Takes to the Streets
CUE: Artists’ Videos
January 23 – March 21, 2010
and
Michael Lin: A Modest Veil
January 23 – May 2, 2010
Vancouver
Vancouver Art Gallery Takes to the Streets with Two Major Installations During the 2010 Winter GamesThe Vancouver Art Gallery will play a central role in enlivening Vancouver’s downtown during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games with two major public art installations in the city’s most prominent locations. Using the exuberant floral patterns of Taiwanese fabric, Taipei-based artist Michael Lin will cover the Gallery’s entire northern façade with a massive hand-painted mural. CUE: Artists’ Videos will transform the southern side of the Gallery into an outdoor theatre presenting a continuous flow of video-based works on a massive LED screen.
Michael Lin: A Modest Veil – January 23 to May 2, 2010
The Georgia Street Plaza, the largest public square in downtown Vancouver, will be backed by nearly 6,000-square-feet of brilliant colour composing Michael Lin’s massive mural titled Georgia Street Plaza 23.01 – 02.05.10, 2010. Covering the Gallery’s entire northern façade, Lin’s enveloping intervention will dramatically transform this high-traffic area. Thousands of passersby will be invited to reinterpret the altered architecture of the Gallery’s neo-classical building and consider the cultural references and connections created by the artist’s bold floral pattern. Appearing as part of the exhibition Michael Lin: A Modest Veil, Lin’s intervention is joined by a book-wrapping project that will cover hundreds of publications in the Gallery Store and a t-shirt designed by the artist that will clothe frontline Gallery staff.
Michael Lin is highly regarded for his monumental installations that reconfigure public space. Born in Tokyo in 1964, the artist was raised in Taiwan and now lives between Brussels, Shanghai and Taipei. His work reflects the influence of these diverse sites of cultural production and his movement between them. He has created monumental works for extraordinary sites around the world, including Towada Art Center, Towada (2008), The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu (2005), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2005), Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2004), P.S.1, Long Island City (2004) and Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2002).
Michael Lin: A Modest Veil is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by senior curator, Bruce Grenville with assistant curator, Emmy Lee.
CUE: Artists’ Videos – January 23 to March 21, 2010,
CUE: Artists’ Videos will present the most innovative and compelling local, national and international artists working in film and video today. Presented on a nearly 20-foot, high-resolution LED screen on the Gallery’s Robson Street façade, the series will run daily from 5 am to 2 am. The adjacent Robson Street Plaza, one of the city’s busiest pedestrian hubs, will be particularly lively during the Olympic Winter Games when the area becomes an official site for live entertainment and a major centre for local, national and international media.
Videos selected for CUE range from short, dynamic films that surprise and delight to those that probe deeply into the complexities of today’s world. The exhibition includes more than 90 titles by artists from around the globe, including Afghanistan, Canada, China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. For her video The Birth of RMB City, Chinese artist Cao Fei takes viewers into the on-line 3D virtual world Second Life using her avatar China Tracy. For Civilization, Italian artist Marco Brambilla depicts a journey from hell to heaven using digitally-enhanced found film footage. Vancouver’s Paul Wong presents a year’s worth of personal snapshots compiled in chronological order and shown at a rate of 1000 images per minute for the intense viewing experience of Last Year. The works will be presented in seven thematic programs, including Borrowing from Cinema, Constructing Tableaux, Notes on the Everyday, Sight and Sound, History in the Making, Performing for the Camera and Living in the Spectacle. Each program will repeat at various times of the day to maximize viewing opportunities.
CUE is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and co-curated by associate director/chief curator, Daina Augaitis and New York-based curator, Christopher Eamon with curatorial assistant, Stephanie Rebick.
Media contact
Andrew Riley, Public Relations Manager
ariley@vanartgallery.bc.ca
