Gabrielle Desrosiers | Gao Yujie

Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, Kelowna B.C

Gabrielle Desrosiers, A Vision, 2022, Collage in model, digital photography, print on archival paper. Image courtesy of the artist.

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is pleased to present new work by two emerging artists: Gabrielle Desrosiers’ But What Did You Come Here For, and Gao Yujie’s Flowing to Unsettle, on view from March 24 through May 6, 2023.

Gabrielle Desrosiers’ practice navigates between performance and installation where she brings together mediums such as photography, sculpture, video and found objects. She approaches installation in a scenographic manner and is interested in the notion of reconfiguration of the panorama. Tinged with humor, Desrosiers’ work is colorful and explores themes of legacy and the concept of self-construction.

But What Did You Come Here For presents, primarily, 3D collages (micro-installations in model format) and a new series of sculptures in the form of assemblages where fragments of objects and materials collected by the artist are grouped together. In this exhibition, Desrosiers has invested herself in the creation of “false artifacts for the future.” In her assemblages, Desrosiers explores the artifact-object as a symbol of ruin, of a physical entity or of a bygone era. Inspired by artificial “ruins” she saw on a trip to Italy, Desrosiers questions here the reading of these objects. Are they imbued with a new character or rather with a form of erasure through addition? Are they tainted by our time or an illusion of it?

Gao Yujie, The Away Time Since 20171227, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.

While Gabrielle Desrosiers work examines time in the forms of artifacts and legacy, Gao Yujie explores time in a more dynamic nature.

Gao Yujie uses time as an artistic material to create participatory durational performances. By exploring the elastic nature of experiential time, her work investigates how performative computational art can be used for inhabiting a multiplicity of times and how we can hold space together collectively while having individualized temporal perceptions. Her work invites participants to engage with their own temporal perception in an embodied experience where they are encouraged to slow down, reflect, and connect with the environment.

Flowing to Unsettle invites participants to explore the elasticity of experiential time through a durational performance that takes place over six weeks in the Project Gallery at the Alternator. Gao aims to open up new possibilities for artistic expression of understanding and relating to time and foster meaningful exchanges and challenges viewers to consider their own relationship to time, and to reflect on the ways in which time shapes our lives and experiences.

Both But What Did You Come Here For and Flowing to Unsettle will be on view from March 24, 2023 to May 6, 2023.

About the Artists

Gabrielle Desrosiers holds a diploma in scenography from Saint-Hyacinthe Theatre School, a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal and from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. She is a recipient of the Irene F. Whittome Prize in Visual Arts as well as the Prix Relève from the Conseil de la culture de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Desrosiers has exhibited extensively across Quebec, with this exhibition being her first debut in British Columbia. Originally from Quebec City, she currently resides in the Magdalen Islands.

Gao Yujie is an interdisciplinary media artist and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia. Gao uses time as a primary artistic material to explore the aesthetic forms of duration. Through performative actions such as drawing with different timeframes, her work delves into the essence of experiential temporality, both physically and digitally, examining how it can be stretched, compressed, and reconfigured in ways that challenge our everyday perceptions. Her research focuses on how performative computational art can inhabit and evoke different sensations of time.

About the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of our creative community.

Since 1989, the Alternator has shown the work of emerging Canadian artists and helped develop the talents of local artists by providing a network of collaboration and sharing. The Alternator fosters energetic, creative, critical discussion on art & culture. The Alternator believes in the greater positive potential of our creative community and values our role as a key contributor to the cultural life of Kelowna and beyond.

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art respectfully acknowledges its presence on the unceded territory of the syilx (Okanagan) people.

Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art
#103 – 421 Cawston Ave, Kelowna B.C.
www.alternatorcentre.com
info@alternatorcentre.com
(250) 868-2298

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Accessibility:
The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is situated within the Rotary Centre for the Arts, which is fully accessible.