Centre A Opens Door to First Two Exhibition of 2023: The Living Room 2.0: Intimate Entanglements and Ominous Chaos
Homa Khosravi, Bedtime Stories (2022), dimensions variable. Image courtesy of artist.
Vancouver, B.C., Canada (April 8, 2023) – Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art is proud to announce The Living Room 2.0: Intimate Entanglements and Ominous Chaos, marking the start of Centre A’s exciting line up for exhibitions in 2023.
Both exhibitions will run from April 8 through June 3, 2023.
Location: Unit 205, 268 Keefer Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6A 1X5
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 12 PM – 6 PM
The Living Room 2.0: Intimate Entanglements showcases a series of six short films by local and international filmmakers who expand upon the notion of the self and community through engagement of the rhythmic senses– by means of storytelling and music. This exhibition has been curated by the former Executive Director/Curator, Henry Heng Lu, and is a part of the 2023 Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibitions Program in partnership with Vtape.
The Living Room began in 2022 with the aim to challenge the inaccessibility that tends to mystify the contemporary art gallery space. We’re bringing it back this year with an added layer of coziness– come and get comfy in our living room space with a short film.
Participating artists are: Kevin Lee Burton, hiba ali, Wayne Yung, Roya Akbari, Dana Claxton, and Midi Onodera. The list of films is as follows:
Kevin Lee Burton – Nikamowin (Song) (2007), 11:15 minutes, colour, Cree / English
hiba ali – A Proposal for Anti-Drone Architecture: Shura City (2013), 05:48 minutes, colour, English.
Wayne Yung – Field Guide to Western Wildflowers (2000), 05:30 minutes, colour, Cantonese w English subtitles.
Roya Akbari – Dancing Mania (2012), 24:49 minutes, Colour, Farsi / English subtitles.
Dana Claxton – He Who Dreams (2013), 50:32 minutes, colour, English.
Midi Onodera – Nobody Knows (2001), 03:15 minutes, colour, English
Ominous Chaos questions notions of the grotesque and uncanny in relation to the body. Ominous Chaos revisits the body as a subject of regulation and recoil through humor and playfulness using a variety of mediums, including video works, soft sculptures, printmaking, embroideries and illustrations. Ominous Chaos will explore the relationship between labor and artistic creation, utilizing the body as a mediator in the unresolved questions of autonomy and docility.
About the artists:
Homa Khosravi, (b. Tehran, Iran) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver. She received her MFA from Simon Fraser University and BFA in Painting from the Tehran University of Art. Her work touches on surrealism, abstraction and worldbuilding with various “more than human” creatures through a multitude of mediums, including painting, video and sculpture installation. Khosravi explores the human body and its connection to memory, fantasy and the uncanny, highlighting a foundation of humor found within. Khosravi investigates experiences of her body and mind in relation to her environment, vis à vis the process of making the artworks, the choice of colours, and materiality within the installation.
Marzieh Mosavarzadeh is a PhD candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at The University of British Columbia, Canada, specializing in art education. Her arts-based educational research explores artful, pedagogical, and speculative ways of making-place through the artistic practices of walking, image-making, and writing. She holds both her MFA and BFA in visual arts. Marzieh is grateful to live and work on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwxw̱ú7mesh (Squamish), Səlíh lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh), and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam)Nations.
About the curator:
Bahar Mohazabnia is an Iranian/Canadian art historian, cultural worker and curator based in Vancouver, the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil- Waututh, and Musqueam Nations. Mohazabnia is currently an MA candidate in the department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory at the University of British Columbia and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History with a minor in Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies from the same institution. Mohazabnia is the recipient of the UBC Faculty of Arts Graduate Award, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Award and the Helen Belkin Memorial Scholarship, amongst others. Mohazabnia has held the positions of Curatorial Assistant at Griffin Art Projects, Exhibitions Assistant at AHVA Gallery and is currently a Public Programs Assistant at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.
About Centre A
Centre A is situated in Vancouver’s Chinatown, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts. Centre A gratefully acknowledges the support of all of our funders, donors, programming partners, and Centre A members.
Centre A is the only public art gallery in Canada dedicated to contemporary Asian and Asian-diasporic perspectives since 1999. Centre A is committed to providing a platform for engaging diverse communities through public access to the arts, creating mentorship opportunities for emerging artists/arts professionals, and stimulating critical dialogue through provocative exhibitions and innovative public programs that complicate understandings of migrant experiences and diasporic communities. In addition to our exhibition space, we house a reading room with one of the best collections of Asian art books in the country, including the Finlayson Collection of Rare Asian Art Books.
The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at +1 (604) 683-8326 or info@centrea.org.
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