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Hard knotless timber lies under the plaster and lath. Tar-covered and paper-wrapped cabling runs through the studs. A pair of neighboring Art Moderne houses are simultaneously under renovation. The interiors have been gutted: the wiring, the plumbing, the ‘torch-on’ and the tiling, have all been removed. The structures have been stripped-down to their bones and so, like the ship of Theseus, rebuilding becomes a question of identity. Rot is removed. Walls are replaced with beams. The buildings are opened up and seismically upgraded.
The Principle of Original Horizontality, a video and sculpture exhibition, examines the transitional phase of these two buildings: their shifting contexts and identities; their histories and poetics; their angles of repose.
Brandon Poole is a 4th year Visual Art Honours student at the University of Victoria. Having previously trained as a carpenter and electrician, as well as having studied photojournalism and philosophy, Brandon works with sculpture, installation, and video to explore themes of power, memory, and architecture. Brandon was recently shortlisted for the Presentation House Gallery’s Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize.