Kai Choufour: please no memories
to
Pat Martin Bates Gallery at Victoria Arts Council 670 Fort Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3V2
Kai Choufour, "please no memories," 2020
floating above candy-coated tropical forest floors silver walls bow like mirrored waves deep-sea alien glows hide behind false walls dark skies arch to create a stage moonlighting flashbulb lightning strikes on plastic waterfalls that rush and roll with static noise alive with automatic cyber rhythms
A new site-specific installation is coming to the Victoria Art Council's Vault Project Space this summer from local artist, Kai Choufour. Titled, please no memories, this exhibition features 4000+ digital drawings selected from an extensive archive that has amassed between 2016 - 2020. The architecture of the vault is made more strange by the introduction of false walls that bow out to the center and an arched ceiling that transforms the overhead fluorescent lighting into a sea of stars. The vault becomes a place of metaphor, as please no memories presents themes of archiving the self, hyper-narrative, forgetting, and wonderment.
In addition to the aforementioned works, this exhibition will feature a very early Glenn Howarth sculpture that was recently acquired from the depths of a garage in Esquimalt and restored by Kai Choufour.
Kai Choufour is a visual artist, musician, and vegan cook, living on traditional Lək̓ʷəŋən territory, also known as Victoria. His work weaves song, poetry, painting, and digital interventions, with an openness to life and genuine curiosity of material. Originally from Vancouver, Kai graduated from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2015.