A number of TRU faculty will join an international group of artists and scholars in a public event at Kamloops’ former Court House (Hostel) next week.
The artists’ projects, together with a series of associated presentations and discussions, constitute a hybrid mix of artistic and academic cultures entitled, simply, Court House.
Participating artists Panya Clark Espinal of Toronto, David Hoffos of Lethbridge, and local artist-scholars Ernie Kroeger and Donald Lawrence will each create a temporary installation in one of the former Court House’s rooms (most recently dorms for Hostelling International), using water as a thematic link between the four projects, which have emerged in response to the group’s discussions surrounding ways in which memory comes into play in art-making; aspects of display and illusion; and where the personal meets the public in “vernacular modes of artistic enquiry.”
Court House will open at 7:30 pm on Friday, November 25th, with a presentation by Celeste Olalguiaga, a Paris-based writer and cultural theorist who is the author of The Artificial Kingdom: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience beginning at 8:00 pm.
Walter K. Lew, a Los Angeles-based writer and poet, will provide a short response to Olalquiaga’s presentation, to be followed by a general reception.
The following day will feature a public forum beginning at 2:00 pm with the four artists in dialogue with writer and philosopher Bruce Baugh and writer and visual arts critic Will Garrett-Petts of Kamloops, along with writer and editor Glen Lowry of Vancouver, and writer and cultural theorist Celeste Olalquiaga of Paris.
In addition to the presentation schedule, the venue will be open for public viewing of the Court House exhibits Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 am to 5:30 pm. A short essay by Bruce Baugh will be available as a pamphlet prior to the event, which is supported through a Research/Creation grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
For more information, please contact Donald Lawrence at 250-828-5189 or by email.
