Platforms: The Teachers Among Us

Artist's statement

I have travelled extensively to many countries and am a speaker of 5 languages. My visual art-practices show my interest in languages, diverse cultural backgrounds, and a deep commitment to community engagement and to knowledge sharing projects. 

In 2015, while still active as an ESL teacher, I engaged MOSAIC’s adult ESL learners in an audio art project, called “Proverbial Botany”. This was presented as part of my botany-based exhibition “From Meadows Woodlands Far and Near” at The Beaty Biodiversity Museum, at UBC Vancouver in 2016.  

Being a “newcomer” to Canada myself, and the experience of involving newcomer adult ESL learners by way of ‘integration through the arts’ led to my “Tapestry for Coexistence (Hello! Comment vas tu? How are You?)”, which I designed for the Public Art Project The Teachers Among Us and Vancouver City’s Bus Transit Shelters. It involves hand-written greetings in 20 languages from one of MOSAIC’s Language Centre level LINK4 class and its instructor. This work comments on simple gestures of kindness and acknowledgement of other human beings who’s space we share.

Nominator’s statement — Edward Fu-Chen Juan

I nominated Brigitte Potter-Mael for this project because she has been a mentor and friend of mine for the past decade. During the summer of 2019, she mentored me in the techniques of papermaking for printmaking. When COVID-19 restrictions were enforced, we created a “bubble” relationship so we could continue to work together. Brigitte and I have a forty-year age difference, but we see each other as equal peers rather than teacher and student. Her work is deeply personal and uncompromisingly truthful. She possesses the wisdom of a sage and the spirit of a sprite. She has taught me the importance of taking pride as an artist and maintaining integrity in one’s art practice. I speak for many artists and members of her community when I say that we are fortunate to be welcomed into her life. 

Artist's statement

My proposal for this project relates to a series of works that I initiated in the 1980s titled My Heroes in the Streets, in which I photographed artist friends in intersections across Vancouver and later made photographic paintings from those images.

For this work, I proposed to create a photographic work in which I am the subject.

In the early 1960s, when I began my artistic career, I lived at the corner of Burrard and Robson Street (816 Burrard Street). For this new work, I used this corner as the site for a series of photographs of myself crossing the street that I would like projected on the digital display boards at that same corner.

This project will celebrate the beginning of my career 55 years ago.

In 1970, I created a photographic work titled Intersection 1970. These images of urban intersections reflect the formal structure of the urban grid, which parallels the rectangular framing of a photograph.

In this work, I enact my identity as an artist through a photographic performance of walking within the structure of the urban intersection.

Nominator’s statement — Zoran Dragelj

For Platforms: The Teachers Among Us, I nominated Ian Wallace because his influence on contemporary art in Vancouver and on my own development as a visual artist cannot be overstated. As one of the foundational figures of photo conceptualism in this city, Ian helped establish a distinct intellectual framework that bridged painting, photography, film, and critical thought. His work continually reminds us that image and idea, aesthetics and politics, and representation and lived experience are deeply intertwined.

When I studied at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in the early 1990s, I encountered Ian Wallace not only as a distinguished artist but also as an exceptional teacher. He cultivated an environment where dialogue, reading, and sustained visual inquiry were central to the learning process. Ian treated students as emerging colleagues, encouraging us to situate our work within broader cultural and philosophical contexts.

Ian’s mentorship has shaped generations of artists in this region. By nominating Ian Wallace, I wished to recognize his internationally respected artistic practice, his profound generosity as a teacher, and his lasting role as one of the true architects of Vancouver’s artistic identity and community. 

Artist's statement

Wolf is a large-scale photograph of a carved tool handle. The image highlights the deep connection between Coast Salish artistry and the tools that sustain it. The identifying information—my name, the title, and description—appears directly on the photograph, integrating context into the artwork itself. In this way, the piece speaks both visually and textually, affirming that Musqueam art is inseparable from its makers, stories, and traditions.

Nominated by Mack Paul

Artist's statement

As one of the greatest spiritual and political leaders of the Lakota people – I am forever grateful for Sitting Bull’s wisdom and spiritual practice. He was deeply committed to Lakota people living and continuing culture under great duress during his lifetime. He scarified so the people may live. This work situates his nobility, striking appearance and fortitude within an urban setting. I have rearticulated a few sentences from his public speeches to hopefully inspire all to hear and see deeply and in the profundity of seeing and hearing, may we hear and see each other in good ways that inspire each other to walk gently. 

