Deanna Bowen in Residence

Description:

While in residence at Western Front, Deanna Bowen developed her video Gibson Duets (2018), which recreates dance sequences by choreographer Leonard Gibson, who is the cousin of Bowen’s great-uncle Herman Risby. Gibson’s pieces originally aired on CBC Television in 1955 on The Eleanor Show, a variety show hosted by jazz singer Eleanor Collins who made history as the first Afro-Canadian woman to host a national broadcast series. Bowen filmed Vancouver-based dancers Justine A. Chambers and Bynh Ho on 16mm black-and-white film as they performed Gibson’s choreography in the EDAM studio. The final cut of Gibson Duets documents this footage as its being played back on a Steenbeck flatbed editor, creating a video within a video. 

Bowen’s residency also included a screening of the single-cut version of her video ON TRIAL The Long Doorway (2017/2019), followed by a discussion moderated by Western Front media arts curator Allison Collins. ON TRIAL The Long Doorway was made available to view in the Luxe vestibule during gallery hours from April 12 to June 15, 2019. The installation was presented concurrently to Bowen’s solo exhibition A Harlem Nocturne, at the Contemporary Art Gallery.