Photograph by Alison Boulier 2018

Drawing from various terminologies of “court”: a tribunal presided over by judges and magistrates, an area marked for sports, and an establishment of and for sovereignty, Open Season is a launch of a court of sovereign absurdity.

A game of tennis was once a Game of Palms, historically a sport for kings and noblemen. A site of contestation, it was appropriated by the French Third Estate to launch a revolution and has become symbolic of gathering and resisting. A game of sports as well as politics, Open Season establishes a tennis court on 800 Robson Street, between the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery (old courthouse) and the new Law Courts. Three courts, now in a row, provide alternative ways of occupying space and considering relationships within the public sphere.

The term Open Season sets a precedent in allowing professional and amateur players to compete in the same tournament. Similarly, this project embraces that spirit by inviting ten emerging artists to intervene in the court with a series of performances, installations and events. Each iteration, like a match of tennis, responds and works back and forth from one another.

Part of Ten Different Things public art project – http://www.tendifferentthings.ecuad.ca Curated by Kate Armstrong, the series is a collaboration between CityStudio Vancouver, and Living Labs at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and supported by the City of Vancouver Public Art Program. Janet Moore and Duane Elverum are co-founders of CityStudio Vancouver.

Pongsakorn Yananissorn and Denise Holland co-curators along with Kaylee Louie, Marika Vanderkraats, Stephanie Gagne, Katharine Meng-Yuan Yi, Temporary Investments (Rachel and Sarah Seburn), Terry-Dayne Beasley, Sahand Mohajer, Chelsea Yuill and Julie Mills.