Students Collaborate with Acclaimed Artist Tadasu Takamine at Vancouver Art Gallery

A recent collaboration with celebrated artist Tadasu Takamine brought 15 students from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) to the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) for a public performance for an audience of more than 130 onlookers.

Titled Sculptural Rebirth 脱皮的彫刻, the performance was directed by Tadasu and included students in a range of roles, including plasterer, performer, reader and life model.

“It was an intensive project that put their skills to use in unexpected ways,” says artist and ECU faculty member Emily Hermant. Emily leads the Sculpture + Expanded Practices program at ECU and facilitated student involvement in the VAG performance.

“It was a real-world extension of what we do in the Sculpture program,” she continues. 
“It put their technical skills and training in contemporary art practice toward a meaningful, experiential purpose, and gave them access to understanding how they can apply what they learn in school in a professional context.”

Tadasu was brought to the VAG as part of a program organized by curator-in-resident Makiko Hara. Participants were recruited through a campus-wide open call, with students from across disciplines selected for the performance. Artist and ECU faculty member Kyla Gilbert (MFA 2022) contributed as an assistant. The project and students’ participation were supported by ECU through an NSERC Mobilize Grant.

“One of the things we try to do — and what this grant is aimed at — is demystifying what it means to participate and collaborate at this level,” Emily says. “Students got to meet and work with acclaimed practitioners at one of the province’s premier institutions. It was beneficial and, I think, eye-opening for them to see how many people need to work together to make something happen.”

The VAG event marked the Canadian debut of Sculptural Rebirth 脱皮的彫刻.

“During the performance, six students are covered in plaster while they sit and draw a posed model,” reads the exhibition text. “When the plaster has set, they break free and emerge, suggesting the experience of transformation as one sheds an ill-fitting skin and moves on to a new phase of life.”

Fourth-year Sculpture major Rachel Crane participated as a plasterer, covering her peers in plaster and giving a short, improvised speech. She reports initially feeling nervous, but notes Tadasu, Makiko and their respective teams worked hard to ensure she and her peers felt grounded and ready.

“It was great to be in an environment with professionals, seeing all the organization that goes into it and how important clear communication is to the work,” Rachel says. “They treated us kindly and made us feel like we were professionals rather than students. It made me excited to do more performances in the future.”

Fourth-year Painting major Frances McDonald had worked previously as a life model and was cast in that role for Sculptural Rebirth. She says she drew encouragement from the deep humanity she encountered working with the accomplished practitioners.

“Takamine is a very established artist, yet he has quite a light touch,” she says. “We were making an artwork, but there was also space to have fun together. Plus, we got to get to know our professor in an off-campus capacity, and I met a lot of curators and other good people. It felt like a good way to begin breaking into that scene.”

Fourth-year Visual Arts student Jun Baek participated as a performer. He says the experience brought him into contact with corners of the arts community that had previously felt distant while also offering a chance to reconnect with himself.

“It can be hard to know what goes on at a place like the Vancouver Art Gallery, so it just feels abstract. Being part of this whole process let me understand and feel comfortable in that space,” he says. “Collaborating with so many awesome people made me want to do more collaborative work in the future. It also reminded me not to forget the reason I initially wanted to pursue art — not to lose that spark. I feel grateful to be a part of it.”

Read more about the performance and artists on the Vancouver Art Gallery’s website and via Stir magazine.