Public Art Registry
Set Pieces
Photo: Germaine Koh
Set Pieces by Germaine Koh - photo by Germaine Koh
Set Pieces by Germaine Koh - photo by Michael Love
Set Pieces by Germaine Koh - photo by Michael Love
Set Pieces by Germaine Koh - photo by Michael Love
Set Pieces by Germaine Koh - photo by Michael Love
Set Pieces by Germaine Koh - photo by Michael Love
1265 Howe Street
Tate Downtown
Second floor display window of artist studio building
Private development
2019
Fabric, motors, rigging, theatrical control system
Site-integrated work
In place
City of Vancouver
City of Vancouver Private Development Program
Light-based workYaletown 
Description of work

Kinetic installation of translucent curtains and motors with interactive elements.

Artist statement

In the shallow, stage-like display window above the entrance to the artist studio unfolds a play of theatrical scrims and curtains of materials recognizable from the various lives of the area — sheer domestic curtains, sports or cargo netting, office blinds, construction mesh, fishing net, and theatrical curtains. Although they are normally the “background” materials of the neighbourhood, the draperies here become the main players on the stage that is the display window.

The eight layers of scrims and curtains all have an element of transparency and are mechanically operated: drawn, lowered, raised, or pulled across the display area in a play of colour, light and materials, and references. They create material scenes referring to the realms of the domestic, work, industrial, craft, and entertainment. These unfurl over the course of each day into the evening, sparely suggestive of the human dramas to which these materials are normally the backdrop. The innermost of the eight layers — a semi-transparent projection screen and a green screen — are available to the users of the studio spaces via a manual control at the mezzanine level.

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