CELEBRATING FINE CRAFT

ARTICLES: Nisha Rocamora’s show opens at the Handwave Gallery

Written by: Mark Stobbe
May 17, 2010

Nisha Rocamora’s upbringing was dominated by two things - small town and craft. The daughter of ceramic artist Anita Rocamora, she grew up in Meacham - a village with a population of 70 and an almost even split of farmers and artists. Of the four businesses in town, one is a craft gallery and one is a dinner theatre company.

So what happens when a country craft gal like Nisha heads for the big city of Vancouver.

The beginning of the story is predictable. She finds work in a craft (woodworking) co-operative gallery on Granville Island. Her knowledge of craft helps her advance rapidly through the ranks.

Then the story gets strange.

The gallery she works in is dealt a near-fatal blow by...snow. In Vancouver. A freak snowstorm causes a parking garage to collapse - taking with it the gallery. After its move to a new location and the appointment of Nisha as Gallery Director, the gallery struggles to keep its doors open during hard economic times. The collapsed roof had marked the beginning of the end for the gallery, they just didn’t know it at the time.

The disaster and the subsequent closure of the gallery gives Nisha the time to get back to her own art – manipulated photographs.

This brings strange event number two.

In Meacham, Nisha had never seen graffiti, saying “the closest we came was when the stop sign got destroyed because some drunk drove into it.” Since people notice the unfamiliar, Nisha was intrigued by Vancouver’s graffiti. She took over 800 pictures of graffiti along the sea wall and the beaches in Kitsilano over the next few years, and used these as the basis for her show.

Which brings strange event number three.

Nisha’s graffiti based show, The City and the Sea, opens at the Handwave Gallery in Meacham. It’s the first time there has been graffiti in this town, and it’s at the gallery. In a way, Nisha has brought a bit of the big city back to her small home town.

The City and the Sea will run at the Handwave Gallery from August 13 to September 30. The opening reception is Sunday, August 15 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm.