Image provided by the artist.
This exhibition explores possible understandings of the word “generation.” Loosely referencing a living room, the exhibition space invites viewers to take a seat on an inflatable plastic couch of Millennial childhood dreams and flip through the pages of album, an artist book project featuring found family snapshots interpreted by a naively poetic AI, as well as iridescent cellophane. Viewers can also interact with a paper mâché boombox that plays sampled music from the instrumental intros of hit songs from the 1960s-80s. On the walls are cross stitch pieces derived from smartphone snapshots that are translated by a cross stitch pattern-generating software.
All three projects involve intersections of digital and craft, as well as gestures of the hand (taking pictures, flipping pages, pressing buttons, stitching). These acts of looking and making connect across generations: crafts taught by mothers to daughters, the family experience as seen by both parents and children, and music from one generation playing on another’s technology.
Emily’s work critically engages with nostalgia—a sentiment often exploited for political gain. However, nostalgia isn’t simply a longing for the past. Rather, it can be understood as a yearning for home. Emily believes in its ability to speak to our surreal experiences of time. Through visual culture especially, nostalgia gives us a space to grieve a time and a place we didn’t realize we would miss. Or, it reminds us of how much we, and our world, have changed.
On March 28th from 6-8pm join us for an opening reception featuring light snacks and refreshments. This event is free and open to the public.
Emily Geen lives and works on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples (Victoria, BC). She is of British, French, and Irish ancestry, and grew up on an orchard on traditional Sylix Okanagan territory in Lake Country, BC. Emily received her BFA at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (2012), followed by her MFA at the University of Victoria (2015). She has had recent solo projects/exhibitions in Victoria at the Victoria Arts Council’s Satellite Window Gallery, the Ministry of Casual Living WindowGallery and at Empty Gallery. Her work has been included in group shows at the Art Gallery ofGreater Victoria, Support (London, ON), Gallery 44 (Toronto), and Gallery 295 (Vancouver). She has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre (2016) and at MOMENTUM Worldwide in Berlin (2017). Emily teaches photography, video art, and sculpture at the University of Victoria.
For more of Emily’s work, check out her website.