Nominator’s statement — Jayce Salloum

"I had known of Dana Claxton's work - perhaps even we'd met - and immediately was taken by her clarity of vision. A deftness, a path that seemed to be carved out of history, rooted through the present and seeded into possible futures. A difficult one, engaged, but defined enough to create/lay a path/to walk on, into the decades ahead. This striving for a justice embedded in visual arts is rare but foundational to a justness far beyond its borders, or, on the other hand, closer than that, an internal, coming from within itself where art is one indicator, one element, one piece of a total life reaching for a better place.

Dana makes objects while weaving worlds. The ostensible threads are tentacles, overlaid ways of being, an ontological weft and existential warp. Her objects have meaningful lives - palimpsests, collapsing epochs, expanding experiences, connecting viewer and viewed, object and subject(s). Imbued in them, a living sense of spirit, of connections in creation and voicing...  casting a voice, fissures for meaning to be expressed and heard. Not a call into the void, this is a recognition of communities, a specific commons of sorts, of histories, a rhizomatic web of inquiries, routes to acknowledge and propel us along, this integral, an essential path of life."

Artist's statement

The banners and zine that make up the work Blanketing are reflections on an abundance of textile hand work.

In this project the term “blanketing” describes the active nature of making and using blankets. There is intention and creativity in both the creating and the long-term maintenance of blankets (quilts, comforters, duvets, throws, crib blankets, and more).

As objects with organic and inorganic components, blankets lead active lives, warming bodies and then carrying evidence of those lives in their:

• Shape
• Smells
• Stains
• Mends
• Eventually discarded fibers

The 6 banners show blankets that are part of the material and creative legacy of my mother, who passed last year, my late grandmothers, and other known and unknown textile workers, sewists, and makers. I have sewn some of them, but mostly they are gifted blankets that I have mended or transformed into clothing.

Every blanket shown in the banners includes the silhouette drawings of a bed with stacked blankets. These images are also on the cover of the zine Blanketing that accompanies the banners. It is available in the VPL Zine collection near the entrance to the library (level 2).

The ink print on fabric found in the photos is a legacy of a long-running social art project, Comforter Art Action, that I led from 2001 to 2018. I first designed and silk screened the images for an installation at The Glenbow Museum in 2009 (“Sew City”, Calgary, Alberta) and later gifted them to participants who helped to sew or knot blankets. Comforter Art Action produced and distributed over 100 tied patchwork blankets to shelters at the Mexican/US border, in Vancouver’s DTES, and at other international sites of refuge. The prints acknowledge the abundance of care and creativity in acts of making blankets. The zine series, Comforters, Comforters, Comforters (2003-07), documented the Comforter Art Action project and is still available in the VPL’s Zine collection. 

The 6 banner images show handmade and altered blankets in rural settings of the Pacific Northwest. They were photographed by Carl Wiebe and I on Malcolm Island where we were artists in residence at the Sointula House. Malcolm Island is in the traditional Kwakwaka'wakw territories of the 'Namgis, Mamalilikala, and Kwakuitl Nations. While in residence I visited a Regalia Making Workshop at U’mista Cultural Centre, 'Namgis First Nation, Alert Bay. Sointula, the name of the island’s small town and ferry terminus, is a Finnish word meaning “place of the chord” or “place of harmony”, all of which recalls the legacy of Finnish settlers including their local textile tradition of gill net rug making. 

Additional credit – Carl Wiebe, photographer.

Nominator’s statement

I first met Lois Klassen when I was hired as a studio assistant for her publishing project Reading The Migration Library, a project committed to the publication of work about migration and displacement. Working with her, I became deeply inspired about the possibilities of small publishing and collaborative working models. She has always shared her skills, knowledge, and encouragement generously, invaluably contributing to my confidence and growth as an artist.  

Across all mediums, Lois’s work is grounded in her commitment to her community. While working on RML, I was moved by the participation of not only artists and writers involved in the series, but many of Lois’s past collaborators, friends, and colleagues. Through her actions as artist and publisher, she has created a community of artists and writers who share commitment to collaboration and the open exchange of their work.  

In Lois’s latest work Blanketing (from the series Practices of Everyday Ethics) she brings a focus to her textile practice with poignant meditations on:

• Grief
• Mutual aid
• Sustainability
• Ethical production
• The inherited legacy of women’s work

Lois expresses her gratitude for her ancestors and mentors, shedding light on her position in a muti-generational practice of artistry and community care. She caretakes the resulting heirlooms – both physical and incorporeal – preserving them for the future, mending where needed. 

