Statement

In the pile-up of lan­guage, spec­ta­cle, and garbage, which con­sti­tutes our amne­si­ac present, one role for art is to cre­ate a clear­ing with­in this pet­ri­fied land­scape, and, through a reorder­ing all this new and obso­lete stuff, through brico­lage and play, con­struct new mean­ings, new con­cep­tions of real­i­ty, shot through with his­tor­i­cal memory.

Cross-dis­ci­pli­nary in scope, my art­work inves­ti­gates the inter­sec­tion between mate­ri­als, his­to­ry, lan­guage, and ide­ol­o­gy. Many would char­ac­ter­ize my over­all mate­r­i­al sen­si­bil­i­ties and aes­thet­ic as grotesque. The work address­es the need for a posthuman/nonhuman per­spec­tive, counter to the reign­ing ten­den­cies toward human­cen­tric hubris. Humour is explored through a cor­po­re­al reg­is­ter: humans’ under­ly­ing ani­mal­i­ty and mor­tal­i­ty, as well as the absur­di­ty of human­ist moral posi­tions vis‑à ‑vis life on this planet.

CV

solo and two-person exhibitions

Fire Fire (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Abbas Akha­van), Malaspina Gallery & Cen­tre A, Sum­mer 2012

Pushed out the door, back through the win­dow, Or Gallery, Berlin, Decem­ber 2010

The Crea­ture, La Cen­trale, Mon­tre­al, PQ , Feb.-March 2011

Neigh­bours (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Abbas Akha­van), AMS­Gallery, UBC, Sep­tem­ber 2010

Menagerie (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Abbas Akha­van), AXENEO7/DAIMON, Gatineau, QC, April-May 2009, http://www.bcscene.ca/en/events/eventDetails.asp?eID=420

Neigh­bours (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Abbas Akha­van; curat­ed by Joni Mur­phy and Kika Thorne), VIVO­Me­dia Cen­tre, Van­cou­ver, BC, Oct.-Nov. 2008

The King and I (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Phillip McCrum). Mor­ris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Satel­lite, Van­cou­ver, BC, Sept.-October 2006

New Work, Con­tem­po­rary Art Gallery, Van­cou­ver, BC, Sep­tem­ber 2004

Roy and McHardy (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Natasha McHardy), Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­si­ty VAV­Gallery, Mon­tre­al, QC, March 2004

Roy and McHardy (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Natasha McHardy). Or Gallery, Van­cou­ver, BC, Feb.-March 2004

—. Struts Art Gallery, Sackville, NB, Nov.-Dec. 2002

Green­er Pas­tures (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Abbas Akha­van): Open Space Gallery, Vic­to­ria, BC, July 2002

… Art­s­peak gallery, Van­cou­ver, BC, March-April 2001

26 Man­ic Types, Eye Lev­el Gallery, Hal­i­fax, NS, April-May 1997

Errant, Eye Lev­el Gallery, Hal­i­fax, NS, July-Aug. 1994

Booked Sol­id, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Hal­i­fax, NS, June 1993

 

select group exhibitions

Unre­al, Van­cou­ver Art Gallery, Van­cou­ver BC, Jan­u­ary 2011

Cin­e­ma Verite Redux (curat­ed by Sha­heen Mer­ali), Gallery Sumukha, Chen­nai, India, Nov. 2010

Cin­e­ma Verite Redux, Gallery Sumukha, Ben­galu­ru, India, Sept. 2010

Home Sweet Home, Berlin, July 2010

No Sex No Life, 205 Days, Van­cou­ver, BC, June 2010

CUE­V­ideo, Van­cou­ver Art Gallery, Feb.-March 2010

Angels in the Angles (exhi­bi­tion of con­crete poet­ry), Gallery Atsui, Van­cou­ver BC, Octo­ber 2009

How soon is now, Van­cou­ver Art Gallery, Feb.-May 2009

When the Mood Strikes Us, Plat­form Gallery, Win­nipeg, Fall 2008

“Trap­pings” (par­tic­i­pant in the pub­lic art library project Group Search (Art in the Library), curat­ed by Lor­na Brown, Van­cou­ver Pub­lic Library, Down­town Branch, Sept. 2006-March2008

Inte­ri­or of Design (curat­ed by Jor­dan Strom), Repub­lic Gallery, june-august 2008

Beau­ty and the Beast, Alter­na­tor Gallery, Kelow­na BC, Sept.-Oct. 2006

Every­day Every Oth­er Day, Art Gallery of Mis­sis­sauga, Mis­sis­sauga, ON, May-June 2006

The End, H Block Gallery, Bris­bane, Aus­tralia, Feb.-March 2006

No Place as Home: New Art From Van­cou­ver, Pro­jek­traum Vik­tor Buch­er, Vien­na, Aus­tria, Feb­ru­ary 2005

