Lance Blomgren
Lance Blomgren is the author of Practice (1995), Walkups (2000) and Corner Pieces (2005). He is member of the Orange/Brown arts collective and currently acts as Co-Director/Curator of the Helen Pitt Gallery in Vancouver.
ELIZABETH BACHINSKY, DIANA GEORGE, JACOB GLEESON, GARETH MOORE, CHARLES MUDEDE, MATTHEW STADLER
December 1–December 2, 2005
Thursday, December 1, 8pm
Jacob Gleeson (Vancouver)
Gareth Moore (Vancouver)
Matthew Stadler (Portland)
Friday December 2, 8pm
Elizabeth Bachinsky (Vancouver)
Diana George (Seattle)
Charles Mudede (Seattle)
Recently, west coast writers, artists and architects have been thinking about how basic notions of space could be redefined. In a 2002 Artspeak publication, Diana George and Charles Mudede approached serial space, an endless repetition of particular spaces that appear throughout our conventions of “urban” or “nature.” Serial space proposes a shift in the way we think about space, away from conventional dichotomies such as city/country, urban/suburban. How can notions of space be redefined along the lines of serialized space – endlessly repeating spaces – rather than by spatial dichotomies? How does space form critical discourse and what are the implications of those formations, if any? Artspeak’s Speakeasy series of talks and readings encourage writers and artists to continue this thinking.
LANCE BLOMGREN
June 17, 2005
Artspeak is pleased to present Lance Blomgren as he reads from his 2005 project Corner Pieces. Corner Pieces is Lance Blomgren’s follow up to Walkups, his docudrama about Montréal apartments. Evolving out of Blomgren’s ongoing fascination with architecture, Corner Pieces expands his distinctive voice beyond the domestic sphere and into the streets.
Composed as a series of elegies to particular places, both real and imaginary, Corner Pieces traces a cartography of desire, frustration, loss and redemption, set amidst the backdrop of the contemporary urban spectacle. In Blomgren’s city, the familiar becomes decidedly strange. Street corners, indistinct industrial zones, central business districts and public squares become sites where the ideals and failures of urban planning collide with direct, personal experience. Here, lovers make out in discreet, unused corners; protesters march the streets in a bewildered state of empowerment and sadness; a two-storey stack of towels becomes a public sculpture of religious contemplation. The street signs have been changed and the poignant moments that give rhythm to everyday life come into focus.