her sense of reality somewhere in between. The lab’s neuroscientists assisted her in making EEG recordings of her own brain activity over meditations. These recordings are embedded in the majority of artworks here. While Undercurrents is predicated on the mother series A-MARE (to love-to sea), based on the overriding concept of connections signified by woven waves, conveying interconnected themes such as ecology (human-others), memories (between times and places), history (between past and present), here she focuses mainly on the waves between those of her brain and the ocean. These efforts by Man to place a scientifically measurable reality of the human brain in dialogue with a transcendent experience derived from metaphysical investigations, suggest that her project is an ongoing experiment. This exhibition represents her recent artistic rumination and embodiment of her micro-macro cosmos.

Bios: Both Kristin Man, the artist, and Josema Zamorano, the moderator, are interdisciplinary artists and educators. Undercurrents is themed on consciousness produced by a variety of lenses including medical instruments and camera. It is an offspring of A-MARE (to love-to sea), Kristin Man’s core project since 2018. In addition to galleries in Vancouver such as Canton-sardine, Burnaby Art Council and Pendulum Gallery, Man has exhibited internationally and her work is in the collection of foundations and private individuals. She has presented her work at institutions such as the Museum of Anthropology, the Italian National Archives in Rome, Rizzoli in Milan, Recontres-ARLES, the Contemporary & Modern Art Museum in Naples, and Palazzo delle Arti Napoli as well as radio and TV interviews in Italy. She invites viewers to reflect on what being human might mean.

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ARTIST TALK: Chinese Year of Water Dragon History Telling by Launie Wong Fairbairn
Mar.
9

ARTIST TALK: Chinese Year of Water Dragon History Telling by Launie Wong Fairbairn

ARTIST TALK
Chinese Year of Water Dragon History Telling by Launie Wong Fairbairn

DATE: Saturday March 9, 2024 1 - 2p
COST: FREE EVENT (by donation)

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Launie Wong Fairbairn, a diasporic daughter of teenage picture bride No.4 & 60’s senior citizen father, will give a pictorial and historical dialogue on Strathcona’s demographic culture before gentrification. Historical photos depict housing remnants and the social fabric which are presented alongside Launie’s own experiences, photographs, and memories growing up here.

Launie recently presented her exhibition at Gallery 881 in June 2023. Her Circa mid-70s images capture an idealistic, wistful, tribal and free-spirited flower power contemplation and enchantment. Shot on discontinued chrome film manipulated for random, spontaneous and abstract grain then analog printed on obsolete archival forerunner Cibachrome by the artist. Both processes fell victim to modern technology for a proclaimed practical digitization.

On March 9, 2024, we will turn back the clocks and explore the neighbourhood as it was and as it’s remembered. The talk takes place in context to our current exhibition, “Where I’m From,” featuring work by Megan Kwan and Jeremy Jude Lee.

Subject Erian Baxter, daughter of NE Thing Co. founders Ingrid & Ian Baxter, and Artist Launie Wong Fairbairn at Gallery 881.

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ARTIST TALK: Where I’m From by Jeremy Jude Lee & Megan Kwan
Feb.
24

ARTIST TALK: Where I’m From by Jeremy Jude Lee & Megan Kwan

ARTIST TALK
Where I’m From by Megan Kwan & Jeremy Jude Lee

Saturday, February 24, 2024 from 1 - 3p
Free Event (by donation)

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Where I’m From contemplates (be)longing, lineage, and the nature of evolving dreams passed down through generations as (grand)children of immigrants. The collective exhibition, led by Vancouver artists Jeremy Jude Lee and Megan Kwan, includes a site-specific installation, focusing on cinematic imagery in conversation with physical objects and familiar locations specific to their Asian-Canadian experience.

Lee and Kwan’s practice examines self-portraiture—embracing aspects of their cross-cultural identities that they struggled to accept in the past. The photographic work depicts narratives of leisure, tenderness of friendship and the fleeting nature of memory. The installation works are everyday artifacts that represent the resourcefulness, dreams, and sacrifices of generations before. Together, these works create an immersive installation that expresses the mutual influence of Asian culture in a Western world.

The title of the exhibition, Where I’m From, speaks to the concept of home for those who live on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations also known as “Vancouver.” Having both been born and raised in the Lower Mainland but still perceived as foreign, Where I’m From, is a homage to the past revisiting familiar places but documented with a renewed perspective while redefining past beliefs of belonging.

The process of creating this series of artworks was deeply collaborative and made possible by the contributions of Jacky Huang, Esther Joh, Rachel Kwan, Ciara Kosai, Sabrina Wong, James Jin, Jason Chu, Long Xi Vlessing, and Xin.

Photographer Jeremy Jude Lee and Creative Director Megan Kwan

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