– Ruby Lewis

Brigitte Potter-Mael was born in the south of Germany in 1943 and immigrated to Canada in 1977. Her artistic practice includes drawing, papermaking, analogue printmaking, ink-making, and site-specific installation art. Her works are guided by strong interests in botany, philosophy, languages, and community-building activities. 

With a BFA in 1983 from Concordia University, and many years of explorations, Brigitte has also been active in performative art, interdisciplinary collaborations, and community outreach projects. In addition, she earned a TESOL Diploma (2003) and became an active ESL instructor at Vancouver’s MOSAIC Language Centre during the years 2003 to 2018.  

A recipient of grants and stipends from Canada Council for the Arts Ottawa; Ministry of cultural Affairs Quebec; Banff Centre for the Arts; Goethe Institute Vancouver; the Kulturamt Dresden; Rosa Luxemburg Institute, Berlin; Pinacoteca Vitulano, Italy; Altos de Chavon Artist Colony, Dominican Republic.

Solo and group-exhibitions in Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Poland, Japan, and the USA since 1984. Works can be found in public collections of the Canada Council for the Arts Ottawa, Ministry of cultural Affairs Quebec, Camosun College in Victoria, University of British Columbia, Malaspina Printmakers Society Archives in Vancouver, Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, Esperanza Gallery and Concordia University in Montreal, Kulturamt in Dresden, Pinacoteca Vitulano in Italy, and in many private collections in Canada and abroad.

Ian Wallace was born in Shoreham, England, to Canadian parents, in 1943.  After completing his studies at the University of British Columbia and graduating with a Master’s Degree in Art History, he taught art history at UBC from 1967 to 1970 and at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design from 1972 to 1998. Wallace was granted an Honorary Doctorate at Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2007) and University of British Columbia (2010).

Wallace has been active as an exhibiting artist in the Vancouver region since 1965. Through his writing teaching and exhibitions, Wallace has been an influential figure in the creation, promotion, and appreciation of innovative processes in contemporary art and in the development of an internationally acknowledged photographic and conceptual art practice in Vancouver.

In 2004, he was the recipient of the Governor General’s Award for the Visual Arts and in 2013 appointed Officer of the Order of Canada. Also in 2013, he was honoured with The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.  In 2014, Wallace was awarded the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. The Audain Art Prize was conferred to Wallace in 2022.

The work of Ian Wallace is represented by:

• Catriona Jeffries Gallery in Vancouver
• Galerie Greta Meert in Brussels
• Galeria Parra & Romero in Madrid

Carmen Rosen, artist, singer, and community organizer, is the Founding Artistic Director of Still Moon Arts Society. She holds Fine Arts degrees from UBC and Emily Carr University and has been recognized with the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award, the Queen's Jubilee Award, and the BC Achievement Award for her community-engaged art practice. Her creative work centres on the Still Creek Watershed in her Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood, situated on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Her work is inspired by nature, environmental sustainability, and her love of working with people.

Through Still Moon Arts Society and in partnership with many community partners, Carmen founded the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival (now in its 24th year), celebrating nature and intercultural community creativity.

Recent projects include:

• Joining the Indigenous-led Wild Salmon Caravan 3 times to honour and support wild salmon
• Serving as co-lead artist for Birds on Parade at the 2018 International Ornithological Congress and Vancouver Bird Festival
• A 2022–24 collaboration with artist and mycologist Willoughby Arévalo to create Beaver Pondering Lodging, a giant living-willow beaver and her "Dodge Lodge" RV — grown and woven on the banks of Still Creek as a commentary on habitat loss for both wildlife and people in the city
• A 2023–24 project with natural builder and Mud Girl Clare Kenny and community volunteers to construct a cob garden shed, exploring natural building techniques in support of the Colour-Me-Local Dye Garden

Visit the Still Moon Arts Society website External website, opens in new tab

Kayám̓ Richard Campbell Sr. is a respected Musqueam master carver and knowledge keeper. He has been carving since the 1970s and has created numerous commissioned works that carry forward Musqueam and Coast Salish traditions. His practice emphasizes hand-carving, where the relationship between artist and tool is central to the creative process.

