Apparition Room

Jan 14 — Apr 1, 2023
Field:

Exhibition

Description:

Apparition Room was an immersive group exhibition curated by Lee Plested that brought to life digitized artworks from Western Front’s archives to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Set within a scenography of lighting, props, and furnishings by artist Nile Koetting, the exhibition space evoked the cool aesthetics of the waiting room to welcome visitors to slow down and engage in contemplation. Performance documentation, video extracts, and soundworks played across an arrangement of screens, projections, and speakers. Artworks by over fifty artists were presented as four one-hour long programs over the course of the exhibition period, each with its own theme.

Program 1: Under the Skin reflected on identity and the fragility of being through the lens of performativity, indigeneity, and colonialism and its consequences. Program 2: Bodies Beyond Boundaries explored trials of human endeavor and persistence through works with a shared interest in the innate potential of being. Program 3: Abstract Means of Production examined the systems and conditions of capital, presenting diverse takes on labour which oscillated between making as a means and the meaning of making. Through the act of storytelling, Program 4: Narrating Susceptibility featured works that spun allegories of alienation and its antecedents to reveal objectifying apparatuses of power and their related inequities.

To ground the experience in the body and material world, tours for up to four people were made available by registration twice daily each Thursday and Saturday. On these occasions, hosts Sierra Megas and Yasmine Whaley-Kalaora guided visitors through the program, augmenting their experience with a choreography of gesture, script, and tea service featuring brews devised by artists Bryan Mulvihill and T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss, and ceramic ware by local potters. 

Complete with two touch screen monitors, a display case of featured ceramic ware, and furnishings and scenography complimentary to that of the exhibition space, Western Front’s library was converted into a temporary viewing suite in which all exhibited artworks were available to view in their full form and length.

Through pairing advancements in media technology with contemporary approaches to traditions of tea, ceramics, and hosting, Apparition Room created an environment to reflect upon Western Front’s longstanding commitment to artistic experimentation across media and the ethos of art as life.

Artists included Kathy Acker, Abbas Akhavan, Eleanor Antin, Joan La Barbara, Martin Bartlett, Rebecca Belmore, bill bissett, Maggie Boyd, Hank Bull, Nao Bustamante, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Dana Claxton, Kate Craig, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Jane Ellison, Robert Filliou, Coco Fusco, General Idea, Bianca Greco, Rana Hamadeh, Mona Hatoum, Michael Henry, Gordon Hutchens, I Kadek Anggara Dwianta, I Kadek Diva Nanditya, Tari Ito, Charmian Johnson, Nile Koetting, Alison Knowles, Danny Kostyshin, Neil Leonard, Glenn Lewis, Ethan Lum, James Luna, Rita McKeough, Eric Metcalfe, Kate Metten, Michael Morris, Bryan Mulvihill, Antoni Muntadas, Gailan Ngan, Wayne Ngan, Judy Radul, Emily Sheppard, Corin Sworn, Vincent Trasov, Zainub Verjee, Laura Wee Lay Laq, Hildegard Westerkamp, Paul Wong, Cornelia Wyngaarden, and T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss.

This project was made possible in part by Library and Archives Canada.

Documents:

A view from a lobby in which a black and white video of a nude figure trying on leopard print clothing is projected on the wall. To the right, a vitrine containing four vases is lit under a spotlight. An open door offers a peak into a blue-lit gallery space.
An art gallery with a blue carpet containing several props, lights, and projectors. Blue and magenta light is cast onto the walls. Also projected on the far side of the room, is a video of a man shaking a maraca, and on the right wall, a video of a bloodied body wrapped in plastic laying on top of a table.
An art gallery with a blue carpet containing several props, lights, vitrines, and projectors. Blue, pink, and purple light is cast onto the walls. There are videos being projected onto opposite walls, the one closest showing a close up of plastic-covered blood-red flesh. A small television monitor shows a video at the far end of the room.
A display case containing four tea bows is mounted to a wall that is cast in blue and pink light. The bowls sit behind a translucent digital screen with abstract patterns. To the left of the display case, a pair of orange sandals sit on a blue carpet.
An art gallery with a blue carpet containing several props, and lights. Blue light is cast upon the walls, with projected stars and abstract patterns adorning some of the props. In the foreground, a video of someone speaking into a microphone and a repeated photograph of an indigenous person in headdress is projected onto the wall.
Four individuals sit on blue oval-shaped benches placed on a blue carpet. They are watching a video projection of a person holding and reading an oversized book titled CUXTAMALE.
A video of a person in goggles and swimwear in a ring buoy is projected onto a wall cast in pink light. In the corner, two lights sit on a blue carpet. To the right of the projection is a small monitor suspended from the ceiling.
An exhibition tour guide, dressed in a yellow apron, kneels in front of a digital-screened display case, with two tea bowls in hand. The room, covered in blue carpet, is cast in blue light. A video is projected onto the far wall.
An exhibition tour guide, dressed in a yellow apron and shirt, blue pants, and sandals, kneels while holding glass tea wares. She looks down towards various ceramic tea bowls placed on plexi-glass vitrines.
An exhibition tour patron holds up an inscribed tea bowl to read the poem pressed into its form.
An exhibition tour patron accepts a tea cup and saucer off of a platter held by a tour guide who is dressed in a yellow apron. The room is cast in blue light.
An exhibition guide wearing an orange apron, blue pants, and sandals, prepares for a tea service. She stands over ceramic wears placed on a plexiglass plinth. The room is cast in blue light and various props and lights are placed on the blue carpet. In the background, patrons watch a video on a small monitor.
An exhibition guide wearing an orange apron, and cast in blue and pink light, looks down at a tea pot atop a plexiglass plinth. In the background, two patrons enjoy tea from ceramic wares.
An exhibition guide wearing an orange apron stands holding a teapot over cups placed on a plexiglass plinth. On the wall opposite to her is a video projection of a man opening a lunchbox. The walls are lit in a soft red light, contrasting the deep blue of the carpet.
A close up shot of an exhibition guide wearing a yellow apron pouring bright red tea from a glass teapot into one of four ceramic tea bowls placed atop a plexiglass vitrine.
An exhibition guide wearing an orange apron stands outside the open doors of a gallery. Inside, the gallery walls are cast in blue light, and its floors covered in blue carpet. A small, white framed monitor is suspended from the ceiling, showing a black and white image of a person having their mouth covered by several hands.
Two small monitors suspended from the ceiling face two chairs, one upholstered in blue, the other in mustard yellow fabric. They sit near the centre of the room, whose walls are lined with wood and shelving containing books, magazines, and ceramics.
A small monitor suspended from the ceiling faces a chair upholstered in blue fabric. Above the chair, on the ceiling, is a light red light. In the background, pressed against a wood panelled wall, sits a shelf containing books and various ceramic wares.
A close up shot of a shelving unit containing various ceramic vases, tea pots, teal bowls, and cups. Its doors are closed and it is illuminated from the inside with LED strips.
A pair of white headphones rest on a small monitor that is suspended from the ceiling. On the screen, there are several black and white images. In the background, a brass radiator sits against a wood-paneled wall.
A pair of white headphones rest on a small monitor that is suspended from the ceiling. On the screen, there are several black and white images. In the background, a brass radiator sits against a wood-paneled wall.

Related People

Captions:

Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.

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