Crowd Shyness non-medical face mask by artist Germaine Koh.

To purchase, please contact belkin.gallery@ubc.ca or 604.822.2759.

In crown shyness, trees grow with distinct space between their crowns to avoid spreading pests, to avoid damaging their own fragile tips and to leave room for their peers. They make small, individual sacrifices for collective health. These natural processes are analogous to societies making adaptations rooted in mutual care: “crowd shyness” as a form of conscious citizenship.

Guided by a vision of collective care, artist Germaine Koh has been working alongside Belkin staff to workshop a comprehensive approach to public interaction. This includes protocols for re-opening the Belkin, but also ongoing workplace procedures that emphasize teamwork and acknowledge both the essential work done by visitor services staff and the fraught character of the gallery threshold. We are continuing as a team to look widely at topics such as exhibition staging, the Belkin’s location on traditional Musqueam territory, and how the Gallery can become more transparent and responsive to diverse publics.

The Belkin invited Vancouver-based artist Germaine Koh to consider new pandemic protocols facing the gallery and to develop creative approaches addressing them. We welcome experimentation within the public realm and learning from and with others in the development of new solutions. This project involves ongoing consultation with Belkin staff and communities (curators, programmers, building operations, health and safety) to address quotidian procedures for visitors, as well as specific interventions for exhibitions. Together we will explore this opportunity for the prototyping and testing of concepts, as well as fine tuning and adaptation in further iterations. As part of this project, Koh created the Crowd Shyness face mask, which was fabricated on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC.