The Wallet Gallery

2000 - 2002

Vancouver , Montreal , Victoria , Nanaimo , Gulf Islands , Taiwan , Helsinki , Havana , Russia , Japan

The Wallet Gallery was a permanent, curated collection of miniature artworks held in and displayed from a large leather woman's wallet. It held over 30 artworks by different artists from Vancouver and across Canada . It was conceived as a complement to the Pocket Gallery invented by Jeremy Turner. To display either gallery a group of us (from the art collective 536) we would scout out social occasions where large groups of potentially interested people would be gathering, especially art openings, to which we'd bring these various group shows in wallets and pockets. To display the Wallet Gallery I would simply ask any stranger if he/she were interested in seeing some miniature artworks, then I would hand the gallery over to him/her to explore. The Pocket Galleries tended only to be shown at formal occasions like exhibition openings, but the portability of the Wallet Gallery made it possible to carry with me at all times, and to show the work at unexpected moments and in unpredictable places. Eventually we began asking people in other cities, or who were travelling to other cities, to curate and exhibit their own Wallet Galleries, with no restrictions on what they could do with their wallets. This lead to Wallet Galleries being shown developed in all the locations stated; for a short time the idea came to have a kind of viral life of its own.

Current Contact Info:

Donato Mancini
turbojetstandard@hotmail.com

How the Project Started:

The Pocket and Wallet Galleries have a history going back to 1999, when Jeremy Turner opened a small gallery in his Vancouver apartment. The apartment/gallery was so small that he named it the Pocket Gallery, and first exhibited photographs by Sylvia Grace Borda. Later the pocket became a pun, and the pun was made flesh – the Pocket Gallery proper was born. Later, when Donato Mancini found his way to Vancouver the Wallet Gallery was conceived as a complement to the Pocket Gallery.

Themes, Ideas, Strategies:

I think it's important to note that the Wallet Gallery was intended as a non-proprietary, “viral” art action, and that it bridges performance and curation. I liked calling it a “performative curatorial action”. We sincerely hoped that the idea would, as it did, take flight and move well out of our control. It is totally appropriate that although we know of the existence of numerous Wallet Galleries in the world based on our own, we have little or no documentation of any of them. Such a conception of artwork as, say, the plumbing rather than the water flowing through, is timely and important, with roots in many practices such as correspondence art.

Artists, Curators, Collaborators, Conspirators:

Original list of contributors (Vancouver Wallet Gallery, as of March 23, 2001 ):

Colleen Baran, Neil Bliss, Renee Burgess/Allison Siwak, Christopher Butterfield, Helen Corky Friend of Jüd, David Cuesta/Jo Cook, Todd Davis, Erica Dodd, Sarah Ghosh, Carly Haddon, Earl Heneke, Andrey L. Itkin, Shehani Kay, Aubri Keleman, Jessie Lacayo, James Lindsay, Donato Mancini, Josh Prez, Semsar Siahaan, Gary Smith, Jason Sokolowski, Jyoti Stevens, Martin Tarko, Jen Whitman, Dan Zen

Original list of Wallet Gallery curators:
Donato Mancini ( Vancouver , Nanaimo , Gulf Islands , Victoria Wallet Gallery)
Jüd Alden (Taiwan Wallet Gallery)
Randall Lawrence (Montreal Pocket Gallery)
Luis Mario Guerra Veliz and Ana Iris Peña, Lorenzo Santos, Eladio Reyes, Jan Carlos, Amaury Pacheco Del Monte, Olver Reyes Rodriguez, Jorge Pérez González, Adolfo Cabrera Pérez, Nilo Julián Gonzalez Preval, Alberto Fernández Sánchez, Franky Zaldívar, Liliana Pagés (Havana Wallet Galleries)
Cheli MacNeil (Japan Wallet Galleries)
Janne Vanhanen (Helsinki Wallet Gallery) see: http://www.helsinki.fi/~jjmvanha/gallery.htm
Amy ______? (Russian Wallet Gallery)

Everyone on this list except Luis Mario was solicited directly, usually during a showing of the gallery. We were put in touch with Luis Mario indirectly through a friend who was travelling to Cuba and thought that her friend might be interested in doing a Wallet Gallery. Instead, he did 12 galleries, as the flyer from the show at the Havana Centre for Art and Literature shows. I did not meet Luis Mario until 2004, and the language barrier has meant that I still don't know what really happened at that show.

Shows, Events, Happenings:

We didn't keep close track of every showing of either the Wallet or Pocket galleries (too spontaneous and informal, usually) but we did do a 5-date “tour” in Victoria through the Roving Projects program run by Open Space in Victoria. Open Space officially sponsored (in-kind and in $) 5 separate interventions with the Pocket and Wallet galleries in Victoria , each an invasion of an exhibition opening somewhere else in the city. One of the shows we invaded was called “Eye Candy” a large group show held at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria . At that show a very beautiful book Jo Cook had made for the Pocket Gallery was stolen by a viewer who apparently thought that what we were doing was giving away art for free. That's where the “MISSING!” poster comes from. We also exhibited the Pocket and Wallet Galleries at “Cavities” which was an “Eye Candy” salon des refusés, and we sold a Pocket Gallery shirt at the Western Front Art Auction in 2001.

Audience, Reactions, Anecdotes, Stories:

One of the things we liked about the Wallet Gallery is that whenever it was shown private/public space collapsed. A wallet is a private museum and safe space, usually something no one else is allowed to look through unless you've been hit by a car or murdered or are being mugged. So when I'd present people – anybody, anywhere; at the bar, at an opening, on the ferry, on the bus, in a coffeeshop – with the opportunity “Do you want to see my wallet?” there was naturally a lot of tension. Am I being intruded upon by this harmless kook, or am I intruding upon him by looking in his wallet? Complex feelings. The tension usually lifted as they dug through the collection they saw that yes it was in fact a little art gallery/museum full of delightful objects and that no I was not mentally ill. Astonishment replaced discomfort. I often wound up making friends with the “audience”, or securing contributions or curatorships from them. One older woman (60 +) somehow thought I was trying to pick her up. Another person, a man, broke one of the most interesting objects in the wallet, a piece of 17 th century Syrian pottery; just dropped it on the gallery floor. That was at the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery in Vancouver , where, incidentally, we had totally invaded the opening of a show of Peter Doig paintings with one Wallet Gallery and four Pocket Galleries. That was also the one and only time we were almost expelled from an opening for being too obnoxious/annoying.

 

 

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Wallet

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