The Polygon Gallery presents the North American premiere of Jeremy Shaw’s latest and largest production to date, Phase Shifting Index, which was created for his solo exhibition in the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Phase Shifting Index depicts seven autonomous groups engaged in embodied, movement-based belief systems that aspire to induce parallel realities. Employing various outmoded 20th-century media, ranging from 16mm film to Hi-8 video tape, Shaw presents what appears to be documentary footage as the distant future, creating cognitive dissonance within the viewers’ relation to a sense of place and time.

The dress, style and choreography of the subjects suggest found historical footage from the 1960s to the 1990s. Through variations of modern dance, popping and locking, jump-style, hardcore skanking, and trust exercises, they explore the potentials of physically altering reality.

At the peak of the dramatic action, the films begin to come undone in an ecstatic chaos that lands the entire seven-channel installation in a cross-temporal choreographic sync. This cohesive moment of dance spans across decades of time and media. Suddenly, all screens rupture in a meltdown of digital visual effects that consume the installation.

About Jeremy Shaw
A North Vancouver-born artist now based in Berlin, Jeremy Shaw works in a variety of media to explore altered states and the cultural and scientific practices that aspire to map transcendental experience. Often combining and amplifying strategies of verité filmmaking, conceptual art, music video and scientific research, he creates a post-documentary space in which disparate belief-systems and histories are thrown into an interpretive limbo. Shaw has had solo exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, Paris, MoMA PS1, New York, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, and MOCA, Toronto, and been featured in international surveys such as the 57th Venice Biennale and Manifesta 11. Shaw’s work is held in public collections worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; and Sammlung zeitgenössische Kunst der Bundesrepublik.

“Phase Shifting Index is powerful not only because it portrays transcendent experience, but because it induces that same experience in its viewers. Shaw’s questioning and validation of the ecstatic… is taken to a different level here. We are not just watching hypnosis; we are being hypnotized.” —Frieze

“Shaw doesn’t need conventional language to transport his concepts; his talent lies in allowing spectators to become integral to the work before they know it. It’s not so much about what we’re seeing or hearing, but how it makes us feel.” —Wallpaper

Please note: this exhibition contains flashing lights.

Polygon Gallery Hours:

Monday and Tuesday – Closed

Wednesday – 10am to 5pm

Thursday – 10am to 8pm

Friday, Saturday, Sunday – 10am to 5pm

A showcase of work in The Polygon Gallery’s art auction fundraiser.

Works on view at The Polygon September 21 – November 12 during Gallery hours. Private viewings and tours are available by appointment. For these, and all inquiries, contact: auction@thepolygon.ca.

The auction site goes live for bidding September 21. Sign up below to receive Art Auction updates.

Receive Auction Updates

Art Auction 2023 Participating Artists
Rebecca Bair, Maya Beaudry, Charles Campbell, Rydel Cerezo, Jorian Charlton, Steven Cottingham, Erika DeFreitas, Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes, Juliana Huxtable, Luther Konadu, Abraham Oghobase, Skawennati, Manuel Axel Strain, Vilhelm Sundin, Svava Tergesen, Theo Terry, Graeme Wahn, Katayoon Yousefbigloo, and Charlotte Zhang.

Special Thanks To
Rick Erickson and Donna Partridge, Howard and Coleen Nemtin, Monica Reyes, Diana Sawers, and Terry Turner.

Polygon Gallery hours:

Join us for a screening and conversation with Jeremy Shaw as we celebrate the closing of Phase Shifting Index.

5pm Doors
5:15pm Screening of Quickeners
5:45pm Conversation between Jeremy Shaw and The Polygon’s Audain Chief Curator Monika Szewczyk
6:15pm Reception

RSVPs are helpful

RSVP HERE

About Quickeners
Dir: Jeremy Shaw
36 mins
2014

Set 500 years in the future, Quickeners tells the story of “Human Atavism Syndrome,” an obscure disorder afflicting a tiny portion of the Quantum Human population to desire and feel as their Human Being predecessors once did. A species wirelessly interconnected to The Hive, Quantum Humans have evolved to operate solely on pure rational thought and they have achieved immortality. Quickeners reworks archival documentary footage from a gathering of Pentecostal Christian snake handlers to illustrate the story. As it unfolds, an authoritative Quantum Human narrator comments on what we witness: indecipherable testimonials, sermons, songs, prayers, convulsive dancing, speaking-in-tongues, serpent handling, and ecstatic states that Quantum Humans define as “Quickening.”

