Opening of Summer/Fall Exhibitions: Robin Arseneault, Chloë Lum & Yannick Desranleau, Gailan Ngan & Teresa Tam

Robin Arseneault’s work fights with itself. It is performative, provocative, and luxurious one minute, and silly, self-deprecating, and raw the next. Layers of meaning are first constructed—often through sketches, small collages of found photographs, and ink drawings—then information is intentionally wiped away, removed, torn apart, or erased. The final work emerges from the tension between finding stability and the absurdity or inevitability of destruction that her process requires.

Much of the work produced by Chloë Lum & Yannick Desranleau requires active collaboration, not simply with each other, choreographers, musicians, and dancers, but with the objects they produce; objects that perform collectively as costumes, sets, noisemakers, and sculptures. Theirs is a performance- and material-heavy practice informed by their time in the avant-rock group AIDS Wolf—of which they were founding members—and the DIY, scrappy, screen-printed poster work made under the pseudonym, Séripop.

This exhibition features hand-built and cast ceramic sculptures that, while simply expressed, broadly explore shape, surface treatment, and colour. In addition, it will present a collection of industry by-products, organic and processed objects, and studio experiments—an extended narrative of material that is influenced by the historically resource-rich West Coast where Ngan lives and is central to her work.

Seasons End Liquidation Shop is a variety store, celebratory funeral, and ritual ending of part of Teresa Tam’s artistic practice. It is a place of exchange intended to consider many of the items used in a series of Tam’s previous projects that have been running since 2013 and all connect thematically to the concept of various kinds of shops. Situated at street-level on 9 Avenue SE, Seasons End Liquidation Shop is also a nod to the past, present, and speculative future of the neighbourhood—a wink to the gentrifying face of the main street, from its past of ubiquitous thrift and junk shops to the current proliferation of trendy boutiques and eateries.