rennie collection is pleased to announce the first Canadian solo exhibition by Italian artist Lara Favaretto, from May 30 to October 3, 2015. Through her installations of mundane objects, Favaretto’s art practice explores the absurdities of modern life, consumer culture, and obsolescence. Her large-scale installations and interventions will find new meaning in the historic Wing Sang building. Coppie Semplici/Simple Couples (2009) denies the colourful car wash brushes that make up the work of their natural environment to let them whirl around in an alien landscape. Stripped of their intended function, the brushes whirl aimlessly into decay. The mechanic nature of Favaretto’s installations speaks to the monotony and repetition of human life, prompting the audience to contemplate themselves and the function of these objects in their lives deeper. This multilayered approach exerts itself to spectacular effect with Tutti giu per terra/We all fall down (2004). Sealed in a room with four fans, rainbow-coloured confetti eddies and swirls as it falls to the ground. The isolated character of the installation emphasizes the fine line between aspiration and failure- the spectacle evolving through time into colourful exhaustion. Elsewhere, the single compressed air tank of Twistle (2003) is timed to intermittently inflate a party favour; counting down to yet another celebration, the pressure builds both literally and figuratively. The impending celebration is never achieved when it is revealed that the trumpet is silent. Resilience prevails as the pressure regulator starts all over again. The theme of memory is captured in the ephemeral nature of Favaretto’s other works. Using the most fleeting and unlikely of objects such as a lost luggage in Lost & Found(1998) or a found painting in 225 (2014), the artist creates what she refers to as “momentary monuments”. These objects, once doomed to vanish are then preserved, repurposed, and transformed into a monument of disappearance themselves. Lara Favaretto (b. 1973) is an Italian artist based in Turin. Her work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at institutions throughout the world, including MoMA PS1, New York; Salon d’Honneur du Grand Palais, Paris; dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel; and Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin. She is the recipient of the 2011 Querini Stampalia Prize for Young Italian Artists and the 2005 Venice Biennale Young Italian Art Prize. rennie collection is one of the largest collections of contemporary art in Canada. Over a number of years, it has evolved to focus on works related to identity, social injustice, appropriation, and the nature of painting and photography. The collection is made up of work by approximately 300 artists, including John Baldessari, Martin Creed, Andrew Grassie, Rodney Graham, Mona Hatoum, Brian Jungen, Richard Jackson, Louise Lawler, and Ian Wallace. While based in Vancouver, the collection is usually spread across the globe, on loan to institutions such as Guggenheim New York, Centre Pompidou, the Smithsonian Institution, and Tate Modern, among many others. The Wing Sang building, the oldest structure in Vancouver’s Chinatown, was renovated in 2009 to create an exhibition space in which the collection could be displayed locally. rennie collection at Wing Sang holds two shows each year.