Saturday, May 4, 2019 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Bicycling through Deep Time: The shifting shores of False Creek East, ‘hole-in-bottom:
a bicycle trip clockwise around the 1919 shores of False Creek East / False Creek Flats / ‘hole-in-bottom on the centennial of the corporate destruction of this massive, urban salt marsh, marine ecosystem, and Salish cultural landscapes
meet at
Access Gallery
222 East Georgia St.
Vancouver BC Canada
and bring a bicycle, helmet & water*
Saturday, May 4 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the PLOT space at Access Gallery
tracingB: based on the bicycle trip, drawing one or more of the shifting shorelines of hole-in-bottom on 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets to be then be ordered by the group and placed on one of the walls of the PLOT space at Access Gallery
bring your favourite drawing tools and snacks
This is the first public event of the 2019 – 2021 ‘still underwater’ project this first year at Access Gallery in April, May, and October.
Presented by Gordon Brent Brochu-Ingram. Brent’s father was born in Kitsilano in 1905 and, as well as English, spoke Chinook and Halkomelem. Growing up with family stories about False Creek Flats (and bitterness about its destruction), Brent went on to study with trail blazing, Salish and Native American Studies theorist, Mary Nelson, who imparted a deep sense of the cultural losses from the erasure of these landscapes and seascapes whose rough translation has sometimes been said to be, ‘hole-in-bottom’.
For individuals not able to bicycle on the field trip, there will be a walking tour offered by Alex Grunenfelder later in the month. For interested individuals who needed motorized or other assistance, please email to arrange alternative travel possibilities that would be offered on another day.
PLOT: ḴEXMIN field station
still underwater: tracing Skwahchays, hole-in-bottom, in todays False Creek Flats
8 April to 24 May 2019
still underwater | 1: traces, pronunciations, recollections
The former inlet and salt marshes bounded by todays Clark Drive, Great Northern Way, and Union Street were once more commonly known as False Creek East, and by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh [Squamish] communities as “Skwácháy̓s ” what might be poorly translated as, “water coming up from ground beneath” or sometimes as hole-in-bottom. In the centennial years of the filling and destruction of hole-in-bottom, PLOT invites the ḴEXMIN Field Station collective to initiate new research, test sites, public conversations, screenings, ceremonies, performances, interventions, and proposals. In various periods over the next three years, still underwater will explore new forms of decolonial land art based on emergent protocols in acknowledging a wider range of territorial, linguistic, cultural, and historical concerns; as well as emerging relationships, alliances, and communalities.
“water coming up from ground beneath.”
In the centennial years of the filling and destruction of hole-in-bottom, PLOT invites the KEXMIN Field Station collective to initiate new research, test sites, public conversations, screenings, ceremonies, performances, interventions, and proposals. In various periods over the next three years, still underwater will explore new forms of decolonial land art based on emergent protocols in acknowledging a wider range of territorial, linguistic, cultural, and historical concerns; as well as emerging relationships, alliances, and communalities.
At the core of still underwater are a series of questions concerning environmental, site based, and public art in the Pacific Northwest: How can artists, curators and audiences “with a wide range of heritages”engage fully around unceded land and sites, with respect and support towards the rapidly evolving cultural, political, and legal protocols of the xwmkwy”m [Musqueam], Skwxw7mesh [Squamish] and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ [Tsleil Waututh] nations? For Indigenous artists, what does it mean to have a heritage and political entitlement around unceded sites such as hole-in-bottom?
Considering the hydrologically and seismically-vulnerable terrain of hole-in-bottom, how can site-based artistic interventions and permanent public artworks hold transformative roles within its redeveloping neighbourhoods, where new construction forges onwards despite its geological instability?
ḴEXMIN field station is a loose collective of Indigenous and non-Indigenous site-based artists, environmental researchers, scientists, and designers focused on the waters, shores and islands of the Salish Sea. Currently located on Salt Spring Island, the field station exists as a research, learning and experimentation space to nurture conversations spanning traditional Indigenous knowledge, modern science, and contemporary culture. Individuals currently contributing to still underwater include: Métis public artist and environmental scientist, Gordon Brent Brochu-Ingram (currently coordinating the 2019 events at PLOT), Salish curator Rose Spahan, public artist and designer Alex Grünenfelder, site-based artist Oliver Kellhammer, Musqueam weaver and public artist Debra Sparrow, and community-engaged environmental artist Sharon Kallis, amongst an evolving group of affiliates.
For event details + announcements visit:
http://www.gordonbrentingram.ca/stillunderwater/
Contact:
kexminfieldstation@gmail.com
778-354-2505