Rafael Zen

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Open Studio is a monthly program for young visitors and families inspired by contemporary art practices and CAG’s current exhibitions. In August, we invite you to join us for an art-making workshop led by artist Rafael Zen.

Inspired by CAG’s current exhibition Dionne Lee: Ratios, Rafael will lead participants in exploring the creative process of blackout poetry. The workshop will explore the ways found media can be used as a source of inspiration for other creative outputs such as visual arts, media arts, screenwriting, and storytelling.

### RSVP
Registration for this event is free, but limited. A number of spots are reserved for families. RSVP to secure your place [here](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/open-studio-blackout-poetry-with-rafael-zen-tickets-653176778327?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshwebdesktop).

### Biography
Rafael Zen (he/they) is a queer Latinx media artist and performer working mostly through video and sound installation, spoken poetry/theory, interdisciplinary media, art education, and activist storytelling. In the past ten years, Zen has experimented with commissioned artistic projects, curated exhibitions and publications, owned an independent art school and publisher, and taught in academic/independent educational spaces. They hold a Master’s degree in Contemporary Artistic Processes researching political counterattacks through poetic/political processes and is currently pursuing a degree in New Media + Sound Art at Emily Carr University. They also work as a curator and arts coordinator at Massy Arts Gallery.

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

A portrait of Rafael Zen. The colours of the image have been inverted.

thumbnail_Rafael Zen (2).JPG

Rafael Zen (2).JPG

Blackout Poetry with Rafael Zen

Open Studio

Latashkinem

One Saturday each month, CAG invites a guest host to lead walkthroughs of our current exhibitions, offering their insights and response to the works on view. In August, we welcome Latashkinem to speak on the work of Sesemiya. 

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

### RSVP
No advance registration required.

### Biography
Nilh kwens Latashkinem kweshamen aka Robert Williams tina chen tla Humulchestn Uxwumixw ti Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Temixw. My ancestral name is Latashkinem aka Robert Williams and I currently reside in the village of Humulchestn in the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Territory. I worked with our tribe as a cultural worker providing support to our youth with the guidance of our elders and chiefs. My new career as a digital artist and storyteller has allowed me to adapt my knowledge and experience in a modern context. My future goals are to write new stories for children and create art inspired by the legends and history of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh. En wenaxten skwalewen. I have love for our people.

thumbnail_Latashkinem 3.jpeg

Latashkinem 3.jpeg

Latashkinem on Sesemiya

Saturday Session

Paige Smith

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Open Studio is a monthly program for young visitors and families inspired by contemporary art practices and CAG’s current exhibitions. In July, we invite you to join us for an art-making workshop led by artist Paige Smith. 

Inspired by CAG’s current exhibition *Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill: M******, participants will learn to manipulate film celluloid using paint, ink and scratching to create moving-image paintings. Throughout this workshop, Paige will introduce cameraless filmmaking techniques exploring how to translate tactile gestures of paint brushes and pens into movement. Each participant will create a short segment, and the group's work will be stitched together and screened at the end of the workshop.

### RSVP
Registration for this event is free, but limited. A number of spots are reserved for families. RSVP to secure your place [here](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/open-studio-between-canvas-and-celluloid-with-paige-smith-tickets-653160930927?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshwebdesktop).

### Biography
Paige Smith (she/her) is an experimental filmmaker and visual artist whose artwork collapses distinctions like fiction/reality or nature/culture to fabulate new ontological understandings of ourselves and the places where we exist. She draws attention towards the characteristics, histories, and meanings of the places where her artwork is created and experienced, investigating how viewer perception is informed by its surrounding context. Smith attended Simon Fraser University to study film and visual art, and has recently exhibited with Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society, Massy Arts Society, Audain Gallery, Vines Art Festival and VIVO Media Arts Centre.

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

A portrait of Paige Smith. She is wearing a pink face mask and cream-coloured blazer with print triangles.

thumbnail_Paige Smith - Headshot - Photo by Will Ross.jpg

Paige Smith - Headshot - Photo by Will Ross.jpg

Between Canvas and Celluloid with Paige Smith

Audie Murray

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We are pleased to announce our latest installment of CAG Reads, a book club where artists invite us to read alongside them. Each month an artist proposes text for our collective reading pleasure, culminating in a virtual hangout where the artist leads a wide-ranging discussion grounded in their chosen reading material. 

