The Police Station, 2011

Althea Thauberger - Vancouver, Canada

Façade and street event

A portable office will be transformed into a make-believe temporary "Police Station." Random members of the public will be "arrested" by actors in period law enforcement costumes, and will be chosen based on randomly generated profiles. "Arrested" citizens will be escorted into the "Police Station," performatively processed, and temporarily "detained," during which time they will participate in a workshop with the artist. Before being released without charge, "arrested citizens" will be given multiple copies of their "processing paperwork" which they may redistribute on the street as they wish.  This process will continue throughout the evening.

Althea Thauberger's internationally produced and exhibited work typically involves interactions or collaborations with individuals and groups that result in photographs, films, performances, events, and books, through which they are represented. She often gravitates towards groups of people who exist or develop in some form of seclusion. The formal and material constraints of her works often echo social controls that her subjects live or work within. Thauberger lives and works in Vancouver.

Suitable for all ages