Hank Bull: Connexion

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Hank Bull, "Dichroic 1," 1978

from the shadow play Vis-à-Vis. Photo by Kate Craig

Curated by Joni Low (Vancouver) and Pan Wendt (Confederation Centre Art Gallery)

Organized and circulated by the Confederation Centre Art Gallery

Hank Bull: Connexion transforms the Vancouver-based artist’s collection and archives into a sculptural installation, illuminating over four decades of Bull’s prolific collaborations with artists and artistic communities internationally.

Inspired by experimental music, mail art, Fluxus, Dada and pataphysics, much of Bull’s practice has been ephemeral and dialogic, produced for underground audiences in artist-run and improvised contexts. Yet material things have played an important role as documents, props, and aesthetic objects in their own right. Through the material traces of life lived as art, Connexion proposes an expanded idea of the artist as a connector of people, and of objects as active generators of meaning.

Developing global networks years before the Internet, Bull’s work parallels a wider shift towards the collaborative and pluralistic interactions of our networked present. In this context, Connexion offers insights into experimentations with collective ways of working together at a moment when new social forms are urgently needed.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Interdisciplinary artist and arts organizer, Hank Bull has been an influential leader in Canada’s contemporary art community for over four decades. Born in Calgary, Bull has worked and lived much of his life in Vancouver. Associated in many ways with the artist-run centre Western Front, his own work has been widely shown and is held in the permanent collections of the Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, the National Gallery of Canada and the Museum of Modern Art (New York). He co-founded Centre A (the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art) in 1999 and was its Executive Director until 2010. In 2014 he received an honourary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Opening Reception  |  Thursday, January 19, 7-9pm  |  FREE

Offsite Talk with Tyler Russell  |  Saturday, January 28, 3-6pm  |  $5  |  Centre A, Vancouver

Artist Talk: Hank Bull  |  Sunday, January 29, 2pm  |  FREE

Workshop Series: Shadow Puppets  |  Thursday, February 9  |  $23.00

In the BAG: Family Sundays   |  Shadow Puppets  |  Sunday, February 12 |  1-4pm  |  FREE

Art Tour Tuesday  |  Tuesday, February 14, 12:15-1:15pm  |  FREE

Tea & Tour  |  Tuesday, February 14, 2-3:30pm  |  $7.50

Shadow Play by Hank Bull  |  Saturday, February 18, 8pm & Sunday, February 18, 2pm  | FREE

In the BAG: Family Sundays  |  Colour Transparencies  |  Sunday, March 12  |  1-4pm  |  FREE