Lois Klassen uses creative and collective methods in art and publishing to address issues such as migration failures and textile waste. She is the founder of Light Factory Publications (LFP), an itinerant publisher of artist books and ephemera, including Reading the Migration Library (with Deanne Achong and others), the mail art project Renegade Library, the zine series Practices of Everyday Ethics, and the Present Cartographers imprint (with Daisy Quezeda Ureña and Sylvia Arthur). Klassen has held artist residencies at Sointula House, Santa Fe Art Institute, Plug In ICA (Winnipeg), MAWA (Winnipeg), SOMA (Mexico City), McLoughlin Gardens (Comox Valley), and more.

Lois Klassen is a Fulbright Alumni (University of Texas in El Paso), a former SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow (Critical Art Media Studio in the School of Interactive Art and Technology, SFU), and a research facilitator and ethics officer at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She lives and works on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, in East Vancouver. 

Dana Claxton is a critically acclaimed artist who works with film, video, photography, single/multi-channel video installation, and performance art. Her practice investigates indigenous beauty, the body, the socio-political and the spiritual. Her work has been shown internationally and is held in public, private, and corporate collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Getty Museum, Modern Museum of Art, Eiteljorg Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Forge Project, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery. 

She is a Professor in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory with the University of British Columbia. She is a member of Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations located in SW Saskatchewan and resides in Vancouver Canada.  

Dana comments, “I am grateful for all the support my artwork and cultural work has received. I am indebted to the sun and my sundance teachings – mni ki wakan - water is sacred.”

Lois Klassen uses creative and collective methods in art and publishing to address issues such as migration failures and textile waste. She is the founder of Light Factory Publications (LFP), an itinerant publisher of artist books and ephemera, including Reading the Migration Library (with Deanne Achong and others), the mail art project Renegade Library, the zine series Practices of Everyday Ethics, and the Present Cartographers imprint (with Daisy Quezeda Ureña and Sylvia Arthur).

Klassen has held artist residencies at Sointula House, Santa Fe Art Institute, Plug In ICA (Winnipeg), MAWA (Winnipeg), SOMA (Mexico City), McLoughlin Gardens (Comox Valley), and more. Lois Klassen is a Fulbright Alumni (University of Texas in El Paso), a former SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow (Critical Art Media Studio in the School of Interactive Art and Technology, SFU), and a research facilitator and ethics officer at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

She lives and works on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, in East Vancouver.

Ken Lum was born and raised in Vancouver in 1956. He has a long exhibition history as an artist, dating back to the early 1980s, including Documenta, São Paolo Bienal, Whitney Biennial, and Istanbul Biennale.

He served as Director of the Or Gallery from 1982 to 1984. He is co-founder and founding editor of Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. A prolific writer, he has authored numerous essays for both academic and non-academic publications. He has delivered many keynote addresses, including at the World Museums Conference in Shanghai, the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics in Philadelphia, and the Annual Duldig Lecture on Sculpture in Melbourne. A collection of his writings titled Everything is Relevant: Writings on Art and Life 1991 - 2018 was published in 2020 by Concordia University Press. He also authored 2 screenplays about Chinese indentured labourers set in 1868 and 1885, respectively.

Lum is the co-founder and Senior Curatorial Advisor at Monument Lab, a public art and history think tank in Philadelphia. He managed the influential exhibition, The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945 - 1994. He has co-curated several major exhibitions, including Sharjah Biennial 7 in the UAE, Monument Lab: Creative Speculations for Philadelphia, and Shanghai Modern: 1919 - 1945, which was shown in Munich. Since 2012, he has been the Marilyn Jordan Taylor Penn Presidential Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Deborah Edmeades lives and works in Vancouver and has shown her work internationally, including at:

• Afternoon Projects
• The Western Front
• Artspeak in Vancouver
• Participant Inc.
• The Pratt Manhattan Gallery in New York

She’s received support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Franklin Furnace Archive, among others.

Cheryl Hamilton is a visual artist living on the Coast Salish territories. Her artwork includes sculpture, painting, printmaking, and illustration. She graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1990.

Her work has been influenced by her queer identity, satire, humour, surrealism, craft, and pop culture. Cheryl has a deep commitment to sharing her artwork in the public realm and has artwork in public and private collections across North America.

Hank Bull was born at Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary) in 1949 and lives with gratitude on the traditional and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver). He is known for explorations in radio art, performance, shadow theatre, video, and telecommunications. He has also been active as a curator, administrator, and arts advocate.

Throughout a long career, he has continued to make art in a range of media, including painting, photography, video, music, and sound. Hank is represented by Wil Aballe Art Projects External website, opens in new tab.