Artspeak
Norma
Norma is a Vancouver based collective. The collective members are Vanessa Kwan, Diana Lopez-Soto, Josh Neelands, Christy Nyiri, Pietro Sammarco, Erica Stocking, and Kara Uzelman. All members of Norma are undergraduates of Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (now Emily Carr University) and all have individual practices. Norma’s work often deals with aspects of group identity and draws from diverse sources, including visual and performance art histories, popular culture, and social behaviour. Norma’s performance, installation, and text works have been exhibited/performed in Vancouver at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Access Gallery, LIVE Biennial of Performance Art, the PuSH Festival, grunt gallery, Front Magazine, and in a 2003 public project at Artspeak entitled Expect Delays.
Exhibitions
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DIANE BORSATO, COLLEEN BROWN, RACHEL ECHENBERG, KIRSTEN FORKERT, JOHN MARRIOTT, NORMA, CHRISTY THOMPSON, SARAH WHITE
April 1–May 30, 2003Curated by Kathleen Ritter
The city of Vancouver is characterized by its constantly shifting infrastructure and accelerated development. Pedestrian routes change, pristine parks are developed long before people inhabit them, up-scale residential developments are placed on the periphery of red-light districts that are awaiting gentrification, and buildings are constructed further into the inlets and waterways that divide the city’s regions. Alongside this, one notes that the codes of behaviour in social and urban space in this city are much more restricted and surveilled than in other locales. The ranges of acceptable activities in public space are limited. Private security initiatives (Gastown security guards, Vancouver’s Downtown Ambassadors) are employed to patrol the streets and act as the ‘eyes and ears’ for the police. And unlike other cities, there are few urban spaces where groups of people can gather, protest or create a public forum. In light of these characteristics, artists face a challenge to create work in the streets of Vancouver that successfully negotiates the regulation of public space and yet, not go unnoticed or be too easily dismissed. These challenges, however, create an opportunity for work to hold greater meaning and significance in a city where these issues continue to be relevant.
Expect Delays is a series of off-site projects organized by Artspeak that take place in locations throughout the city of Vancouver in April and May of 2003. Eight artists from across Canada have been invited to create public infiltration works that use modest engagements in daily life to critically investigate the social conventions, pedestrian movement and regulation of public space. Using strategies of humour, unpredictability and gestures of generosity, these artists propose alternative ways to view the city and negotiate public space. Rooted in the tradition of intervention/performance/infiltration-based practice, Expect Delays is intended to expand our definitions of public art as not simply the act of situating art in public spaces, but the process by which art and ideas enter public consciousness.
Expect Delays is supported by The Canada Council for the Arts through the Inter Arts Program and the British Columbia Arts Council. Community partners for Expect Delays include the Ramada Limited Downtown Vancouver, the Fine Arts and Music Division of the Vancouver Public Library, the Roundhouse Community Centre, Video In, Blake’s Bistro and Access Artist Run Centre.
Talks & Events
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NORMA
February 24, 2010
7 to 9pm at Andy Livingstone Field, Carrall and Keefer Streets, Vancouver
Artspeak presents Brawl, a new performance work by the Vancouver artist collective Norma. The performance will occur on Andy Livingstone Field, dramatically lit by lights normally used for sporting events. The field is located off Carrall Street, in view of GM Place and other Olympic venues.
Tying in ideas of sport and spectacle at the crossroads of contrasting areas of the city, Brawl highlights the fine line between violence and theatre. By extending the collective’s interest in exploring group identity, public space, and collective behaviour, their choreographed and scripted performance includes texts and actions drawn from historical archives, film, and popular culture. Norma’s work troubles the defining actions of fan and protestor, peacekeeper and instigator.
Norma’s past work draws from diverse sources, including visual and performance art histories, and social behaviour. The collective members are Vanessa Kwan, Diana Lopez Soto, Josh Neelands, Christy Nyiri, Pietro Sammarco, Erica Stocking, and Kara Uzelman. All members of Norma are undergraduates of Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (now Emily Carr University) and have individual art practices.
This project is part of Bright Light that includes six weeks of temporary public art works and events centred along the Carrall Street Greenway. Commissioned by the City of Vancouver, Bright Light illuminates the neighbourhood from January to March 2010.
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DIANE BORSATO, RACHEL ECHENBERG
May 22, 2003Access Gallery is pleased to host the artist talk of Diane Borsato and Rachel Echenberg as they discuss their projects for Expect Delays: Touching 1000 people and Body-house: conversations, respectively. Expect Delays is a series of off-site projects organized by Artspeak and supported by The Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council.
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SARAH WHITE, NORMA
May 15, 2003Access Gallery is pleased to host the artist talk of Sarah White and the members of Norma as they discuss their projects for Expect Delays: Monologues for public/Private Spaces and Dog Day Afternoon, respectively. Expect Delays is a series of off-site projects organized by Artspeak and supported by The Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council.
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JOHN MARRIOTT, CHRISTY THOMPSON
April 17, 2003Artspeak is pleased to host the artist talk of John Marriott and Christy Thompson as they discuss their projects for Expect Delays: Incidental Park Zones and You – S is for Short Cut and Good For You, respectively. Expect Delays is a series of off-site projects organized by Artspeak and supported by The Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council.
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COLLEEN BROWN, KIRSTEN FORKERT
April 10, 2003Artspeak is pleased to host the artist talk of Colleen Brown and Kirsten Forkert as they discuss their projects for Expect Delays: Infill and Public Time, respectively. Expect Delays is a series of off-site projects organized by Artspeak and supported by The Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council.