Join Larissa Fassler, Annabel Vaughan, & Diana Sherlock for the book launch of Viewshed, a monograph exploring 15 years of Fassler's works.

At Simon Fraser University, we live and work on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen peoples.

Larissa Fassler’s art practice is dedicated to understanding the complex relationships between human beings and their environments. Fassler repurposes analytical tools from anthropology and urban planning to amass research and data about urban sites that she then transforms into large-format pencil drawings, paintings, sculptures, and expansive installations. Born in Vancouver but living in Berlin, Fassler has mapped significant urban places such as the Gare du Nord, Les Halles, and the Place de la Concorde in Paris, New York City’s Columbus Circle, Istanbul’s Taksim Square, and Berlin’s Kottbusser Tor. Her multilayered works illustrate how urban environments impact the psychological and physical well-being of people and how, conversely, the built environment reflects people’s perception, understanding, and use of these places. 

Beautifully designed by Three Legged Dog, Larissa Fassler: Viewshed is a 344-page full-colour monograph that surveys Fassler’s works from the past 15 years. The publication contextualizes the artist’s contemporary art practice through discussions about urban geography, feminism, and geospatial politics. It includes a preface and an artist interview by editor Diana Sherlock and texts by an international roster of writers, Nicole Burisch, Chris Blache and Pascale Lapalud, Shauna Janssen, Fiona Shipwright, and  Karen Till.

This launch is part of a Canadian book tour supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, with the Vancouver book launch supported by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. 

Following the lecture will be a panel with Larissa Fassler, Diana Sherlock, and Annabel Vaughan, a Q&A discussion, as well as a book signing. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided."

If you would like to buy the book in advance, please visit here. To add the book to your cart, you must select your cookie options at the bottom of the page. A limited number of copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event via e-transfer.

Larissa Fassler, Artist

Larissa Fassler was born on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples currently known as Vancouver, Canada. She has lived and worked in Berlin since 1999. Fassler holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal and a Master of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Selected solo exhibitions include Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, New Hampshire), Bröhan Museum (Berlin), Esker Foundation (Calgary, Alberta), the Canadian Cultural Centre (Paris), Hessen State Museum Darmstadt, and Galerie Poggi (Paris). Group exhibitions of note include the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, Ontario), a public art commission by KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), and the 11th São Paulo Architecture Biennial. Her work was nominated for the 2018 MAC International Contemporary Art Prize (Belfast) and the 2019 Berlin Art Prize. Fassler is represented by Galerie Poggi, Paris.

Diana Sherlock, Editor

Diana Sherlock is a Canadian independent curator and writer. She is a settler of English/Scottish/Irish heritage who is thankful to have lived most of her life in Mohkinstsis (Calgary, Alberta) and to have worked with many artists who make their homes in the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, Îyâxe Nakoda, and Métis Nation 3 in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta. Sherlock has published over eighty texts in gallery catalogues and contemporary art journals internationally, including Border Crossings, Canadian Art, CMagazine, FUSE, BlackFlash, Ceramics: Art and Perception, .dpi Feminist Journal of Art and Digital Culture, Galleries West, and the Calgary Herald. Her essay, Capitalizing on community: The makerspace phenomenon, is included in the anthology The New Politics of the Handmade: Craft, Art and Design, edited by Nicole Burisch and Anthea Black (Bloomsbury, UK, 2021). Larissa Fassler: Viewshed is her most recently edited monograph (DISTANZ, Berlin, 2022). 

Annabel Vaughan, Respondent 

Annabel Vaughan, OAA MRAIC, is an architect and project manager at ERA Architects, she recently returned to work and live on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəjˀəm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil Waututh) First Nations (aka Vancouver), to manage projects in BC. She received her Master of Architecture from UBC, where her thesis examined the use of heritage buildings as mnemonic devices for the collective memory of cities and their public lives.

Her professional work includes heritage conservation, small-scale landscape architecture insertions, civic and residential building design, urban design and research, performance art lectures, and curatorial projects. She writes, teaches, and participates regularly in discussions concerning the role that architecture and public art can play as agents of political change in the city.

For purposes of documentation this event may be photographed, audio recorded, and/or filmed. By attending this event, you consent to such recording media and its release, publication, exhibition or reproduction.

COVID-19 Safety:

Masks are encouraged on our campuses, particularly in spaces where people are in close proximity. Masks are not mandatory.

Further information on SFU's Return to Campus policy can be found here.