Art Party | Performances
ABOUT THE INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION
Ritual-Spective 迴融: Weaving with Light
by Chimerik 似不像
7–11:30 PM, 1st Floor Rotunda
Ritual-Spective 迴融 is an experimental media arts project that investigates intergenerational dialogue around artistic, cultural and spiritual legacy through the lens of an artist child of immigrant-artist parents.
This edition of the interactive video installation will be projected on the Gallery’s 1st Floor Rotunda and was created using elements from more than 50 large-scale paintings, created over the last five decades, by Jackson Chien 簡志雄, artist Sammy Chien’s father.
Using artificial intelligence and interactive technology, Sammy Chien invites audiences to weave through the paintings digitally, discovering key moments in his father’s life—from his migration to Canada, to teaching the arts to his children, to sacrificing his dreams in order to break the traditional rules for his children. The installation also investigates the unspoken time of colonization, Western globalization and diaspora.
At 9:15 PM, this intergenerational and intercultural media arts projection will transform into the digital weaving patterns of artists qʷənat, Angela George (səlilwətaɬ/Tsleil-Waututh); Chepximiya Siyam’ Chief Janice George (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh/Squamish); Skwetsimeltxw Willard “Buddy” Joseph (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh/Squamish); and Qwasen, Debra Sparrow (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm/Musqueam), as Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week models complete the final walk. Chimerik 似不像 see this gesture as a way to return the light to the stewardship of the land.
Chimerik 似不像 is an award-winning interdisciplinary non-profit organization made up of artists from underrepresented groups with diverse backgrounds, who create a wide range of live performances and interactive installations.
Installation Credits:
A Chimerik 似不像 Project
Media Artist: Sammy Chien
Creative Collaborator: Caroline MacCaull
Project Assistant: Roshni Riar
Visual Art Contributor: Jackson Chien 簡志雄
In Collaboration with Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week
Weaving Pattern Inspiration: The work of qʷənat, Angela George (səlilwətaɬ/Tsleil-Waututh); Chepximiya Siyam’ Chief Janice George (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh/Squamish); Skwetsimeltxw Willard “Buddy” Joseph (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh/Squamish); and Qwasen, Debra Sparrow (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm/Musqueam)
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES
7y98d
by Ouro Collective
7:45 & 8:45 PM, 3rd Floor
10:15 PM, 1st Floor Rotunda
Cutting-edge contemporary dance group OURO Collective performs excerpts from their latest piece 7y98d, created in collaboration with street-dance virtuoso RubberLegz.
Featuring a series of solos, duets, trios and group choreographic sequences, the work showcases the intricate connections between bodies as the dancers’ movements interweave and develop in complexity, creating moving tableaux that represent the cyclical nature of the earth while transforming and deconstructing our perceptions of time and space.
7y98d is presented in dialogue with the exhibition HORIZONS on the Gallery’s 3rd Floor. Much like artist Garry Neill Kennedy, Ouro Collective’s work challenges conventional perceptions of art within gallery walls by dynamically altering the atmosphere in which dance is traditionally performed.
OURO Collective creates and produces new dance works on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and the City of Vancouver. Fusing hip-hop, waacking, breaking, popping, house and contemporary dance as their foundation, each street dancer has trained with the original founders of their respective dance styles and brings specific knowledge to the group aesthetic.
RubberLegz, whose real name is Rauf Yasit, is a Los Angeles–based choreographer, director, dancer and visual artist who was born and raised in Germany. As a self-taught b-boy, he began perfecting his skills and growing his passion in 1998. He has since gained international respect for his unique style.
