Remains

December 13, 2012 – January 6, 2013
Exhibition

About the Program

Working with The City of Vancouver's Transit Shelter Advertising Program, grunt facilitated the production and distribution of posters by Mark Mizgala across the city as an off-site exhibition. Artist Mark Mizgala presented posters of pop bottles and other containers coated in slip, creating a look of ancient clay vessels in this off-site exhibition entitled, Remains. Mizgala investigates contemporary food and beverage packaging, represented as mock archaeological findings. The artwork appears in a form that is intrinsic to advertising: posters printed on commercial-grade paper and displayed in bus shelters across the City of Vancouver. Having worked as an art director for most of his professional career, advertising is familiar territory for Mizgala. He is fascinated by the corporate machine, its by-products, and the manner in which they are presented in popular culture. Mizgala immortalizes on film that which is already immortal: garbage, enjoying a particularly long life in our landfills, rivers, and ocean floors. The poster series is a testament to long-term environmental impact – a sharp contrast to the ephemera of advertising and mass media. The exhibition ran from December 2012 to January 2013, punctuating a seasonal month known for its increased advertising meant to encourage inflated consumerism.

The off-site location of the posters included:
Burrard Street - 28 m north of Pacific, east side
West Georgia - 34 m east of Broughton, south side
Granville Street - 35 m north of Robson, west side
Pacific Blvd - 20 m north of Davie, east side
6th Ave - 77 m west of Cambie, north side
Commercial Drive - 20 m north of East 14th, east side
West 10th - 20 m east of Tolmie, south side
West 16th - 28 m east of Trimble, south side
West 49th - 36 m west of West Blvd, north side

Artist

Mark Mizgala

Identifier

2012.1213 REM

Collection

grunt gallery Programming Archive
​​In copyright. For uses beyond Fair Dealing, research requests, corrections, takedown requests, or other inquiries, please contact grunt gallery: archives@grunt.ca