FYI
The first one is Oct 9th at 7:00-pm for:
Art Exhibit Speaks Up for Children of Drug Addicts
Spoilage: Speaking Out on Behalf of Children of Drug Addicts
by: Bernadine Fox BFA
Bernadine Fox is a visual artist and writer with a BFA from Emily Carr University who is raising her daughter’s child due to drug addiction. She recently took the Provincial Government to the Human Rights Tribunal in a precedent-setting case over how the Ministry of Family and Child Services is abdicating their responsibility to these children and, therefore, causing unnecessary re-victimization. For those invested with the power to protect children, drug addiction, trafficking, or manufacturing does not equate to a child at risk despite living in grow-ups full of mould and pesticides, exposed to toxic chemicals in meth labs or the drug culture in general. Even Canada’a Drug Strategy and Vancouver’s Four Pillars Program have one notable oversight: the drug addict’s child. While their addicted parents are offered a multitude of services such as needles, injection sites, and free treatment, there are few to no services for their children who are literally abandoned to cope on their own while being prepped to become the next generation of addicts.
In this art exhibit, Fox allows the message to determine the medium and as such includes mixed media, painting, assemblage, photography, and text along with pieces that encompass sounds and smells. A soothing lullaby emanating from a crib mobile becomes a haunting sound when one realizes drug paraphernalia hangs alongside bright baby items. A nine-foot-by-four-foot painting, The Family Way, recreates a 1957 photograph of one family (see below). The graffiti-like text recounts what has occurred to each of these “happy” family members (mom, dad, and three young children) during the last fifty some years. Based on a true story, the fallout from the drug and alcohol abuse of the parents becomes not just evident but profound. An altered storybook Nana and the Kali-Alley Kitty recounts a compelling true story of a three-year-old child concerns for her mother who is a drug addict and has been missing for nine months. In It’s Just a Party glasses filled with liquor are located on top of children’s play blocks. Mommy and Me Kit is a reminiscent of the types of “works” kits put together by addicts except this one also includes a hypodermic needle from a child’s play set.
While not disputing the importance of harm reduction, in this exhibition Fox speaks out for those who are too often incur the consequences of those very programmes and become its collateral damage or Spoilage: their children. There will be a symposium held at Gallery Gachet in conjunction with this exhibition on Oct 20th (all day) to create dialogue around these important issues.
Join her at the Opening of this Exhibit held in the heart of the DTES
Oct 9th, 2009 @ 7:00 pm
Gallery Gachet
88 E. Cordova St.
Vancouver, BC
Info: 604 687-2468
Show runs from Oct 9 to Nov 1 2009
with Sympoisum on Oct 20th
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The second one is Oct. 7th at 6:30 pm
Art Exhibition: Transgressions
By: Bernadine Fox BFA
It is estimated that 65% of psychiatrists know of a colleague who has sexually exploited a client (primarily female). This work explores the emotional damage incurred when a therapist disregards his/her professional boundaries and engages a client in a sexual relationship. Bernadine has assembled several pieces inside black boxes. She calls these “memory boxes.” Chasing Equity is an assortment of items precariously housed in a 4″ x 4″ black wooden box. Secrets is an old clamp assembled with a real secret in its clutches and positioned in such a manner that it is impossible to open the clamp and/or reveal the secret. Dirty Laundry refers to what it feels like to disclose abuse that occurs in adulthood when one is supposed to be healing from and, therefore, stopping that very type of abuse. Pulling the Stakes Outa My Heart is a visual description of the damage caused by a new betrayal. She Hurt the Smallest Parts of Me is a mixed media piece (see below). One, Reframed: Still Ugly, is a work-in-progress and is assembled reusing an oil painting of a counsellor who sexually exploited her client by shredding and then weaving that into a new type of art. Redefinition is a mixed media piece that includes an original hand-pulled print. In addition, Fox has compiled a brochure that includes a short story entitled, “A Cautionary Tale” that explores the emotional fallout for a victim of sexual exploitation by a counsellor and a bibliography and resource list on the topic.
Join her at the Opening of this Exhibit
Oct 7th, 2009 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Britannia Art Gallery
1651 Napier St.
Vancouver BC
Info: 604 874-2587
Show runs from Oct 7 to Oct 30 2009
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