*No Place as Home: New Art From Van­cou­ver, Galerie AP4-ART, Gene­va, Switzer­land, March-April 2005

I am a Cura­tor, Chisen­hale Gallery, Lon­don, Nov.-Dec. 2003

Sat­ur­day Soci­ety: Explo­rations in Psy­chic Geog­ra­phy II , Or Gallery, Van­cou­ver, BC, May 2003

Var­i­ous Prop­er­ties, Mor­ris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, UBC, Vanc­cou­ver, BC, Jan.–March 2003

Emp­ty Returns, Mor­ris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Sept. 1999

Con­tem­po­rary Artists’ Books (group exhi­bi­tion), Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty Art Gallery, Tempe, AZ, March-April 1999

Work­ing Papers, Art Gallery of Nova Sco­tia, Hal­i­fax, NS, Sept.-Nov. 1997

The Food Show, Mount Saint Vin­cent Uni­ver­si­ty Art Gallery, Hal­i­fax, NS, April-May 1995

Artist’s Books, Mount Saint Vin­cent Uni­ver­si­ty Art Gallery, Hal­i­fax, NS, Feb.–March 1994

 

film festivals and film screenings

2010

George & Jorge, screened dur­ing ​“Home Movies: sin­gle-chan­nel screen­ings by Jamelie Has­san, Paul Wong, Nik­ki S. Lee, and Roy & McHardy”, Plat­form Gallery

Apart­ment (ani­ma­tion, 2008), The Green Lantern Gallery, Chica­go, IL

Apart­ment (ani­ma­tion, 2008), ​“Sites for See­ing: Out of the Cine­plex and Into the Marsh­land”, Struts Gallery and Faucet Media Arts, Sackville, NB

Sleep­er (ani­ma­tion 2004), Entza­ubert – Queer DIY­film fest, Berlin

2009

Sleep­er, Syd­ney Under­ground Film Fes­ti­val, Syd­ney Australia

Apart­ment, screened dur­ing Watery Grave, Par­lour, Stat­en Island NY

Sleep­er, Mon­tre­al Under­ground Film Festival

Sleep­er, Cen­tre for Art Tapes, Hal­i­fax NS

Apart­ment, Pavil­ion Projects, Dépan­neur Le Pick­up (din­ner and screen­ing), Mon­tréal QC

Apart­ment, Pavil­ion Projects, 111 Woost­er Street, Apt. 4E, NYC

Apart­ment, North Island Col­lege The­atre, Comox BC

Apart­ment, Comox Art Gallery, Comox BC

2008

Sleep­er at the FIAE2008 – 3rd Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val of Erot­ic Ani­ma­tion, Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Bouch­er and Cac­cia­tore, Helen Pitt Gallery, Van­cou­ver BC

Alice and Martha, Gas­town Dri­ve-In (orga­nized by Cineworks), Van­cou­ver BC

Sleep­er, East­ern Edge Gallery, St. John’s Newfoundland

2007

Alice and Martha, New York Inter­na­tion­al Inde­pen­dent Film and Video Fes­ti­val NYC

Alice and Martha, Helen Pitt Gallery, Van­cou­ver BC

 

artist talks and symposia (co-organizer)

Per­sis­tent Resis­tance, Artist Talks and Screen­ings and Symposium/Panel, Novem­ber 6–8, 2008. Artist Talks and Screen­ings by Sara Dia­mond and Eliz­a­beth Van­derZa­ag; Screen­ing of Short Video Pro­gram and Pan­el Dis­cus­sion, UBCand VIVO­Me­dia Cen­tre, Van­cou­ver BC

 

curatorial projects (co-organizer)

Per­sis­tent Resis­tance, Long Video Pro­gramme: Women’s Col­lec­tives and Doc­u­men­taries, VIVO­Me­dia Cen­tre (curat­ed with Jen­nifer Fish­er and Eliz­a­beth Macken­zie), Novem­ber 2008

 

exhibition reviews

José Claer, ​“Menage a trois: entre l’humain, l’animal et l’art,” Revue Liai­son, no. 137, Sum­mer 2009. pp. 40–41.

Sigrid Dahle, ​“When the Mood Strikes Us…”, Bor­der Cross­ings, #108, 2009,121–122.

