SCOTT BILLINGS & JOSH HITE: STAIRWELL

JULY 23, 2016 –  JULY 29, 2016

Reception: Wed, July 27, 7-9pm

Open by appointment only: July 23 – 29, 2016

Shot inside a hidden stairwell located within the Burrard Bridge, Hite and Billings’ video installation documents this forgotten space by unraveling its 60-foot helical architecture onto the horizontal plane of the gallery wall. Drifting between structures of surveillance and cinema, the peripatetic quality of the never-ending long take proposes to open its archive, stirring up fleeting moments of narrative and revealing traces of past inhabitants that have entered the space since its permanent closure back in 1932. Stairwell examines the ambulatory nature of memory and the ways in which movement itself—as both virtual video and physical motion rig—can become analogous to the space of possibility.

Special thanks to Dan Misri for generously lending the space for this offsite installation. The artists gratefully acknowledge the support of the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.