Exhibitions
Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
T, AS IN TIME E, AS IN EVER
Hazel Meyer, Atheana Picha
Curated by Vanessa Kwan
T, AS IN TIME E, AS IN EVER brings together the work of Hazel Meyer and Atheana Picha. Divergent in media, but aligned in method and approach, their pairing is a proposition to consider our relationship with time differently —to draw from it and reshape it to find what we need. Through performance, installation and drawings, the exhibition illustrates a gathering of knowledge, subjectivities and affinities across time and between generations; the works acknowledge the containers we collectively construct and assemble to hold us.
Hazel Meyer’s WEEPING CONCRETE is a 17-foot scaffold that is both a sculptural installation and a stage. WEEPING CONCRETE addresses subcultural and queer histories, dalliances, resistances and protests that underlie and adorn the built environment. Meyer’s prose-poem, handwritten on Tyvek banners, portrays a people’s history in many leaky and desiring parts, drawing references from archives, image banks and the present day. The exhibition will include two public performances on Thursday, February 15 and Wednesday, February 28.
Atheana Picha presents a series of nine pencil drawings created between 2018 and 2023. Picha works across materials, including weaving, painting, printmaking and carving, and the drawings occupy a unique space in her production. The series brings together depictions of relatives from river to sea–eagle, sturgeon, rockfish, sculpin and frog–and this chorus of voices mirrors Picha’s specific way of traversing time in the absorption of knowledge. Enriched by relationships with mentors, elders and belongings, Picha’s work exemplifies an integrated practice of gathering, learning and making.
Public Programmes
Opening Reception
Thursday, February 8, 6 PM
WEEPING CONCRETE
Performance featuring Hazel Meyer, Dana Qaddah, and Rhye McCorkindale
Thursday, February 15, 6 PM
Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
WEEPING CONCRETE
Performance featuring Hazel Meyer, Dana Qaddah, and Rhye McCorkindale
Wednesday, February 28, 3 PM
Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Artist Talk with Hazel Meyer and Atheana Picha
Moderated by Vanessa Kwan
Wednesday, March 13, 6 PM
Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Biographies
Hazel Meyer is an artist who works with installation, performance, and text to investigate the relationships between sexuality, feminism, and material culture. Her work recovers the queer aesthetics, politics, and bodies often effaced within histories of infrastructure, athletics, and illness. Drawing on archival research, she designs immersive installations that bring various troublemakers—lesbian-feminists, incontinent-queers, gender-outlaws—into a performative space that centres desire, queerness, and sweat. Recent activations of her work have taken place at Copenhagen Contemporary (DE) 2021, Dunlop Art Gallery (CA) 2020, La Ferme du Buisson (FR) 2019, Glasgow International Art Biennial (SCT) 2018, Art Gallery of Windsor (CA) 2019, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) (QC) 2019, Progress Festival (CA) 2020, and at the Porn Film Festival Berlin (DE) 2019. In 2023 Hazel was the recipient of the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation VIVA Award, along with Vancouver-based artist Laiwan.
Atheana Picha is a Salish artist from the q̓wa:ńƛəń First Nation, and her grandmother was from Tsartlip. Atheana was given the name Nash’mene’ta’naht by Gerry Oleman from the St’at’imc First Nation, which translates to “Go-getter Woman”. Born in Vancouver, she grew up and works out of Richmond, BC. She is an interdisciplinary artist, working mostly in 2-dimensional media. She has been undergoing two apprenticeships learning Salish wool weaving with Debra Sparrow (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) since 2019, and learning silver engraving, wood carving and tool making with artist and educator Aaron Nelson-Moody (Sḵwxwú7mesh) since 2018. Picha’s practice is grounded in learning more about Salish design through studying the old pieces, observing nature, and learning from her elders and teachers.
