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Oceanic Apartments

Posted on Feb 28, 2012  |   1403 views  

Chris Gergley chose to document Vancouver apartments that he sees as suffering from amusingly uncoordinated color schemes and pathetic gestures at decoration by landlords. These 3-4 story tall apartments were once popular but are no longer as competitive as the more profitable high-rise condos. While Gergley sees the design of these apartments as an aesthetic failure back when he worked on this series of photographs in 1997-1998, now I see character. Compared to the luxurious but cookie-cutter high-rise apartments along false creek, these old apartments located in Kitsilano have more individuality. They may not be more attractive but their style adds more character to the historical fabric of Vancouver architecture. In dialogue with Gergley's work, I wanted to explore the diverse community of tenants currently living in these character apartments. The apartment themselves act as individual portraits. But together with each tenant's presence, it creates another tension and interesting dialogue about character and individuality.

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