Tasting Notes
The Western Front, Vancouver
May 6 — July 29, 2023

Western Front is pleased to present Tasting Notes, a solo exhibition of work by Sol Hashemi that brings together a selection of photographs and objects used, modified, and reconfigured by the artist in his ongoing experimentation with brewing.

Employing strategies of product photography, in Hashemi’s photographs recognizable items—a bus tray containing an assortment of rocks, crystals, minerals, and brightly lidded plastic containers; a collection of four leaf clovers picked and pressed between the lined pages of an exercise book; halved apples on a cutting board with cores eaten by codling moth larvae; harvested rhubarb on a patterned cloth used to clean stainless steel; leaves and fruit peel in a blue bin; and a selenite window placed on top of ground malt in a mash tun—are elevated through sharp focus, wide-gamut colour, and even lighting. Flattened through a bird’s eye view, the photographs appear like desktop images, an interface between habitats, ideas, ideologies, references, and cultural niches, which like the foraged items represented, often require processing.

Accompanying these photographs, Hashemi’s installation of objects used and created in various stages of the brewing process, invite audiences into an extended and real time sensory encounter. A fountain slowly dissolves selenite, fermenting sugar wash gently fizzes in a 55 gallon drum, a fridge hums as it keeps custom brews cold, and a mass of polka dot agate with a beer can inserted into it playfully holds the flow of material transformations in maximum tension. Within this scene, Hashemi entangles the audience in these processes, with the viewer becoming part of the image and playing an active role in how the artwork functions.

Hashemi’s interest in brewing and foraging also echoes past uses of the site, including the gallery’s function as a speakeasy called The Lure of the Sea in the early years of Western Front; Mount Pleasant as the historic home of brewing and the working class culture surrounding it in Vancouver; and the stretch of waterway, Brewery Creek, now filled beneath the building’s foundations that once nurtured a dense rainforest rich in medicinal plants that provided the conditions for these transformations across time.

During the exhibition, Hashemi will also take part in Western Front’s artist-in-residence program, occupying front and back of house spaces—such as the garden, kitchen, woodshop, and basement—to develop new works in progress.

Curated by Susan Gibb.
Exhibition photography by Rachel Topham Photography.

Brochure: Link to PDF
Video: Walkthrough and Interview
Review: Tasting Notes  – SOCIETY

Selenite Amber Ale for Clearing Negative Energy, 2023
marjoram, selenite, malted barley, hops, water, yeast, 4.6% abv
dimensions variable

Tree Beer III, 2023
Douglas fir, western hemlock, cedar leaf, malted barley, hops, water, yeast, 7% abv 
dimensions variable

Untitled (Mash Tun), 2021
archival pigment print
78.5 x 104 cm

Serving Suggestion for Untitled (Codling Moth), 2021
slat wall
dimensions variable

Untitled (Codling Moth), 2021
archival pigment print
78.5 x 104 cm

Untitled (Codling Moth), 2021, detail
archival pigment print

Adjustable Height Cutting Board Table, 2020
monopods, threaded brass inserts, maple butcher block, hex keys
dimensions variable

Untitled (Bus Tray), 2021
archival pigment print
78.5 x 104 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Kettle), 2023
20 gallon stainless steel kettle, fittings, selenite
57 x 53 x 50 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Flowerstone Tri-Clover Cap), 2022
BC flowerstone lapidary carving
5 x 5 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Petrified Wood Tri-Clover Cap), 2023
petrified wood lapidary carving
5 x 5 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Pinolith Tri-Clover Cap), 2023
pinolith lapidary carving
5 x 5 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Serpentine Tri-Clover Cap), 2023
serpentine lapidary carving
5 x 5 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Chalcedony Tri-Clover Cap), 2023
chalcedony lapidary carving
5 x 5 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Flowerstone with Epidote Tri-Clover Cap), 2023
flowerstone with epidote lapidary carving
5 x 5 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Flowerstone with Epidote Tri-Clover Cap), 2023
flowerstone with epidote lapidary carving
5 x 5 cm

Untitled (Polka Dot Agate), 2023
polka dot agate, custom shrink sleeved beverage can containing Beer for Aches and Pains (red alder bark, malted barley, hops, water, yeast, 4.6% abv)
29.5 x 36 x 21 cm

Untitled (Polka Dot Agate), 2023, detail
polka dot agate, custom shrink sleeved beverage can containing Beer for Aches and Pains (red alder bark, malted barley, hops, water, yeast, 4.6% abv)
29.5 x 36 x 21 cm

Untitled (Rhubarb), 2022
archival pigment print
78.5 x 104 cm

Untitled (Rhubarb), 2022
archival pigment print
78.5 x 104 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Selenite Fountain), 2023
Mark's Mark II Keg Washer, glass carboy, selnite, sanitizer, water
66 x 68 x 45 cm

Untitled (Clovers), 2022
archival pigment print
88 x 66 cm

Untitled (Trimmings), 2021
archival pigment print
78.5 x 104 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Fountain), 2023
150L Brau Supply unitank, pump, silicone hose, fittings, reflective insulation, tape
167 x 77 x 66 cm

Untitled Brew Sculpture (Unakite Tri-Clover Cap, 2"), 2022
Unakite lapidary carving
6 x 6 cm