Join us for a cedar brushing ceremony led by The Polygon Gallery’s Joelle Johnston.

Ceremony starts at 12pm noon, gathering outside The Polygon’s entrance (east side).

Coffee and tea after.

In honour of Rebecca Belmore’s Hacer Memoria and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, The Polygon Gallery will be providing space for Indigenous people to heal through ceremony. The ceremony will witness the cleansing of Hacer Memoria, and cedar brushing will be offered to residential school survivors, and their descendants.

Yúustway means take care of one another in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh.

The final day to see Hacer Memoria and its companion piece Severance is October 1.

RSVPs are helpful

RSVP Here

About Cedar Brushing
Cedar brushing is a traditional form of medicine used to help clear the mind and body of negativity and uplift the spirit. Much like smudging, the people along the West Coast use cedar boughs and water to brush off people or objects that need cleansing and healing.

About Hacer Memoria
Hacer Memoria is an outdoor sculpture that extends along the top of The Polygon Gallery’s east-facing façade. This public artwork consists of nine oversized blue and orange shirts sewn from tarpaulins The long-sleeved shirts, which hang in a row with the backs facing out, are each emblazoned with a single letter. Together the letters spell “hereafter.”

The title of the work is taken from the Pope’s penitential speech in which he recognized the importance of remembering the devastating impacts of the residential school system. Belmore co-opts his phrase “hacer memoria,” or “try to remember,” by highlighting the challenges of not forgetting. In colours that carry significance – blue for the uniforms that students wore and orange to mark the resilience of survivors – the provocative artwork offers an opportunity to acknowledge Indigenous people. Invoking the word “hereafter,” the artist places emphasis on the troubled present and unknown futures.

Hacer Memoria is accompanied by another installation in The Polygon Gallery’s stairwell, Severance. The sculpture, made of plastic mesh tarpaulin, is suggestive of black hair in a reminder of the dark history of Indian Residential Schools, in which the hair of Indigenous children was regularly shorn.

A showcase of work in The Polygon Gallery’s art auction fundraiser.

Works on view at The Polygon September 21 – November 12 during Gallery hours. Private viewings and tours are available by appointment. For these, and all inquiries, contact: auction@thepolygon.ca.

The auction site goes live for bidding September 21. Sign up below to receive Art Auction updates.

Receive Auction Updates

Art Auction 2023 Participating Artists
Rebecca Bair, Maya Beaudry, Charles Campbell, Rydel Cerezo, Jorian Charlton, Steven Cottingham, Erika DeFreitas, Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes, Juliana Huxtable, Luther Konadu, Abraham Oghobase, Skawennati, Manuel Axel Strain, Vilhelm Sundin, Svava Tergesen, Theo Terry, Graeme Wahn, Katayoon Yousefbigloo, and Charlotte Zhang.

Special Thanks To
Rick Erickson and Donna Partridge, Howard and Coleen Nemtin, Monica Reyes, Diana Sawers, and Terry Turner.

Polygon Gallery hours:

Join The Polygon Gallery for a book signing with acclaimed photographers Alessandra Sanguinetti and Jim Goldberg. Copies of Sanguinetti’s newly re-released edition of On the Sixth Day and Goldberg’s latest book Coming and Going (both from MACK Books) will be available for purchase and signing.

RSVPs are helpful

RSVP Here

About the Artists
Alessandra Sanguinetti is an Argentine/American photographer, based in California. Her monographs include On the Sixth Day, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic meaning of their Dreams, The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer, Le Gendarme Sur la Colline; Sorry, Welcome, and Some Say Ice. She’s a recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, Hasselblad Foundation Grant, Sundance development grant, Robert Gardner Peabody Fellowship, and a Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award. Her photographs are in various public and private collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is a member of Magnum Photos since 2007.
@alessandra_sanguinetti

Jim Goldberg’s innovative use of image and text make him a landmark photographer of our times. His long-term projects include Rich and Poor (1977-85), Raised by Wolves (1985-95), and Open See (2003-2011), for which he was awarded the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2011. Goldberg’s works are in numerous collections including the: Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Getty, LACMA, National Gallery of Art, Alinari National Museum of Photography in Florence, Le Musee de la Photographie, Belgium, and Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany. Goldberg is represented by Casemore Kirkeby Gallery in San Francisco, and is a member of Magnum Photos.
@goldbergjim

Meet Me at The Gallery is a new daytime art program dedicated to enriching the lives of adults and seniors in our community with monthly get-togethers inspired by the gallery’s current exhibitions. Visitors are invited to drop-in on the first Wednesday of every month at 10:00 am to make new connections with art, and each other! A different activity will greet visitors every month, with social time to follow.

