See Girl (March, Girl, March!)

Opening reception: Friday, October 20 @ 8PM

Discussion with Artist: October 28 @ 2PM

Access Gallery is pleased to present See Girl (March, Girl, March!) by Vancouver artist Diyan Achjadi.

Diyan Achjadi's work explores depictions of violence and militarism in news, pop-culture and children's media, and in particular the ways that militaristic attributes can be portrayed as benign, decorative, and seductive. The images in See Girl (March, Girl, March!) take their titles from childhood primers intended to teach language, however through embedding morals in the stories, the lessons often teach much more than what is presented on the surface. Achjadi draws a correlation between these benign appearing childhood lessons that drill an action or idea into consciousness through repetition, and the language of security that has pervaded our daily news. Aggression is cloaked under the guise of (self) protection. Self-containment, isolation and enclosure are seen as means for survival. The language for constructing safety becomes inseparable from and confused with a language of (pre-emptive) aggression.

Diyan Achjadi completed her MFA at Concordia University in 2002 and her BFA at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. She has exhibited throughout Canada and the United States and currently resides in Vancouver, BC.