VMF Residency Program - Meet the Artist: Sol Hashemi
VMF Residency Program is an experimental project that examines the opportunities and barriers around utilizing vacant retail spaces for low-barrier temporary artist studios.
In 2020, the program undertook a feasibility study and a year of community engagement with stakeholders for Phase 1.
In the fall of 2021, three local artists were selected by a jury of their peers to take part in a six-month residency at retail units donated by our project partners, Bentall Centre and The Royal Centre Mall.
Read more about the program on our Community Projects page.
The residencies are on the stolen and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Sol Hashemi is one of the three local artists selected for the six-month residency. Learn more about him and his work during the VMF Residency Program below.
Sol Hashemi views his artworks as mushrooms popping up occasionally from a vast mycorrhizal web.
His practice spans many niches, including foraging, experimental product photography, stoneworking, cooking, organizing, conceptual floral design, writing, curating, brewing, and the internet. International exhibitions include James Harris Gallery (Seattle), Annarumma Gallery (Naples), Sculpture Center (Long Island City, NY), Ditch Projects (Springfield, OR), Portland Art Museum, and Kunstverein München.
Hashemi received his MFA from UBC, Vancouver (2O21), was a co-founder of Veronica (Seattle), and is a recipient of the Kayla Skinner Award from the Seattle Art Museum. His book, Excerpt from Baker’s Dozen, was recently published by Artspeak.
Why did you apply for the VMF Residency Program?
I was attracted to this residency due to the unique nature of placing artists into currently unused commercial storefront spaces.
My practice is more at home in a former restaurant than just about any space around the city designated as artist studios. The electrical capabilities, water connections, counters, and washroom make my projects feasible, and there is also something to be said about being in a space that has a front of house as well as back of house area. I wrote my thesis for UBC as a cookbook (and a spellbook), so it’s been particularly fitting working here!
How is the VMF Residency Program supporting your art practice?
I’ve been able to work towards an exhibition in Seattle at Veronica, using this residency to create photographs and sculptures for the exhibition. Wall space has been used to hang in-progress inkjet prints of photographs made while working on my Excerpt from Baker’s Dozen publications, including the Artspeak and Hemlock Micro Studio Residency versions. I have a couple pallets here holding thousands of custom printed shrink sleeved aluminum beverage cans, which I’ve been considering new display options for.
I’ve also set up the studio to have production bays dedicated to a particular medium or niche, such as woodworking, stone cutting, photography, cooking, natural dyeing, etc. It has really been wonderful to be able to work across so many areas at the same time, further putting into practice my research into transduction, allowing for the propagation across these domains through physical, biological, mental, and social operations, where artworks arise genealogically. Lots and lots of ecotones in here!
The second half of this residency has additionally involved engaging with the local arts community through bringing local artists and arts professionals into the studio space.
My partner Rosamunde Bordo has been here making bread sculptures and textile-based objects as a fictional character for her upcoming video work. We are hosting weekly gatherings of artists and are planning on holding exhibitions here at OK Time. Please reach out if you want to stop by!
What are you currently working on, and what's your process?
The expansion of possibility is what I’m currently working on.
My projects operate on their own timescales, often taking years to reach a point of pollination/fruition/propagation. My practice has recently explored how the photographic process can molt into a photograph of process, reorienting towards Gaia photography. I work on developing my capacity to respond to problems creatively, increasing my pre-individual charge of nature. I think that artworks can do this, for both myself and others, when they are technical objects rather than take the form of communication or expression.
My practice acknowledges the power that objects and images have to shape living beings. It is concerned with understanding the process in which this occurs so that it can be deployed as protection.
I’ve continued research into the talisman and cross-modal correspondences as ways of amplifying the efficacy of artworks. Here at the Royal Centre Mall, among shops and in a former Poke restaurant, Rosamunde and I have been building our oak apple in unit 148.
Much like how air-dried wood takes roughly one year to dry per inch of thickness, I am interested in understanding the processes of the image, which shift and are shifted.
How are you going to activate the space and engage the public?
I’ll be holding an exhibition with Rosamunde Bordo. Look out for listings for OK Time on Instant Coffee!
I am working on my version of the Persian beverage Sharbat Sekanjebeen, a drink made with a vinegar sugar syrup that is diluted with water, with added cucumber and mint.
Any plans for when your residency ends?
The UBC Farm CSA starts up soon, so I’ll be spending a fair amount of time visiting the farm. I’ll be working on processing a group of 360 spin photography images that I’ll use to build a website as an extension of my investigation into the photo book.
I’ll also be tuning up my canning machine in preparation for a few new publications!
Program Producer
VMF is a non-profit art consultancy and production agency dedicated to artistic and cultural development. VMF produces the annual Vancouver Mural Festival and VMF Winter Arts.
Program Partners
Hessey Consulting + Architecture | www.hessey.ca
Germaine Koh | germainekoh.com
Funding Partner: City of Vancouver Cultural Services Grant
Supporting Partners:
Bentall Centre
Warrington PCI Management
City of Vancouver, Arts Culture and Community Services
Downtown Vancouver BIA