Dialogue Box

Krista Kals

In its various forms, Dialogue Box exists as a physical anchor to bring focus to otherwise abstract systems, providing space for both inward reflection and the outward dialogue necessary to shape the shared vision of a decolonialized future. This project seeks to reframe institutional systems initiated by settler colonialism, revealing their enduring control and the impacts of their global reach at a local scale. Envisioned as a decentralized intervention, the project critiques three institutions in Vancouver: City Hall as the seat of municipal power, the Port of Vancouver as the city’s link to the globalized capitalist economy, and the Nine O’Clock Gun in Stanley Park as a nightly reminder of the regulation of time and commodification of nature. The mirrored exterior allows it to blend into the landscape, rendered as invisible as its issues, while the materiality of the interior reinforces the narrative of each site by subverting and confronting the ideology behind its original use.