Try Keeping an Open Channel

Sep 6 — Nov 22, 2025
Field:

Exhibition

Description:

Try Keeping an Open Channel was a solo exhibition by Australian artist Archie Barry. Featuring three new video works and an artist’s book, the exhibition reflected themes of death, disembodiment, and transness to consider modes of perception and connection that exceed rationalism.

The “channel” of the title conjures multiple forms: a video signal, a waterway, a dream, or an altered state of consciousness. Each video similarly served as a portal to a minor history. Displayed in the lobby of Western Front, Second Line Work revisits Barry’s childhood within The School of Practical Philosophy. Framed by two arched walls, the two-channel video Dream for Reed reflects on the inner life of pioneering trans philanthropist Reed Erickson through his archives of writings, self-portraits, and poetry held at the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria. In a darkened cinema space at the rear of the gallery, Water Builds Bridges—a video and accompanying artist book—draws on Barry’s own memories of loss and near-death experience. Projected onto a screen angled toward the floor, audience members were invited to view the video while reclined on a pair of custom-made, crushed-velvet seal cushions designed by Barry and fabricated by Ava Katz. 

Across the works, Barry engaged technologies that evoke states of being out-of-body or out-of-time—green screen compositing, psychotropic substances, astral projection, and Erickson’s fictional ASCID (Altered State of Consciousness Induction Device) imagined as a rotary telephone in a garden—to shape trans visions that resist the framework of visibility. By prioritizing sensing over explaining, Barry inquired into the limits and possibilities of representation and corporeality, giving new expression to the vibrancy, uneasiness, and complexity of trans life and loss.

The videos in Try Keeping an Open Channel played on loop, with a total duration of fifty-six minutes. The exhibition was accompanied by the essay “ASCID Trip” (2025) by Susan Stryker. 

During the opening week of the exhibition, Barry performed Wall Drawing (Vescia Pisces), which transformed the gallery into a site of resonance and inscription through vocalizations, lyrical hand movements, and the act of drawing directly onto the gallery wall with custom pencil press-on fingernails.

Curated by Susan Gibb.

Documents:

A warm view of Western Front’s foyer, intercepted in the middle by a black pipe. Two monitors are showing different videos. One is on the left side of the foyer's walls, and one is inside of the gallery. The exhibition’s didactic can be seen on the right side wall of the foyer.
A video is playing on a monitor in Western Front’s foyer. The video shows a body of light complexion where a growing vertical line that goes from the genital area to the head, erases the body and exposes the background. From the open door on the right, a portion of the exhibition can be seen.
A monitor is mounted on pastel green walls, with two hanging headphones underneath it. The image on the monitor depicts what seems like a fragmented lower body obstructed by white textile-looking objects. On both sides of these walls, open archways are creating an entrance to a dark space.
In a pastel green space, two monitors are mounted on walls that are parallel to each other. The bigger monitor has two headphones hanging underneath it and is showing an image of a white document over a blue background. At the far corner of the room, there is an open archway creating an entrance to a dark room.
There’s a small monitor mounted on a pastel green wall. The monitor shows a video of a written document being scanned.
There’s a monitor mounted on a pastel green wall. The monitor shows a video of a written document being scanned all the way through.
Framed by two archways and on pastel green walls, a video is playing on a monitor with two hanging headphones underneath it. The video shows an image of an expressionist painting of human figures, along with a closed caption that reads “meditative drone”. Through the archways a fraction of a darkened cinema space can be seen.
In a darkened cinema space, two individuals watch a video while reclined on a pair of custom-made cushions. The video is projected onto a screen angled toward the cushions. It's showing the feet of a body lying on a hospital bed.
While reclining on a pair of custom-made cushions, two individuals watch a video in a darkened cinema space. The video is projected through a screen that is tilted toward the cushions. The screen shows an image of long nailed fingers contrasted over a red-filtered image of a baby doll’s face.
In a darkened cinema space, a video is being projected onto a screen that’s angled toward two custom-made black crushed-velvet cushions on the wooden floor. The video shows the shoes and legs of a body lying on rocks by the seashore.
In a darkened cinema space, there’s a video playing on an angled screen. Two custom-made, black crushed-velvet seal cushions lay facing the screen’s direction. The video shows the shoes and legs of a body lying on rocks by the seashore. Two archways at the back let light through coming from the next room over.
In a darkened room framed by two archways, a small pile of thin, bound books sits on a black floating shelf. The book at the top of the pile has a sky-blue cover.
A small pile of thin, bound books sits on a black floating shelf. The sky-blue covers of the books have small red text at the bottom of the cover page.
There’s light coming from an archway in a dark room. Next to the archway, a pile of thin bounded books sits on a floating black shelf.
An open archway of a dark room shows a part of the bright next room. Through the archway, a small monitor mounted on green pastel walls can be seen.

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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.

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