beyond the scrim
The video beyond the scrim (2022) was created for the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen, centralizing its spatial parameters while also considering it as an integral component of the east wall of the Independent Building. Instead of treating the screen like a disconnected entity, Tkaczyk transformed it into the building itself, replicating the adjacent windows and transforming them into video screens. The window-like screens reveal moving silhouettes of the artist’s hands—reaching and extending in an attempt to experience the sensation of touch.
In the digitally-influenced mirage of our contemporary society, the lines between the real and the unreal become increasingly blurred—especially heightened by the distance imposed and necessitated by the pandemic. For those who seek embodied experiences in this world, the notion of closeness and intimacy grows increasingly obscure.
Artist Bio
Eric Tkaczyk is an interdisciplinary, multimedia artist who lives and practices on the ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səli̓lwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh) First Nations. Recent exhibitions include a public artwork at Burrard Arts Foundation (2021-22), a solo exhibition at Ground Floor Art Centre (2019), and group exhibitions including Number 3 Gallery (2020) and Emily Carr University (2018-20). Tkaczyk is a board member of the artist collective, Duplex Artist Society. Tkaczyk holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2020).
Navigating spaces of both real and unreal, his work explores notions of disembodiment, fragmentation, and transience through queer sensibilities. In his digital-performances, Tkaczyk acknowledges the deracialization of his work as a white-bodied subject.