In July, CAG Reads will be hosted by Audie Murray. Audie has chosen to read a selection of texts including *Love As Political Resistance* (2019) by adrienne maree brown, *Net Charms in Cree and Ojibwe Language* (2012) by George Fulford and the children's book *Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet/Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'Alfabet Di Michif* (2010) by Julie Flett.

### Getting the texts
Access to all of Audie's CAG Reads selections will be provided upon registration.

### RSVP
Registration for this event is free, but limited. RSVP to secure your place [here](https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sfuCoqzsuE9xtCSg1Nv_USKC28m5PPO8r).

Questions? Send us a note at [cagreads@cagvancouver.org](mailto:cagreads@cagvancouver.org).

### Accessibility
This event will be live captioned (CART). For more information please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org).

ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

### Biography
Audie Murray is a visual artist, dreamer, and skin-stitcher. Her practice is informed by the process of making and visiting to explore themes of contemporary culture, embodied experiences and lived dualities. These modes of working assist with the recentering of our collective connection to bodies, ancestral knowledge systems, and relationality. She has exhibited widely, including at Remai Modern, Saskatoon; The Vancouver Art Gallery; Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; and the Anchorage Museum. Murray is Cree-Métis from the Lebret and Meadow Lake communities located on Treaty 4 & 6 territories and is currently based in Oskana kâ-asastêki (Regina, Saskatchewan). Murray is represented by Fazakas Gallery, located on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territory.

A tintype image of Audie Murray in profile. She is holding a baby in her arms.

thumbnail_Audie Murray - Headshot - Photo by Brittney Appleby.jpg

Audie Murray - Headshot - Photo by Brittney Appleby.jpg

Audie Murray presents adrienne maree brown, George Fulford and Julie Flett

CAG Reads

Join CAG’s Executive Director Matthew Hyland for a walkthrough of the current exhibitions.

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

### RSVP
No advance registration required.

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2023_L_Hirondelle Hill_CAG_1.jpg

with Matthew Hyland

Curatorial Tour

Whess Harman

One Saturday each month, CAG invites a guest host to lead walkthroughs of our current exhibitions, offering their insights and response to the works on view. In July, we welcome Whess Harman to speak on the work of Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill. 

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

### RSVP
No advance registration required.

### Biography
Whess Harman is a member of the Carrier Wit’at Nation, a nation amalgamated by the federal government under the Lake Babine Nation. He doesn’t like cops and believes in land sovereignty for Indigenous peoples all across the globe. In his arts practice he works primarily in drawing, text and textiles. As the curator at grunt gallery and occasional editor for a mish-mash of publications, he prioritizes emerging queer and BIPOC cultural workers and artists. Whess looks to the arts as one of many tools in fighting oppressive forces and can be a little fucking rude about it, when the occasion calls.

A black and white photograph of Whess Harman. They sit by the water and smiling. 

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Polarioid_photocredit_EliHirtle.jpeg

Whess Harman on Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill

Chandra Melting Tallow

Alexander Miranda

Laura Ortman

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CAG welcomes Chandra Melting Tallow, Alexander Miranda and Laura Ortman to perform live in the gallery alongside Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill's *M******.

### RSVP
Tickets for this event are extremely limited; advance registration is required. Secure your place [here](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sound-response-chandra-melting-tallow-alexander-miranda-and-laura-ortman-tickets-663791918497).

### Biographies
Chandra Melting Tallow is an interdisciplinary artist, experimental filmmaker, writer and music producer of European and Blackfoot ancestry from the Siksika Nation. Their practice confronts the ghosts of intergenerational trauma and their relationship to the body through the lens of physical disability, using humour and surrealism to subvert oppressive power structures. They lead the solo music project Mourning Coup, a cult classic in the Indigenous lexicon of underground music. Their work includes experimental film, textile-based installation, sound and performance, and it has been exhibited throughout North America.

Alexander Miranda is a contemporary Payómkawichum artist from Southern California. Miranda pushes the boundaries of Native American art through a multitude of art forms and media with a focus on songwriting, music composition, photography, painting, and poetry. His portfolio honours and celebrates the power, resilience and beauty of Indigenous people, incontestably aligning his work with world-wide Indigenous resurgence. He is a current member of the band Underpass and has been commissioned by Julian Klincewicz and Virgil Abloh. He most recently scored the documentary *Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust*.

