curated by Elspeth Sage

Thursday 9th February 2006 the exhibition CIAO DA VANCOUVER  Portraits of a City, curated by Elspeth Sage will open at Velan presenting the works by five artists from Vancouver: Jamie DOLINKO, Brian HOWELL, Henry TSANG, Paul WOMG e Sharyn YUEN. The works in the exhibition show the people from Vancouver, the buildings of the city, the style of life and the culture. They are connected by the fact that they are part of every day life,  judging a local beauty contest, observing the cultural connection between two cities, the cult of the American-stlye wrestling, spying secretly the neighbours or celebrating the little moments of every day life .

Jamie Dolinko proposes a reflection about the idea of privacy through a series of photographs taken from the balcony of his flat, depicting his neighbours unaware of being videotaped. Brian Howell explores the phenomena of the wrestling in Canada with the work ‘One Ring Circus’, already presented at Contact Photography Festival 2004 in Toronto, where the fighters are portrayed during their extravagant and singular matches. Henry Tsang created an installation which explores the relationship between the public, the community and the ego. The interactive work shows a video made in Vancouver and Turin and some video clips based upon information, collected from the internet, regarding the two Olympic cities. Paul Wong, wit the video Miss Chinatown introduces the theme of multicultural influences, putting in the background the beauty contest Miss Chinese-Vancouver a series of characters which reflect the rich cultural variety of the city. Sharyn Yuen works since a few years on the subject of racism and identity inherent to the history of Chinese immigration in Canada. Her photographs retrace the fundamental stages of the difficult integration of Chinese women, showing their faces and glances.

 Elspeth Sage, director and co-founder of On Edge, curator, writer, producer and art critic.  She lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Here works have been published by VVideo Guide, Impulse, Vanguard, FUSE, V Magazine, Media Arts, Parallelogramme, HARBOUR Magazine, CIRCA, FRONT and  Artists' Newsletter. Some of her exhibitions include: Feng Shui, Auslander Video, Temple of My Familiar, Walas Kwis Gila (Biennale di Venezia) 1999, Hungry Ghosts (Biennale di Venezia) 2003 and Pioneering Digital Media 2004. This exhibition is a co-production by Velan centro d'arte contemporanea, Torino, On Edge, Vancouver and the Galleria d'arte Nuova Icona, Venezia. We thank Regione Piemonte for the contribution. With the support of the Canadian Embassy. Project founded by: The Canada Council (Media Arts) Ottawa, Dipartimento Affari Esteri and Commercio Internazionale (Ottawa), BC Arts Council (Visual Arts) Victoria, B.C.