Imagining new worlds with art

Residents of the Lower Mainland can attend a free art exhibition titled Future Worldings from Sept. 28 to Dec. 15 at the Griffin Art Projects premises in Vancouver at 1174 Welch St. The exhibition brings together six artists from Canada and South Africa whose work focuses on themes of colonization, indigeneity, institutional racism, and marginalization. One of the artists is Sun Forest, a former Burnaby resident. 

“Their work not only reflects the complex histories and ongoing dialogues around decolonization but also offers a unique opportunity for cross-cultural exchange and understanding,” said Lisa Baldissera, director of the Griffin Art Projects and curator of the exhibition.   

According to a statement about the exhibition, the project brings together this group of artists “to consider approaches of collective and collaborative ‘worldmaking.’ The project concerns itself with how it may be possible to ‘world’ collectively while retaining the specificities of site, body, history, access, and cultural understandings.”

Former Burnaby resident Forest has had a varied career, spanning several countries, including Canada, the US, and South Korea. After studying animal and soil science to become a veterinarian, she travelled to Korea, where her mother lives, and taught English for three years. When she returned to Canada, she decided to pursue another degree in art, followed by a master’s degree from Parsons in New York, and she is currently pursuing a doctorate at SFU. 

Using biomaterials such as those used in nourishing face masks, Forest has created speculative counter-surveillance cloaking devices whose purpose is to protect Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) wearers from being observed when they do not wish to be observed. 

“One of the installations uses biomaterials to create these surveillance, cloaking, camouflaging devices,” Forest told the Beacon. “It’s based out of the Korean Dynastic Period called the sseugaechima, which was this skirt with a wide waistband that women would put over their heads when they went into public places to shield themselves from visibility and having their face covered from men.”

The idea behind the cloaking devices is not to become invisible but for BIPOC people to choose when and how to be seen. 

“It’s the agency that’s returned to the wearer of the speculative kind of cloaking device or armour to allow and propose that you can choose how you wish to be seen and when. That’s not only in a physical sense, but in terms of even cultural knowledge, or culture, tradition, or acts and rituals that are safeguarded by your community. You have the right and the agency to decide when you wish to reveal that, share that, how much you wish to share,” Forest said. 

The artworks will be part of a performance art exhibit where Forest intends to wear them and document that performance in a video accompanying the installation.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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