persephone from "Waiting For Spring". photo: Nicole Dextras
Very proud to present the fourth and final exhibition of my element - themed curatorial quartet WATER (2016), LAND (2017), AIR (2018), FIRE (2019)
for Digital Carnival with Cinevolution Media Arts Society.
Working closely once again with the Cinevolution Media production team over this past year, along with the Richmond Community Centre, Richmond Art Gallery and Richmond World Festival organizers, we installed this year's Vancouver-based featured artist, Nicole Dextras and her project, Dystopian Museum! August 30 - 31, I had great pleasure of presenting the timely work of Nicole, who is currently making a set of films storytelling environmental issues while highlighting her unique handmade clothing from natural materials!
"Dystopian Museum" rolling display carts photo: Nicole Dextras
Nicole's Dystopian Museum project included theatre screenings of her film, Waiting For Spring, highlighting a modernized and dystopian version of the Persephone story. Next door in the community centre atrium were a set of 3 rolling display carts, with ipads, highlighting the mythology, history and current modes of prevention practises around FIRE. Pushing each display cart out onto the plaza on a rotating schedule, the artist herself donned the role of Roman fire prevention Goddess, Stata Mater, in order to interact with the general public and engage with audiences about fire and fire prevention!
Featured artist Nicole Dextras as Stata Mater photo: Wynne Palmer
Over 5,000+ people attended this exhibition, with an overall attendance to the Richmond World Festival topping 36,000+ people to this free, family-friendly cultural event!
11 artists/ 7 Pop Up Gallery works on Plaza | 2 evenings
*Mask Making Workshop with Nicole Dextras & Emily Smith was in partnership with the
Richmond Art Gallery. Masks created in the workshop were captured and displayed as moving GIFs on video monitors in the Atrium window for run of the Featured Artist exhibition!
Exhibition details, bios & statements:
Featured Artist Exhibition article:
Digital Carnival: FIRE
Featured Artist Nicole Dextras
presents Dystopian Museum
2019 Exhibition Artists
Bagua Artist Association, John Desnoyer - Stewart, Bridget Fairbank, Yang Guo, Melany Nugent-Noble and Trent Noble, Roberto Santaguida and Paige Smith.
Cinevolution Media Arts Society Team
Yun-Jou Chang, Project Coordinator/Co-Producer
Lynn Groppi, Artistic Director/Co-Producer
Wynne Palmer, Curator/Co-Producer
Minah Lee, Curatorial Assistant
Jenniffer Tai, Production Assistant
I Chen Hsu, Media/Marketing
Andrew Lee, Volunteer Coordinator
Special Thanks to our Partners, Funders, Sponsors & Volunteers
Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, City of Richmond, Richmond World Festival, Richmond Art Gallery, VIVO Media Arts Centre, Instaspace Storage, IMAPON and Paul Wong.