Programs & Events
Programs & Events
Thursday, November 19, 2015
7 to 9 PM
at Centre A
Free admission
Facebook event page
Rabbit Fool Press and Centre A are pleased to present an evening of live readings, performances, and film screenings, as we celebrate the recent release of Brandy Liên Worrall-Soriano’s anthology Completely Mixed Up: Mixed Heritage North American Writing and Art.
In January of 2007, Centre A was proud to host a launch party event for one of the many chapbooks produced in Brandy’s series of publications that has come to be the recently released compilation Completely Mixed Up. Now, it is our honour and delight to welcome her back and celebrate the completion of this ambitious, fifteen yearlong project. For this special evening, publisher Rabbit Fool Press is bringing together some of the anthology’s many contributors to give performances, present their work and share about upcoming projects.
Hosted by Brandy Liên Worrall-Soriano, this event includes the screening of Jeff Chiba Stearns’ autobiographical, “What Are You Anyways?”, and an introduction to his upcoming documentary, Mix Match, which explores the shortage of registered bone marrow and blood cell donors for mixed race patients with life-threatening blood illnesses. Landscape architect, artist, and scholar Kelty Miyoshi McKinnon will give a talk on invasive plants, and actor and playwright Tricia Collins will perform a segment of her one-woman play, Gravity, a self-penned performance about the Chinese workers in Guyana. In addition, filmmaker and writer Pia Massie; writer and educator Mark Nakada; and multimedia artists Chloe and Mylo Worrall Yu will each give readings from their contributions to the anthology.
This anthology highlights the contributions of the seventy-five people who have explored what it means to be of mixed Asian North American heritage. Completely Mixed Up, through poetry, recipes, visual arts, performance, etc. engages in the dynamics of mixed race Asian North American identity in contemporary and historical terms without shying away from taking a critical approach to persistent questions and concerns.
This event is in partnership with Rabbit Fool Press.
Office hours: October 22 – 23 | 10am to 12pm, October 27 | 10am to 12pm, or by appointment
Facebook Event
From October 22 to 27, 2015, Centre A will be establishing a temporary arts administration office at the RAT school of ART in Seoul, South Korea. Executive Director/Curator, Tyler Russell; Deputy Director, Natalie Tan; and Gallery Administrator, Cathleen Chow, will be present for the duration.
In addition to this temporary office, Centre A staff will be holding a talk, as part of Black Sheep Lectures, on October 24 at 8pm.
Over the course of five days, Centre A staff will be working with our Seoul-based partners on upcoming initiatives, including Seung Woo Back on his November 2015 “Archives Project” exhibition at Centre A curated by Jeong-Eun Kim; and Dirk Fleischmann and Park Mijoo of the RAT school of ART on our joint KOREA – CANADA Residency and Exchange Initiative running from March to October 2016. Staff will also be available to meet with Seoul-based artists and cultural workers to discuss potential cooperation opportunities and review portfolios.
We welcome you to visit us during office hours at RAT school of ART/BLACK SHEEP LECTURES OFFICE, located above POPCORN, near Jongno 3-ga station exit #4.
To arrange an appointment with Centre A in Jongno, please contact Cathleen Chow at [email protected]
Title: Charlie Don’t Surf : 4 Vietnamese American Artists
Publisher: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Year: 2005
Price: $50.00
Size: 11 x 8 ½ inches / 28 x 22 cm
Description: Thirty years after The Fall of Saigon in Vietnam, and a decade after the flowering and subsequent proclaimed failure of multiculturalism and identity politics in the United States, this exhibition highlights contemporary Vietnamese American visual artists whose work and subjectivity is affected by these socio-political intersections. Through experimental video, abstract painting, and photography, these multi-generational artists’ seemingly disparate practices explore memory, failure, sexuality, trauma, and the ambivalent politics of cultural difference. Featured artists Include Dinh Q. Le, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Ann Phong, Tran T. Kim-Trang and curated by Alice Ming Wai Jim and Viet Le.
Organised by Drew Ann Wake and Tyler Russell
Free and open to the public
In the 1970s there was a proposal to put a natural gas pipeline through the MacKenzie Valley in Canada’s North. At the time, Justice Thomas Berger was commissioned to conduct an inquiry to investigate the social, environmental and economic impacts of the project and to put forward recommendations. Conducting hearings in communities throughout the MacKenzie Valley and across the Canada’s North, Justice Berger both listened to and heard what people had to say. The series of community consultations, organised by UBC Professor of Law Michael Jackson, were preciously captured on tape by celebrated documentary filmmaker Jesse Nishihata. Drew Ann Wake, a researcher on Nishihata’s Inquiry Film, has maintained life-long relationships with the people she met during the Inquiry process. Valuing her personal relationships and driven by questions surrounding how the people of Canada’s North can both be listened to and heard, in recent years, reflecting on the methodologies of her mentor Jesse Nishihata, Wake produced Inquiry – an exhibition and audio recording project that both collects and shares the voices, stories and perspectives of people across Canada’s North. Recently, in collaboration with Amy Perreault of UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, Wake has been testing interactive media techniques for enhancing the capacity of Southern Canadian listeners’ capacity to hear the stories being told by Northern elders.
