In conjunction with Gabi Dao’s exhibition, A knife to wither your petal fingers, (June 22 - August 3) Blinkers hosted an informal panel discussion on the recent formation and development of different independent “project spaces” across Canada.

The emergence of art ‘project spaces’ across Canada has generated increased interest in creating a conversation between exhibition spaces, both locally and nationally. When we began to develop a working exhibition/presentation/project format for Blinkers, we searched for inspiration from existing project spaces from across Canada. What we found is a continuously changing community that is distinct from previously existing commercial and established artist-run communities. Panelists in this discussion included Gabi Dao ( Duplex, Avenue - Vancouver), Andrea Roberts (NGTVSPC - Winnipeg) and John Patterson (Blinkers - Winnipeg). The Panel was moderated by Hannah Doucet (Blinkers, Flux - Winnipeg)

Questions for the panel included: How can we support and learn from each other? What are different models of organisation being used by project spaces across Canada? Why are these spaces important? How do spaces like ours strategize, stick around, support emerging artists while also existing within larger civic and cultural frameworks?

The panel was followed by a BBQ and hangout at Blinkers (520 Hargrave Street).

---

Panel Participants

Gabi Dao is an artist, organizer and editor/producer of the irregularly published Here Nor There podcast series. Her work begins by examining the tectonics of cultural and subjective memories and manifests as multi-media installations, object making, sound and occasional writing. She seeks to create sensorial narratives alternative to the dominant systems of linear representation. As an extension of her practice, she co-organizes and co-produces events, exhibitions, musical performances with collaborators at Duplex, a pair of studio spaces and project space on unceded Coast Salish Territories including Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, Vancouver. She has been involved in various exhibitions and projects at 221a, Spare Room, Dynamo Arts Association, The New Music Centre (CA, AB), Artspeak, Western Front, The Nanaimo Art Gallery and Unit 17. She was the recipient of the Portfolio Prize (BFA category) in 2016 and was nominated for The Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver 2017 Artist Prize long list.

John Patterson is a visual artist and writer living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Often combining intuitive narrative explorations with visual or text assets taken from the commercial sector, quick phone pics, interviews or critical texts, Patterson uses a methodology which aims to reform the understandings, memories, or translations of personal experiences. He holds his BFA from the University of Manitoba and has shown work in galleries and artist-run centres across Canada, most recently Turismo [2017, Le Studio at La Maison des Artistes, Winnipeg], in which he developed short-term histories of the geographical area surrounding the gallery through the construction of objects, texts and videos. He is a co-founder of Blinkers Art and Project Space, has written for Canadian Art Magazine and SCAN publication, and is the co-editor of Monotext, a tri-annual publication of writing and images.

Andrea Roberts is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist whose practice incorporates sound, installation, print, sculpture, video and performance to look at identity and the voice within capitalism. Roberts has exhibited internationally with recent exhibitions at TRUCK Gallery (Calgary), Plug In ICA (Winnipeg), The University of Oakland (Detroit), ArsTechne (Krakow) and SomArts (San Francisco). A co-founder of the now defunct feminist collective NGTVSPC, Roberts has also performed in a number of noise projects and punk bands including Kursk, Wolbachia and their solo project VOR. A recent artist in residence at Pioneerworks in Brooklyn and recipient of the Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Award, Roberts holds an MFA in Sculpture from California College of the Arts (2014) and a BFA Hons. from the University of Manitoba (2011).

Panel Moderator

Hannah Doucet is an artist and arts educator from Winnipeg, Canada. She received her BFA Honours from the University of Manitoba in 2015. Doucet has exhibited in alternative spaces and artist-run centers across Canada. Recent solo exhibitions include I wondered when my body would deflate at PLATFORM Centre for photographic + digital arts (Winnipeg) in 2018 and I Never Recognized Her Except in Fragments at The New Gallery (Calgary) in 2016. In 2017 Doucet was the inaugural winner of the PLATFORM Photography award, participated in the Visual + Digital Emerging BAiR at the Banff Centre and was Mikw Chiyâm’s artist in residence at Wiinibekuu high school in Waskaganish, QC. She facilitates art workshops throughout the city of Winnipeg with Art City, Misericordia Health Centre, Ndinawe Youth Resource Centre and Plugin Institute of Contemporary Art. She is a co-founder of Flux Gallery and co-founder and co-director of Blinkers Art and Project Space.

---