Jason  McLean

Miguel da Conçeicao

Marc  Bell

Amy  Lockhart

Jennifer  Murphy

Paul  Butler

 Dearraindrop

Clement Greenberg described collage as "a major turning point in the evolution of Cubism, and there­fore a major turning point in the whole evolution of modernist art in this century." *Bit by Bit* incorpo­rates the work of emerging artists who continue to explore this material practice. Each work incorpo­rates conventional notions of collage, physically collecting, combining, cutting, covering, and layering found images and commonplace materials, one piece at a time, to create new images and meanings. Whether the artists are boldly forming an aesthetic moment or overtly putting forward a political agenda, each element within the overall collage is a sepa­rate element that combines with other pieces to generate something whole, and it is this tenuous and apparent relation between the pieces and the whole that gives this material practice its potency and continued relevance. As part of *Bit by Bit*, the GAG will publish a special issue of *I Got Killed I Got Killed I Got Killed in World War Three*.  

Essay: “Bit by Bit,” Jenifer Papararo

An installation image of a group show titled Bit by Bit. A countless number of neon coloured two-dimensional works, mostly drawings and collage pieces, cover two black walls.

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An installation image of a group show titled Bit by Bit. Approximately twenty of two-dimensional works, mostly drawings and collage pieces, are mounted on the gallery walls.

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An installation image of three large collage works on the walls. Three collage pieces, each of them made on a white sheet of paper, which length is as long as the length of the gallery wall. The middle collage piece depicts an owl.

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An installation image of artworks in CAG’s window spaces facing a sidewalk. The wall behind glass windows is covered with identically designed posters. The poster’s design is made of a combination of geometric shapes. 

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An installation image of artworks in a gallery taken from outside through the windows. A countless number of neon coloured two-dimensional works, mostly drawings and collage pieces, cover two black separation walls.

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An installation image of artworks in a gallery. A machine named Micron 760, which looks like a desktop, is placed on a pedestal. The machine shows the collaged image of various drawings on its screen.

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Two piles of newspaper-style publications are placed directly on a gallery wall. They are the publication titled I Got Killed, I Got Killed, I Got Killed in World War III that accompanied this group exhibition.

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An installation image of artworks in a gallery. A CRT TV on a pedestal shows multiple drawings of aircraft. On a wall, six drawings of flowers are mounted. 

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Marc Bell, Paul Butler, Jason McLean, Jennifer Murphy, Dearraindrop, Miguel da Conçeicao, Amy Lockhart

Bit by Bit

Donald Lawrence

Kamloops based artist Donald Lawrence's ambi­tious process-based sculptural and photographic works often combine the creation of elaborate, antiquated methods of outdoor exploration in com­bination with documentation of the ongoing processes the sculptures incite. He has made a canoe that doubles as a darkroom and a sled that converts into a survival tent/hut. Lawrence is fasci­nated with outmoded technologies of exploration and survival, and joins his research into these often nostalgic histories with an active re-mapping of their present day potentials. For the Contemporary Art Gallery, Lawrence is constructing a large scale installation based on a number of old iron clad ship's boilers that sit on beaches on the west and east coasts of Canada. Functioning at the cusp between valuable antique and disintegrating flotsam, the boilers pro­vide Lawrence with a trope to examine distinctions between treasure and garbage, memory and lost history. 

### Biography

Born in Calgary (1963) Donald Lawrence has a BFA from the University of Victoria (1986) and an MFA from York University (1988). He lives in Kamloops where he teaches in the Visual Arts program at Thompson Rivers University. Through such bodies of work as the *Beach* (1985), *Romantic Commodities* (1993), *The Sled* (1995), and *The Underwater Pinhole Photography Project* (since 1997), Lawrence uses combinations of photography, sculpture, drawing and installation to relate stories of travel, exploration and mechanical invention to a broader interest in the meeting place of urban and wilderness culture and to his more specific, interest in sea kayaking – something which has taken him to Alaska, Maine, and Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Recently, Donald Lawrence has exhibited works in *CAMP(sites)*, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff and *Proximities: Artists’ Statements and Their Works*, Kamloops Art Gallery. Lawrence received a BFA, University of Victoria (1986) and an MFA, York University (1988).

