Abbotsford – On June 14, 2025, the landmark exhibition Parallax: Perspectives on the Canada–U.S. Border opens at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, a city whose southern edge is delineated by this international boundary. Parallax is an ambitious, multi-year exhibition project that looks at the history of the Northwest Boundary Survey (1857–62) and the resulting demarcation of the 49th parallel border, stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Juan de Fuca Strait. The exhibition takes its name from the scientific term describing the optical effect by which the position or direction of an object appears to change when the object is viewed from different positions. Parallax asks: what do we really know about the history of the 49th parallel? How was it visualized and marked on the land, more than 160 years ago? What perspectives can be gained when we look at the border from more than two sides? Parallax presents rare nineteenth-century photographs, watercolours, maps, and ephemera about the border’s creation, borrowed from collections in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. Highlights of the exhibition include two remarkable maps drawn by Thiusoloc and his father, two Indigenous (possibly Stó:lō) mapmakers who recorded vital cartographic knowledge for American border surveyors. These maps are returning to Stó:lō Téméxw for the first time since their creation in 1859. Parallax brings these historic objects into dialogue with diverse works made by contemporary artists who live and work on both sides of the border. Central to the exhibition are newly commissioned works by five Indigenous artists and curatorial collaborators: Dr. Shawn Brigman, Dr. Michelle Jack uɬ snəmtÌtkʷ, Deb Silver, Xémóntalot Carrielynn Victor, and Dr. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss. Their works collectively explore the communities, cultural connections, and ecosystems that were here before, and persist today, despite the boundary line’s impact on lands, waters, and collective imaginations.
The contemporary artists featured in Parallax are: Sonny Assu, Dr. Shawn Brigman, Corwin Clairmont, Joe Feddersen, Dr. Michelle Jack uɬ snəmtÌtkʷ, Andreas Rutkauskas, Deb Silver, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Henry Tsang, Xémóntalot Carrielynn Victor, Fred Wah and Rita Wong (with Nick Conbere), Dr. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, and Claude Zervas. The lenders to Parallax are: Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Yale University; Chilliwack Museum and Archives; City of Vancouver Archives; U.S. National Archives and Records Administration; Victoria and Albert Museum; Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University; Rare Books and Special Collections and the Museum of Anthropology, both located at the University of British Columbia; and Washington State Historical Society. Organized and circulated by The Reach Gallery Museum, Parallax remains on view until January 10, 2026. The exhibition will then tour to the Grand Forks Art Gallery, Grand Forks, B.C., in summer 2026 and up to two more venues in the U.S. and Canada through 2027.
