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Artist Talk Saturday, February 25, 4PM

SFU Woodward's

Room 2555 2nd Floor

149 West Hastings St.

Free Admission

Artspeak is pleased to present a talk by Vancouver-based artist Samuel Roy-Bois, presented in conjunction with his solo exhibition, I had a great trip despite a brutal feeling of cognitive dissonance, on view at Artspeak from February 4 – March 17, 2012.

Reconfiguring and partitioning the gallery, I had a great trip… demonstrates the artist’s continued interest in the deconstruction of space. An enclosed living area – inhabited by a stranger free of charge for the duration of the exhibition – will be made private with no public access, its occupant given full authority over its usage. Paired with the built environment is a voice recording that furthers the gallery’s transformation into an intimate place of residence.

Through concealment, the installation portrays a character with a double identity – the individual that we hear and try to visualize and the one that we will never see and may occasionally hear. By juxtaposing the viewer and the occupant’s respective experiences, Roy-Bois creates an uncanny moment in which they imagine each other, creating a new imagined reality. In addition to bringing forward notions of estrangement, space retribution, and struggles for power, the exhibition contributes to an ongoing discussion in Vancouver about how land in the city is divided, occupied, and used.

Originally from Quebec City, Roy-Bois currently resides in Vancouver. He received his BFA from Université Laval in Quebec (1996) and an MFA from Concordia University in Montréal (2001). His installations have been shown across Canada and internationally. Solo exhibitions include Polarizer, Southern Alberta Art Gallery (2009), Let us, then, be up an doing..., Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2008); Divertissements, Point éphémère, Paris (2007); Improbable and ridiculous, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2006); J'ai entendu un bruit, je me suis sauvé, Or Gallery, Vancouver (2003). He is currently artist-in-residence at Langara College, Vancouver.