Art Galleries

This content was published: August 30, 2017. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.

Michelle Weinstein

Sylvania North View Gallery

Old Powerhouse

Artwork

  • August 30 to October 21, 2017: Artist in residence
  • Closing reception and gallery talk: Thursday, October 19, 2-5pm

Old Powerhouse is an experimental artwork that centers upon two architectural forms: the pyramids of Ancient Egypt, and an electrical powerhouse located on the University of British Columbia campus. In the artwork, they are both encountered as monumental projections of history, and used to question the invisible forces that shape the production of the tale of western civilization. Rather than traditional narrative form, the work proposes an alternative historical model; an abstract dialogue describing massive energies, condense and diffuse.

Composed of a large pyramidical form, an animation which uses the chaotic logic of the Internet, and steam, the work brings a dynamic questioning to the processes within the gallery. Are they enacting the slow deterioration of a ruin, or the messy first stirrings of life? It is an embodiment of our own strange historical moment; old gods of energy and light groaning, perched between giving life and destroying it.

With collaborative assistance from Andrzej Bochnacki, Eric Angus, and Daniel Phillips. Special thanks to Josephine Hass, Henry John, Chris Mills, Shannen Muhl, Jag Sharma, James Torcov, and the employees and engineers of the UBC Powerhouse.

  • Large scale sculpture made of wood, in a pyramidal form, resembling a jungle jim play structure. Wood is painted black; in the center of framelike structure is a wooden box.
  • Large scale sculpture made of wood, in a pyramidal form, resembling a jungle jim play structure. Wood is painted black; in the center of framelike structure is a wooden box.
  • Large scale sculpture made of wood, in a pyramidal form, resembling a jungle jim play structure. Wood is painted black; in the center of framelike structure is a wooden box.
  • Detail view of wooden framed rectilinear sculpture, a black wooden box is in center.
  • Black wooden box with video monitor in foreground, wooden rectilinear frame behind box, gallery windows in background.

Gallery hours: Monday – Friday 8am-4pm, Saturday 11am-4pm

Directions: Follow signs to the bookstore and visitor parking. The gallery is located in the Communications and Technology (CT) building, adjacent to the bookstore, on the NE corner of campus.