Wil Aballe Art Projects Partnership
Wil Aballe Art Project September 2017-present
Gallery assistant
Nov 16 was the opening of Marina Roy’s solo exhibition Dirty Clouds. Marina is my VISA 370 Animation prof, I was really excited to know that she was going to exhibit at WAAP! She has 80 paintings hanging at the gallery space, and there are being grouped into different sections. Her concept consists of matter and anti-matter, I took it as a nihilism approach.
I arrived at WAAP earlier that day and helped set up reception with lots of wines and cups. I was in charge of being a bar tender that night. The first visitor was my classmate Makiko, then some of my other friends came. I was really glad that they all came to visit, I started a circle of conversation and introduce them to each others. After a while I saw lots of UBC profs and TA came to the exhibition, also my favourite TA Matt. WAAP was full of people and some of them have to stay outside. Marina was busy talking to everyone and so much socializing going on. I was glad that this opening is not as intimidating as other ones I been to that, I didn’t get any sense of exclusion here. Instead, people are so open to have a conversation with each other. I was constantly serving wine for them, and I guess alcohol helps a lot to open people up. It was a fun night and we finished around 10 pm. Wil and Jeff took Jeffrey and I to Tacofino after opening was finished.
Deinstalling Patrick Cruz’s solo exhibition – Quarantine of Difference was defiantly the toughest task I encountered. Patrick graffitied texts onto the gallery walls, and these texts were taken from different essays that critique gentrification. This fragmented texts emphasize a destabilizing phenomenon through gentrification. They evoke anxious and skepticism towards modernization. There are several geometric abstraction paintings on the floor that can be read as landscape.
On the last day of Patrick’s exhibition, we took the role of deinstalling all the works and repaint the wall white agin. With previous experience of packaging works, it wasn’t challenge for me to bubble wrap all the paintings on the floor with the help from a volunteer. However, when it comes to painting the wall, I was not really sure how to start it. I dipped roller in the white paint then painted the wall, but and it wasn’t enough coverage the graffiti. We painted the wall all over the gallery and waited for it to dry. Then painted another layer, until 6 coats of paints, the graffiti still can be see-through. We arrived at WAAP at 5 pm, by then time we decided to leave was already 10 pm. Working with Wil and Jeffrey was so much fun, we were making jokes and playing music while working. It made me feel like it was hanging out with friends instead of working. We were not satisfied with the result because the wall was still a bit messy with the see-through texts, Jeffrey decided to come back and help the next day.
Artist Patrick Cruz: http://www.patrickcruz.org
<Images on email>
One of my favourite task is to promote WAAP on social media. Wil said MOMA has a Weibo account and so should WAAP, I agreed. With the privilege of being a trilingual, I was really excited to open a Weibo account for WAAP! (Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website. It is one of the most popular social media sites in China, similar to Twitter in the US market) I took a brief info from WAAP website:
“Founded in 2013, Wil Aballe Art Projects, which shortens into the onomatopoeic word WAAP, exhibits local and international artists, notably the innovative younger generation of Vancouver art practitioners. The program is comprised of a series of interdisciplinary, concept-oriented and space-based exhibitions in a variety of media including sculpture, video, sound, painting, printmaking, photography and performance. Its editions program feature contributions by the brightest Canadian artists internationally and are coveted by collectors. The gallery operates somewhat nomadically, having shifted into 3 distinctly different locations (an open-concept apartment, a spare warehouse, and a unit in a historical building that dates back to gold-rush era Vancouver) since conception and hosting several “off-site projects” as the art demands.”
And translated it into Chinese, posted in WAAP’s Weibo account. Which become the very first post. I repost it into my personal Weibo account and also my WeChat account (the most popular Chinese social media application software), with catchy caption. Unfortunately growing a new account takes lots of time and interaction with other users on the platform, it’s still not mature yet. We only have 480 views on the post, and not that many followers.
Wil gave me access to WAAP’s MailChimp, which is a marketing automation platform and an email marketing service. On MailChimp I created an email marketing campaign of the Art Toronto 2017 Preview. Wil will take a selection of art works from 11 artists to the art fair at Toronto. My job was to choose one work I like from each artists and made a teaser/ trailer about what is going to be on the show. It was the highlight of this online marketing experience. Basically it was like creating an ad to our email subscribers. With the use of MailChimp, designing and positioning images are much easier. It eliminates coding.
<Images on email>
Oct 7th
Oct 7th was the last day of Jeff Hallbauer’s solo exhibition – At the Hour of Closing Summer. Usually the last day of any exhibitions are crucial, Wil told me that we were expecting lots of visitors. It was my first time being a gallery reception. Looking at Jeff’s patternistic paintings, all of them depicted vivid and repeated patterns. Through a conversation with Jeff, these paintings were based on specific animation portraitures source material. “Placing these elements up against each other, the paintings are evocative of similar experiments in the deconstructing and parsing of language in modernist poetry.” The repetition of same patterns reminds me artistic labour (immaterial labour from Gielen’s paper The Art Scene Exploitation ) involved to produce the works.
