About | Looking At The Garden Fence

Looking at the Garden Fence is an art project where we (Vivienne Bessette and Derya Akay) initiated invitations to a group of artists, neighbours, organizers, and gardeners to create a collective exercise on an art project, urban agriculture experiment, neighbourhood organizing and friendship. We focused the project between four garden spaces around the traditional and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlí̓lwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations (Vancouver, BC): Sahalli Park Community Garden, Elisabeth Rogers Community Garden, Harmony Garden X̱wemelch'stn pen̓em̓áy and Garden Don’t Care over the growing season of 2021.

Looking at the Garden Fence has been growing, blooming, fruiting, seeding, spreading, and composting actively with the participation of all of its collaborators including artists, gardeners, organizers, friends, and neighbours. Thank you to every person who has participated in the shaping of the project and shown up to the events & work parties:

Ada Dragomir
Adassa Brooks
Al Fares Grocery Store on Fraser and Broadway St.
Anita Devi
Anna Tidlund
Asami Tsukada
Ba Le Deli & Bakery Staff on Fraser and Broadway St.
Brooke Xiang
Cease Wyss
Cecile Chow
Cemrenaz Uyguner
Conor Fanning
Cristian Hernandez-Blick
Damla Tamer
Dana Phillips
Daniel Mendoza
Dean Jackson
E. Kage
Ellis Sam
Elisabeth Rogers Community Garden gardeners
Erica Isomura
Grayson Truong
Haruko Okano
Harmony Garden
Hayden Ostrom
Heather Lamoureux
Ingrid Manelik
Jaz Whitford
Jess Guthrie
Kaori Sato-Nelson
Kate Woolf
Kimit Sekhon
Kwiigay iiwaans
Mendel Skulski
Morgan Tanner
Moses Ayamega
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House Kitchen
Nil Alt
Noor Corner Store staff and chicken donairs on Fraser and Broadway St.
Oliver Barnes
Regan Shrumm
Sahba Saad
Salem Sharp
Sarah Sako
Senaqwila Wyss
Syed Haris
Soloman Chiniquay
Sumter
TJ Felix
Thanh Lam
Theresa Bessette
Tintin Yang
Zion Greene-Bull

We received a Canada Council for the Arts Grant of CAD $60,000 for this project. When we decided to accept the grant, we also decided to center the community spaces and gardens that we were practicing in rather than the institutions that we wrote the grant with. We actively chose to deinstitutionalize the project and chose to prioritize the relationships that we formed in these community spaces. In the end $2,500 from Contemporary Art Gallery, $2,500 from Western Front and $7,250 from Vines Art Festival were given to the project on top of the grant. 87% of the grant went to artists fees for 27 people (with no more than 5% of that per person), 5.5% percent went to food, 4% went to materials and 3.5% went to transportation.