Comprised of short stories, video installations, drawings, and paintings, HOST successfully reinterprets the online gallery format.
Third Space, Saint John’s home to contemporary art and practice has launched a new interactive art project curated by Amy Ash. HOST is part exhibition, part video game, and features work by eleven contemporary artists from across Canada: rudi aker, Anna Binta Diallo, Séamus Gallagher, Maggie Higgins, Emily Kennedy, Caroline Monnet, respectfulchild, Lou Sheppard, Rachel M Thornton, Winnie Truong, and KC Wilcox.
“I began the work of conceptualizing HOST before the pandemic, when bodies around the world became carriers of a fast spreading virus that forced us to adjust the ways in which we gather,” says curator Amy Ash. “My initial concerns for the project were rooted in exploring the power of hospitality to subvert hostility, divisiveness, and destruction. I hoped to magnify instances of care, reciprocity, and kinship as an act of resistance against xenophobia, tightening borders, and the escalating climate crises.”
Comprised of short stories, video installations, drawings, and paintings, HOST reinterprets the online gallery format that became the dominant means of showcasing work over the past year or so. Complete with an animated tour guide, the exhibition is both welcoming and engaging, presenting a vast mix of contemporary art projects that tackle issues of community, politics and multiculturalism while challenging expectations of how art can be viewed and experienced in an online format.
HOST will be available from June 17 until September 17, 2021 at hostproject.net
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About Third Space Gallery
Third Space is an itinerant artist-run centre for contemporary art in Saint John, New Brunswick that is committed to representing local, regional and national professional contemporary artists. Third Space highlights the work of emerging and established artists who cross disciplines and boundaries in their examinations of contemporary culture.
