BFA Project 2020: RECURSION

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Image Courtesy of Matthew Bogdanow, Kathy Feng and Abbey Zhang.

Dear friends:

Amid growing concerns around COVID-19, SFU Galleries will temporarily close its exhibition spaces, postpone upcoming public programs and rethink how we can continue to present the practices of artists to our publics. We believe in a connection between what has been and what is to come, encouraged and enacted through aesthetic forms, and we believe there are meaningful lessons to take from the practices of artists as we relearn how to be together at this time.

The urgency of this threat, and the collective and necessary withdrawal from social life, offers pause to recognize our shared humanity. We also recognize that crisis of this sort amplifies injustice. Now is a time to reposition ourselves, both physically and ethically, in consideration of those most vulnerable: our elderly, those who suffer chronic illness, the undocumented, homeless and incarcerated, as well as those whose labour is essential in this crisis, be they janitors, cashiers or nurses. There is no denying the links between our physical, moral and cultural health. 

While SFU Galleries' physical spaces are closed, we remain committed to ways of gathering publics that engage with our social and political environments — what is changing about them, what histories they are anchored in and what futures our responses move us toward. Let's use this moment to critically interrogate how we form community, who we form it with, and how we can do better. Let's do this with care.

— SFU Galleries. 

BFA Project 2020: RECURSION

zeenah salam alsamarrai, jesse blanchard, Matthew Bogdanow, Sylvia Burtenshaw, Keting Dong, kathy feng, Olivia Luo, Janice Ma, Vitória Monteiro, Aynaz Parkas, Minnie Yung, and Abbey Zhang.

Yes, I do re-use images (just like words). — John Baldassari¹

RECURSION is an exhibition of SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts' (SCA) third-year Visual Art students presented in collaboration with Alejandro Cesarco, the Spring 2020 Audain Visual Artist in Residence.

RECURSION explores the relationship of contemporary practice to histories of artistic influence. Recursion is the art or process of recurring or returning. In the context of computing, recursion is the invocation of a procedure from within itself. The artists in the exhibition call upon histories of artistic influence to engage with, push against and simultaneously acknowledge their position within a continuous fractal-like structure of communication that reverberates through contemporary art.

The works presented in RECURSION take up ideas of originality, the use of references, and practices of translation and citation. The exhibition includes painting, sculpture, photography, video, drawing, textiles, and a collaborative artist book edited by Alejandro Cesarco and SCA professor Kathy Slade. Entitled With Thanks, the book is composed of letters that directly address a significant influence that has prompted or guided each of the exhibiting artists' practices.

Alejandro Cesarco was born in Montevideo, Uraguay and currently lives in New York. Through different formats and strategies, his practice reflects his recurrent interests in repetition, narrative, and practices of reading and translating. Cesarco's most recent solo exhibitions include A Solo Exhibition,Witte de With, Rotterdam (2019); These Days, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin (2019); Tactics & Technics, CAC, Vilnius (2019); and Song, The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2017). In 2011 he represented Uruguay at the 54^th Venice Biennial. He has curated exhibitions in the US, Uruguay and Argentina, including sections of the 33 Bienal de Sāo Paulo, Brazil (2018) and ARCO, Madrid (2020). Cesarco is director of the non-profit organization, Art Resources Transfer.

The Audain Visual Artist in Residence (AVAIR) program brings artists and practitioners to Vancouver who have contributed significatnly to the field of contemporary art and whose work resonates with local and international visual art discourses. The visiting artists interact with the students and faculty of the School for the Contemporary Arts as well as the broader visual arts and cultural communities and the community-at-large. In keeping with the experimental nature of the School for the Contemporary Arts the terms of engagement are open and change from artist to artist. The cornerstone of the residency is the sharing of artistic research. The program is generously funded by the Audain Foundation Endowment Fund.

Presented by SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts and the Audain Visual Artist in Residence. 

^[1] Alejandro Cesarco, ed., Between Artists: John Baldessari, Barbara Bloom (New York: Art Resources Transfer Press, 2011).

Events

Opening Reception

Wednesday, March 25, 6 – 8pm

Audain Gallery

Student-led Exhibition Tours

Saturday, March 28, 2pm

Tuesday, March 31, 1pm

Saturday, April 4, 2pm