BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition June 2018

CITY
CABIN FEVER
CONSIDERING BIG DEFINITIONS OF LITTLE SPACES
ADAM DEANE
photo by Dorothea Lange
Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition examines Canadian cabin culture and history.
SUM GALLERY
A HOME FOR QUEER ART IN THE HEART OF CHINATOWN
LUIZA BRENNER
If you’ve found yourself at the bottom of the inevitable
social media hole that is Instagram, you’re not alone,
and chances are you’ve stumbled upon a tiny home or
two – maybe even a cabin in the woods of our great
province with a bearded, plaid-clad individual enjoying a
cup of joe in their $49 mug.
Hashtags, movements, and shows like PNWLIFE,
Cabin P*rn, and Tiny Homes have recently drawn
much attention to a novel way of living that existed
long before the shallows of this century. In reality, that
million-dollar cabin in the woods at the top of your
Airbnb wish list had its humble architectural infancy in
a time where its sole function was most likely a shelter
for hunting, some sort of emergency use, or a tranquil
place for the recluse in all of us to get away and create,
popularized by the likes of introverted writing greats like
Thoreau or Salinger.
This month, Vancouverites will be lucky enough to
take part in an interactive three-month-long exhibit
at the Vancouver Art Gallery, “Cabin Fever,” curated
by none other than Jennifer Volland, the creative heart
behind the popular 2013 VAG exhibit, “Grand Hotel.”
“’Cabin Fever’ will look at architectural typologies
that have often been overlooked,” Volland explains.
“I think people have certain one-dimensional ideas
regarding cabins, so we really wanted to represent a
larger and more comprehensive history in the ways of
design, culture, society, and politics. At the same time,
it was more personal as I have always wanted a cabin or
a place to escape to, which I’ve realized to be a rather
common urge.”
If you’re hesitant to believe in that urge, have a look
at the latest posts under the hashtag #cabin on any
social media platform and you will realize this is a trait
common to all of our tech-obsessed, urban-dwelling
little hearts. Volland draws that innate urge back to
childhood and our early interest in forts and a constant
quest for introspection and community.
“For families, there’s an offsite the gallery has which
will be featuring a Shigeru Ban project,” she says. “He
is an architect that does a lot of work with emergency
relief shelters. That is something that we look at in the
exhibition as well – a broader definition of the cabin as
an alpine hut, emergency shelter, or a fire lookout tower.
We want to expand the definition in every way. Even
just in Vancouver, you could look at the squatter’s cabin,
or writers like Malcolm Lowry, who lives in a shack
up Burrard Inlet, or the canneries in Port Edward, BC.
There’ll be something that appeals to everyone.”
If you’re feeling city-locked, you can escape to “Cabin
Fever” at the Vancouver Art Gallery this summer
and channel your inner recluse, child, or modern-day
adventurist.
Cabin Fevers runs from June 9 to September 30 at the
Vancouver Art Gallery.
2018 marks the 10 year anniversary of the Queer Arts Festival
and 20 years for the Pride in Art Society. What started as a
community art exhibition of queer visual arts evolved into a
renowned annual festival that has presented over 1,735 artists
in more than 219 events and welcomed over 61,500 patrons.
Aptly named DECADEnce, this year’s festival explores marks
that live beyond the page, numerical devices and quantitative
data; the mark that lives in actions unnoticed, voices unheard,
lost stories of self, and races won in forgotten Herstories/
Ourstories. While QAF and PiA celebrate important milestones,
a new one arises: queer art finally found a home. “SUM is a
room of our own, here and queer for not only a couple weeks,
but all year,” praises SD Holman, SUM Gallery’s artistic director.
Located on the fourth floor of the Sun Wah building, in
the heart of Chinatown, SUM Gallery is a permanent space
dedicated to promoting queer art. The name SUM honours
the space’s original intended use as a Dim Sum restaurant on
the fourth floor of the Sun Wah building with a few additional
layers.
“Chinatown grew out of segregation and discrimination.
It was a Chinese-only community because we couldn’t go
elsewhere, we weren’t welcome elsewhere. We are trying to
address a lot of that,” says Paul Wong, co-curator of the gallery’s
inaugural show.
Comprised of four video installations with labels in both
English and Chinese, QueerSUM is the perfect translation of
what the space represents: the exchange between the local
Canadian-Chinese population and the LGBTQIA+ community.
About the choice of artist Karin Lee, Wong explains: “I don’t
think she has ever been presented as a queer artist – maybe
6
not as an installation and media artist; and perhaps not even
as a Chinese-Canadian woman feminist artist. For us, it was
really important to set something that suggested a number of
discussions and starting points.”
Dialogue and exchange around pressing issues are at the
core of its mission. SUM Gallery not only is a place dedicated
to queer art in Chinatown, many different communities
surround it. On the same address, at 268 Keefer Street, the
QAF headquarters coexist with the Asian Canadian Writers’
Workshop, the LIVE International Performance Art Biennale,
PCHC- Museum of Migration, Senior Chinese Society of
Vancouver, Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival (VIMAF),
to name a few. Managed by BC Artscape, the building has a
liaison to ensure the diversity of artists, cultural producers, and
community groups.
The programming of the gallery is still open. Not following
the traditional model of other white cubes, SUM Gallery is
more of a blank canvas filled with possibilities. About his role in
the gallery, Paul Wong is elusive: “This was a one-off. I’m not on
contract, but I’m already imagining how we can collaborate on
further projects. I would like to turn over this space to someone
who hasn’t had opportunities to play and be presented.”
Between Wong’s experimental ideas and SD Holman’s artistic
vision boldness, we can expect boundary-breaking shows. For
those who wish to visit, SUM Gallery is open five days a week
and is free of charge.
SUM Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at
268 Keefer St. The Queer Arts Festival runs from June 16 to 28 at
the Roundhouse.
An arts hub within a hub, Paul Wong, Margo Kane (of Full Circle) and
SD Holman stand in the space where SUM Gallery and three other arts
organizations now inhabit.
June 2018