Unpacked and Reheated
works by Steven Rayner and Brendan Fernandes 

Opening Friday, March 2 at 8pm
Artists Talks Saturday, March 3 at Noon

Unpacked and Reheated, a two-person installation featuring work by Brendan Fernandes and Steven Rayner, questions the uneasy alliance of tourism, place, culture and the environment. Unpacked and Reheated opens at 8pm on Friday evening, March 2 at Open Space, 510 Fort Street. Artists talks will follow the next day, Saturday March 3 at noon.

Both artists take a fresh look at ‘culture’s nature.’ Brendan Fernandes work was initially inspired by the artificial gardens he encountered in his hometown of London ON, which recreated yard-scaled African savannah. As an Indian born in Kenya and raised in Canada, the gardens seemed an apt, but unexpected, expression of colonial or post-colonial subject positions. Fernandes’ installation includes souvenir objects within a setting that emphasizes the hyper-commercialized values of tourism, itself a particular type of migratory behaviour. Steven Rayner tinkers with the heroic presence of trophy mammals. His scenarios are a bionic equivalent to the popular genre of wildlife art, simultaneously satisfying and irritating.

Brendan Fernandes most recent project was On Safari at the McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario. Fernandes has recently relocated to participate in the Independent Studies Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Steven Rayner’s quirky work has been exhibited across Canada, most recently in Tranformer Man at Access Art in Vancouver. Rayner is a Sessional lecturer in the Department of Visual Arts, University of Victoria.

until April 7