FRI NOV 9

EAST GALLERY

East Gallery | 334 Dundas St W | FRI NOV 9, 5:00PM – 7:00PM

Artist: Hank Bull | Canada 2012
Video Screening and Performance Lecture | 60:00
FREE ADMISSION
Reception to follow lecture 

Beginning with the Yuan dynasty scroll painting Autumn Colors on the Que and Hua Mountains (鵲華秋色), Vancouver-based artist Hank Bull bridges the classical and the contemporary through this special video presentation and lecture. The art of Chinese landscape painting is interpreted through cinematic image; in his wide-ranging illustrated performance, Bull unfurls this aesthetic tradition in connection with historical and current political relations between China, Taiwan, Japan, and Canada.

The delicately rendered mountains of this Chinese masterpiece were painted from memory by the celebrated artist Zhao Mengfu in 1296. Taking artistic license with the actual distance between the mountain ranges, Zhao chose to depict a seamless, flowing vista for a unique perspective on natural beauty. Re-imagining the geography and pairing nuanced references to archaic brushwork with calligraphic innovation, Zhao’s interpretive strokes are echoed centuries later in Bull’s video exploration of the same landscape. Shot in 1997 in the outskirts of Jinan, Shandong Province, Bull’s video shows a contemporary landscape with bridges and expressways alongside wheat fields that are harvested by hand, just as they were 800 years ago. Zhao inscribed his painting with historical references to ancient techniques and texts; continuing the tradition, Bull alludes to the landscapes of Hokusai, Monet, and Van Gogh, for a panorama of our timeless fascination with the natural sublime.

- Serena Lee

Born in Calgary in 1949, Hank Bull started his artistic career as a Blues pianist, touring Canada and Europe. In 1973, he joined the Western Front, and has produced work in a wide range of media, including radio, video, sound, performance, telecommunications, and painting. In 1999 he co-founded Centre A, the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Vancouver. From 2002 to 2008, he was a member of the Sectoral Committee for Arts and Culture of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and from 2008 to 2009, he was a regular contributor to the Governor General’s committee on arts and culture. He has recently presented new paintings and video in a solo exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, and at Vancouver.