other sights

Deadhead, the Bomfords

Dead­head, the Bomfords

A co-presentation with Pre­sen­ta­tion House Gallery

In the sum­mer of 2012, Vancouver-based artist Cedric Bom­ford in col­lab­o­ra­tion with his father Jim Bom­ford (a retired engi­neer), and brother Nathan Bom­ford (an artist and builder), began con­struc­tion on a large-scale instal­la­tion in a purpose-built stu­dio located on the False Creek Flats. Con­ceived as a struc­ture to be mounted on a barge, towed by tug, and moored at dif­fer­ent loca­tions, Dead­head inter­prets the eco­log­i­cal, archi­tec­tural, and indus­trial his­to­ries of Vancouver’s regional water­ways. Intended to be boarded and explored, this float­ing sculp­ture is designed to func­tion as a mul­ti­pur­pose social space, which through its evolv­ing activ­i­ties, will be acces­si­ble to a diver­sity of publics. In the spring of 2013, the piece will be trans­ported to, installed, and launched in the Bur­rard Inlet to begin an unde­ter­mined dura­tion of life on the water – a float­ing future depen­dent upon the curi­ousity and vision of host coastal communities.

Each of the Bom­fords’ indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences, under­stand­ings, and deep inter­ests in the rich and often unknown his­to­ries, cul­tures, and leg­ends of this Province drove the summer’s period of intense pro­duc­tion. Inspi­ra­tion for Dead­head came from the family’s research trips up the east coast of Van­cou­ver Island, Mal­colm Island and Alert Bay. Their sculp­tural vocab­u­lary was formed from the ver­nac­u­lar and pro­vi­sional archi­tec­tural expres­sions evi­dent from the resource-based economies and rural com­mu­ni­ties of the British Colum­bia coast.

For this work, as with some of their past col­lab­o­ra­tive projects, the Bom­ford team employed a method­ol­ogy of ‘think­ing through build­ing’, an approach that for­goes pre­lim­i­nary plans and 3D ren­der­ings to move directly into a process of con­struc­tion and response. Work­ing within a model of famil­ial coop­er­a­tion, they tested ideas, build­ing, dis­man­tling and re-building to present a struc­ture for behav­ior con­sist­ing of over­lap­ping and inter­sect­ing sec­tions — some of which are fit­ted with a tai­lored suit of printed pho­to­graphic scrim. Por­tals and plat­forms for view­ing the sur­round­ing land and seascapes were built to coex­ist with a more inter­nal focus, direct­ing atten­tion to a hier­ar­chy of power – mak­ing dis­tinc­tions between pul­pit and lectern, crows nest and div­ing board. Whether expe­ri­enced on board or as a phe­nom­e­non viewed from shore, the piece chal­lenges per­cep­tions of what is known and under­stood while con­jur­ing ties to this region’s past.

Dead­head was curated by Bar­bara Cole and Helga Pakasaar.

Cedric Bom­ford is a Van­cou­ver based visual artist whose prac­tice is gain­ing inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion. He recently par­tic­i­pated in a Cre­ative Res­i­dency at The Banff Cen­tre for the Arts and the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts res­i­dency pro­gram in Berlin, Ger­many. He received an MFA from the Malmö Art Acad­emy, Lund Uni­ver­sity, Malmö, Swe­den in 2007, and a BFA with a major in Pho­tog­ra­phy from the Emily Carr Insti­tute of Art and Design in 2003. He has exhib­ited inter­na­tion­ally, includ­ing solo shows in Canada, Ger­many, Swe­den, and Aus­tralia, and group shows in Ger­many, Swe­den, Iran, Aus­tralia, Tai­wan, and Canada. Sev­eral of the Cana­dian instal­la­tion projects have been real­ized in col­lab­o­ra­tion with his brother Nathan Bom­ford includ­ing the archi­tec­tural enivi­ron­ment that was part of the Van­cou­ver Art Gallery exhi­bi­tion How Soon is Now and Bam­ber­ton: The Con­tested Land­scape at Open Space in Vic­to­ria. Nathan Bom­ford has an MFA from the Uni­ver­sity of Vic­to­ria and a BFA from the Nova Sco­tia Art and Design. He has exhib­ited across Canada and internationally.

Born in Dun­can BC, Jim Bom­ford received his Bach­e­lor of Applied Sci­ence (Civil Engi­neer­ing) from UBC in 1971 and prac­ticed as a civil, struc­tural and envi­ron­men­tal engi­neer in British Colum­bia until his retire­ment from Pro­fes­sional Engi­neer­ing in 2010. He has con­tributed his engi­neer­ing exper­tise on a num­ber of large-scale sculp­tural instal­la­tions as part of the Bom­ford col­lab­o­ra­tive team.

Con­ver­sa­tions at the Bom­ford Stu­dio took place through­out the sum­mer as part of Other Sights’ Future is Float­ing pro­gram­ming. Please see “Events” for more information.

Related Links

The Games Are Open [K & K]

False Creek [T & T]