Elevating a discussion about homelessness: Outsiders and Others’ platform for Vancouver’s homeless artists
Kate Henderson (she/they) // Crew Writer
Kit Vega (they/them) // Illustrator
Since the Courier last spoke to the local, non-profit arts society, Outsiders and Others has relocated streets from Hastings to Howe, upgrading from a window gallery to a full indoor gallery with the support of the BC Alliance for Arts + Culture. While this growth is exciting, Director and Curator Yuri Araji recalls the community that came with the old location in the Downtown Eastside, meeting many folks sweeping the sidewalks in front of their old location. Araji describes a man who, “always picked up trash and he would paint people for who they are, right now.” This morning routine would inspire Outsiders and Others’ January exhibition, “From The Streets of Our Unfair City: Artists Who Have Experienced Homelessness.”
While Outsiders and Others’ usually structure their exhibits with an open call for artists, “Artists Who Have Experienced Homelessness” features three artists contacted by Araji, two of whom Araji met outside their old location. Painter An Dong met Araji while collecting trash. Araji explains that Dong moves between Vancouver and Calgary, visiting Calgary for its rodeo festival, the Calgary Stampede. With 1.4 million guests attending in 2023 in the course of 10 days, Dong endeavoured to spend those 10 days selling his paintings on the streets of downtown Calgary.
The second featured 3D artist is Bret Zü, another local of Outsider and Others’ Downtown Eastside community. “Bret creates a lot of found material, the same medium of creation [as] our third artist Randy Pandora,” Araji shares, mentioning that the third artist has been featured in local author Linda Raindali’s book, Outsider Art of Canada: What Else Can Art Be Like?
Dong’s featured pieces in the exhibit involve a variety of oil paintings, including a series painted on sections of a roll of wax paper he found and paintings over a framed piece from IKEA. With Zü and Pandora’s found material, “Bret’s facial sculpture is made out of a bike seat and a plastic packaging” Araji shares, pointing to the nose of the face being a plastic grasshopper toy. Pandora’s found material does not shy from using real insects, creating a self portrait, “of objects he found on the ground he was sitting on, including I think a cockroach?” Araji lights up as he shares.
While Araji describes these mediums as, “non-archival,” it’s clear that they can encapsulate the physical moment around them authentically. Often, this honesty speaks to the realities of homelessness. Araji recalls, “Sometimes, Dong will show me a painting and will be like, ‘Oh yeah, they died last week.’ It is a real and sad part about these artists’ work.”
Elaborating on the language of the exhibit, Araji says, “We refer to our artists as ‘homeless,’ understanding that this isn’t a commonly used word, but this is true to what our artists have described they’ve experienced, and it should be a hard word, it’s a hard f**king thing.”
Altogether, Araji emphasizes, “Homelessness is an experience that comes and goes in peoples lives. So many people experience it; [they’re] trying not to stigmatize it.” Araji recalls when featured artist Zü did a CTV television interview, in which Zü was, “very frank and straightforward with his experience being homeless with his children and former wife.” Araji responds to the question of one thing Zü would want people to know saying, “Just give them the quarter.”
Araji parts painting the words, “Poverty is a spectrum, and that’s why it’s our unfair city. Sure, it’s easy to be cynical about it. But, sometimes, it’s hard to see.” In this unfair city, Outsiders and Others works to provide their space for these artists to receive more than just a quarter, but legitimate artist wages.