An Opulence of Squander
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery 1825 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2
Kelly Wood, “Garbage Bag (negative),” 1997
(BG2691), (Photo- Howard Ursuliak) (courtesy of the Gallery)
Opening Reception:Thursday, 5 September from 6 to 8 pm
Offering the potential for ongoing research and reconsideration, the Belkin’s collection emphasizes artists’ practices that challenge the status quo, with an emphasis on the Canadian avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s which developed an international network and continues to have a significant impact on the art of today. Through an invitation to guest curator Weiyi Chang to respond to the Belkin’s collection, she has developed an exhibition that considers our collective responsibilities as caretakers of artworks and as shapers of reconsidered and increasingly urgent narratives.
Taking its title from an essay by artist Kelly Wood, An Opulence of Squander brings together works largely from the Belkin’s collection and archive with artists that reflect on concepts of surplus and excess to question the dual ascription of artistic work as a form of both luxury and waste. The works in the exhibition are unified by their critique of the pursuit of perpetual growth under capitalist regimes and its demand for continuous production.
Measures of productivity, such as gross domestic product, gross national income and unemployment rates, are treated as indicators of a society’s collective social, political and cultural well-being. But the ongoing climate crisis challenges the doctrine of productivity, exposing the unfettered waste and excesses that are often a by-product of economic growth.
In lieu of the imperative to produce, An Opulence of Squander brings together artworks by Lorna Brown, Alexandra Dikeakos, Geoffrey Hendricks, Stuart Horn, Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens, Deborah Koenker, Mike MacDonald, Michael Morris, Robert Rauschenberg, Howard Ursuliak, Kelly Wood and the artist collective Soft Turns that recognize both the limits to productivity and the contradictory ideological premises that foster and justify the continued exploitation of people and nature.