Faker than Faux Fur

Opening Reception Friday, March 11 8pm

Access Gallery is pleased to present a collaborative exhibition by three emerging Vancouver artists, Joshua Bartholomew, Julian Hou, and Tegan Moore. Faker Than Faux Fur plays with the sculptural as imposter, counterfeit, and simulation. Referencing the illusionary realm of film and TV, the works presented in the exhibition use sculpture to undermine the purposeful and idealistic qualities of objects and architecture through the use of humor, ambiguity, and absurdity. Bartholomew, Hou, and Moore conceived and developed the idea of an installation collaboratively yet present a range of individual and independent works by each artist.

Initially the trio was inspired by the plans and models for Emilio Ambasz’ “Man is an Island,” which proposes an imagined structure in an idyllic landscape. The utopic model possesses the material effect of being something without actually being it. It also anticipates the becoming of something yet to be realized. This collusion of fantasy, materiality, and potentiality seem to be at the root of this exhibition.

Seeking to remove the filter or screen that gives a film set or prop a natural appearance the three artists of Faker Than Faux Fur create installations that reference the simulacral world of Hollywood back lots, accentuating the prop’s immediate failure and/or success as representations of a real or imagined world. Each artist infuses their sculptural replicas with further symbolic adjustments and material adaptations to askew the viewers reading of the works. Through the construction of false versions of the already false, Faker than Faux Fur exposes a candid positioning of materials, re-grounding these objects in real space and time while also highlighting the difference between something that is actual and its simulation. Through this the artists are also pondering the fundamental relationship art objects share with commodities, objects, and things.

Tegan Moore and Joshua Bartholomew are recent graduates from Emily Carr University. Julian Hou is a recent graduate of the School of Architecture at the University of British Columbia. All three have exhibited throughout Vancouver including solo and group exhibitions at the Helen Pitt Gallery and CSA space.

Access Gallery gratefully acknowledges the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, our members and volunteers. Access is a member of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres.

For more information, please visit www.accessgallery.ca, or contact access@vaarc.ca