Installation view Sauha Lee's work featuring what she calls "chunks" of paper and foudn materials, which look like stone cubes. Placed on a round green table surface. Collage by Alyson Bucharest in the background, as well as Kiyoshi Whitley's installed sculpture.

Blue Greens Workers

Alyson Bucharest, Sauha Lee, Kiyoshi Whitley

Curated by Catherine de Montreuil

Nov 25, 2023 – Feb 3, 2024

Opening Reception November 25 7PM

UNIT/PITT is pleased to present the group exhibition Blue Greens Workers with works by Alyson Bucharest, Sauha Lee, and Kiyoshi Whitley. The presentation of Blue Greens Workers marks UNIT/PITT’s inaugural exhibition at our new gallery location, following three years of remote operations. Please join us for our opening reception on November 25 at 7PM, which will feature a Free Shelf Divination Cards session led by Sauha Lee.

Blue Greens Workers is dedicated to all those who pursue art-making alongside their day jobs.

Alyson Bucharest lives and working on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples and is creative through a process based practice.

Sauha is the daughter of Chinese immigrant parents from Peru and Hong Kong. She is an artist, designer and gardener based on the unceded traditional territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations, also known as Vancouver, Canada. Sauha searches for ancestral catharsis through making, looking more closely at waste and adhoc constructions, investigating the nature of manual labour, and envisioning a more livable and equitable future. Harnessing the poetics of repurposing, she confronts what feels disconnected. She gathers local plants, textiles, and discarded things. As well, a big part of why she makes art is to collaborate and explore what it means to build community. Day to day she works as a certified horticultural technician, and is a graduate from Emily Carr University (2016 BDes).

Kiyoshi Whitley utilizes architecture, constructed or found, in his performances. Influenced by history, memory and gentrification in Vancouver, Kiyoshi negotiates spaces and memories in his work–in situ. His work addresses the space, as it is occupied by the audience’s bodies and his own, as well as the architecture that is the container that appears to be invisible, or neutral.

Exhibition documentation by Natasha Katedralis.

  • Installation view Sauha Lee's work featuring what she calls "chunks" of paper and foudn materials, which look like stone cubes. Placed on a round green table surface. Collage by Alyson Bucharest in the background, as well as Kiyoshi Whitley's installed sculpture.
  • Detail of Sauha Lee's work featuring what she calls "chunks" of paper and foudn materials, which look like stone cubes. Placed on a round green table surface.
  • A graphic collage by Alyson Bucharestfeaturing aquatic landscapes in rectangular forms.
  • Detail of Sauha Lee's work featuring what she calls "chunks" of paper and foudn materials, which look like stone cubes. Placed on a round green table surface.
  • Detail image of Kiyoshi Whitley's work 'days; featuring a blackened piece of plywood, with carved linear forms, chalk, linseed oil, and designs burned onto the surface with a propane torch.
  • Installation image of Kiyoshi Whitley's work 'days; featuring a blackened piece of plywood, with carved linear forms, chalk, linseed oil, and designs burned onto the surface with a propane torch.
  • Installation view Sauha Lee's work featuring what she calls "chunks" of paper and foudn materials, which look like stone cubes. Placed on a round green table surface. Collage by Alyson Bucharest in the background.
  • Detail of Sauha Lee's work showing the plastic cloth on which the sculpture sits—a green and gold floral design which is worn and falling apart from being left outside in the elements for too long.
  • A graphic collage by Alyson Bucharestfeaturing aquatic landscapes in rectangular forms.
  • Detail image of Kiyoshi Whitley's work 'days; featuring a blackened piece of plywood, with carved linear forms, chalk, linseed oil, and designs burned onto the surface with a propane torch.
  • Install view of three collage works by ALyson Bucharest
  • A graphic collage by Alyson Bucharestfeaturing aquatic landscapes in rectangular forms.
  • A graphic collage by Alyson Bucharestfeaturing aquatic landscapes in rectangular forms.
  • Detail image of Kiyoshi Whitley's work 'days; featuring a blackened piece of plywood, with carved linear forms.
  • Detail image of Kiyoshi Whitley's work 'days; featuring a blackened piece of plywood, with carved linear forms, chalk, linseed oil, and designs burned onto the surface with a propane torch. A "foot" of the work touches the wall.
  • Installation image of Kiyoshi Whitley's work 'days; featuring a blackened piece of plywood, with carved linear forms, chalk, linseed oil, and designs burned onto the surface with a propane torch.
  • Installation image of Kiyoshi Whitley's work 'days; featuring a blackened piece of plywood, with carved linear forms, chalk, linseed oil, and designs burned onto the surface with a propane torch.
  • a playful serif blue-font text in off-white bubbles reads: Blue Greens Workers / Alyson Bucharest / Sauha Lee / Kiyoshi Whitley / Nov 15 2023 - Feb3, 2024 / Opening Reception Nov 25, 7PM. This text is overlaid on an image of a yellow round plastic laundry basket sitting in a hallway, set on top of checked linolean and a wood panelled wall. There is also a cordless landline phone, and framed photos on a wall.