Tegan Moore and Elspeth Pratt: Haptic

The term "haptic", referring to the sense of touch and act of touching, is now familiar in the description of devices like smartphones and touch-screens; in other words, the act of manipulating imaginary objects by touching a surface. The sensory knowledge of the textures of surfaces and the conveyance of subtle variations of meaning in gestures are only provisionally available in these interfaces, and the trace of a touch is meant to disappear the moment the screen is cleared or the hardware rebooted.

In this exhibition, Tegan Moore and Elspeth Pratt delineate a history of touch: both artists, in differing ways explore the edges, surfaces, and traces of materials touching materials; abrading, eroding, fusing, at rest or in tension.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication, Haptic, containing colour plates, process documentation, working materials, and writing by artist Lorna Brown.

Tegan Moore is a Vancouver-based artist, born in Toronto. Since graduating from Emily Carr Institute in 2008, she has maintained a sculptural practice illustrating a fascination with meteorological phenomena and geological occurrences originating in polar regions. With an assortment of disposed consumer ephemera the work approaches a sublime subject with undesirable material, and tends to also celebrate to the material itself in all its ordinariness. This peripheral material, namely packing plastic and foam, disposed insulation, temporary signage, and storage cushioning, assists in a mimetic process with inquiry into memory, fragility, and tactile experience.

Elspeth Pratt's professional career has included exhibitions across Canada and in Japan, Australia, Taiwan and the United States, as well as a VIVA award in 1993 and a history of teaching and mentoring artists at Simon Fraser university and Emily Carr University.

Since its inception as a student-run gallery in 1975, the Helen Pitt Gallery has been through many changes. Originally named after the Vernon, B.C. art patron who established a scholarship endowment for young artists, the gallery survived the loss of the Vancouver School of Art's support in the early 1980s, when that school changed its name to Emily Carr College of Art and Design and moved to Granville Island. The Unit 306 Society For The Democratization Of Art took over the management of the gallery in 1982, which then became the Unit/Pitt Gallery. A subsequent move to larger premises on Powell Street in Gastown coincided with another change of name, this time to the ironically overstuffed Pitt International Galleries (PIG). Two moves later, in a storefront on the advancing edge of Yaletown gentrification, the Helen Pitt name was restored. In the fall of 2009, faced with massive losses of revenue due to disastrous policy decisions made by the B.C. government, the gallery closed its most recent location on the fringes of Gastown and currently conducts its programming in whatever spaces become available.

The Helen Pitt Gallery is financially assisted by the Canada Council, the B.C. Arts Council, the City of Vancouver, and 2010 Legacies Now. This exhibition and the accompanying publication are made possible partly through the support of the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation. The Helen Pitt Gallery is grateful for the support, contributions, and unpaid labour of artists, cultural workers and other volunteers, without whom we would not be able to continue. Special thanks to 221A Artist Run Centre.