other sights

The Future is Floating 4

STRUCTURES OF POWER

GEOFFREY CARR IN CONVERSATION WITH CEDRIC, NATHAN AND JIM BOMFORD

Bom­ford Stu­dio, 527 Great North­ern Way, GNW cam­pus, Van­cou­ver, BC
Thurs­day Sep­tem­ber 13, 2012, 6 p.m.

As a lead up to the launch of the Bomford’s Dead­head (work­ing title) , a float­ing sculp­ture co-produced by Other Sights and Pre­sen­ta­tion House Gallery, Other Sights’ Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Office presents the sec­ond in a series of con­ver­sa­tions about build­ing struc­tures, imag­i­nary, phys­i­cal or social, at the artists’ GNW studio.

In the research phase of this project the Bom­fords ini­ti­ated a dis­cus­sion with Geof­frey Carr about his insight into the rela­tion­ship between the built envi­ron­ment and colo­nial power on the west coast. For this event, Carr will present some of his research and insight into the author­ity implicit in the design and con­struc­tion of res­i­den­tial schools. A dis­cus­sion between Carr and the Bom­fords will follow.

In col­lab­o­ra­tion with his brother Nathan Bom­ford, father Jim Bom­ford, and with the assis­tance of Mark Dudiak, and many oth­ers, Cedric Bom­ford has been con­struct­ing a struc­ture intended to be mounted on a barge that will be moored at var­i­ous loca­tions along our region’s water­ways. After an exten­sive research and con­cept devel­op­ment phase, the art­work is being fab­ri­cated in a purpose-built stu­dio con­structed of ship­ping con­tain­ers and indus­trial tenting.

Please join us at the Bom­ford stu­dio to see the project at this point in its evo­lu­tion and par­tic­i­pate in an infor­mal con­ver­sa­tion about the research inform­ing the work. There will be a BBQ to follow.

Geof­frey Carr is an archi­tec­tural his­to­rian and a mem­ber of the fac­ulty in the Depart­ment of Visual Arts at the Uni­ver­sity of the Fraser Val­ley. He holds a PhD in Art His­tory from  the Uni­ver­sity of British Colum­bia. His research exam­ines the largely over­looked archi­tec­tural his­tory of the Indian Res­i­den­tial School sys­tem in Canada, as well as the prob­lems per­tain­ing to the preser­va­tion and com­mem­o­ra­tion of these con­tentious places. In addi­tion, he is also inter­ested in issues related to memo­ri­al­iza­tion, her­itage preser­va­tion, state apol­ogy, and dis­courses of social reconciliation.

Cedric Bom­ford is a Van­cou­ver based 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 envi­ron­ment 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 is a visual artist mainly work­ing in pho­tog­ra­phy and instal­la­tion. He is cur­rently based in Shawni­gan Lake, British Colum­bia. Nathan received an MFA from the Uni­ver­sity of Vic­to­ria in 2006, and a BFA with a major in pho­tog­ra­phy from the Nova Sco­tia Col­lege of Art and Design in 2003. He has exhib­ited in solo and group exhi­bi­tions in Ger­many and across Canada. Much of his recent work has been com­pleted in col­lab­o­ra­tion with his brother Cedric Bom­ford and his father Jim Bomford.

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.

About The Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Office:
Late last year, Other Sights formed a Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Office, and we have been talk­ing and think­ing about how The Future is Float­ing in so many ways. Whether it’s melt­ing ice caps, waves of social unrest, list­ing economies or just a gen­eral sink­ing feel­ing, the future is uncer­tain, and flu­idly so. In wav­ing or drown­ing, we pro­pose a series of events that focus our atten­tions, invite new ideas and put us in touch, whether face to face or ear to ear.