Doublewide is the digital home of artists David Campion and Sandra Shields. Motivated by a shared distrust of social mythologies, the couple create photo-text installations that appropriate popular literary forms as a means of disrupting dominant narratives.
The mechanics and repercussions of colonization have been a recurring theme for the duo. Much of their recent work is grounded in the space and history of S’ólh Téméxw (the Fraser Valley)—the place they call home. Sandra comes to the subject of colonization as the great-granddaughter of early Alberta settlers. David approaches from the vantage of a recent British immigrant who grew up in southern Africa during the era that saw colonial governments fall.
The couple’s work has always explored the creative possibilities of combining words and photographs. Their evolving collaboration has moved progressively away from its documentary roots towards a more conceptually-driven art practice.
exhibitions
Grand Theft Terra Firma • upcoming at The Reach Gallery Abbotsford • Curator: Laura Schneider • Confirmed for Fall 2017
The mar poles at cesna?em • public art installation, Vancouver City Hall Skytrain Station • Capture Festival, The City Within The City group of exhibitions, Vancouver • Curator: Susan Rowley, MOA • March-September 2015
Views from the Southbank I: Histories, Memories, Myths • group show • Surrey Art Gallery • Curator: Jordan Strom, Jan 17-Mar 15, 2015
Memory in the Valley • Literatures of the Fraser Valley Festival, Abbotsford • Curator: UFV English Department, March 2015
SHOT • within Thru the Trapdoor, multi-artist happening • On Main Gallery • Artistic Director: Paul Wong, Curator: Brian Howell • Vancouver, April 24-26, 2014
Concurrent • group show • Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, Apr 3-May 3, 2014
Caught in Collection • solo show • Exposure Photography Festival, Axis Contemporary Art Gallery, Curator: Rob Mabee, Calgary, Feb 2–25, 2012
Man Turned To Stone: T'xwelátse • collaboration with Stó:lō Nation • The Reach Gallery Abbotsford, Curator: Scott Marsden, April 14-May 29, 2011
Canada Pavilion Cultural Program • group show • Shanghai World Expo 2010, Curator: Cirque de Soleil, May-Oct 2010
Memory in the Valley • Roundhouse Arts Centre, Curator: Geist Memory Festival, Vancouver, Nov 2010
Memory in the Valley • Chilliwack Museum, Jury: Chilliwack Visual Arts, Sept 19-Nov 12, 2009
Cowboy Wild • solo show • Art Gallery of Calgary, Curator: Marianne Elder, Sept 5, 2008-Jan 3, 2009
Cowboy Wild • solo show • Jill Thayer Gallery, California, Oct 23-Nov 29, 2008
Real Pictures: Photographs from the Collection of Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft • group show • Vancouver Art Gallery, Curator: Grant Arnold, Jan-May 2005
Documents & Dreams • group show • Viewpoint Gallery, Halifax, Oct 2004 • and B’fly Gallery, Vancouver, Oct 2003
Exile • group show • Artropolis 2003, Curator: Vjeko Sager, Vancouver, June 2003
Arboretum • solo show • XENO Gallery, Curator: Jordan Strom, Vancouver, April-June 2002
Repercussions • two-person show • Helen Pitt Gallery, Curator: Ken Dietrich-Campbell, Vancouver, Feb-March 1999
collections
Vancouver Art Gallery (Beck-Gruft Collection)
Surrey Art Gallery
Library and Archives Canada
Museum of Anthropology
Stó:lō Nation
Chilliwack Museum
Various private collections
catalogues
Views from the Southbank I: Histories, Memories, Myths, forthcoming from the Surrey Art Gallery, spring 2016
Man Turned to Stone: T'xwelátse, co-published by Stó:lō Nation and The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford, March 2012, 48 pgs
Carte Blanche: Photography, compendium of best photographers practicing in Canada, foreword by Douglas Copeland, The Magenta Foundation, 2006
books
Cowboy Wild, Rocky Mountain Books, May 2012
The Company of Others, Arsenal Pulp 2005
Where Fire Speaks, Arsenal Pulp 2002 • WINNER: BC Book Prize 2003
awards
Fraser Valley Cultural Diversity Award, shared with Stó:lō Nation and The Reach for Man Turned to Stone: T'xwelátse, 2013
Literary Artist of the Year, Muse Award, Mission Arts Council, 2013
Canada Council for the Arts, Project Grants, various
BC Arts Council, Project Assistance, various
National Magazine Award, Silver Medal, 2010
National & Western Magazine Awards, Finalist, 2009
Art Partners in Creative Development, Province of BC, City of Vancouver, Canada Council for the Arts, Vancouver Foundation, VANOC and 2010 Legacies Now, 2007
BC Book Prize, Hubert Evans Award for Best Non-fiction Book in BC, 2003
Western Canadian Magazine Award, Gold Medal, 2002
presentations
Stó:lō People of the River Conference • The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford
Art Gallery of Calgary • Axis Contemporary Arts, Calgary • U of A
Vancouver Public Library • MOA, Vancouver • Roundhouse Community Centre
Alberta College of Art and Design • Chilliwack Museum • Green College, UBC
Banff Centre • University of Calgary
review highlights
“I hate guns but David Campion’s SHOT is remarkable.”
— Vancouver Sun, Kevin Griffin, Apr 24, 2014.
“The objects distorted by bullet shots create an epic sympathy for everyday pieces… all pierced by gunshots and set up together aesthetically become hauntingly beautiful.”
— Prevail, Apr 27, 2014
“David Campion and Sandra Shields have been involved in exploring issues of colonization in their immediate environment and have collaborated with the Sto:lo community in asking provocative questions concerning the role of artists, their relationship with the subject, and the demands of the community.”
—Scott Marsden, “Experiments in Visual Art, Alternative History, and Community Collaboration,” T’xwelatse: Man Turned to Stone, 2012.
“Cowboy Wild turns the spectacle of cowboy mythology on its head, and reflects it back as art.”
— Paula Arab, Calgary Herald, Sept 11, 2008
“Campion is a genius behind the lens.”
— David Beers, The Tyee, Sept 2008
“Campion has a good eye for the small gestures and coincidences that transform scenes from the realm of anecdote into art.”
— Christopher Brayshaw, Georgia Straight, May 2003
“What Campion has achieved in this set of photographs is to resituate, in the most concise way possible, the current moment of representational practice and power relations in Western Canada within its own history.”
— Jordan Strom, “INOUTSIDE: languages of nature, culture, and glass in Campion’s Arboretum series,” XENO Gallery catalogue, Apr, 2002