David Wisdom will bring his two major creative spheres together for a unique show at Fault Line Projects this month, where a photo exhibition opening this Friday will have the ultimate background music.
The host of CBC Radio’s much-loved alternative music programs Nightlines and RadioSonic has focused on photography and multimedia arts since retiring from radio in 2007. His upcoming show In the Way: Photographs of a Lost World will include between 40 and 50 images. Most of them have never been printed before, although Wisdom has shared many in his signature “slide shows” — a format he perfected with collections of images set to music in a series of sold-out special events at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the PuSh Festival.
“These are pictures I just personally wanted to see, because they’re pictures I’ve always liked,” Wisdom said.
The show’s title refers to the fact the photos contain things that may no longer be around, perhaps because they were in the way of progress or in the way of nature. Ephemeral events are also represented, including some works from an ongoing series of British people sitting on benches.
“So it’s not all doom and gloom — there’s some encouraging pictures as well,” Wisdom said.
People visiting the gallery will also experience a linked project, in the form of a soundtrack that Wisdom curated from his own music collection. He put together the setlist that will be playing on rotation throughout the show period after a suggestion by gallery owners Nigel Harrison and Amy Jones.
“I had never done that before, but I thought it was a good idea,” Wisdom said. “But I decided to make it a real project, not just a bunch of songs I liked.”
For more on this story, see the May 9, 2018 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.