Tasting Notes

May 6 — Jul 29, 2023
Field:

Exhibition

Description:

Tasting Notes was a solo exhibition of work by Sol Hashemi that brought together a selection of photographs and objects used, modified, and reconfigured by the artist in his ongoing experimentation with brewing.

Employing strategies of product photography, in Hashemi’s photographs recognizable items—a bus tray containing an assortment of rocks, crystals, minerals, and brightly lidded plastic containers; a collection of four leaf clovers picked and pressed between the lined pages of an exercise book; halved apples on a cutting board with cores eaten by codling moth larvae; harvested rhubarb on a patterned cloth used to clean stainless steel; leaves and fruit peel in a blue bin; and a selenite window placed on top of ground malt in a mash tun—are elevated through sharp focus, wide-gamut colour, and even lighting. Flattened through a bird’s eye view, the photographs appear like desktop images, an interface between habitats, ideas, ideologies, references, and cultural niches, which like the foraged items represented, often require processing.

Accompanying these photographs, Hashemi’s installation of objects used and created in various stages of the brewing process invited audiences into an extended and real time sensory encounter. A fountain slowly dissolved selenite, fermenting sugar wash gently fizzed in a fifty-five gallon drum, a fridge hummed as it kept custom brews cold, and a mass of polka dot agate with a beer can inserted into it playfully held the flow of material transformations in maximum tension. Within this scene, Hashemi entangled the audience in these processes, with the viewer becoming part of the image and playing an active role in how the artwork functioned. A selection of ales and cider brewed by Hashemi were made available to sample while visiting the exhibition. 

Hashemi’s interest in brewing and foraging also echoed past uses of the site, including the gallery’s function as a speakeasy called The Lure of the Sea in the early years of Western Front; Mount Pleasant as the historic home of brewing and the working class culture surrounding it in Vancouver; and the stretch of waterway, Brewery Creek, filled beneath the building’s foundations that once nurtured a dense rainforest rich in medicinal plants that provided the conditions for these transformations across time.

During the exhibition, Hashemi also took part in Western Front’s artist-in-residence program, occupying front and back of house spaces—such as the garden, kitchen, woodshop, and basement—to develop new works in progress, including rotating flower displays and new brews. While at Western Front, Hashemi invited local brewers to an open house in the gallery to share his practice, exchange techniques, and gain new industry insights. He also hosted Hops and Herbs—a workshop for sixteen participants that focused on sampling organic ingredients used in the brewing process, and visualizing sensory experiences through drawing. 

A text by Amelia Groom was commissioned to accompany the exhibition. 

Curated by Susan Gibb.

Documents:

A framed photograph of grain in a mash tun hanging on a white wall outside of a gallery with its doors open. Inside the gallery, there are several photographs and brew-related sculptures.
A wide angle installation view of a white-walled art gallery. Several photographs hang on the walls, with wooden tables, benches and brew-related sculptures interspersed on the floor. Track lights line the ceiling, as natural light comes through two large windows.
An installation view of a white-walled art gallery showing hung photographs and sculptures on the floor. On the left wall is a photo of rhubarb on a blue patterned textile. On the far wall, a photo of four leaf clovers on graph paper. The sculptural elements are reconfigured brewing equipment, including a fountain and a unitank. In the middle of the room sits a beer can placed within a polka dot agate.
An installation view of a white-walled art gallery. There are two framed photographs hung along the right wall. On the gallery floor, there is an altered brewing unitank and a polka dot agate sculpture. In the far corner, there are a series of wooden benches and tables, some of which have floral arrangements sitting on them. Natural light shines in through two windows on the right wall, and the wooden gallery doors are closed.
Various brewing related objects along with a framed photograph of sliced apples on a yellow cutting board are hung on a slatwall panel on a white gallery wall. To its right, a small floral arrangement in a vase made of a sight glass and metal brewing valve sits on a table made of a cutting board and adjustable monopod legs.
An installation view of a white-walled art gallery. Various brewing related objects along with a framed photograph of sliced apples on a yellow cutting board are hung on a slatwall panel on the left wall. In the far corner, there are a series of wooden benches and tables, some of which have floral arrangements sitting on them. A polka dot agate sculpture sits in the centre of the room. Natural light shines through two windows.
A wide angle installation view of a white-walled art gallery. Several photographs hang on the walls, one of which is on a slatwall panel alongside various brewing related equipment.  Brew-related sculptures are interspersed on the floor.
A glass carboy sits atop a keg washing fountain placed in a plastic containing tray on the floor in a corner of a white-walled art gallery. On the wall beside it hangs a framed photograph of four leaf clovers on graph paper.
A sculpture of a beer can placed into a piece of polka dot agate sits on the floor in the foreground. Behind it, hung on a white wall is a framed photograph of rhubarb leaves on a blue and floral pattern textile and blue tarp.
A framed photograph of apples and brown leaves in a blue plastic bin hangs on a white gallery wall. Adjacent to it, on the right, is a brew-sculpture of an insulated unitank, complete with a pump, hose, and custom fittings.
A framed photograph of a variety of rocks, gemstones and brightly-colored plastics placed in a white bussing tray hangs on a white gallery wall. Adjacent to it, on the floor to the right, is a stainless steel kettle with custom fittings.
A framed photograph of rhubarb leaves on a blue and floral pattern textile and blue tarp hangs on a white gallery wall.
An insulated brewing unitank, complete with a pump, hose, and custom fittings, stands in an art gallery.
A glass carboy receives a blast of water from a keg washer on which it is placed. A piece of selenite sits in the keg washer’s basin. The entirety of the sculpture sits in a white, shallow plastic tray placed in a corner of an art gallery.
A floral arrangement in a makeshift vase consisting of a sight glass and metal brewing valve sits atop a customized table made from a cutting board and four adjustable monopod legs.
A stainless steel brewing kettle with custom gemstone fittings sits near a white wall in an art gallery.
A detail shot of a customized flowerstone with epidote tri-clover cap on a stainless steel brewing kettle.
A detail shot of a customized unakite tri-clover cap on a stainless steel brewing unitank.
A can of beer with an orange label fits snuggly into a hole in a piece of polka dot agate placed on a wooden floor.
A detail shot of an orange and white labeled can of beer snuggly fit into a piece of polka-dot agate.
A well-lit reception area with wood panels, white walls and glass block windows. A vertical monitor suspended over a terrazzo countertop reads “Sol Hashemi May 6 - Jul 29, 2023 Tasting Notes Exhibition”. A blue suggestion box and three small glasses of brews, two amber and one yellow in colour, sit on the countertop.
A close up image of a pair of hands pouring beer from a tap into a glass. The left hand tilts the glass, while the right holds a trigger-style tap labeled with the word “SELENITE”. In the background, out of focus, are several kegs and lines in an open chest freezer.
A close up image of a pair of hands pouring beer from a tap into a glass. The left hand holds the glass with beer foaming to its rim, while the right holds a trigger-style tap labeled with the word “TREE”. In the background, out of focus, are several kegs and lines in an open chest freezer.
Three evenly spaced glasses on a terrazzo countertop. Each is filled within a centimeter of the top with brew. The middle brew is of a cider light yellow colour, and is flanked by two amber coloured beers.

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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.