Artspeak
Allison Hrabluik
Allison Hrabluik lives and works in Vancouver. Her videos, sculptures, drawings, performances, and texts take a lyrical and humourous approach to narrative exploration. Often experimenting with voice of narrative construction: the fable-like quality of third-person perspective, the messy subjectivity of first-person narration, the humour and irony of allegory, magic-realist absurdity, and the wit in ‘rational’ argument. Allison’s work has been presented nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at Galerie Tatjana Pieters, Gent, Belgium; Western Bridge, Seattle, WA; The Vancouver Art Gallery; Mercer Union, Toronto; Video Pool, Winnipeg; The Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Ontario; The SAAG, Lethbridge, Alberta; Market Gallery, Glasgow, The Western Front, and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.
Exhibitions
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JASON DODGE, HADLEY + MAXWELL, ALLISON HRABLUIK, AARON FLINT JAMISON, SAM LEWITT, HEATHER AND IVAN MORISON, AVIGAIL MOSS, PAMELA ROSENKRANZ, DEXTER SINISTER, MATT SHERIDAN SMITH, OSCAR TUAZON
April 9–May 28, 2011
Presenting the work of eleven artists and collaborators, this exhibition refuses to deliver. It offers artworks sent via national postal systems addressed to the gallery as “Poste Restante”. Typically relied upon by travelers and lovers, “Poste Restante” is a request for a post office to hold a letter or package until picked up by its recipient. The works are exhibited as received, in unopened envelopes or parcels, accompanied by any paperwork generated during transit, including customs forms, bills of lading, and pro forma invoices. Delivery is deferred as the packages wait, held by the gallery for a recipient whose identity is unknown.
Objects are shaped by various encounters with systems of commerce, information, publicity and transportation. Stubbornly resistant to dematerialization, the art object remains local, specific and visible only in certain spaces, while operating in far-flung networks, both physical and immaterial. Guarantors of the exhibition as an exhibition, the art objects in Poste Restante serve as ground for exchanges of immaterial services, writings, and conversations. Through the suspension of delivery we remove the object-in-itself from scrutiny and see in clearer relief the systems the object both calls to life and circulates within.
The exhibition will travel to further destinations, including both commercial galleries and non-profit spaces, marking out a geographical network of communication and interests analogous to those of the participating artists and organizations. Parallel events, including talks, performances, and publications, will accompany the exhibition at each location.
Curated by Eric Fredericksen
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ALLISON HRABLUIK
March 17–April 26, 2009
28 thoughts while writing your name:
I have a maddeningly terrible crush on you. Hello. I think you are remarkable. This is urgent. Soon we will meet. I’m not stalking you. I don’t even know you but I feel so close to you. I’ve heard a lot about you. Yes, we all know you did that. I think you should apologize. You are a very good friend. You have always been a very good friend. I’d like to get to know you better. Only admiration. Are you lonely? I saw you at the grocery store the other day. You are very smart, and even funny. I’ve never really liked you. I am not yelling at you. Sorry. You are so attractive. I bet you have a firm handshake. This is how I reach out. I hope you don’t know it’s me right away. I know we will never meet. I love your name. I have something very important to tell you.
On March 17, 2009, 435 envelopes were deposited into a Canada Post mailbox in Vancouver. Each envelope contained a large piece of paper on which the addressee’s name was written in capital letters.