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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Open from Tuesday to
Sunday 12 pm → 6 pm

Admission always free
ArchiveExhibition
17 Jan 03until2 Mar 03

Isabelle Pauwels

Unfurnished Apartment for Rent

Alvin Balkind Gallery

A close view of a paper sculpture. The sculpture is a maquette of a fictitious apartment with many rooms. Annotations and measurements are visible on some of the walls.

Isabelle Pauwels is a young Vancouver artist with an abiding concern about the effect of architecture on social relation. In collaboration with Vancouver's Trapp Editions, the Contemporary Art Gallery has published an artist's bookwork by Pauwels. Unfinished Apartment for Rent details, in seven screenplays, the interaction between a series of fictitious apartment dwellers. Forced through financial constraints to assemble furniture from the walls of their individual accommodations, these renters sacrifice more and more privacy as they cannibalize their dwellings for creature comforts. Pauwel's bookwork is displayed in an installation designed by the artist.

A set of white sculptures in display boxes are placed in a gallery space. Each sculpture displays a mockup of an architecture complex.
A set of white sculptures in display boxes are placed in a gallery space. White tiles on the gallery wall were removed, making the brown internal part of the wall visible.
A set of white sculptures in display boxes are placed in a gallery space. White tiles on one of the gallery walls were removed, making the brown internal part of the wall visible.
15 sets of paper documents are placed on a white table. The room is dark and the light is casting directly from above the table.
In a darkened gallery space, a white mockup of an architecture complex is displayed. This sculpture sits on a part of a white wall which has been removed from one of the galley walls.
Several white sculptures are installed in a darkened gallery space. Two of them are the mockups of architecture complexes, and the rest is a set of the same documents.
White sculptures are installed in a gallery space. Each sculpture displays a mockup of an architecture complex. They are placed on pedestals made of the cutout parts of the gallery wall.
A close view of a paper sculpture. The sculpture is a maquette of a fictitious apartment with many rooms. Annotations and measurements are visible on some of the walls.
A set of white sculptures in display boxes are placed in a gallery space. Each sculpture displays a mockup of an architecture complex.
A set of white sculptures in display boxes are placed in a gallery space. White tiles on the gallery wall were removed, making the brown internal part of the wall visible.
A set of white sculptures in display boxes are placed in a gallery space. White tiles on one of the gallery walls were removed, making the brown internal part of the wall visible.
15 sets of paper documents are placed on a white table. The room is dark and the light is casting directly from above the table.
In a darkened gallery space, a white mockup of an architecture complex is displayed. This sculpture sits on a part of a white wall which has been removed from one of the galley walls.
Several white sculptures are installed in a darkened gallery space. Two of them are the mockups of architecture complexes, and the rest is a set of the same documents.
White sculptures are installed in a gallery space. Each sculpture displays a mockup of an architecture complex. They are placed on pedestals made of the cutout parts of the gallery wall.