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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Closed for installation
until October 18, 2024

Admission always free
ArchiveExhibition
1 Sep 87until26 Sep 87

Jessica Stockholder

It’s Not Over ‘til The Fat Lady Sings

555 Hamilton St

This is a close-up view of one of Jessica Stockholder’s sculptures installed in a gallery. A red-painted drawer sits on the floor. The top half of the furniture is covered by old newspapers.

In this sculpture/installation, Jessica Stockholder combines diverse objects — construction materials, clothes, furniture, and painted surfaces — into one work composed of two separate but related parts. A twenty foot long wall bisects the length of the gallery and a column reaches from floor to ceiling. This piece and its component materials exist within fluctuating boundaries, both physical and intellectual. In her own words:

“I feel that each of us is a unique entity with our own clear boundaries, but the instant I try to get a good look at those boundaries they are impossible to pinpoint or ascertain. Nevertheless, the feeling that I am a discrete entity never goes away and I experienced the boundaries between myself and everyone and everything else as clear.” (Jessica Stockholder)

The work, called It’s Not Over ‘til The Fat Lady Sings, cannot be seen as a unified work until one stands at the far corner of the gallery. From here it can be seen and felt as a complete whole, separate from the viewer. However, this experience is informed by the memory of having moved through the piece — the memory of how the piece was revealed over time.