Essay: “Donald Lawrence: Torhamvan/Ferryland,” Jenifer Papararo

An installation image of a large artwork by Donald Lawrence inside a gallery. An assemblage of distorted and decayed metal parts of some large industrial machine is placed on the floor.

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An installation image of large artworks by Donald Lawrence inside a gallery. An assemblage of distorted and decayed metal parts of some large industrial machine is placed on the floor.

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An installation image of large artworks by Donald Lawrence inside a gallery. An assemblage of distorted and decayed metal parts of some large industrial machine is placed on the floor. 

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Torhamvan/Ferryland

Ceal Floyer

Ceal Floyer's art practice has developed out of a playful approach to the tenets of minimalist sculp­ture. Using familiar objects and common figures of speech, she upends conventional meanings, creating works that are both elegant and absurd. This exhi­bition will include new works created especially for the Contemporary Art Gallery. *Draft* will focus on a specific, though oblique, aspect of the gallery space. *Stereo* plays on the expectations announced by commonplace events. *Trash* takes a banal computer icon and invests it with literal and metaphorical power wor­thy of Beckett. 

### Biography

Ceal Floyer has an extensive exhibition his­tory, having exhibited at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; CCA, Berkeley, California; Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee; Kunsthalle Bern; and City Racing, London. 



Essay: "Perfectly Logical," Christina Richie

An installation view of a work titled Watercolour by Ceal Floyer. A CRT TV installed on a white pedestal displays a surface of a white screen illuminated in red.

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An installation view of a work titled DRAFT by Ceal Floyer. A word, DRAFT has been repeatedly stamped onto the bottom of a white door, making a line with red ink.

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An installation view of a work titled Trash by Ceal Floyer. A small projector is placed directly on the floor. It projects an image of a trash can on the wall close to the corner of a gallery. 

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Detail of a work titled DRAFT by Ceal Floyer. A word, DRAFT has been repeatedly stamped onto the bottom of a white door, making a line with red ink.

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An installation view of a work titled Trash by Ceal Floyer. A small projector is placed directly on the floor. It projects an image of a trash can on the wall close to the corner of a gallery.

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An installation view of a work titled Stereo by Ceal Floyer. Two identical speakers on tall stands are placed in the middle of a gallery space. 

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An installation view of a work titled Stereo by Ceal Floyer. Two identical speakers on tall stands are placed in the middle of a gallery space.

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An installation view of a work titled Watercolour by Ceal Floyer. A CRT TV installed on a white pedestal displays a surface of a white screen.

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An installation view of a work titled Watercolour by Ceal Floyer. A CRT TV installed on a white pedestal displays a surface of a white screen illuminated in green.

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An installation view of a work titled Watercolour by Ceal Floyer. A CRT TV installed on a white pedestal displays a surface of a white screen illuminated in blue.

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Micah Lexier

*To Be Sorted: Blank/ Circle to Square/ Organizing Principle* is a series of three consecutive vitrine displays with objects from the collection of Micah Lexier, with each display accompanied by one of the artist's works.

Lexier, a Canadian artist based in New York, has developed his practice out of a reconsideration of the quasi-documentary strategies of early conceptual art, retooled to accommodate his concerns with time, identity and difference. Lexier has a sustained interest in the ephemeral products of conceptually based practices and over the course of the past twenty years has amassed an extensive collection of such materials. He's also collected hundreds of anonymous products that share similar graphic and aesthetic qualities. The individual objects in the collection come from a wide variety of sources and include a large number of coins, printed materials such as stationary, score cards and books, artists' books and multiples, packaging, tools, magic tricks, and most recently, fragments of perforated cardboard found in the street.

