Lulu Series: Germaine Koh

Germaine Koh, Visual Artist
The D.I.Y. City: Valuing the Unplanned 

Thursday, May 10, 2018
7:00pm | Richmond City Hall
Seating is limited
RSVP to lulu@richmond.ca

Germaine Koh is interested in the significance of everyday exchanges, familiar objects and common places. She sees herself as a perpetual amateur: immersing herself in various fields and bodies of knowledge to create connections between typical forms, systems and spaces. Her work transforms commonplace practices to create remarkable situations that encourage us to pay attention to the world around us. Some of her projects also involve working with the community, providing additional amateurs with building skills and experience constructing DIY structures.

Koh is currently focusing her attention on unplanned, vernacular structures with Home Made Home, a project in which she constructs small dwellings. The name Home Made Home suggests building on a manageable, sustainable and human-scale; it implies a do-it-yourself ethos and commitment to self-reliance. Home Made Home will be exhibited this summer at the Richmond Art Gallery and will include research on ad-hoc, unplanned communities and reflect on housing traditions that exist locally within Richmond and surrounding areas.

Germaine Koh is a Canadian visual artist and was recently named the first Artist-in-Residence in the Engineering Services Department of the City of Vancouver. Koh has been a recipient of the Shadbolt Foundation VIVA Award and a finalist for the Sobey Art Award. She is also curator and partner in the independent record label, weewerk. Her current projects include League, which gathers people to play invented sports and games as a way to practice creative problem-solving, and Home Made Home, an enterprise for building innovative small dwellings.

More at germainekoh.com

This talk with be preceded by a short performance by Nouveau Flamenco/Latin Jazz Guitarist, Dave Mortone. Sometimes over the top, sometimes minimalistic and often a mixture of both, Martone’s instrumental guitar playing will not disappoint. He has produced seven albums and is currently touring and recording with Juno Award-winning band, Bif Naked.