Sarah Mil­roy, ​‘Pic­tures are out—experience is in,” Globe & Mail, Feb­ru­ary 14, 2009, R1

Kath­leen Rit­ter, ​“Mari­na Roy-Abbas Akha­van,” Esse, issue 65, 2009 p. 70

Aaron Peck, http://www.akimbo.biz/akimblog/?id=238

Gabrielle Moser, Inte­ri­or of Design gabrielle­moser.blogspot.com/2008/06/interior-of-design.html

Andrew Witt, ​“Con­tem­po­rary Pub­lic Art at Van­cou­ver Library,” White Hot Mag­a­zine, Van­cou­ver BC, 2007, http://whitehotmagazine.com/whitehot_articles.cfm?id=938

Mile­na Tom­ic, ​“Every­day Every Oth­er Day,” Bor­der Cross­ings 2006, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 107–108

Clint Burn­ham, ​“Who did what? The artists aren’t telling, ​“Van­cou­ver Sun, Sep­tem­ber 28, 2006

Robin Lau­rence, ​“Bad Art Has Brains Behind it,” The Geor­gia Straight, Sep­tem­ber 21–28, 2006.

Kathy Ann Bates, ​“Roy & McHardy”, http://www.sfu.ca/sca/visart/threesixtyseven/kathyann.htm

Rein­hardt Braun, Review of Roy & McHardy, Cam­era Aus­tria #86, Graz, Aus­tria, June 2004

Adri­an Cham­ber­lain, ​“Artists tick­le our British fan­cy” (review of Green­er Pas­tures), Times Colonist (Vic­to­ria, BC), B1, July 13, 2002

Exhi­bi­tion review: Meg Walk­er, ​“Come Togeth­er”, in Mon­day Mag­a­zine, Issue 28, July 11–17, 2002, Vic­to­ria, BC

Michael Turn­er, ​“Mari­na Roy” (review of …, Art­s­peak), Last Call, vol. 1, issue 1, Sum­mer 2001, Mor­ris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery

Robin Met­calfe, ​“Work­ing papers”, Art­sat­lantic 60, Spring 1998.

Liz Bolton, ​“Mari­na Roy: 26 Man­ic Types,” Visu­al Arts News, Vol­ume 19, NO. 1, 1997

Elis­sa Barnard, ​“Artist’s Books”, The Chron­i­cle Her­ald, March 18, 1994

 

catalogue essays

Kath­leen Rit­ter, How soon is now, exhi­bi­tion cat­a­logue, Van­cou­ver Art Gallery, 2009

Julie Trem­ble, Mari­na Roy/Abbas Akha­van: Menagerie, exhi­bi­tion cat­a­logue, AXENEO7/DAIMON, 2009

Joni Mur­phy, Bet­ter Homes and Gar­dens, Van­cou­ver, BC: VIVO­Me­dia Cen­tre, 2008, pp. 30.

J.J. Kegan McFad­den, When the Mood Strikes Us…, Plat­form Gallery, Win­nipeg, MB, 2008

Lor­na Brown, ​“Mari­na Roy: Trap­pings”, Van­cou­ver Pub­lic Library, Sep­tem­ber 2006

Sea­mus Kealy, ​“The King and I,” Mor­ris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2006

Sea­mus Kealy, ​“A Few Notes on an Every­day Exhi­bi­tion,” Black­wood Gallery, 2006

Syd­ney Her­mant, ​“Roy and McHardy,” in d’Or (Goin’ Solo), Van­cou­ver: Or Gallery, 2006

Jere­my Todd, ​“Some errant thoughts” in d’Or: Explo­rations in Psy­chic Geog­ra­phy, Van­cou­ver: OR Gallery, 2004.

Jenifer Papararo, Con­tem­po­rary Art Gallery, Sep­tem­ber 2004

Amy Ped­er­son, essay about ​“night errant”, Struts Art Gallery, 2002.

Amy Ped­er­son, ​“Less than 20 per cent,” Emp­ty Returns, Mor­ris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, UBC, 1999.

Max Hen­ze, Stereo­types. Anna Leonowens Art Gallery, 1995.

Storme Arden, ​“Digest,” The Food Show, Mount Saint Vin­cent Uni­ver­si­ty Art Gallery, 1995.

Bar­bara Loun­der, Last to be Done, First to be Seen, Eye Lev­el Gallery, 1993.

 

publications

Books

Sign after the x ________. Van­cou­ver: Arse­nal Pulp Press/Artspeak, 2001.

Helen’s Cook­book (edit­ed by Mari­na Roy and Abbas Akha­van), Van­cou­ver, BC: Helen Pitt Gallery, 2007 (with con­tri­bu­tions by Akha­van, Abbas, Lance Blom­gren, Bob Blumer, Mar­got But­ler, Randy Lee Cut­ler, Alek­san­dra Idzior, Adri­enne Lai, Dona­to Manci­ni, Phillip McCrum, Natasha McHardy, Kegan McFad­den, Erin Moure, Kristi­na Podes­va, Martha Rosler, Mari­na Roy, Car­ollee Schnee­mann, Michael Turn­er, Riisa Walden and William Wood).

