Artist Statement

Performance video (2015)

For this piece, the artist turns the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver into his own private basketball court. Appropriating the discourse of sports, Winiemko examines the cultural ethos of “winner takes all” that fuels gentrifi cation and income inequality. Absorbed in his own private game and in disregard of the social contract, Winiemko frames gentrification as a disruption of the neighborhood. Invoking the division of the social sphere, the artist applies oppositional lines of our team/their team, oppressor/oppressed, hero/douchebag.

• Gordon Winiemko is a Los Angeles based artist who explores the relationship between subjectivity and culture. Examining those “things we do” that are sometimes so commonplace we forget how they shape our lives, his video, performance, and participatory work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

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