Keg de Souza

Australian artist Keg de Souza will be working from a temporary studio in Chinatown as part of the final phase of her eighteen month residency in Vancouver. Developing on from a series of public participatory events examining food culture as a metaphor for urban displacement, for *The Big Draw* the artist will conduct an exploratory food mapping project of the Strathcona neighbourhood by inviting people to become urban cartographers and contribute to a large-scale collaborative map considering local shops, restaurants, urban farms and our interconnected relationships/experiences to them.

Presented as part of *The Big Draw*, the world’s largest drawing festival and Culture Days, a Canada-wide celebration that raises the awareness, accessibility, participation and engagement of Canadians in the arts and cultural life of their communities. 

As our contribution to this city-wide one day drawing festival, CAG will present Walking a Line, a series of collaborative drawing experiences for all ages created by students as part of Community, Collaboration and Pedagogy, a studio course with Emily Carr University of Art + Design, hosted by CAG. 

### Biography

Australian artist de Souza investigates the politics of space informed through a formal training in architecture combined with her experiences such as squatting in Redfern, Sydney. De Souza’s work emphasises participation and reciprocity, and often involves the process of learning new skills and fostering relationships to create site and situation-specific projects. For over ten years she has self-published her hand-bound books and ‘zines under the name All Thumbs Press. Recent exhibitions include; Redfern School of Displacement for the 20th Biennale of Sydney; Abundance: Fruit of the Sea, Bounty of the Mountains for the 2016 Setouchi Triennale (2016). Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: Vancouver and Preservation, Contemporary Art Gallery; Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: New York, AC Institute, New York (2015). Temporarily in Architecture, Food and Communities, Delfina Foundation, London; Temporary Spaces, Edible Places, Atlas Arts, Isle of Skye, Scotland; If There’s Something Strange In Your Neighbourhood … Ratmakan Kampung, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2014). The 5th Auckland Triennial, 15th Jakarta Biennale and Vertical Villages at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney (2013).



A large black and white map covers the floor. Various coloured markers are scattered across the surface and a person is pointing to an intersection on the map. 

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Workshop

We welcome back to Vancouver Australian artist Keg de Souza, on her final visit to the city. De Souza presents an artist talk and a public project exploring food culture as a metaphor for urban displacement. She will discuss her recent projects including the Redfern School of Displacement, presented as part of the 20th Biennale of Sydney. This project reflected on the ongoing activism, debate, speculation and political rhetoric concerning displacement and gentrification in Sydney.

Throughout October, de Souza will operate from a temporary space in the former Park Lock Dim Sum/Seafood Restaurant on the second floor of 544 Main Street in Chinatown. From this location she will initiate a food mapping installation developed via a series of public events, workshops and discussions centered on this disused space, the last original building standing on the corner of Main and Keefer.

Participants are invited to contribute items that represent the changing urban fabric of the Chinatown/DTES area through its food culture. Each participant’s items will be vacuum bagged and used to create a tile in the construction of a temporary structure within the Chinatown space. The numerous vacuum bags will create a patchwork surface that represents various community members, and their insights into local food culture and gentrification. Items could range from: menus from new upmarket establishments; packaging from iconic restaurants of the area, soup kitchen fliers, info on urban farming or even something grown from an urban farm.

De Souza’s practice investigates the politics of space, emphasizing participation and reciprocity to create site and situation-specific projects. De Souza aims to cultivate local knowledge regarding the displacement of low income, indigenous and immigrant communities in collaboration with residents and the community, creating a platform for conversation and debate.

The project in Vancouver is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and Left of Main.

### Biography 

Australian artist de Souza investigates the politics of space informed through a formal training in architecture combined with her experiences such as squatting in Redfern, Sydney. De Souza’s work emphasises participation and reciprocity, and often involves the process of learning new skills and fostering relationships to create site and situation-specific projects. For over ten years she has self-published her hand-bound books and ‘zines under the name All Thumbs Press. Recent exhibitions include; Redfern School of Displacement for the 20th Biennale of Sydney; Abundance: Fruit of the Sea, Bounty of the Mountains for the 2016 Setouchi Triennale (2016). Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: Vancouver and Preservation, Contemporary Art Gallery; Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: New York, AC Institute, New York (2015). Temporarily in Architecture, Food and Communities, Delfina Foundation, London; Temporary Spaces, Edible Places, Atlas Arts, Isle of Skye, Scotland; If There’s Something Strange In Your Neighbourhood … Ratmakan Kampung, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2014). The 5th Auckland Triennial, 15th Jakarta Biennale and Vertical Villages at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney (2013).