Micah and I have selected three separate groupings of material from this diverse collection. Our selections and the rubrics under which we've organized them are somewhat arbitrary, since our choices were motivated primarily by pleasure, by the particular satisfaction derived from an object that is smart, beautiful, economical, communicative and still manages to retain some mystery of purpose or style. We trust that the categories that we've devised will be recognized as merely convenient, imposed after the fact. Each group is accompanied by one work by the artist which obliquely demonstrates some of the reciprocal qualities between the work and the collection. It should be noted that the works were selected after the fact as well, as just one of several possible examples of the ways in which Micah's artistic practice is informed by his collecting habits.

-Christina Ritchie


Detail of artworks by Micah Lexier. In a display case, a variety of objects such as postcards, magazines, and notebooks are placed.

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An installation image of artworks by Micah Lexier. A variety of objects, such as photographs of the blue sky, postcards, and magazines are placed in a display case. 

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An installation image of artworks by Micah Lexier. A variety of objects such as postcards and magazines are placed in a display case. A drawing that looks like a graph is mounted on a wall.

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Detail of artworks by Micah Lexier. In a display case, a variety of objects such as postcards and photographs of the blue sky are placed. 

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To Be Sorted

Daniel Olson

Daniel Olson uses performance as a means to ignite his material production. The Montreal-based artist transforms existing objects, creating small and somewhat discrete interventions, at times enhancing or exaggerating their use value. For example, he adds a bell to a wooden walking stick, which can be rung with the simple flick of the thumb; he adheres a magnifying glass to a music box, exposing its inner workings; or melds a fan to a music-maker so both operate simultaneously. For *Twenty Minutes' Sleep* the artist will revisit earlier installations where he combined objects, sound, video, photographs, and performance, to create an office space that sets the stage for a shifting cast of characters. The most fitting occupant for this room is the cliched hard boiled detective, but dif­ferent characters surface in the smallest of ges­tures. Olson amplifies these with his performances where he morphs from himself to his father to the artist to the mysterious stranger. 

Essay: “Daniel Olson: Twenty Minutes’ Sleep,” Jenifer Papararo

An installation image of a work by Daniel Olson. A steel-made grey working desk and a black leather-covered office chair are placed on the floor. The desk is covered with various objects, including a typewriter, a desk lamp, and a cigarette case.

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An installation image of a work by Daniel Olson. A steel-made grey working desk is placed in front of the wall. The desk is covered with various objects, including a typewriter, a desk lamp, and a bottle of rum.

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A coat rack is placed flat on the floor. It is a set of four black coat hooks mounted on a rectangular piece of wood.

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An installation image of Daniel Olson’s art exhibition at CAG. A corner of the galley is covered by glass and white window blinds. A black office chair and a projector are placed in front of these blinds.

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An installation image of Daniel Olson’s art exhibition at CAG. A large poster of a person in a grey suit is mounted on a wall. A CRT TV is placed on a pedestal at the corner of a gallery.

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An installation image of a work by Daniel Olson. A steel-made grey working desk is placed directly on the floor. The desk is covered with various objects, including a typewriter, a desk lamp, and a bottle of rum. 

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An installation image of a work by Daniel Olson in CAG’s window spaces facing a sidewalk. Three poster-shaped photography works are mounted on an illuminated wall behind glass windows. 

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An installation image of a work by Daniel Olson in CAG’s window spaces facing a sidewalk. Two poster-shaped photography works are mounted on an illuminated wall behind glass windows. 

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An installation image of a work by Daniel Olson in CAG’s window spaces facing a sidewalk. Three large pieces of white paper, on which some typed texts are visible, are mounted on an illuminated wall behind glass windows.

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Twenty Minutes' Sleep

Catrin  Bolt 

Seamus Kealy

Marlene  Haring

Patrick  Baumüller

Hans  Schabus

Severin  Hofman

monochrom

*Unterspiel* is an exhibition of five contemporary Viennese artists/artist groups, addressing a variety of artistic strategies of contemporary art production in Vienna. The exhibited works have a specific, sometimes belated, relation to a tradition of avant-gardism that has its origins in fin de siecle Vienna. At the same time these artists are paradoxically rooted in the provocative actions of the Viennese Actionists. In the wake of the Actionists' political work, contemporary Viennese art often engages in socio-political issues, whether around notions of Austrian identity, or in confrontation to political or art institutions.

