Adad Hannah is renowned for his explorations of cinematic potential of the tableau vivant. A genre of performance and “living portrait” where costumed models remain as still as possible, Hannah integrates the art form into his work, through photography and videography, to invite the reconsideration of iconic historical paintings. Referencing and restaging these paintings using contemporary technologies, Hannah’s work is a collaborative and community-based approach to art making. The artist refreshes the relationship between the subject of the artwork and the viewer, encouraging us to consider our own bodies in relation to those in each image.

Presented on the main floor of the Pacific Gallery within the Fairmont Pacific Rim lobby, are three works from Hannah’s project, Blackwater Ophelia, inspired by the 1852 painting Ophelia, a famous painting by the British realist painter Jon Everett Millais, that pays homage to the natural world. On the second floor, a large-scale installation based on Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, one of the most iconic anti-war paintings of all time, is displayed alongside selected works from Hannah’s series ‘The Decameron Retold.’ In each elaborately staged piece, the presence of props, stage supports and hand-painted elements highlight the intricacies of each work’s construction, emphasizing the process of creating each image.

This exhibition is presented as an ongoing collaboration with Equinox Gallery in Vancouver, which represents the artist.