Installation view of This Now, More Than Ever at SFU Gallery, 2017. Photo: Blaine Campbell.
This Now, More Than Ever
February 9 - March 3, 2017
SFU Gallery
Amir Atouani / Awa Dembele-Yeno / Léa Incorvaia / Mico Mazza, Lorna Brown, Clint Burnham, Adrienne Callander / Neil Callander, Dana Claxton, Brady Cranfield / Jamie Hilder, Thom Donovan, Samir Gandesha, Rosemary Heather, Antonia Hirsch, Allison Hrabluik, Am Johal, John O’Brian / Marina Roy, Marianne Nicolson, Karine Ng / Jayce Salloum, Roxanne Panchasi, Genevieve Robertson, Carol Sawyer, Michael Turner, Althea Thauberger, Kika Thorne, Peter von Tiesenhausen, Urban Subjects, Tania Willard, and Jerry Zaslove.
What is this moment, this now, this present that we are encountering?
It is a moment of the rise of right-wing populist, proto-fascist political formations that have won significant votes across the world. It is a now in which we've seen Trudeau’s pipeline approvals, Brexit and Trump. It is a present in which the divide between radical positions is increasing and the voices of a left are drowning in disbelief, alienation and fear.
The tilt of the times is toward disaster - a xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, homophobic, climate-change-denying pillaging of the remains of a common wealth. But can we determine another present that includes Standing Rock, Burnaby Mountain and the Peace River Valley? A now that shares Indigenous and migrant worldviews, in which the environment can be released from its shackles to capitalism? Can we articulate another direction and ensure that its voices be heard?
In the crush of this increasingly pressurized present, we understand the context of contemporary art as a space where a response is possible, necessary and connects to other calls to action. We asked local, national and international artists and writers to respond to the question: What is this new moment? Their responses are installed at SFU Gallery.
We invite you to visit SFU Gallery between February 9 - March 3 (Tuesday - Friday, 12 - 5PM) and to attend the Saturday, February 18 event at which contributions will be read, coffee drunk and the question, What is this new moment? discussed by all. For those who attend on Febrary 18, a limited edition printed document of the contributions will be distributed.
Organized by Melanie O’Brian and Stephen Collis. Co-presented by SFU Galleries, SFU’s Institute for the Humanities and SFU’s Vancity Office for Community Engagement.
Events
Reading, Dialogue, Coffee with Steve Collis, Karine Ng/Jayce Salloum, Jerry Zaslove
Saturday, Febrary 18, 2017, 1pm
SFU Gallery, Burnaby
