Engaging Art Installation & Concert

For Immediate Release - Tuesday, May 20, 2008

(Vancouver, B.C.) – Vancouver Public Library, the City of Vancouver Public Art Program and Doryphore Independent Curators Society are pleased to present the first installment of Memory Palace [Three Artists in the Library] featuring local artist Carol Sawyer. Trace Ingredients is Sawyer’s artistic response to the Library collection and its use by the public. Inspired by the stacks of books abandoned by other patrons, she has created a series of photographs that explore the book stack as sculpture and poetry, presented as large photographs near the Library elevators and as three 20-foot banners in the Library Square Promenade (350 West Georgia St.) – part of the ongoing Aperture program of artists’ banner commissions coordinated by the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program. As well, three new video works derived from her library research are installed in various locations in the Library.

Carol Sawyer, who has been active in Vancouver’s cultural scene for over fifteen years and has exhibited in the United States, France and many centers across Canada, says she interprets her role as “a miner of the Library collection: sifting and sorting veins of information, unearthing and collecting the traces left by past patrons and workers.”

The Vancouver artist has also developed a series of songs, based on her library research, that she will perform with her band ion Zoo on Thursday, May 29 at 6 p.m. in the Alice MacKay Room at the Central Library (350 West Georgia St.). These songs will play with words representing silence and sounds including onomatopoeia - the formation of words that sound similar to the noise described, such as “cuckoo,” “wham” or “sizzle.”

In September 2008, Carol Sawyer will give a free public artist’s talk at the Library.

Aperture Banners & Art Exhibition in the Library
May 1 to September 28, 2008
Library Square and in the Central Library (350 West Georgia St.)

Concert by ion Zoo with vocals by Carol Sawyer
Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 6 p.m.
Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level, Central Library (350 West Georgia St.)

The events are free and all ages are welcome!
Space is limited, so arrive early.

From May 2008 to December 2009, Memory Palace [Three Artists in the Library] will feature library-inspired work of visual artists Carol Sawyer, Angela Grauerholz and Esther Shalev-Gerz. Curated by Karen Love, Memory Palace is a collaboration between the Vancouver Public Library, the City of Vancouver Public Art Program and Doryphore Independent Curators Society. Financial support is also provided by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council, the Consulat Général de France, the Vancouver Foundation and Arts Partners in Creative Development.

For more information contact:

Karen Love, Curator
Memory Palace [Three Artists in the Library]
(604) 874-9990
karenlove@telus.net