Choreography: RubberLegz, in collaboration with OURO Collective (Ash Cornette, Cristina Bucci, Eric Cheung, Rina Pellerin and Shana Wolfe)
Zine-Making Workshop
7–11:15 PM, Rooftop Pavilion
Love Tooth Performance
8, 8:45 & 10 PM, Rooftop Pavilion
by Art Action Earwig
Art Action Earwig is an interdisciplinary multimedia and performance collective, composed of Wryly Andherson, Minah Lee and Tadafumi Tamura and based between Nanaimo and Vancouver on traditional and unceded Coast Salish territories. At Art Party, they will host a zine-making activity and perform Love Tooth in the Rooftop Pavilion.
Inspired by a pair of wisdom teeth and the traditions and rituals of many Indigenous cultures around the world that return lost (baby) teeth to nature, Earwig’s performance 사랑니—meaning “Love Tooth” in Korean—is a seed for conversation and compassion. Using DIY means of story sharing, they invite audiences to clip their own wisdom or baby tooth stories to the Baby Tooth to Love Tooth sculpture.
Art Action Earwig’s interactive performance and workshop is presented in dialogue with the exhibition Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines.
Formed in 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic by founding members Minah Lee and Wryly Andherson, Art Action Earwig operates in the spirit of mutual aid in pursuing and sustaining art practices through gestures that resist colonial legacies. Earwig’s art practices concern issues close to home and beyond national borders, exploring both challenging and inspiring matters of our time that call for action. They live and work on the lands of the Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo) and Snaw-Naw-As (Nanoose) peoples of Vancouver Island and the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations of the Lower Mainland. Their work is also situated in South Korea and Japan, where their members’ distant homes and families are.
Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week
Curated by Joleen Mitten
9:15 PM, 1st Floor Rotunda
Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week showcases the strength, elegance and innovation of Indigenous fashion across Turtle Island. This performance will pay tribute to the rich culture and history showcased in the exhibition Rooted Here: Woven From the Land.
During this performance, Chimerik 似不像’s intergenerational and intercultural experimental media arts projection will transform the 1st Floor Rotunda with the digital weaving patterns of artists qʷənat, Angela George (səlilwətaɬ/Tsleil-Waututh); Chepximiya Siyam’ Chief Janice George (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh/Squamish); Skwetsimeltxw Willard “Buddy” Joseph (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh/Squamish); and Qwasen, Debra Sparrow (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm/Musqueam), as Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week models and dancers complete their final walk.
ABOUT THE DJS
DJ Ta7talíya
Paisley Eva
7:15–11:30 PM, Gallery Lobby
Ta7talíya Paisley Eva hails from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation village of Eslha7an and is based in what is colonially known as “Vancouver.” DJ Paisley Eva has been DJing for the past 10 years and is a fixture within the Vancouver music scene. Playing weekly around town, as well as at festivals, including Khatsahlano, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Sled Island and more. Her sets are high energy, playing all types of music together— from forgotten underground tracks to classics—and mixing genres, including house, disco, pop and more, to create unforgettable sets that keep you moving.
Nancy Lee 李南屏
7:30–11:15 PM, Rooftop Pavilion
Nancy Lee 李南屏, also known as Which Nancy, is a Taiwanese-Canadian DJ, media artist and cultural producer, acclaimed for their interdisciplinary works. They entered the realm of XR with the 2017 VR dance film “Tidal Traces” and co-created “Telepresence” in 2018, blending VR with live performance. Lee’s art has been showcased at festivals including Cannes, SXSW, MUTEK and the Berlin Film Festival. Committed to community engagement, Lee teaches XR at IM4 Media Lab, mentors at Festival of Recorded Movement and co-founded Chapel Sound Art Foundation and CURRENT to uplift underrepresented artists. As a Sundance Institute New Frontier Alumni and artist-in-residence at Society of Arts and Technology in Montreal, Lee has been collaborating with Kiran Bhumber on a speculative sci-fi exhibition, titled UNION, exploring 3D scanning/printing, XR and multi-channel A/V dome theatre performance. In 2024, they premiered their first full-length performance “OSMOSi: 422 Unprocessable Entity,” which they wrote, directed, co-composed, co-choreographed and performed in.
