Artists turn Calgary's vacant offices, homes and a radio station into interactive galleries

A couple of homes in Marda Loop are sporting a new paint job before they're torn down for a new development — and a dingy basement kitchen in Calgary's Devenish Building is getting a makeover between tenants.

These are two of four locations in the city being taken over by artists as part of this year's Wreck City Residency. The artist collective has made its name in the city for turning vacant spaces into non-traditional art galleries for the public to enjoy.

In 2013, Wreck City attracted nearly 10,000 people to a row of houses destined for demolition in Sunnyside. That year the portfolio of spaces ready for artists to play with included nine houses, three garages and a greenhouse.

In 2015 the group took over an old car wash in Ramsay.

Interactive art show

And this year the tradition of transforming spaces continues with the collective's first-ever multi-location experimental art exhibition.

"You can live a million different lives in a city like Calgary," said Wreck City co-curator Caitlind Brown. "But somewhere between all of those lives, there's still little gaps and those gaps can be filled by all kinds of different folks — sometimes those people are artists."

The art on show isn't your typical painting on a wall. These are interactive pieces that can take the form of a virtual reality experience, a lit-up sculpture made from found objects to a performance art piece.

Artists Layne Hinton and Chris Foster are taking over the kitchen of a restaurant in the bowels of the Devenish building.

It's a dingy, unappealing space with the lights on, but when they flick the switch and plug in their rotisserie chicken motor, one of the pieces they've worked hard to assemble comes to life.

It's a light sculpture made out of different sized and shaped colanders.

"One of the magical parts of a Wreck City project is the way that our work is cited outside of a typical gallery or a museum," Hinton said. "So it kind of gives a little more freedom, I think, for people to participate in the work or access it."

Hinton said they came to participate in Wreck City all the way from Toronto because the experimental art festival has made a name for itself. She has a similar project in Ontario but wanted to make the trip to Alberta to participate in the event as an artist.

In Marda Loop, a couple of homes on a corner lot have been painted colourfully and the fence on one side has the words "House City" cut out of the wood slats revealing a garden in the home's backyard.

This is where some of the 21 artists are living for the collective's residency. But the sites will also transform into exhibits for the public to explore.

Amber Phelps Bondaroff and Jeff Meldrum travelled from Regina to participate in Wreck City with dog and performance artist Lepetit Chien. They are collaborating with other artists and have a couple of works prepared for Wreck City.

One of the pieces is a performance art piece Meldrum said will sell viewers more than just a condominium at a sales centre.

The pair said they wanted to participate in Wreck City because it's an inclusive way to bring show people contemporary art and introduce the public to some more challenging works.

"I always found it very uncomfortable to go into galleries," said Meldrum. "I think this is a very accessible project. It's very familiar for someone to come into, you know, say a house and view an artwork in a space where they feel comfortable."

Phelps Bondaroff said the painted houses might help draw in passers-by who don't know what the exhibition is all about.

Scattered across the city, there are four different sites to explore:

• Office City is located downtown at 706 Seventh Avenue S.W.
• Old City is on 17th Avenue S.W. in the Devenish Building.
• Radio City is at 812A 16th Avenue S.W.
• House City is in Marda Loop at 2240 33rd Avenue S.W.

The buildings aren't all slated for demolition. Brown said some of the locales are actually rental properties between uses.

"Many of our sites right now are on 17th Avenue S.W., which is one of the busiest commercial spaces in the city," she said. The fact that there's still empty space or space between function is fascinating."

The multi-venue exhibition starts Friday and goes until August 12.

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