Geoffrey Farmer: The Sound of Footsteps as Summer Walks Away

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Geoffrey Farmer, “ (Detail) A Room That Once Fit Me,” 2024

cardboard, white paint, wire, putty, book cut-outs. (courtesy of the artist and Catriona Jeffries Gallery)

This exhibition presents new works by Geoffrey Farmer, featuring cardboard box dioramas with paper cutouts that explore formative events and memories from his upbringing in Dundarave, West Vancouver. Inspired by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung's (1875–1961) Active Imagination technique, which Farmer encountered at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich, the works employ spontaneous play to access unconscious thoughts and emotions. This process reflects how our personal and collective histories are constantly reshaped as new insights emerge. For Jung, play was a means to integrate conflicting aspects of the psyche, fostering personal growth and a journey toward wholeness.

Invited by former curator Hilary Letwin as part of a program featuring artists from West Vancouver, Farmer incorporates de-accessioned books from the West Vancouver Memorial Library into his dioramas. By repurposing these printed materials into intricate, three-dimensional narratives, he transforms discarded fragments into reflections on his experience growing up in a world shaped by dominant forces that have often dictated history and identity. The work explores how these forces influence understanding of our past, suggesting that memory and history are fluid, layered, and open to reinterpretation.

About the artist

Geoffrey Farmer graduated from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Vancouver, in 1992, and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991. In 2017, he represented Canada at the 57th Venice Biennale. He has presented solo exhibitions at Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2017); The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (2016); Vancouver Art Gallery (2015); Art Gallery of Ontario (2014); Pérez Art Museum, Miami, and Kunstverein in Hamburg (2014); Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich and Nottingham Contemporary (2013); The Curve Gallery, and Barbican, London (2013), among others.

Throughout his career, Farmer’s immersive collage installations have explored history and culture. Since 2017, the artist has been living and working in Kauai, Hawaii, where he has integrated environmental sustainability into his practice, cultivating ʻulu (breadfruit) and founding a flower cooperative that supports local arts initiatives.