Alexandra Bischoff: homesick
Penticton Art Gallery, Penticton, BC - To May 10
Alexandra Bischoff, born in Amiskwacîwâskahikan / Edmonton in 1991, works in multimedia installation, sculpture, writing and performance. Now a resident of Montreal, Bischoff spent time in Vancouver, where they attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design. There they came to attention for Rereading Room: The Vancouver’s Women’s Bookstore, an archives-based installation in recognition of a historic site of feminist discourse (first exhibited at 221A in 2016 and included in Beginning with the Seventies: GLUT at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in 2018).
In homesick, Bischoff turned their focus to questions concerning Canada’s homesteading histories and how the narratives they carry relate to what it means in our present moment to be a “housing-insecure settler on stolen Indigenous land.”
As with Rereading Room, Bischoff’s homesick began with an examination of archival materials. This time the materials were more personal, relating to an unspoken chapter of their family history that revolves around “The Truth Tapes,” an unusual business venture that led to the bankruptcy of their maternal grandfather in 1967 and the homelessness that followed. For Bischoff, the question that emerges is whether notions of “home” are inherited, and if so, what role do they play in furthering the colonial myth that all lands are there for the taking?
Included in this exhibition is a 1967 magazine entry announcing “Canada’s Amazing Family” (the Moss Family were a musical band consisting of two parents and 12 children); an embroidered-over newspaper clipping whose title reads, “Family Has Talent, But No Home”; and a pillowcase whose embroidery matches the colour and pattern of its store-bought floral design.
Artist to participate in a durational performance every Saturday, 11am–4pm
