Author Description

Since the 1970s, Vancouver-based multimedia artist Hank Bull has acted as a connecting figure between artists and artistic communities internationally. Inspired initially by experimental music, mail art, Fluxus, and the absurdist performances associated with Dada and pataphysics, much of his practice has been ephemeral and dialogic, produced for underground audiences in artist-run and improvised contexts. Performance, communication, and the building of networks have thus often eclipsed the production of material things. Yet, material things have played an important role in his career - as documents, as vehicles of communication, as props, and as aesthetic objects in their own right. This career overview considers the material traces of a life lived as art, reconfiguring the immense and varied collection of the artist as a sculptural installation. Running throughout Bull’s practice is a re-examination of the notions of distributed authorship, an affront to received ideas ever more pertinent in the age of information technology. Hank Bull was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1949 and now lives in Vancouver. A multimedia artist as well as an arts administrator, he has been a member of the legendary Western Front Society since 1973. He is the also the founder and executive director of Centre A (Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art) since 1999. His works have been collected by the National Gallery of Canada and many private collectors.