Rennie Collection at Wing Sang 2016

Intro

The “Everything Is Going To Be Alright” Sign

rennie-01

Who: Rennie Collection at Wing Sang
www.renniecollection.org
What: Contemporary art exhibit
When: Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays (varied times)
Between February and April 30, 2016
Where: The Wing Sang Building
51 East Pender Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 1S9
Canada
Price: FREE, by appointment.
Check out their extended tour dates!

It turns out the Wing Sang Building has been under my radar for a long time… about 3 years. While riding on the SkyTrain, I would sometimes catch a glimpse of those bright white neon words “Everything Is Going To Be Alright”.

Sometimes, they encourage me. Other times, it reminds me how we’ve abandoned Chinatown and its surrounding neighbourhood of homeless people, of drug and alcohol abuse. It reminds me how there is the need for things to be alright, because it’s not.

I never had the intention to find out where exactly and why the sign is there, until I saw it on the Rennie Collection website. And what do you know? The Rennie Collection is a contemporary art museum. If you have been following me, you know I like contemporary art.

Exclusive Private Museum

Camel (Albino) Contemplating Needle (Large), by John Baldessari
Camel (Albino) Contemplating Needle (Large) by John Baldessari

You know that feeling when you get exclusive access to something that everyone wants? The Rennie Collection is like that.

  • They are privately-run.
  • Free public tours are by appointment only.
  • They say little about their upcoming collections.
  • Subscribers get exclusive announcements of tour releases.
  • The time slots are booked as fast as their release.

I’m sold.

Winter 2015 Collection of Contemporary Art

It is a guided 1 hour tour. We, about 12 visitors, are encouraged to participate and discuss.

I like a how an interpretation of conceptual art unravels before me. It enters through perplexed eyes, gets processed as a familiar idea through discussion, and exits as a savoury grin. Here is a snapshot of the exhibition.

Packaging

Frames wrapped and taped
A ridicule of all the packaging involved in online deliveries, with everything backward. (Untitled, 2014, by Hugh Scott-Douglas)

History

Or sometimes it’s a feeling that moves into the digestive tracts, twist and churns, against the bitter memory of knowledge.

Photo of girl, with pile of clothes underneath, almost like a body.
This piece speaks to concentration camps. The lights temporarily went out during the showcasing of this piece. I kind of like the unintentional ambiance. (Left: Faust 1224 -1237, 1992, by Douglas Gordon; Right: Monument: La Fete de Pourim, 1989, by Christian Boltanski)

Black & White

Sometimes art welcomes flash photography.

Negative piece reveals itself under flash photographer. Faces of white people are left out.
Intentionally Left Blanc, 2012, by Hank Willis Thomas

Reflection of Humanity

It tickles your obsessive compulsive behaviour to put those pieces together. To fix things.

Puzzle pieces of Israel.
Puzzle pieces of Israel. (One Piece, the Same, 2010, by Mircea Cantor)

Identity

And contrasts itself to make a point.

Words, "I belong here" are scattered. Neon white lights on black.
I Belong Here (Exploded), 2011, by Tavares Strachan

Ha.

Art makes you wonder about value, and laughs at you for falling prey as spectator.

Ancient Chinese pottery dipped in paint
Coloured Vases, 2009, by Ai Weiwei

Torn

It breaks you.

When the Bag Tears the Shoulder Gets a Rest, by Dan Halter
When the Bag Tears the Shoulder Gets a Rest, 2011, by Dan Halter

 

My Thoughts on the Collection

With the Rennie Collection I have an increased admiration for the art of curation. The way all the pieces seem to talk to one another, a common topic of race, of identity.

Yet, at the same time, I feel deprived. I get that it is a personal collection but I want it to speak to me. To speak not only Black and White. To speak Chinese, Chinese Canadian, Punjabi, Filipina, other cultural races; to speak of identity that’s not lost, but embraced in bits; to speak local, more reflective of Vancouver.

Any ideas where I can find this?

 

 

Thanks to CL and PG for coming for the ride.

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