Feature Exhibit

OPENS NOVEMBER 15, 2024

Heartbeat of a Vessel by Jo Scott-b

How many ways can you look at an engine? Each valve and gauge has a story to tell, a memory to spark. Engines, like stories, are not static. They shift, move, and wrench under weight. They interact with the person operating them. St. Roch’s engine, like the ship itself, is filled with stories.

Often shut away from the public, like a heart protected by ribs, the engine continues to wait for its story to be told. Still dripping oil, its lifeblood not yet drained, the memories of its operations live in the well-worn pathways and tools that populate the engine room. As we embark on a project to re-imagine and revitalize St. Roch’s gallery display, we invite you to re-imagine the ways we see an engine. Warmth, motion, survival, stories. Where would St. Roch have been without this impressive piece of machinery? The Vancouver Maritime Museum is grateful to Jo Scott-b for offering us a soft, unique viewpoint of St. Roch’s engine, and grateful for her invitation for us to see the engine in new ways; as the heartbeat of a vessel.

– ermen dellicarpini, Curator

A note from the Artist

“Cogs, dials and varied sized interlocking shapes, a ceiling covered in wires, and overhead pipes: St. Roch’s engine room is a fascinating place. When I first followed director David Jordan into its confined spaces, I felt very privileged to work in the clean and quiet engine room. Those huge silent cylinders, secured by hefty bolts, hint of intense power, noise, and heat – plus smells of diesel and oil. When St. Roch was visitor-free, I drew alone in that silent space, in short bursts, over several months. This exhibition traces my process from exploratory drawings to final paintings. In reality, the engine is a uniform green, so in my studio, referencing my memories and the sketches, I created six colourful paintings, highlighting details. This new series adds to historic machines I began in 1999 as an Artist in Residence at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a National Historic site, followed by agricultural artifacts, painted when at the Hambleton Gallery in Kelowna.

As a child in Buenos Aires, I clambered over silent steam locomotives, parked in maintenance yards where my father worked. He was a problem solver, and as a teenager he also took me on cargo ships, explaining the workings of those terrifying engines. Dad and my brother were mechanical engineers, and their large drawing tables were ever enticing me. I visioned my future in a similar role. But in high school, my Canadian teachers referred me to art, where working with a brush and colour forever changed my focus from repairing to recording.

I am grateful to the Vancouver Maritime Museum, for allowing me access to the engine room, and for hosting this exhibition of works. My sincerest thanks to Simon Fleming for designing this exhibition, complimenting my work with details from the Museum’s archives and collection.”

– Jo Scott-b, Artist

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