Tyler Goin — Coral & Instant Coffee in East Van

Mike and I have known Tyler for many years now. Like Mike, Tyler also grew up in the Bow Valley, right in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. On our recent trip to Vancouver we reached out and Tyler graciously offered to have us visit his studio. Working nearby as a millwright, Tyler fills every spare moment working on his ceramic and metal sculptures. His home studio is nestled in a large industrial building on Commercial Drive where most residents appear to also be artists. You can see distant meat plants pumping out plumes of chicken gut smoke from the windows. The apartment is separated into two spaces which Tyler built himself; an insulated workshop and a living space with kitchen, washroom and bed. It’s refreshing to be in a space which has so much work openly displayed; a kitchen table slathered in clay and bisque fired pieces above the oven — a home which puts minimalism to shame. It feels as if Tyler has no option but to create, a deeply personal compulsion split wide open right in front of my eyes. It kind of felt like walking directly into the inner workings of his head.

G: When you create, who is your audience? 

Tyler: Everyone and no one all at the same time - haha. I think it’s inclusive but only if you allow it to capture your curiousity. The work is designed to be universal, centred around a fascination with experimentation, engineering, and human condition - meant to be expanded on in the viewers own terms - trying to play with perceived value as a medium unto itself. Everything is the same and nothing matters until you inject it with a narrative or sentiment. It can then evolve into a treasure, building on a story that could be about the material, the process, the form, the finish, or even how you happened upon it. I try to give hints but ultimately the subtleties are there for you to fill in, an attempt to activate the viewer as participant. 

“…the greatest art is to endure.”

G: Could you describe the balance of measured fabrication and organic creation that is evident in your work process?

Are you sure you want to know? This recurring duality I convey in my work is a reflection of the reality I live. What I mean by that is, the work sits in conversation with itself and surroundings - more distinctively a modern aesthetic up against an idiosyncratic vision. The way my life reflects that is through my experience as an industrial mechanic/fabricator, needing to be considerate of blue prints, technology, and precision. The other side being more intuitive and emotional, interrogating material relationships to find harmony through gesture. Ultimately it is about being human in a non-human context. I design thoughtful and intentional parameters, creating procedures that leave room for improvisation and serendipity. 

G: What is your biggest obstacle as an emerging Canadian artist? 

Tyler: Affordability, I have issues around money like most - and I have to break my back in order to go into my studio and continue breaking my back. I’m a masochist participating in a subversive act while complying with a system that is forever taxing - but sometimes you get moments where it’s all worthwhile. I’ve never been one to apply for grants or anything, and I’m not much of a businessman. I tend to want to swing a hammer or pull a wrench more than ask for someone’s money. Not because of any ideals, only because i’m bad at it, haha.

G: How would you describe your next collection of work?

Tyler: Some of it is refined iterations of what I’ve been developing, and some will be playing with different types of functionality. Personally, it is a way to challenge myself to understand more of what I’m doing, and how to be more accurate with expression whether that is sculpture, furniture, or beyond. I also have a short scratch animation/film project that I made with friends that will be released soon.

“I think it’s fun to reframe value, pulling back the curtain to let people in on something”

G: How do you want your work to make people feel?

Tyler: I like to believe I am leaving behind a variety of conceptual receipts that have the opportunity to enrich people's lives in their own way, whether it’s my work or inspiration for their own - maybe it motivates people to perceive things in a new way and find value where they didn’t before. I just got off the phone with my dad and we talked a little bit about graffiti for some reason. He’s always said he admires the large colourful murals that people spend time on. I challenged him by suggesting that I like the illegible scribbles left quickly on walls and dumpsters. It could be a lost drunk kid on a search for their own identity - expressing something in a vulnerable, yet anonymous way - and as destructive as it may seem, this liminal outlet can be a thing of beauty. He said he never thought of it that way. I think it’s fun to reframe value, pulling back the curtain to let people in on something. Especially in a world so saturated with adverts and consumerism. I want people to think, what does it mean to make a mark? How do I make something mean something?

