Living in Vancouver | have been offered many
things while walking through the city. Things like
tickets, transfers, watches, ugly jackets, pot,
smack, crack, speed and a plethora of other
things. The other night | was offered cheese.

This made me stop cold in my tracks. And after |
stopped laughing, and said no thanks, | began to
think about how totally unexpected cheese was.
Being offered cheese was so out of wack with
the norm that | found myself questioning it. Was it
a trick, or a joke? My expectations had been
toyed with and it made me closely examine an
almost everyday occurrence. My habit of ignoring
people who are trying to sell me things in the
street was momentarily broken. | had the same
sensation walking through the Concourse Gallery
during the SQUATTERS show. This show was
not like other shows, | thought. There weren't any
art objects in the gallery. Instead, covering the
walls were descriptions of artworks, performanc-
es, and installations that were going on through
out the city.

The SQUATTERS show was a forum for an art
form that establishes it’s context in the periphery
of what is defined as art, and in spaces not yet
considered within the grasp of the art world. This
type of art works off of the expectations that our
routines will be constant. The artists hide this
work in amongst our habits and routine behaviors.
Whether this art form is called Squatting, post-
conceptualism, on neo-conceptualism, or public
art, is not important. What is of importance is the

by Alexander Croal
photos by :
Colleen Brown
Laura Madera

dialogue created around the art practice for it’s
conceptual merits, and use of public context. The
artists in the SQUATTERS show are following in
the footsteps of artists like; Germaine Koh, Stan
Douglas, David Shrigley, and On Kawara, who in
some form or fashion have ventured into this type
of contextual playground, and have received
acclaim.

The artists chosen for the show do not prescribe
to accepted gallery criteria or politics. That they
do not need the arena of the gallery for their work
to function puts them in a unique situation. The
artists are always showing, because they do not
have to wait for a show to come along. The work
turns up here, there, everywhere and nowhere all
at the same time.

This raises and interesting question - how does
one propose and curate a show about work that
operates outside of a gallery?

Curator Laura Madera made an attempt to create
a dialogue around this type of art practice, and to
bring it into academia. "The absence of the object
in this space allowed for the representation of the
ideas and the myths around the work. | focused
on creating an environment in which the viewer
would think about the work, and also recognize
the fact that the objects would lose something if |
brought them in here." Said Madera.

For example, Sarah White chose to confess her
greatest fears amongst complete strangers. Most
would turn away believing her to be crazy, others

passing by without caring. If she had done this in
a gallery the viewers would have hung on every
word, considering each sentence. Sarah would
have probably been more conscious of what she
was saying because of the attentive audience.
Anthony Schrag left fake wall sockets with
exposed wires dangling, in various places in the
city, creating issues of safety and responsibility to
question. Christopher Kowal’s cryptic diagram left
much to the imagination, and kept him out of trou-
ble, leaving me to believe that it had something to
do with video. Diana Savage inserted clothing
into Burcu’s Angels, with tags that had little sto-
ries of the previous owner. This tackled a previ-
ously unconsidered area, at least by myself. | had
never before thought that maybe a serial killer, or
rollerblader owned the clothing that | bought sec-
ond hand.

This show was interesting because it challenged
my own conceptions about showing and venue.
Somehow, the discovery by accident, of this work
makes it that much more important and precious.
This accidental viewing and consequential hijack-
ing of our expectations is what binds these works
together. The artists claim everyone as their view-
er, with the foreknowledge that most people, even
if they happen upon the work, will not know what
to make of it. And it is this questioning which vali-
dates their existence in the art world. ia)