The Rehearsal

This artwork is a staged tableau-style composite photograph depicting a fictional art school rock band from the late 1970s in Vancouver. The photograph reflects my interest in the history of Vancouver art/artists, as well as themes such as self-indentity, masculinity, nostalgia and spectacle, which have been present in my work for several years. All throughout my life I have joked about wishing I could clone myself to form a band. This is an idea which I have now brought to life in this quadruple-self-portrait. The ‘members’ of the band serve not only as a form of creative expression for myself, but also as an investigation into the styles of art school students and punk rockers in the late 1970’s. The band ‘UJ3RK5’ served as another significant inspiration for the work, not only because of the band themselves but because my art practice, in general, is influenced by the artists who played in the band such as Rodney Graham, Jeff Wall, and Ian Wallace. The photograph was created in the basement of 140 West Hastings, just a few doors down from the old SFU studios, a space in which Jeff Wall and UJ3RK5 rehearsed and created several artworks in the seventies.

Shot on large format colour slide film.