Photographed from the third floor of the Shangri-La Hotel, we are looking down upon the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite’s latest exhibition, “Calm.” Situated to the left of the attendees, we see what appears to be a common enough site in Vancouver – a pile of rubble at a construction site before it is transformed into another building like the surrounding modern towers. The rubble, sourced from a Vancouver synagogue, is the exhibition; it consists of chunks of concrete, rebar, brick and stone, arranged in a relatively neat fashion and nicely contained on the rectangular site. However, after staring at the site for a few seconds, it begins to move in a slowly undulating fashion, almost like breathing. This is an intentional effect to stimulate the viewer to “question ways of observing, believing and understanding facts.” It’s also related to urban construction and its implications for a city’s inhabitants.

“Calm” reflects on the apparent ordinariness of such sites, especially since they are so ubiquitous in Vancouver and other developing cities. And whether or not we feel complacent about changing cityscapes and their implications, this exhibition seems to indicate, especiallywith the “breathing” aspect of the rubble, that like a monster we’ve created, it has now taken on a life of its own. It gives the feeling that something has been set in motion, the consequences of which seem disturbingly dire.

The installation is by MadeIn Company, an artist collective based in Shanghai and Beijing, established by Chinese artist Xu Zhen in 2009. MadeIn Company has participated in many national and international exhibitions. The curator is Diana Freundl, assistant curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Don Richardson