G: What is currently your favourite medium?

Tyler: Ceremony. There are so many ways you can make this happen or imagine it. I love the extra capacity it has for so much diversity and meaning making, whether it’s the space, the contents, the performance, the sounds. To me it is the closest thing I can get to imagining Herman Hesse’s Glass Bead Game. I suppose in some ways I am always thinking of this in my own work. Like the objects are a result of ceremony or intended to be used in ceremony.

G: What are you listening to right now?

Right right now? “Luv Like by Nia Archives” is on the stereo. Also, I’ve been listening to the 1998 album Stratosphere by Duster lots too, heavy rotation.

G: What is commercial success and how does one balance it with staying true to your art form in the industry of sculpture?

I’m not commercially successful so I don’t know if I can suggest anything but from what I understand it is partly endurance, stream lining, delegation, and relative understanding of what “success” means. To me, I am successful so long as I keep going, and never stop creating. It’s truly a relative idea. Participating in this life through a creative lens is success, making your bed when you wake up is success. Nurturing healthy compulsions can be success. Staying true to that is what I believe is meant by: the greatest art is to endure.

G. How do you balance your full time job/daily life with making time to create?

Tyler: I make sacrifices. I have narrowed down my activities so that I am almost always engaged in something that contributes to my practice. I went into a career that I felt would improve my skills, while also providing me some money to self fund art projects. A lot of my friends are working artists and when we hang out it's because we are working on something together. When someone else is buying a dirt bike or a new car, I am buying sheet metal and boxes of clay.

G: As a kid who grew up in small town Alberta, what do you like about East Van? 

Tyler: I guess I wanted to be closer to where more cultural things happen. It’s more diverse here. I’ve been in Vancouver for 6 years and it feels like home. I think my practice can exist anywhere though, and I will probably build a shack in the middle of nowhere at some point. Right now I enjoy consuming culture that informs my work, whether it’s food, music, dance, comedy, etc.

G. How do you like your coffee?

Tyler: Haha, I exclusively drink instant coffee - black, one teaspoon, half filled with boiling water, and the other half cold water so I can drink it fast. I have an affinity with instant coffee - romanticizing the blue collar nature and its prolific power; most of the world functions on this form of caffeine. I have an ongoing series of instant coffee cups that I make, each one a unique love poem to the working world, something I am very much embedded in.

G: You have experimented with painting, photography, drawing and writing — could you tell us a little about how those experiences lead you to where you are now?

Tyler: I believe in diversifying skill sets and experiences to round out concepts. When you play with as many things as you can, you may find a more accurate medium for an idea while also opening yourself up to those eureka moments re: serendipity. I have some figurative paintings floating around out there, but I tend to shy away from this now as I don’t think it’s accurate for me to put my ideas into the form of other human bodies. I like the challenge of approaching humanity as a concept without being so explicit, I prefer leaving traces like fingerprints. I will probably do more abstract painting in the future. I generally use photography more to sketch or gather ideas/document. If I thought I could say what I want through language, I hope I would do that, but for the moment I don’t feel strong enough to get there. Somehow, I feel like I get closer to what I want to say by poking a pile of mud with a stick a thousand times.

G: What does romance mean to you?

Tyler: To me romance boils down to vulnerability, and is a communicated intuitive connection. There is no right or wrong in romance, only personal truths and affective drive - no matter the delusion. The traces of this can be marked by enduring commitment and focus, whether it be a person, place, thing, or idea. A relative expanse into a gut feeling that could be perceived as irrational from the outside. I think people fetishize this in art because it can be so peculiar and reactionary by nature. I certainly do, and sometimes that is the only thing you have at the end of the day to keep going.

Above: Tyler holding the piece Mike and I fell in love with and bought.

G. Where can we find you online? 

Tyler: www.noiseassembly.com or on instagram @studio.noiseassembly

Feel free to contact and speak with me direct or plan a studio visit!