Samuel Roy-Bois: Reward Friends, Punish Enemies

×

Expand

Samuel Roy-Bois, "Reward Friends, Punish Enemies," 2019

site-specific installation

The Polygon is pleased to launch a new Burrard Arts Foundation commission by Kelowna artist Samuel Roy-Bois. Titled Reward Friends, Punish Enemies, the work is a dramatic intervention in the architectural space of the gallery lobby. Roy-Bois’ materials allude to the legacies of natural resource extraction in Canada, and the history of the forest industry on the North Shore. Venetian blinds made from horizontal slats of discarded cedar obstruct the gallery’s carefully framed vista of the Burrard Inlet, while fir-timber beams seem to penetrate its plate glass windows, extending from the building’s interior into the plaza. The rustic, handcrafted aesthetic rubs against the steel-and-glass design of the gallery and the surrounding waterfront developments. This interactive sculpture offers benches and spaces for conversation, and upends distinctions between the interior and exterior of the building.

Samuel Roy-Bois (b. 1973, Québec City) is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work embraces public art, photography, sculpture, performance and writing. He is an Assistant Professor in the Creative Studies program as well as the director of the Research Studio for Spaces and Things at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Roy-Bois has exhibited across Canada and internationally, with recent exhibitions at the Kamloops Art Gallery and TRAPP Projects in Vancouver. July 5 - Ongoing