A new exhibition at Burnaby Art Gallery is offering up a unique perspective on where the centre of the world lies.
On Fixing Position, which runs at the gallery from June 1 to 24, features the work of Vancouver-based contemporary conceptual artist Lyndl Hall.
A press release from the gallery notes that the exhibition encompasses a three-part multimedia conceptual project.
The first is structured around an installation of two intersecting walls that are intended to be lines of longitude and latitude that will traverse the gallery and create new boundaries, extending outside to travel across the garden.
The second is an artist book recreating an old nautical almanac - and, as an extension of the book, a poster repositioning Vancouver as the Prime Meridian at zero degrees.
The third and final component is a looping video, edited together from the artist's home garden in South Africa in the 1980s and '90s, showing placid pastoral scenes in contrast to the political nature of South Africa at the time.
Hall, born in South Africa and now based in Vancouver, explores lines and line-makers as a means for constructing and navigating the spaces we inhabit.
On Fixing Position explores navigational grids and instruments such as the sextant, compass and sundial.
"The gallery is committed to presenting internationally recognized artists whose work exhibits a diverse spectrum of concepts and images," said Darrin Martins, director-curator of Burnaby Art Gallery.
"Hall's inventive approach to fixing latitutde and longitude as invisible structuring lines will change the gallery visitor's perception of space, time and movement, as the intersecting walls will carve up the architectural space of the gallery to create new areas, boundaries and experiences for bodies to move in."
Martens notes that the latitude line will extend out through the gallery door, cut across the balcony and travel across the garden, transforming from wood to chalk lines.
The Burnaby Art Gallery is at 6344 Deer Lake Ave.
For more information, call 604-297-4422 or check out the gallery's website at www.burnabyartgallery. ca.
