Conclusion

The historical evidence of a backlash levied against the Vancouver Art Gallery and the perceived hegemony of the Vancouver School that reached a peak in 1989-1990 is addressed in the conclusion. Diverse groups of artists became critical of the very process of discourse formation that this book reflects upon, and became much more vocal about demanding their inclusion in symposia, exhibitions, and critical writing. Unsurprisingly this backlash dovetails with the rise of foreign investment in condominium development and urban gentrification called “Vancouverism” after Expo 86. The discursive territory of Vancouver photo-conceptualism, built upon the image of a defeatured landscape, became ensconced as an international commercial success just as the public spaces of the city were opened up to the ‘global’ reach of neoliberal capitalism, ensuring that the actual features of the city would be less accessible and more expensive to live in for those artists living there.