The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects.

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Jason Payne PNG

“Detail view of the Mount Pleasant Furniture collection,” no date

(Photo by Jason Payne/Vancouver Sun)

Opening reception: Friday, May 17, 2024, 6:00-8:00 PM

Curated by Lisa Baldissera and Paul Wong, The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects celebrates Mount Pleasant Furniture (MPF), a prop house wonderland for film, television, stage and art communities. 

A family-owned and operated business in the heart of the Mount Pleasant warehouse district, MPF is a diverse collection of over one million antique and vintage objects stored in two multi-level buildings–a labyrinth of 35,000 square feet, crammed from floor ceiling with furnishings, objects of art, paintings, textiles, sculpture, figurines. The collection has been accumulated by three generations of the Madsen family and has been used in set designs in the Vancouver film industry over the past 40 years. Leslie Madsen continues to live in the 1911 building that she owns and has raised her family in, and her son now manages the day-to-day operations. 

MPF will soon close and disperse its collection as the warehouse it has leased for 30 years has been sold. By revealing MPF, The Prop House highlights the impacts of development and gentrification on the city of Vancouver and its arts and culture sectors. 

The Prop House exhibition presents the work of six Vancouver-based artists: Cathy Busby, Germaine Koh, Jason Payne, Jay Senetchko, Charlene Vickers, Parvin Peivandi and Bagua Artist Association. Along with the exhibition’s curators, the artists will re-situate selected collection objects at Griffin Art Projects on one last journey of imagination before MPF closes.

Along with the exhibition, The Prop House also consists of Paul Wong’s film project presented on grunt gallery’s Mount Pleasant Community Screen, his postcard series and window installation onsite at MPF, and small-group guided tours of MPF, among other public programs.

The Prop House is co-produced by On Main Gallery and Griffin Art Projects, in collaboration with grunt gallery and Mount Pleasant Furniture. On Main Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Vancouver. Griffin Art Projects is grateful for the support of North Vancouver Recreation and Culture in the presentation of this project.