Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 artists to catch at the Lind Prize 2021 exhibition

The new Polygon show presents emerging artists from across B.C. working in film, photography, or video

By Gail Johnson

Steven Cottingham, PostPhotoRealism, 2021 video still, courtesy the artist.

The Polygon presents the Lind Prize 2021 exhibition September 29 to October 17.

AN UPCOMING SHOW at the Polygon captures what’s new in the realms of photography, film, and video.

The Lind Prize 2021 exhibition features works ranging from video installation to photosculpture by up-and-coming artists from Vancouver, Victoria, Abbotsford, and Kelowna.

Launched in 2016, the Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize is awarded annually to an emerging B.C.-based artist. (Lind is vice chair of the board of telecom giant Rogers Communications Inc., an Order of Canada member, and a director of Vancouver Art Gallery.)

Most of this year’s 17 finalists—drawn from a pool of more than 70 nominations—are recent interdisciplinary, film, and visual-arts graduates from Emily Carr University, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, UBC Okanagan, and University of Victoria.

Here are five participating artists to have on your radar.

#1

Steven Cottingham (work pictured at top)

The artist splits his time between Vancouver and New York, where he’s participating in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program. Cottingham co-edits a zone called QOQQOON.

Charlotte Zhang, Every Method of Being in the World Looks Wrong But Feels Spectacular, video still, 2021, courtesy the artist.

#2

Charlotte Zhang

Dividing her time between Nanaimo and Los Angeles, Zhang is “interested in reenactments of shared fantasy, social scripts produced by spectacle, the libidinal investments and erotic economies which undergird state-sanctioned violence and other practices of nation-building, the perpetual collapse of invincibility and injury, punishment and celebration; vengeance,” according to her website.

Kevin Holliday, the continuous failures of optimism, 2020, detail from mixed media installation, courtesy the artist.

#3

Kevin Holliday

Holliday’s the continuous failures of optimism is a multimedia installation exploring screen-based culture, technology, anxiety, and futurity through the use of found objects and videos.

Suzanne Friesen, Portret Pamięci, 2021, video still, courtesy the artist.

#4

Suzanne Friesen

Friesen is a Canadian/Polish cinematographer and filmmaker whose approach to narrative and documentary filmmaking is deeply rooted in analog still photography.

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) in Film Production from Simon Fraser University, a Bachelor of Sciences in Microbiology and Biology from the University of Manitoba, and a diploma in professional photography from Winnipeg’s Prairie View School for Photography

A director of photography on independent film projects across the country, Friesen is adjunct professor of cinematography in the theatre and film department at the University of British Columbia. She’s also camera instructor at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and Capilano University’s Motion Picture Arts Program.

Portret Pamięci is a feature length film focusing on memory and love-ridden relationships to the past.

Hannah Campbell, Swaying, 2021, detail from photographic installation, courtesy the artist.

#5

Hannah Campbell

A photographer who focuses on themes of shared experience, collective memories, and storytelling, Campbell holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and is completing a Master’s of Fine Arts at Simon Fraser University. Among the recognition she has received for her work is a Canon Photography Award and she has been selected to attend residencies such as the Arctic Circle Residency.

For more information, see the Polygon.

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