Severin Hofmann & Patrick Baumiiller: This artist duo will interact with the public in their site-specific Würstelstand outside the gallery. Through performance, cultural reflection and the distribution of sausages this work experiments with notions of “cultural difference'' directly with the public.

Catrin Bolt & Marlene Haring: This former artist duo will present individual work that follows on their collaborative work, politically provocative, such as the 2003 video, *Call Boys*.

monochrom: Volunteers are invited to be buried alive. With a small, private graveyard set up in the gallery, willing individuals may come to experience their own mortality. Their project for Unterspiel is part of their Experience tour through the US and Canada.

Hans Schabus: Schabus, who represents Austria at this year's Venice Biennale, will present the video installation Western, in which the artist boats through the famous catacomb sewers beneath Vienna, the same place where Orson Wells ran from the authorities in the 1949 film *The Third Man*.

This exhibition is curated and organized by Seamus Kealy, a candidate in the Curatorial Program at UBC, and is a co-production of the Contemporary Art Gallery and the University of British Columbia.

Co-produced by the Contemporary Art Gallery and the University of British Columbia

The exhibition was made possible with core support.from the Austrian Federal Chancellery Kunst Program; the Austrian Foreign Ministry and the Austrian Cultural Forum in Ottawa, and with the generous support of the Austrian Consulate in Vancouver; he Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, The University of British Columbia; The Alvin Balkind Fund; the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery; Faculty of Graduate Studies, the University of British Columbia; Red Bull; E.T.T. European Technology Transfer Inc.. 


An installation image of a piece inside the gallery. A large unsealed wood box is placed directly on the floor. The box is not sealed, and a large amount of soil fills it. A cross and shovels stick out of the soil.

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An installation image of a video projected on a wall below the staircase. The video shows an image of a person covering both sides of their head with their own hands.

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An installation image of a black camping car placed right outside the gallery. A yellow lion or dragon shape is painted on the facade of the car. 

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An installation image of several artworks in a gallery. A large unsealed wood box is placed on the floor near the far wall. A CRT TV placed on the pedestal shows the image of an assembly of people.

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An installation image of an art piece above the CAG’s entrance door. On the glass-and-metal awning above the entrance, thick, ragged plumber's hemp are mounted. Strings of hemp lined up and swinging in the air may remind a viewer of long blond hair.

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Twelve small, unframed photographs are hung in a line across the corner of two gallery walls. The photographs are of various interior, domestic-like spaces.

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An installation image of a video projected on a wall in a dimly lighted gallery. The video shows a word "western."

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An installation image of a video projected on a wall in a dimly lighted gallery. The video shows an aerial view of a sewer.

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An installation image of a circular-shaped mirror above a sink. The mirror is entirely covered with a white soap-like form. 

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Patrick Baum Uller & Severin Hofmann, Catrin Bolt, Marlene Haring, mono­chrom, Hans Schabus

Unterspiel

Daniel Barrow

Daniel Barrow is an illustrator and storyteller. Using his signature animation technique in live performances, he animates a narrative sequence of charismatic illustrations. He creates and adapts pictorial narratives into a "manual" form of animation by projecting, layering and manipulating drawings, found images and light. Barrow refers to this practice as "graphic performance, live illustration or manual animation."

For *Don't Let This Happen*, his first solo exhibition in Vancouver, Barrow harmoniously joins a variety of media, devising a self-sufficient means of animation using an overhead projector, a fan, some water and plastic beads. The installation combines selected illustrations, sculptures and animated videos to create a spatial narrative. As part of his exhibition at the CAG, Barrow will perform *The Face of Everything*, a story set in Las Vegas and based on the life experiences of Scott Thorson, Liberace's chauffeur, bodyguard and young live-in lover.

