Here and There and Their and Here

My thesis projects point of departure is the immediate neighbourhood where I currently reside. Located at the corner of Hastings Street and Columbia, this region is significant as it straddles the line between two distinct zones of the city; not quite the downtown core and not entirely in the downtown eastside. This liminal space is host to a variety of jarring contrasts that impact both the lives of local residents, and the spaces they inhabit. My final work was designed to mimic the spatial dimensions of my micro-unit apartment, and reflect the various contradictions of modern urban living that surround my location: renewal/decay, wealthy/poor, public space/private space, healthy bodies/unhealthy bodies, formal/informal economies, and conformity/anarchy. In the following document, I discuss the decision-making process that resulted in my thesis exhibition, Here and There and Their and Here, and examine how Walter Benjamin’s theory of allegory, and Henri Lefebvre’s concept of Rhythmanalysis, can be brought into a critical alignment and actualized in contemporary installation art.