A surprising assembly of objects welcomes us as we enter the gallery space of Unit 17, newly located on West Hastings Street. In a dawn-like setting, ten bat marionettes are gathered together in the centre of the room and seem caught up in an important conversation. Other bats are sitting here and there, perched on the ceiling pipes or resting on buckets full of dry clay. On the ground, a large mover’s padded blanket, edged with dry clay, frames the gathering, perhaps creating a stage for this wildlife-led event. The bats, made of ceramic and textile, are imbued with a unique character in the way they are dressed. Denim, checkered patterns and colourful fabrics of corduroy, satin and other textures are sewn together to produce fashionable and distinctive outfits. 

A variation of the exhibition What breaks on the horizon? shown at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin from October 14, 2023, to January 13, 2024, Hold these questions close focuses our attention on the figure of the bat. In this work, multidisciplinary artist Gabi Dao “considers the bat at a unique set of intersections between ecology and economy, pestilence and good fortune, sight and sound, as well as alienation and belonging.”¹ Dao’s work plays on these contrasts to address the intertwining of racial capitalism and ecology, and to offer a counter-story in which the nocturnal animal evokes a sense of whimsicality. Rooted in the tradition of

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