It was a nice Saturday afternoon. At around 1 pm, there was suddenly an large influx of visitors came the gallery. Due to the limited nature of the gallery space, I felt like a host and had the urge coming up to the visitors and talk to them. (Took me a while to realize most gallery receptions don’t need to walk with visitor, I guess I made them feel intimidated) Surprisingly, Marina (my prof) visited with her friends, I was really excited to see her at the gallery! And I felt how the art scene is intertwining people from different projects/ galleries that people come across together. An old gentleman came in a bit later, the first question he asked was how much are these works. I handed him a descriptive booklet and he said he was interested in one of the painting. I told him that this painting was popular because many people said told me it’s their favourite of all. I figure that I can’t give him too much details regarding the concept nor the details, so I called Wil and let Wil explain to him. Turns out they were old friends, and Wil told me later that this gentlemen is WAAP’s loyal customer. We put the painting on hold for him after that phone call.
WAAP is the only commercial gallery in this class, and I feel really lucky to be assigned to WAAP. As my commerce minor background, I’m always interested in the how the business aspect functions in the art scene. This defiantly would a memorable experience.
Artist Jeff Hallbauer: http://www.jeffhallbauer.com/
<images will be attached via email >
Sept 19th
It was the first day I worked at WAAP, after meeting Wil a week earlier. I felt a bit intimidating to work alone especially in my first day of work, my supervisor wasn’t there with me. However I understand that Wil was super busy at that moment. Luckily Wil sent me a really detailed instruction of the work I need to complete at the gallery and a list of supplies I need to get. He told the a specific packing store located close to WAAP and I gathered a huge role of bubble wrap, card box and some tapes there. When I arrived at the gallery, there was a huge crate waiting for me to fill it in with art works. It was going to Toronto next week via Fedex for the art fair.
I start bubble wrapping some art works left at the gallery. Here is something I learnt from Wil about packaging art works:
With the knowledge from Wil, I finished packaging earlier and placed them into the huge crate.
Wil also asked me to go through artist Kim Kennedy Austin’s works and choose 5 perler beads and 5 scratch art pieces that resonate most with me and what I think are the most saleable at the art fair. I also did a little installation mockup. Wil came back to the gallery as soon as he finished work and just to check on me. He helped me pick up the works and clean up.
Wil is a really busy person, but he devolved so much time giving me instruction in the emails just to get me familiarized with my works. I felt really grateful.
<we already exceeded photo upload limited, I’ll attach photos in email>
WAAP uses a grassroots approach by utilizing its space to provide a medium for emerging young artist to get their art into the Vancouver art scene. My painting using the colors green and brown to symbolized this grassroots approach, green and brown mean grass growing from the soil. The use of red and white in the symbolic soil area represents WAAP by using its primary logo colors. This strongly suggests that WAAP is fundamental to the development of young artists. The art piece is painted with a fluid texture to symbolize the variety and intertwining nature of the work involved at WAAP. Wil’s role at WAAP consists of being a curator, art collector, and gallerist. My experience working at WAAP also consists of different tasks, such as, gallery reception, social media, editing newsletter subscription email, serve wine for the opening, deinstallation and so on. This work has a vertical orientation which mimics the gesture of creating the fluid texture. I used resin on top to preserve the paints like how I will treasure and remember this wonderful experience working with Wil.
My partnership with WAAP allowed me to connect with Wil on a personal level. Wil has given me the opportunity to go beyond my potential, I never knew that I had this potential in me and Wil brought it out by mentoring me and establishing connections through the gallery. He also taught me things that I have never learnt before, he even coached me in facing one of my greatest fears – public speaking.
Through all the challenges that occurred, I learnt a lot about Wil, we established a relationship far beyond just being colleagues, he is not only a mentor, but also became a close friend to me. As the director of WAAP gallery, Wil has always had a tight schedule where he has no time to even take a break, almost every 15 minutes he would have to rush off to do various tasks.
I remember him complimenting on my outfits and asked me where I usually purchase my clothes. I told him that most of my clothing do not have brands nor are do have a hefty price tag. Fashion has only been an area where I can express my personality, it also gives me a boost in self-esteem. I believe that Wil’s personality would shine brighter if he took the time to dress better, due to his busy schedule, he tends to neglect these sorts of trivial matters, as he often wears similar clothing, I believe that he is far more than what he showcases in his outfits. Therefore, this creative response is to show Wil and everyone else that even fashion, such minuscule function can play a significant role in someones life.
Clothing contains a piece of one’s identity, creating a lasting and unique impression of each individual. I believe that one’s style reveals aspects of their personality, after getting to know Wil and more about him, I wanted a way for others to see his personality through his style and choice in clothing. Therefore, for this assignment I created a package consisting of outfits that Wil can mix and match that creates style that suits his palate. These outfits that I chose for Wil are in a minimalistic diverse design, yet versatile for him to attend different occasions and events.
I chose to wrap the package with a pine cone patterned wrapping paper due to its similar shape with the pineal gland in the brain, it serves as a symbolic representation of human enlightenment. Therefore, in a sense, this package is wrapped with “knowledge”. This is also a way for me to show Wil my gratitude for all the knowledge that he has passed on to me, which I am forever grateful for. After this partnership, I will continue seeking knowledge from Wil through our friendship and strong bonds.
*The course blog claims that I have “used all of [my] storage quota of 500MB”. Therefore, this is the only photo that I was able to upload.