### Biography

Daniel Barrow is a Winnipeg-based artist, working in performance, video and installation. His work has recently been presented in solo exhibitions at Mercer Union, Toronto and Three Walls, Chicago; and he has recently performed at MOCA, Los Angeles; the International Festival of Animated Objects, Calgary; Dazibao, Montreal; and Images Festival, Toronto. He has produced an animated music video for the Hidden Cameras and has performed live with them.


An installation image of artworks in a gallery.  Four coloured illustrations are placed on a small shelf attached to a wall. Small red sculptures of animals are placed in front of each illustration.

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An installation image of two artworks inside a gallery. Two illustrations are displayed on TV screens placed on white pedestals. One illustration shows a person, and the other one shows a barrel and a blue cloud. 

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An installation image of artworks in a gallery. Four framed illustrations are placed on a small shelf attached to a wall on the left side. A projector placed in the middle of the room project an illustration of a blue hand on a far wall.

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An installation image of artworks in a gallery. A projector placed in the middle of the room project an illustration of a blue hand on a far wall. On the right side of the projector, an illustration of a person is displayed on a TV screen.

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Don’t Let This Happen

John Massey

*As a Hammer Strikes (A Partial Illustration)* by John Massey is a groundbreaking video installation that uses three visual fields to convey the minutiae of communication, portraying misunderstandings, tangential thought processes and shared cultural experiences. Originally produced in 1982 in 16mm film, this complex triptych details a conversation between the artist and a hitchhiker, who Massey picked up while driving from one small southern Ontario town to another. As the two struggle to find common ground, they reveal their intense desire to connect with each other, if even for a brief moment. ln *As the Hammer Strikes*, Massey plays with the underlying assumptions of the documentary form. Using the conventions of investigative journalism, such as hidden cameras and hand held tape recorders, the voyeuristic scenario is called into question as Massey overtly points to the subterfuges used to stage this seemingly serendipitous event.

### Biography

Through a wide variety of media including photography, film and sculpture, Massey's work often plays with the ambiguity between reality and fiction. His work has been widely exhibited, with shows in Germany, the US, the UK, France, Australia, as well as in Canada; and is held in many collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris; and the Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto. John Massey received the 2001 Gershon lskowitz Award for lifetime achievement. He currently teaches in the Visual Studies Program at the University of Toronto.


An installation image of three-channel video work projected on a gallery wall. The videos show people and objects in a car from different angles. The middle video shows an image of two people in front seats.

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An installation image of three-channel video work projected on a gallery wall. The videos show people in a car from different angles. The middle video shows an image of two people in front seats.

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An installation image of three-channel video work projected on a gallery wall. The left video show an image of a longhouse. The middle and right videos show the images of people in a car. 

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An installation image of three-channel video work projected on a gallery wall. The videos show people in a car from different angles. The left video show an image of a person standing outside while keeping one of the front doors of the car open.

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As the Hammer Strikes

Damian Moppett

Damian Moppett's practice questions notions of mastery. Moving between genres and from medium to medium, Moppett undermines the very idea of quality, attempting to avoid the exterior and traditional criteria with which proficiency or mastery is judged. For his exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Moppett will bring to­gether three distinct artistic forms: drawing, ceramics and music. Within each medium he presents a modest level of skill and attempts to avoid the creation of a spectacle, in part by privileging the process over the finished object and by avoiding, to a certain degree, conventional modes of assessment and evaluation. Within a limited time frame he has learnt how to throw clay pots, working up from a simple hollow container to more complex objects, amassing as much pottery as possible and exhibiting the entirety of his production. In showing everything he avoids issues of selection, giving each object equal significance. He uses drawing as a form of documentation. He doesn't produce the drawings as aesthetic objects, but as a literal means to represent his cultural influences and to show how their subject matter has effected his artistic production. He will incorporate music into the exhibition through a series of four videos that will highlight all the technical skills needed to set up a rock band. The music becomes secondary to the material means needed to make music. The imperfect skill with which Moppett approaches each discipline does not undermine his sincere desire to learn and his appreciation of each method and product, but what in turn is privileged in the vernacular processes with which production happens. 

*The Visible Work* is sponsored by Audain Foundation