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).
As part of the exhibition Carole Itter: Only when I’m hauling water do I wonder if I’m getting any stronger, the Belkin’s Outdoor Screen will show the artist’s Tarpaulin Pull (2006) daily from 9 am to 9 pm.
Carole Itter lived on the shores of Burrard Inlet from the late 1970s until 2013, where she and her late partner Al Neil resided in the Blue Cabin, an original squatter’s cabin dating to the 1920s. The video Tarpaulin Pull extends Itter’s engagement with the water, land and collections of found materials, this time documenting a floating assemblage in the waters of the inlet. In the film, she rows a small boat, pulling a field of blue (made from disintegrated plastic tarps) that rests on the surface of the ocean. She methodically lands the tarp, folds it up and deposits it in a dumpster, elegantly interweaving her interest in assemblage, performance and ecological concerns.
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.
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).
The exhibition brings together a selection of Carole Itter's multidisciplinary works and archival materials from the 1960s to the present.
[more]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.
[more]This reading room offers resources relating to the themes present in this exhibition Carole Itter: Only when I'm hauling water do I wonder if I'm getting any stronger.
[more]We invite you to join curators Glenn Alteen, Daina Augaitis and Kimberly Phillips to discuss their experiences and perspectives from working with Carole Itter.
[more]In conjunction with Carole Itter: Only when I’m hauling water do I wonder if I’m getting any stronger, join artist Carole Itter for a conversation on archives with Brandon Leung and Dan Pon.
[more]On the occasion of the exhibition Carole Itter: Only when I’m hauling water do I wonder if I’m getting any stronger, the Belkin, in collaboration with The Cinematheque, presents a series of short films delving into the artist's works. These films illuminate the choreography of the everyday within Itter’s artistic realm.
[more]We invite you to join Olivia Michiko Gagnon and Coleman Nye as they share their responses to the works in the exhibition Carole Itter: Only when I'm hauling water do I wonder if I'm getting any stronger and consider the performative, feminist and ecological methodologies that animate Itter’s practice. Moderated by Laurie White, the discussion will attend to Itter’s use of found and salvaged materials, text and language, and her activation of place through choreography.
[more]Join us for a concert by the UBC Contemporary Players directed by Paolo Bortolussi and coach Joanne S. Na in a program that celebrates the Belkin’s current exhibition Carole Itter: Only when I'm hauling water do I wonder if I'm getting any stronger.
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