Sue Bizecki’s Windows challenged viewers to consider what it means to own a home. The exhibition featured a documentary-style video relaying personal stories documenting the history of development specific to the Okanagan. The video was projected on the gallery floor, where it took a three-dimensional shape on a screen formed using multiples of miniature white paper homes.
Building on oral histories, Bizecki engaged with both local Indigenous philosophies and contemporary immigrant stories. The focus of her work disrupted master narratives of development and progress through the insertion of individual and diverse reflections on ownership. By considering personal reflections on the idea of home, Bizecki relayed the importance of establishing community and identity against dominant colonial archetypes of property development and capitalist gain.
Additionally, Bizecki engaged the community by instructing gallery visitors how to build their own cookie-cutter paper home following a few easy steps. These homes were placed outside of the gallery to create a temporary, model community.
Susan Bizecki is a Kelowna-based multi-media artist. Most of her practice lives in the space between installation, video work or both. She enjoys experimenting with fabric and other materials. She is currently working on some large-scale fibre sculptures with an interest in the current climate of environmentalism.