shrink-wrapped considers how a grouping of artists and intellectuals have responded to images of war and the image world since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Conflating references, representations, and media images from the war with references to and images and objects from the commodity and luxury culture industry, the works are situated in a space where contemporary art and political protest overlap. The surface of the works—which include photomontages, montages, broadsheets, and travel brochures—communicate boldly and graphically, like that of agitprop, while also negotiating with issues of dissemination, distribution, and display.
Included in the exhibition are Adel Abidin’s brochure installation from Abidin Travels (2006); a selection of photomontages from Martha Rosler’s Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, new series (2004); Gail Wight and Retort’s Afflicted Powers project (2006); and new works by local artists Abbas Akhavan and A.S. Dhillon.
With support from the Alvin Balkind Fund for Student Curatorial Initiatives, the Killy Foundation, the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory, and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia.