This collaborative exhibition, co-curated by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the British Council, presents the work of 15 British artists in Canada’s foremost contemporary art museum, and subsequently tours to museums in Ottawa, Oakville, Edmonton and Nova Scotia. An investigation into the body and cultural geography provide inspiration for most of the works in the exhibition. The diverse range of practice alludes to the social changes which have given a special prominence to the body in contemporary social theory, and engage with current notions such as that of the ‘somatic society’, a society within which major political and personal problems are both internalised within, and also expressed through, the body.

Artists included in this exhibition include Fiona Banner, Martin Boyce, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Tacita Dean, Tracey Emin, Douglas Gordon, Melanie Jackson, Sarah Lucas, Cornelia Parker, Sam Taylor-Wood, Mark Wallinger, Rebecca Warren, Gillian Wearing, Cathy Wilkes and Carey Young. The artists represented are neither of a single generation or geographical location but share common concerns, along with eclectic working methodologies; the exhibition encompassing installation, sculpture, video, painting and drawing.

A full colour catalogue accompanies the exhibition containing texts by Bruce Grenville, Chief Curator of Vancouver Art Gallery, and Colin Ledwith of the British Council as well as a commissioned contribution from the acclaimed writer Douglas Coupland.

ISBN 1-895442-51-6

Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Contemporary

    Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.

  • Curator

    A person who creates exhibitions or who is employed to look after and research museum objects.

  • Drawing

    The depiction of shapes and forms on a flat surface chiefly by means of lines although colour and shading may also be included. Materials most commonly used are pencil, ink, crayon, charcoal, chalk and pastel, although other materials, including paint, can be used in combination.

  • Installation

    An artwork comprised of many and various elements of miscellaneous materials (see mixed media), light and sound, which is conceived for and occupies an entire space, gallery or site. The viewer can often enter or walk around the installation. Installations may only exist as long as they are installed, but can be re-created in different sites. Installation art emerged in the 1960s out of Environmental Art (works of art which are three-dimensional environments), but it was not until the 1970s that the term came into common use and not until the late 1980s that artists started to specialise in this kind of work, creating a genre of ‘Installation Art’. The term can also be applied to the arrangement of selected art works in an exhibition.

  • Painting

    Work of art made with paint on a surface. Often the surface, also called a support, is a tightly stretched piece of canvas, paper or a wooden panel. Painting involves a wide range of techniques and materials, along with the artist's intellectual concerns effecting the content of a work.

  • Sculpture

    A three-dimensional work of art. Such works may be carved, modelled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, relief, and made in a huge variety of media. Contemporary practice also includes live elements, as in Gilbert & George 'Living Sculpture' as well as broadcast work, radio or sound sculpture.

  • Video

    Images recorded on videotape or on optical disc to be viewed on television screens, or projected onto screens. The medium through which these images are recorded and displayed.