Mission / Black Sun

Description:

Western Front presented an exhibition of two photographic works by Roy Arden, Mission and Black Sun, drawn from an ongoing series based on appropriated historical documents related to the sociopolitical development of British Columbia.

Mission comprises six panels formed from two late-nineteenth-century glass negatives by the Bailey brothers, taken at St. Mary’s Mission in Mission, British Columbia. Each image is segmented and reassembled to create a panoramic view of a passion play staged within an Indigenous community.

Black Sun consists of ten collages combining microfiche photostats of The Daily Province and The Vancouver Sun from June 1938, shortly after Vancouver’s “Bloody Sunday,” overlaid with offset reproductions of floral cross-sections resembling genitalia.

An opening reception took place on May 12, 1983.