Coffee is on us!

Advance registration below is appreciated, but walk-ins are always welcome.

Come get creative on the first Saturday and Sunday of the month with a day of art-making and fun. Kids First is an opportunity for families of all kinds to create an in-house art project, based on the exhibitions being shown in the Gallery.

The projects are geared towards children ranging in age from 5 to 12 years old, though there is no age requirement to participate. All children must be accompanied by an adult. The projects are geared towards children ranging in age from 3 to 12 years old, though there is no age requirement to participate. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Admission is by donation, courtesy of BMO Financial Group. Always free for members.

Advance registration is helpful. Drop ins always welcome.

We can’t wait to get creative with you!

Walk between realms where the supernatural and physical bodies come together in an evening showcase of light, sound, movement, and poetry. “Multong Bakla: A Silent Presence of Beauty” is a divine communal summoning of queer Filipina/o/x spirits, exploring the enigmatic connections across seas and starlight.

Multong Bakla is a ghostly haunting that includes trans-pacific other-worldly projected performances by artists based in the Philippines, combined with live performances by artists based in Canada. The performance was coordinated by Zeus Bascon (PH) and Jordan Baylon (CAN) and inspired by two community-building artist workshops.

Doors 6:30pm
Performances 7pm
Artist Q&A 8pm
RSVPs are helpful

RSVP Here

*Content Notes: Many elements of this performance incorporate Baybayin (or Alibata), a pre-colonial Philippine script being reclaimed through this process as a tool for queer Filipina/o/x peoples to connect and their histories through gesture-making, choreography and composition.

Philippines-based artists: Alaga (performer), Zeus Bascon (performer, costume designer, choreographer), Althea Pagdagdagan (vocals), Gabe Tiano (music)

Canada-based performers: Jordan Baylon (poetry), Eris Fitz-James (comedy), Jose Macasinag (live-projection), Joshua Ongcol (dance)

Maraming salamat to our workshop kapwa: Keith Boniol, Alicia Buates-McKenzie, Fiona Cardino, Lanice Chep, Mark Conanan, Ethan Dailo, Lawrence Manuel, Tet Millare, Pette Shabu, Tiffany Thomas, Olive Villanueva

A showcase of work in The Polygon Gallery’s art auction fundraiser.

Works on view at The Polygon September 21 – November 12 during Gallery hours. Private viewings and tours are available by appointment. For these, and all inquiries, contact: auction@thepolygon.ca.

The auction site goes live for bidding September 21. Sign up below to receive Art Auction updates.

Receive Auction Updates

Art Auction 2023 Participating Artists
Rebecca Bair, Maya Beaudry, Charles Campbell, Rydel Cerezo, Jorian Charlton, Steven Cottingham, Erika DeFreitas, Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes, Juliana Huxtable, Luther Konadu, Abraham Oghobase, Skawennati, Manuel Axel Strain, Vilhelm Sundin, Svava Tergesen, Theo Terry, Graeme Wahn, Katayoon Yousefbigloo, and Charlotte Zhang.

Special Thanks To
Rick Erickson and Donna Partridge, Howard and Coleen Nemtin, Monica Reyes, Diana Sawers, and Terry Turner.

Polygon Gallery hours:

Meet Me at The Gallery is a new daytime art program dedicated to enriching the lives of adults and seniors in our community with monthly get-togethers inspired by the gallery’s current exhibitions. Visitors are invited to drop-in on the first Wednesday of every month at 10:00 am to make new connections with art, and each other! A different activity will greet visitors every month, with social time to follow.

Coffee is on us!

Advance registration below is appreciated, but walk-ins are always welcome.

Meet Me at The Gallery is a new daytime art program dedicated to enriching the lives of adults and seniors in our community with monthly get-togethers inspired by the gallery’s current exhibitions. Visitors are invited to drop-in on the first Wednesday of every month at 10:00 am to make new connections with art, and each other! A different activity will greet visitors every month, with social time to follow.

Coffee is on us!

Advance registration below is appreciated, but walk-ins are always welcome.