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5 Sep – 10 Dec 2023

Walter C. Koerner Library

Koerner Library: Carole Itter

  • Carole Itter

    Artist

    Carole Itter (Canadian, b. 1939) is an artist, writer, performer and filmmaker. Itter began her fine art studies at the University of British Columbia (1958, 1963) and continued at the Vancouver School of Art, now Emily Carr University (1959-1962), and at L’Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome (1964). Itter also worked seasonally at Theatre Under the Stars professional scene shop in Vancouver (1958-61). Solo exhibitions of her work include Western Front, Or Gallery, grunt gallery, Open Space, Vancouver Art Gallery and SFU Galleries’ Audain Gallery. Her work was included in WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2008 and in Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-80,which toured across Canadian institutions from 2010-13. She is the author of Whistle Daughter Whistle (1982) and with Daphne Marlatt, she compiled and edited Opening Doors (1979), an archive of oral history about Vancouver’s East End. Itter collaborated with artist and musician Al Neil and joined him at the Blue Cabin in North Vancouver in the late 1970s, which was the start of a residency that would span more than thirty-five years. The cabin was a place of inspiration and art production for her while she maintained her residence and studio in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Strathcona, where she has lived since the early 1970s. Itter’s work is included in the collections of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, SFU Galleries, Vancouver Art Gallery, Burnaby Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, Nanaimo Art Gallery, Canada Council Art Bank and Vancouver Public Library. She was awarded the VIVA award (1989) and the Audain Prize (2017).

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Carole Itter
Raw Egg Costume, c. 1971
vinyl
Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Carole Itter Archive.
Photo: Taki Bluesinger

 

Part of the exhibition Only when I’m hauling water do I wonder if I’m getting any stronger at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery that examines Carole Itter’s multi-disciplinary artistic practice from the 1960s to the present, Raw Egg Costume exemplifies Itter’s humorous and creative interest in her environment. After renting a cabin on a chicken farm in Roberts Creek, BC during the early 1970s, Itter began incorporating chickens, eggs and nests into her collage, sculpture, writing and performance as part of a critique of social and domestic roles. Later utilized in performances such as Tribute to Chickens (1975) at Western Front in Vancouver, this photograph of Raw Egg Costume was taken at the New Era Social Club in Vancouver by Taki Bluesinger, who documented many of Itter’s chicken and egg-related performances.

Carole Itter: Only when I’m hauling water do I wonder if I’m getting any stronger brings together a selection of the artist’s multidisciplinary works and archival materials from the 1960s to the present. Revealing her attention to locality, language and choreography, the title references Itter’s writing and points to her self-reflexive labour as an artist, as a woman and as an inhabitant of shacks, old houses and cooperatives on the West Coast.

Raw Egg Costume is a collaboration with the Walter C. Koerner Library made possible by the generous support of the Audain Foundation. Art in the Library offers new perspectives on contemporary art by presenting art that challenges our perceptions about the world around us.

  • Carole Itter

    Artist

    Carole Itter (Canadian, b. 1939) is an artist, writer, performer and filmmaker. Itter began her fine art studies at the University of British Columbia (1958, 1963) and continued at the Vancouver School of Art, now Emily Carr University (1959-1962), and at L’Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome (1964). Itter also worked seasonally at Theatre Under the Stars professional scene shop in Vancouver (1958-61). Solo exhibitions of her work include Western Front, Or Gallery, grunt gallery, Open Space, Vancouver Art Gallery and SFU Galleries’ Audain Gallery. Her work was included in WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2008 and in Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-80,which toured across Canadian institutions from 2010-13. She is the author of Whistle Daughter Whistle (1982) and with Daphne Marlatt, she compiled and edited Opening Doors (1979), an archive of oral history about Vancouver’s East End. Itter collaborated with artist and musician Al Neil and joined him at the Blue Cabin in North Vancouver in the late 1970s, which was the start of a residency that would span more than thirty-five years. The cabin was a place of inspiration and art production for her while she maintained her residence and studio in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Strathcona, where she has lived since the early 1970s. Itter’s work is included in the collections of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, SFU Galleries, Vancouver Art Gallery, Burnaby Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, Nanaimo Art Gallery, Canada Council Art Bank and Vancouver Public Library. She was awarded the VIVA award (1989) and the Audain Prize (2017).

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