20005 C-Prints
16 x 20 in
In 2000, I was asked to be in a landscape photography show at the Surrey Art Gallery. I was living in Tofino at the time—one of the only places in Canada where there are ocean waves big enough to surf on. To earn money, I was commuting to Vancouver every week to teach life drawing classes at an animation school. This meant a lot of driving and my car was a massive station wagon using a lot of gasoline. Moreover, it was starting to break down.
I decided to try and sell my car through the photography exhibition. My parents had bought a generator in 1999 as they were worried about Y2K—a time when many thought the world was going to end because all the computer chips at that time were not programmed to account for the millennial rollover. I borrowed this generator, rented a large strobe kit and took photos of my car in front of beautiful landscapes, the idea being to create something akin to an advertising campaign.
The photos were displayed in the gallery for the exhibition. I titled the work as though it was a classified newspaper ad, listing the details about the car, my proposed price and my phone number at the time, so any viewers seeing the work could call me to buy the car.
I didn’t sell it during the exhibition. However, the Surrey Art Gallery bought the work for its collection, for more than the car was worth. It was at this point that I realized it might be possible for me to make a living as an artist.