NO VACANCY: A Disappearing History
Photographic Exhibition by Angela Carlsen

 

No Vacancy is a documentary of six abandoned structures: the former Chronicle Herald building, Greenvale School, Dartmouth Marine Slips, the Shannon Park Canadian Naval housing community, St. Joseph's Church, and the old Halifax Infirmary.

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Progress tries to tell us that instead of renovating buildings with historical relevance, it is better to demolish them in favour of newer, more pristine architecture. We are losing our history with each building torn down. Each of these sites has a great deal of historical significance which is communicated through the pairing of newspaper articles and written documentation with photographs of each place. With this work, as with Angela's previous exhibition on abandoned houses, the goal is to create a venue for conversation that brings awareness to our neglect and procrastination when dealing with aged buildings and their loss as part of our living history.

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Angela Carlsen studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in photography.  Since graduating, she has been focusing her work on abandoned spaces. Her photographs of the condemned Halifax Infirmary received much attention from the press and gave her an honorable mention from the Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards, architecture category. Her exhibition, Still Living: an intimate look inside abandoned homes garnered Angela the cover and feature article in Visual Arts News magazine, Fall 2008 issue.  Angela’s current work on abandoned buildings is funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.