This special two-day project consists of an examination of Drew Ann Wake’s exhibition design practice, a keynote speech by Professor Michael Jackson, a presentation of Wake and Perreault’s interactive media design work and a screening of Jesse Nishihata’s Inquiry Film: A Report on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline.
This is a timely presentation on a variety of fronts. In hyper-local terms it rests as a point of reference to those seeking to have their voices heard in the face of transformation/gentrification in Chinatown. In light of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s recent collaboration with oil and gas pipeline stakeholders, Enbridge and the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation, it offers reflection on the ongoing, international conversation about art sponsorships’ relationship to the artistic realm of possibility. Importantly, the project lends an opportunity to consider strategies for inter-cultural communication and understanding given the complexity of shifting power relationships and ongoing developments in the new international divisions of labour.
Schedule of Events
Friday, October 24th, 7pm
Keynote Speaker: UBC Professor of Law, Michael Jackson.
Presentation by: Drew Ann Wake and Amy Perreault
To RSVP for this event, please visit our EventBrite.
Saturday, October 25th, 4pm
Encore screening: Jesse Nishihata’s Inquiry Film: A Report on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline
Image Credit: Screen Capture from Jesse Nishihata’s Inquiry Film
MUSIC TEMPLE
Emi Honda & Jordan McKenzie
Co-presented with Powell Street Festival Society
Artists Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie, also known as Elfin Saddle, will be performing live music in their sculptural installation once again on September 12, 7PM at Centre A.
Honda and McKenzie began Elfin Saddle after migrating from Canada’s lush west coast to Montreal, transporting their nature-inspired creations to the urban environs of the east. Already seasoned collaborators in sculptural installation and music, Elfin Saddle began as a more contained outlet for these multi-disciplinary activities, using prepared acoustic instruments, found percussion elements, and often mythological and pantheistic themes delivered in a mixture of English and Japanese. Recently incorporating video projection and audio installation elements into their live performances, the resulting Music Temple presents a pseudo-narrative culmination of all of the above.
Artists’ Website: http://www.elfinsaddle.com/
The exhibition runs August 2 – September 13, 2014
ONE NIGHT ONLY ~ Hotam Press Launch Party
Thursday, June 12, 2014
7 to 10 PM
at Centre A
Free admission
http://hotampress.com
Hotam Press and Centre A are pleased to present the launch of a series of artist’s books by the Vancouver-based artist Ho Tam. Self titled hotam and released quarterly, each issue of the series has an independent theme, subject matter and design, created, produced and distributed by the artist. Digitally printed and available online, the books have been exhibited in various art book fairs and independent booksellers in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Toronto.
The first issue of hotam, “A Brief History of Me,” is the pictorial timeline of the artist juxtaposed by historic events. The second issue “Other People’s Business” is made up of his archive of obsolete business cards of friends and people he used to know. “Journey to the West,” the third release, documents a 19th Century fictional philosopher/traveller in strange places, while the most recent issue No. 4 “Fine China” redesigns classic porcelain wares to commemorate recent history and cultural memory of the country of growing power in the new century.
Along with hotam, Ho Tam will also introduce his other series Poser – an irregular release of photobooks on thematic snapshots of people in the street.
Born in Hong Kong and grown up in Toronto, Ho Tam has been making art over 20 years. He holds a MFA degree from Bard College (NY) and studied at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Tam taught at University of Toronto and University of Victoria for 6 years before moving over to Vancouver where he works full time on his art. Having worked with a wide range of mediums from painting and drawing to photography and video, Tam is now focusing on his print media work. Besides Hotam Press, he has also published the book, Qianxian (Frontline), in Beijing, China to introduce 18 prominent Canadian artists. Tam is also responsible for two artist’s book series by Canadian and international artists – 88Books and XXXzines.
Community Memory Map
Facilitated by Kathryn Gwun-Yeen Lennon
Contribute your stories and photos of the neighbourhood.
Game of Couplets, a participatory poetry game by Lydia Kwa
Daily with a special event on May 31 at 3pm
Saturday School 10am-12pm, Saturdays, from April 26 – June 7 (PDF)
Curated by Kathryn Gwun-Yeen Lennon,
with language instruction by Zoe Lam.
Learn Chinatown survival Cantonese and get oriented to the neighbourhood! The streets, shops and spaces of Chinatown will be our classroom and its people will be our textbooks. Classes will include: basic Cantonese greetings, numbers, getting around, how to order food in a restaurant and grocery shopping. We will do short field trips around the neighbourhood and hear stories about Chinatown history, community organizing, and historic and current relationships with the diverse cultural communities who share the space. Our final exam will be a grocery shopping expedition and collaboratively created meal.
7 classes: $40 for members, $60 for non-members, $9 drop-in.
Youth Community Film Screening (PDF)
Curated by Kathryn Gwun-Yeen Lennon
May 10 at 3pm
Free admission
Poetry Reading by Lydia Kwa and Kathryn Gwun-Yeen Lennon
May 17 at 3pm
Free admission
