Spatial Poetics

The eighth annual Spatial Poetics presented a unique opportunity for BC-based Asian Canadian artists to collaborate on the creation of interdisciplinary artworks in alternative locations, including the public streetscape of Japantown, and at the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Language Hall.

Kamloops-based visual artist Shima Iuchi and Vancouver based visual artist Mark Soo were invited to participate. In turn, Iuchi collaborated with local sound artist Jean Routhier, to create the installation Coastal Calls, while Soo worked with local musician, musical director and composer John Korsrud on Drawing Line. Coastal Calls involved both an animated video component with wall projections and light box sculptures. This work reworked and reconfigured the site-specific space of the top floor of the Japanese Language School. Overlooking Vancouver’s port, Coastal Calls called to mind the confluence of nature and civilization and humans’ tenuous relationships with whales and the natural world.

Mixing Transient Orca whale vocalizations, animated drawings from Iuchi’s Japanese and Canadian journals, and light boxes reminiscent of Japanese night lanterns, Coastal Calls was deeply personal. A catalyst for stirring memories of her youth in Japan, the whale spoke to Iuchi in its transient nature. Like Iuchi, the Orca passed through familiar and unfamiliar territories. As a kind of avatar, the whale represented the duality of dislocation and communion that embodied cultural and linguistic migrations. At once dislocating and familiar, the sounds and visions invoke cultural immersion and exchange. Coastal Calls spoke to the current state of shifting global populations and the increased awareness of human impact on environmental conditions.

Soo and Korsrud’s work Drawing Line emerged from Soo’s conceptual notion of drawing sonic lines through space. Crossing through Japantown, this performance explored metaphorical and geographic division and alignment through musical drawings. Six saxophonists performed across several city blocks in a trajectory that split up and bridged space. Musicians passed phrases from one to the next up and down the line. Each musician mimicked and expanded upon the musical phrase performed by the preceding musician. As the line traversed space, the improvised phrase became increasingly abstract and complex.

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