Tulip(s), Footstool, Painting

Jun 12, 2025
Field:

Screening, Talk

 Location:

Grand Luxe Hall, Western Front

 Time:

7:30 p.m.

Description:

Western Front presented an evening of archival excerpts, conversation, and a preview of Tulip(s), Footstool, Painting (2025), a new short film by Darragh Amelia.

In Tulip(s), Footstool, Painting (2025), the artist reflects on her mother’s informal archival practice and bears witness to her enduring friendship with June Katz—a beloved jazz singer and regular figure in Western Front’s social world during the 1980s and ’90s. What emerges is a personal meditation on friendship-as-archive, and on life itself as an act of creative expression.

To frame the screening, the evening began with an introduction by Western Front’s executive director, Susan Gibb, who shared a selection of images of June Katz from Western Front's archive. This was followed by a conversation between Darragh Amelia and Rebecca Corey. Longtime friends and collaborators, they spoke about the resonance of music and memory, the sacred bonds forged between women, and the beauty of lived experience shared among friends. Darragh Amelia and Corey presented objects that embodied their friendship archive, then invited audience members to share tokens, talismans, and memories from their own friendships.

Video documentation is available upon request.

Onstage sits Darragh Amelia, leaning forward slightly, microphone raised mid-speech. She looks across a wooden table meeting the gaze of Rebecca Corey, who sits smiling back at her. Behind them, projected is an open notes tab, with text that reads, tulips, footstool, painting.
Darragh Amelia sits, smiling with a microphone raised, about to speak. She wears a light blue patterned shirt, her long hair is bright blond with straight bangs. She looks across a wooden table at Rebecca Corey, who sits, face obscured by long dark hair, looking back at Darragh, dressed all in black.
Rebecca Corey sits holding up a photo album, speaking to an audience in front of her. Across her sits Darragh Amelia, looking at her, listening intently. Behind them projected on a large screen are the words, tulips, footstool, painting, alongside photos of hands and people looking at photos.
In the Grand Luxe Hall at the front of a seated audience, Darragh Amelia and Rebecca Corey sit across from each other at a wooden table, in a warm spotlight. Behind them, a large screen stands with a collage of images.
Over the tops of an audience's heads in the darkened Grand Luxe Hall, a projected screen shows hands holding pages of an array of collaged photos.
In the darkened Grand Luxe Hall a black and white image of hands holding a collage of faces is projected on screen as an audience watches.
In the darkened Grand Luxe Hall, a black and white image of an older woman's face in profile is projected on screen as an audience watches.
In the darkened Grand Luxe Hall, an audience watches, in black and white, a close up image of someone holding a microphone, projected on screen.
On screen, in black and white, a woman wearing glasses is shown, looking down at her phone which she holds. Her other hand rests under her chin. An audience watches this scene.
On screen in black and white, an older woman meets the gaze of the audience who watches. Her hair is short and light, eyes dark and piercing. In her background there is a wall with many framed artworks.
In the darkened Grand Luxe Hall, an audience looks upon a screen, showing a collage of images, with two women and many flowers.

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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