Talk

In conjunction with the Sustenance Festival: a city-wide festival with local food-focused workshops, exhibitions and talks, CAG has organized a panel examining artistic practices that consider food security, sovereignty and knowledge sharing.

An image of many dishes placed inside red and white gingham patterned tent. Small flags showing various words, such as immigration and heritage, are sticking out of each dish.

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Randy Lee Cutler, Holly Schmidt, Gaye Chan, Derya Akay and Keg de Souza

Panel Discussion

Australian artist de Souza investigates the politics of space informed through a formal training in architecture combined with her experiences such as squatting in Redfern, Sydney. De Souza’s work emphasizes participation and reciprocity, and often involves the process of learning new skills and fostering relationships to create site and situation-specific projects. For over ten years she has self-published her hand-bound books and zines under the name All Thumbs Press.

In Vancouver, De Souza has developed a series of community based workshops throughout 2015-16 engaging participants in a critical dialogue regarding local food production. De Souza worked closely with various local urban farmers, food security activists and community members to explore the food politics within the city as both evidence of and a metaphor for urban displacement through gentrification. 

In 2015, her handmade inflatable dome became a temporary space at the Field House for a public picnic engaging Canadian colonial narratives via a consideration of national food traditions. Meeting with local chefs, food activists and residents de Souza prepared a truly Canadian feast as a source for an afternoon of unfolding dialogue that the artist mapped directly onto the floor of the dome, a starting point for the discussion was the ephemerality of the event itself. 

De Souza hosted a second event, an urban foraging expedition culminating in jam making, experimental mapping and a discussion exploring local foods, cultural preservation and the continuing effects of colonization in contemporary Vancouver. The event featured two local guest collaborators, Lori Snyder, an Indigenous Herbalist specializing in urban foraging for wild, edible and medicinal plants; and Lori's partner, Steve Snyder, a master jam maker for the last fifteen years. This two-day event began with a foraging tour led by Lori Snyder focusing on the native blackberry, the introduced blackberry and other native plants. Participants foraged on the banks surrounding the Field House which are covered with wild Himalayan Blackberries — an invasive, “colonizing,” non-native species in Vancouver. On the second day, Steve Synder led a jam making session with the foraged berries. While communally making jam, de Souza led a discussion focused on the act of preserving these locally dominant berries, questioning whose culture is in fact preserved and how this can be linked to colonial narratives. This discussion culminated in an experimental mapping of the dialogue. 

To complete this project, the artist returned to Vancouver for subsequent residencies at the Burrard Marina Field House in April 2015, July 2015 and September/October 2016.

### Biography
Recent exhibitions include; *Redfern School of Displacement*, 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016); *Abundance: Fruit of the Sea, Bounty of the Mountains*, 2016 Setouchi Triennale. *Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: Vancouver and Preservation*, Contemporary Art Gallery; *Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: New York*, AC Institute, New York (2015). *Temporality in Architecture, Food and Communities*, Delfina Foundation, London; *Temporary Spaces, Edible Places*, Atlas Arts, Isle of Skye; *If There's Something Strange In Your Neighbourhood ...*, Ratmakan kampung, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2014). 

### Burrard Marina Field House
The Burrard Marina Field House Studio is an off-site artist residency space and community hub organized by the Contemporary Art Gallery. This program moves beyond conventional exhibition making, echoing the founding origins of the gallery where artists were offered support toward the production of new work, while reaching out to communities and offering new ways for individuals to encounter and connect with art and artists. Running parallel to the residency program were an ongoing series of public events for all ages. 

An image of two people exchanging something between their hands. People behind them are looking at this gesture of exchange. The person standing on the left carries a round basket. 

Keg de Souza

Talks & Events

Residencies