Essays and Reviews

Mari­na Roy. ​“In Hague­nau For­est” (short sto­ry), in there’s some­thing I want to show you, book edit­ed by Sigrid Dahl, Win­nipeg: Lives of Dogs pub­lish­ers, 2011

_________. ​“Holy Shit,” Toron­to: C Mag­a­zine, Decem­ber 2010

_________. ​“Invis­i­ble Hands” essay about David Clark’s exhi­bi­tion, Video­graphe, Mon­tre­al, 2009

_________. ​“White Hot,” essay about Kel­ly Lycan’s exhi­bi­tion, TPW­Gallery, Toron­to, 2009

_________. ​“Intro­duc­tion” and ​“Roy&McHardy” in Helen’s Cook­book (edit­ed by Mari­na Roy and Abbas Akha­van), Helen Pitt Gallery, Van­cou­ver, BC, 2007.

_________. ​“Adven­tures in Read­ing Land­scape,” pub­lished in Van­cou­ver Art and Economies, Van­cou­ver: Artspeak/Arsenal Pulp Press, 2007.

_________. ​“As the Ham­mer Strikes” (exhi­bi­tion review), fil­lip. 1 (Summer/Fall 2005) Van­cou­ver, B.C.

_________. ​“Make Mon­ey to Buy Can­dy,” exhi­bi­tion essay for Chris­tine Donofrio,Strange Agen­cies, Helen Pitt Gallery, Sep­tem­ber 2004.

_________. ​“Per­for­ma­tive Utter­ances in Pho­tog­ra­phy” in Pre­fix Pho­to, Spring 2004.

_________. ​“Saddam’s Arms” in Pub­lic Mag­a­zine, Win­ter 2004.

_________. ​“Cast down­ward”, exhi­bi­tion essay for Jere­my Todd, Xeno Gallery, Jan. 2004

_________. ​“One Thou­sand Miles of Dust and Ash­es by Lucy Pullen”, Cana­di­an Art Mag­a­zine, Fall 2003.

_________. ​“Songstress by Althea Thauberg­er”, Cana­di­an Art Mag­a­zine, Spring 2003.

_________. ​“I love you” in Gillian Wear­ing: A Tril­o­gy (exhi­bi­tion catalogue),Vancouver: Van­cou­ver Art Gallery, 2002.

_________. ​“on loca­tion” in Fac­ing His­to­ry: Por­traits from Van­cou­ver, Van­cou­ver: Arse­nal Pulp Press/Presentation House Gallery, 2002.

_________. ​“These days” (review), Last Call, vol. 1, issue 2, Van­cou­ver: Mor­ris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2001.

_________. ​“Cor­po­re­al Returns,” Cana­di­an Art Mag­a­zine, Toron­to, 2001.

book reviews

Vanes­sa Kwan, ​“On the hori­zon (cast­ing shad­ows): Van­cou­ver art, economies and the pit­falls of suc­cess,” Fuse Mag­a­zine, 29:2, 2006, pp. 45–47

Mar­cel Dane­si, ​“Sign after the x,” Toron­to: Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Quar­ter­ly, vol­ume 73, num­ber 1, Win­ter 2003/4

Megan Purn, ​“Sign after the x,” The Port­land Mer­cury, Vol­ume 11, Sept. 5–11, 2002.

Anne Bor­den, ​“Sign after the x,” The Dan­forth Review, www.danforthreview.com/review/nonfiction/roy.htm

Gale Zoe Gar­nett, ​“This book is x‑rated,” The Globe and Mail, Sat. Feb­ru­ary 2, 2002, D4.

Anne Flem­ing, ​“Eunoia/Sign after the x,” The Geor­gia Straight, Jan. 31-Feb. 7 2002, vol. 36, no.1780.

Ron Nur­wisah, ​“Sign after the x,” The Ubyssey, vol. 83, issue 27, Jan. 2002, p. 5.

Valerie MacEwen, ​“The impos­si­bil­i­ty of a cos­mo­log­i­cal proof of the exis­tence of x,” Pop­mat­ters (web­site), 2001.

 

residencies

Glo­gauAIR, Berlin, 2010

Cana­da Coun­cil Inter­na­tion­al Res­i­den­cy, Paris Stu­dio, 2010

AxeNeo7/Daimon, Gatineau, Que­bec, 2009

 

awards/grants

VIVAAward 2010

HSS­Grant (UBC) 2008

Hamp­ton Research Award (UBC) 2005

SSHRC– Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties Research Coun­cil of Cana­da (Research/ Cre­ation Grant in Fine Arts) 2004

Cana­da Coun­cil Cre­ative Pro­duc­tion Grant 2003

Cana­da Coun­cil Cre­ative Pro­duc­tion Grant 2002

B.C. Bin­ning Fel­low­ship Award (UBC) 1998

UBCFine Arts Book Award 1998

William Souter Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ship (NSCAD) 1993

Cen­ten­ni­al Foun­da­tion Schol­ar­ship (NSCAD) 1993