A soloist musician, composer and vibrant collaborator, Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) creates across multiple platforms, including recorded albums, live performances, and filmic and artistic soundtracks. She has collaborated with artists such as Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Raven Chacon, Nanobah Becker, Okkyung Lee, Martin Bisi, Jeffrey Gibson, Caroline Monnet, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Demian DinéYazhi, New Red Order, and In Defense of Memory. An inquisitive and exquisite violinist, Ortman is versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and amplified violin, often sings through a megaphone, and is a producer of capacious field recordings. She has performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim, the New Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal; the Venice Biennale; imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the Toronto Biennial; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, among countless established and DIY venues in the US, Canada, and Europe. 

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Live - Sound Responses to M-----.jpg

Chandra Melting Tallow, Alexander Miranda and Laura Ortman Respond to M*****

Sound Response

Sesemiya

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Open Studio is a monthly program for young visitors and families inspired by contemporary art practices and CAG’s current exhibitions. In June, we invite you to join us for a hands-on workshop led by exhibiting artist Sesemiya.

Inspired by her current exhibition *s7ulh waḵáy̓stn iy ta stamsh cht* (Our Weapons and Warriors), participants will learn about ancient weapons and tools of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh stamsh (warrior). Sesemiya will guide the group in making a fundamental and versatile tool, cedar rope, as well as talk about the importance of protecting our wild spaces and waterways.

### RSVP
Registration for this event is free, but limited. A number of spots are reserved for families. RSVP to secure your place [here](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/open-studio-sleway-working-with-cedar-with-sesemiya-tickets-645644107907).

### Biography
Sesemiya (Tracy Williams) is a knowledge seeker, dreamer, water protector, land defender, lover, mother, auntie, weaver, and cultural practitioner. Her rich relationships with plants, animals, land, and water have taken her to the tops of mountains, the bottom of the ocean, fields of fireweed, and occasionally art galleries. Her work as an artist and educator is deeply invested in cultural revitalization and she has developed numerous programmes for connecting Sḵwx̱wú7mesh youth to traditional hand technologies and knowledge for living off the land. Her work has appeared in exhibitions such as *lineages and land bases*, Vancouver Art Gallery (2020); *Intangible: Memory and Innovation in Coast Salish Art*, Bill Reid Gallery (2017); and *N. Vancouver*, The Polygon Gallery (2017). In 2021, a commissioned work of Sesemiya’s was included in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s presentation of Yoko Ono’s *Water Event*. Sesemiya is a proud member of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation.

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

Sesemiya in profile holding a woven basket.

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Sesemiya Headshot - Courtesy of the artist.jpg

Working with Cedar with Sesemiya (Open Studio)

Sléway̓

Past Talks & Events

Upcoming Talks & Events

Lotus L. Kang

Trinh T. Minh-ha

Please join us to celebrate CAG's fall 2023 exhibitions, *Lotus L. Kang: In Cascades* and *Trinh T. Minh-ha: Reassemblage*.

All ages welcome. Cash bar.

### RSVP
No advance registration required.

Edge of a suspended sheet of film visible on the left of the photo, in a white room in front of a partially unfolded patterned tatami mat with silver discs arranged in a curved line on its surface.

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2023_Lotus_Laurie_Kang_CAG_2.jpg

Fall 2023

Opening Reception

Join CAG’s Curator Godfre Leung for a walkthrough of the current exhibitions.

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

### RSVP
No advance registration required.

A close-up photo of a Senegalese woman facing the camera with a neutral expression.

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2023_T_Minh-ha_CAG_3.jpg

with Godfre Leung

One Saturday each month, CAG invites a guest host to lead walkthroughs of our current exhibitions, offering their insights and response to the works on view. In October, we welcome Coco Zhou to speak on the work of Lotus L. Kang. 

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

### RSVP
No advance registration required.

### Biography
Coco Zhou is a writer and cultural worker living on the unceded territories of Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She comes to these lands via Shenzhen, China. The affective intensity of being located in broader historical patterns, and the ellipses, gap, and singularities within their lines of continuity, compel much of her thinking and writing. She was awarded the Canadian Art editorial residency in 2021 and holds an MA in Decorative Arts, Design History and Material Culture from Bard Graduate Center.

thumbnail_Coco Zhou Headshot.jpg

Coco Zhou Headshot.jpg

Coco Zhou on Lotus L. Kang

Three fruit wrapped in green tissue sit on folded tatami mats wrapped in translucent plastic, on a concrete floor in front of suspended film sheets that curl as they touch the ground.

Discussions, workshops and more

Upcoming Talks & Events

Past Talks & Events