UWHAH are bringing a large sculptural work to Ed. Varie, with a little help from their friends. Typically multi-tasking with their artwork, this repurposed canoe has been sectioned and capped into eight pieces of luggage and brought to Manhattan from Vancouver by their friends and family on planes, trains, and automobiles. The white-washed work that hangs in Ed. Varie is easily reassembled should... [read more]

UWHAH are bringing a large sculptural work to Ed. Varie, with a little help from their friends. Typically multi-tasking with their artwork, this repurposed canoe has been sectioned and capped into eight pieces of luggage and brought to Manhattan from Vancouver by their friends and family on planes, trains, and automobiles. The white-washed work that hangs in Ed. Varie is easily reassembled should the city flood and floating transportation be required.

This is the most recent incarnation of the work "Epic Portage (Luggage Canoe)" in which the two artists took the same canoe to a San Francisco exhibition by designing it to 'nest' into their own two pieces of self-contained baggage. As a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment to their expanded community as a direct result of successful works and shows, and validated by a solo exhibition in New York, they have asked those joining them on this trip to participate by helping them bring the piece.

The act of bringing a canoe on an airplane is meant to address the perceived and actual distance between metropolis and remote wilderness. How well off would you be if you crashed on a deserted island with the luggage items you typically carry on a flight? At what point did North American pioneers have the opportunity to create art instead of just concentrating on survival? With this rudimentary streamlining of form and function, UWHAH propose that through a historic gaze, they were doing both at the same time.

Until We Have A Helicopter is the collaborative entity of Vancouver based artists Wes Cameron and Matthew Robertson. Working together since 2005 they have developed a practice that includes
large-scale sculptural production, curatorial projects, gallery direction and functional-object making.

"8 Piece Luggage Set, (Canoe) will be on view at Ed. Varie through October 16th, 2011 and shown by appointment. Please contact the gallery director for any additional information, hello(at)edvarie(dot)com.