Mad Pride: Develop Madness | Street Sign

Exhibitions run: June 19th–July 31st, 2015
Opening reception: Fri, June 19th, 2015, 7–10pm

Mad Pride: Develop Madness–Curated by Karen Ward

Mad Pride is an international movement created by psychiatric survivors, consumers, and folks labeled “mentally ill”-all who proudly reclaim the words mad & crazy, and those who stand in solidarity with us.

Gallery Gachet’s 2015 Mad Pride exhibition, Develop Madness, signifies the transformation of anarchic, organic, and historicized urban space into commodity. Gentrification is the development process experienced in Gachet’s neighbourhood, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. We are located on unceded Native land and the site of successive displacements throughout the 20th century. After years of being derided as a “ghetto” of the poor, addicted, and mentally ill, it’s now become valuable land and a development site. The community is being evicted, priced out, reinstitutionalized, and disappeared.

This year the Mad Pride exhibition showcases work by ten artists who live with mental illness addressing the direct or indirect effects of psychiatric control and the pressures of development in everyday life.

To see pictures from this exhibition, please visit our Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/gallerygachet/sets/72157654613454808

Mad Pride Cabaret | Saturday, July 11th 2015, 7–10:30pm

Amidst the backdrop of the Mad Pride: Develop Madness art show, we are harnessing amazing feats of madness in an evening of performances for a Mad Pride Cabaret taking place on Saturday, July 11th, 2015, 7 ­ -10:30pm (part of International Mad Pride). This multifaceted, fun-time extravaganza will feature an evening of dancing and performers who are proud to be called crazy; DJs, poets, visionaries, singers, strummers and hummers with something to get off their chests and who celebrate our human neuro­diversity and unparalleled tenacity in the face of persistent barriers.

Street Sign | Featuring the work of Quin Martins and Andrew McPhail

Quin Martins constructs a curated urban setting in our gallery. Using reconstructed street signs and photography he sets the stage for the viewer to consider the design of urban space as a series of curated choices made in collaboration, albeit perhaps unwittingly, by such disparate groups as city developers, small business owners, and community members. Martins’ display challenges the viewer to consider their role in the construction of urban space.

Andrew McPhail’s Watch Your Step, a carpet assembled from discarded garments, demonstrates a negotiation of urban space. Layered upon Martins’ condensed representation of public space, McPhail’s textile piece stakes out the boundaries of personal and private space in the public realm where issues of social status and identity, affluence and poverty play out daily.

To see pictures from this exhibition, please visit our Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/gallerygachet/sets/72157652690418294

Quin Martins, born in New Westminster BC, grew up being inspired by painters working within Vancouver’s “low­brow” art scene of the 80s and 90s; artists with colourful names like 12 Midnight, I Braineater and ManWoman. Although contemporary painting continues to excite him, his current practice includes such diverse media as photography, sculpture and sound. Martins has always believed in the artist’s role to disrupt and subvert accepted social norms. He sees his work as functioning as a sort of game between himself and the viewer – a game that is preferably playful rather than mean spirited in nature. Sometimes, in an attempt to suppress the author­function inherent in artmaking, he will exhibit using the name of the fictitious organization: The Vancouver Society for the Prevention of Loss. Martins is currently enrolled at Emily Carr University where he is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in visual arts.

Andrew McPhail is a Canadian visual artist. He was born in Calgary Alberta in 1961 and studied at York University where he received his MFA in 1987. Living in Toronto in the 1980’s and 90’s his work focused primarily on drawing, often with pencil crayon on a polyester film called mylar. After moving to Hamilton in 2005 his practice shifted towards three dimensional work, performance, and painting. His accumulative, craft oriented work reconfigures disposable materials such as band aids, Kleenex, and pins into large sculptures and installations.

Mindful Cellphone Photography Workshop with Quin Martins | July 25th, 3–5pm
Artist talk and Sewing Bee with Andrew McPhail | June 21st, 1–3pm

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Salon Shop

Demolishing Grief: Phase One | Featuring the work of Gunargie O’Sullivan

Artist Gunargie O’Sullivan is both a direct and inter­generational survivor of Indian Residential Schools. She was fostered and then adopted by the age of seven. Her inspiration to carry out this important work has changed the landscape of Aboriginal radio. Now Gunargie turns her sights to visual art! This immersive multimedia video installation entitled Demolishing Grief: Phase One, uses video footage of St. Michael’s Residential School demolition to unearth a history of emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual abuse.

Gunargie O’Sullivan has been dedicated to community and campus radio since 1989 and attributes her knowledge to her guests and her community. Gunargie is the founder of the shows “Late night with Savages” on Wednesdays 11.00 pm-12.00 on CFRO­-FM Vancouver Co­-op Radio and “Nation to Nation” on CJSF­-FM and currently produces “When Spirit Whispers” on Mondays 1.00pm-2.30pm and “Sne’wayulh” 1.00pm-2.00pm Tuesdays at CFRO­-FM. Producer of kla how ya fm on Thursdays 5.00pm-6.00pm

She also founded the Red Jam Slam Society. Gunargie was the Aboriginal Representative on the NCRA Board of Directors and head of the NCRA’s Native Caucus. Gunargie was on the Board of CFRO-­FM and currently sits on the Boards of WMovers and Women’s Wellness and Cultural Centre for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. She is a member of the Tlowitsis tribe which she says means “powerful people”.

To see pictures from this exhibition, please visit our Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/gallerygachet/sets/72157655022773681

Red Jam Slam Radio Festival ­ June 20th 1­-5pm

The Red Jam Slam Radio Festival creates an opportunity for listeners and audience members to hear expressions of healing and caring for mother earth and respect for our own cultural teachings while staying in tune with others living on mother earth. The event celebrates Aboriginal Week airing live from five venues in Vancouver beautiful British Columbia and will be broadcasted from station-­to­-station and  coast-­to-­coast in Canada. The live show will also be available via podcast or Internet Stream.

Red Jam Slam Radio Festival is brought to you by the Red Jam Slam Society, which exists to initiate celebrations, events and festivals that feature Aboriginal artists and performers and encourage grassroots and inclusive strategies to honor all Aboriginal voices.

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image used for promotion © Quin Martins, York Theatre Renovation Site