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Michael Barnholden

Vancouver writer Michael Barnholden is the author of Gabriel Dumont Speaks (Talon Books 1993), On The Ropes (Coach House Books 1997) and Reading the Riot Act: A Brief History of Riots in Vancouver (Anvil Press 2005). He is currently the managing editor of West Coast Line.

Exhibitions

  • Territory

    JENNIFER ALLORA AND GUILLERMO CALZADILLA, ROY ARDEN, THE ATLAS GROUP / WALID RAAD, MICHAEL BARNHOLDEN, YAEL BARTANA, CAO FEI, GERMAINE KOH, GONZALO LEBRIJA, SERIPOP, JAYCE SALLOUM, RON TERADA, ANNABEL VAUGHAN, NEIL WEDMAN
    June 10–August 6, 2006

    This exhibition is curated by Melanie O’Brian and Helga Pakasaar, and organized by Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery.

    Please check www.presentationhousegallery.org for more details about Territory.

    Territory is a visual art project concerned with mapping urban experience, civic space and contested terrains. The project includes installations at Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery as well as in public sites around Vancouver, guided walks, lectures, a film series, and publication.

    The works in Territory involve navigating real and imagined territories – geographic, political, economic and social. The exhibition expands on earlier articulations of the notion of derive, or wandering, as a way to investigate urban environments. Cities are understood as essentially unreadable cartographies, fragmented and unstable. This project points to the spatial collisions of urban life, such as those resulting from rapid urban development and increased privitization of public space. The works in Territory reveal how cultural mythologies, both local and global, are scripted into built environments and determine human interactions. The social impact of the often invisible boundaries delineated by political conflict, gentrification, security, and communication systems becomes apparent as the artists call attention to the intersections of psychological, social and physical space.

    Five artworks have been commissioned for the public domain: photographic billboards by Roy Arden, roaming mobile signboards by Ron Terada, soil transplants by Germaine Koh, photographs by Jayce Salloum dispersed through various distribution systems, and silkscreens postered around the city by Seripop. Encountered by chance and through uncanny recognition, these ephemeral works provoke tensions between public and private space. Distinctions between private acts and communal life are seen as porous. These artists temporarily occupy and lay claim to civic terrain and transient street life.

    Presentation House Gallery will be exhibiting the work of five artists that offers poetic interpretations of the conditions that impact global cities. Footage of an industrial port in China’s Pearl River Delta by Puerto-Rican based artists, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, offers a meditation on global economies. Yael Bartana, an Israeli artist living in Amsterdam, manipulates images of street demonstrations by Israeli and Palestinian youth. The documentary material about post-civil war Beirut by the Atlas Group / Walid Raad, working out of New York and Lebanon, questions the representation of urban ruination and political violence. Gonzalo Lebrija, from Guadalajara, Mexico, looks at the potential violence of collective behaviour in street culture. Cao Fei, one of China’s most notable young artists, tracks the daily routines of a milkman in Guangzhou where she lives. Artspeak will present two of her media works that are concerned with urban fantasies and cultural mythologies.

    Territory also involves mapping the city through guided walks from literary, visual art and architectural perspectives that will bring to light some of its hidden narratives. Michael Barnholden will animate the events of two downtown riots, Neil Wedman will interpret the history of sidewalks, and Annabel Vaughan will trace threads of Vancouver’s original urban grid along Carrall Street. The guided walks are on Saturdays at 2pm. Film series at Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street Wednesday, July 19, Thursday, July 20, screenings begin at 7 pm.

    On July 19 at 7 pm, Cao Fei will discuss her artwork, followed by a screening of her film, “Father”.

Talks & Events

  • Territory Book Launch

    ALLORA & CALZADILLA, ROY ARDEN, THE ATLAS GROUP/WALID RAAD, YAEL BARTANA, CAO FEI, GERMAINE KOH, GONZALO LEBRIJA, JAYCE SALLOUM, SERIPOP, RON TERADA
    May 30, 2009

    Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery are pleased to announce the launch of TERRITORY on Saturday, May 30, 7 pm at Presentation House Gallery, 333 Chesterfield Avenue, North Vancouver BC.

    This publication documents the Artspeak/Presentation House Gallery co-production TERRITORY, a visual art project concerned with urban experience and civic space that included gallery installations, public projects around the city, walking tours, a boat tour and film screenings.

    Featured Artists:

    Allora & Calzadilla, Roy Arden, The Atlas Group/Walid Raad, Yael Bartana, Cao Fei, Germaine Koh, Gonzalo Lebrija, Jayce Salloum, Seripop, Ron Terada.

    Texts by Michael Barnholden, Germaine Koh, Melanie O’Brian, Helga Pakasaar, Jordan Strom, Michael Turner, Annabel Vaughan and Neil Wedman.

    64 pages, Designed by Studio:Blackwell

    Special launch price: $18, regular price: $22

    Please join us for bubbly, readings, music and famous ham.

    This event is in conjunction with the launch of the Spring 2009 issue of The Capilano Review “Moodyville”, a co-production with Presentation House Gallery.

  • Territory Film Series

    CAO FEI
    July 19–July 20, 2006

    Film series at Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street

    Wednesday, July 19, Thursday, July 20, screenings begin at 7 pm.

    On July 19 at 7 pm, Cao Fei will discuss her artwork, followed by a screening of her film, “Father”.

    Cao Fei (b. 1978 in Guangzhou, China) lives in Guangzhou where she produces films, photography and theatrical works. Her artwork has been included in recent exhibitions on contemporary Chinese art, such as “Between Past and Future: New photography and Video from China” and “Follow Me!:Contemporary Chinese Art at the Threshold of the Millennium” She has participated in major international exhibitions such as the Third Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fifth Shanghai Biennial and is in the forthcoming Sydney Biennale.

  • If you don’t riot, you can’t complain

    MICHAEL BARNHOLDEN
    June 24, 2006

    Michael Barnholden

    June 24 and July 22

    This walk will include sites of the anti-Asiatic Riot of 1907 from Hastings and

    Westminster (now Main) through Chinatown’s Market, Shanghai and Canton

    Alleys, then through Nihon Bachi or “Little Yokohama” along Powell Street; the Free Speech riots of 1912 when police attacked Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) in the Powell Street grounds; and Maple Tree Square, site of the infamous 1971 Police Riot also known as the Gastown Riot.

    Meet at Artspeak at 2pm.

Publications

  • Territory

    Territory front
    Territory spine
    Territory back

    Title: Territory
    Category: Catalogue
    Artists: Allora & Calzadilla, Roy Arden, The Atlas Group/Walid Raad, Yael Bartana, Cao Fei, Germaine Koh, Gonzalo Lebrija, Jayce Salloum, Seripop, Ron Terada
    Writers: Michael Barnholden, Germaine Koh, Melanie O’Brian, Helga Pakasaar, Jordan Strom, Michael Turner, Annabel Vaughan, Neil Wedman
    Editor: Melanie O’Brian, Helga Pakasaar
    Design: Studio:Blackwell, Toronto
    Publisher: Artspeak, Presentation House Gallery
    Printer: Generation Printing, Vancouver
    Year published: 2009
    Pages: 64pp
    Cover: Paperback
    Binding: Perfect Bound
    Process: Offset
    Features: 36 colour images
    Dimensions: 25.5 x 20.5 x 0.5 cm
    Weight: 285 g
    ISBN: 978-0-021394-58-7
    Price: $5 CDN

    This publication documents the Artspeak/Presentation House Gallery co-production TERRITORY, a visual art project concerned with urban experience and civic space that included gallery installations, public projects around the city, walking tours, a boat tour and film screenings.


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