What Lab, 1814 Pandora Street, Vancouver, BC (2026)

08/26/2026

Our Exquisite Pressure artist calls close this Friday! August 28th at 11:59pm. (plenty of time, I promise 😎)

To get your creative juices flowing, here's a little taste from each host company and what they're looking for in their respective artist calls.

Blind Tiger Comedy
Hong Kong Exile⁠
Action at a Distance / Vanessa Goodman⁠
⁠

What is ExP, you ask?

Exquisite Pressure is a performance residency culminating in a public showcase, both held at the What Lab studio. Each artist or group is given 30 hours of studio time and a paid stipend to create a work-in-progress piece. This work is then shared at a public performance in Spring 2027 over a two night run.⁠

Read more about our ExP program, and the full curatorial statements, on our website. Link in bio. Happy applying!

08/23/2026

Behind the scenes w/
The Big One
By Zoë Braithwaite Zoë
Sept 4 - 6
7:30pm

Presented by What Lab

Through traffic jams of tangled bodies on bar stools and mumbled dialogue spoken through mouths of melting ice cream, The Big One explores the absurdity of passivity - the ways we pacify discomfort, turn inward, and get stuck. This work asks: what happens to the friction that we resist?

Created in collaboration with
Rosemary Morrison
Katie Gherasim
TJ Tan 💛
jae 💛

I asked Zoë to tell us a few words about the inspiration for this work, here's what she had to say:

"I was at a bar. I saw this woman trying to move her stool closer to the bar. She didn’t stand up and scoot it in; instead, she hoisted her seated body while gripping the stool and violently dragged herself in. I was so drawn to that image—how it was just as aggressive as it was passive. The desire to stay seated—to stay comfortable—expended more effort than getting up. I took that image and that idea into the studio with TJ, Jae, Katie, and Rosemary, and we began to play.

We played a lot with shaking; the vibration plate lent itself quite well to that. It’s such a funny piece of equipment. Supposedly, it burns calories while one stands idly on it. Somehow it brings one to fatigue if they stand on it long enough.

Our focus on shaking inspired thought around earthquakes and the infamously anticipated “big one”. The idea of plates getting stuck, accumulating pressure without releasing, expanded the ways we played with passivity. We started collecting wigs to make hairy, moving objects, playing with mess, and interpersonal tensions to create anxious things in the space. The process eventually became an art of creating problems that would bombard both us as performers and the stage. I believe that way of existing in bombardment mirrors the reality we live in—often feeling like endless shaking or anticipation of something bound to give.

I feel the impulse to turn off and grip the stool I sit in. I think that is why that bar scene gripped me so hard and why this show became what it is."

Ticket link in bio, more deets on the WL website. See you there🍦

08/11/2026

✨️✨️✨️ ARTIST CALL ALERT! ⁠The most wonderful time of the year 🤸‍♀️ .
⁠
Now accepting submissions for ALL Exquisite Pressure events in our 26-27 season.⁠
⁠
We're kicking off our season with all three ExP applications. This will give artists more time and space to develop their work, while building relationships with our 26-27 hosts:⁠
⁠

⁠
⁠
⁠⁠
⁠
⁠
Exquisite Pressure is a performance residency culminating in a public showcase, both held at the What Lab studio. Each artist or group is given 30 hours of studio time and a paid stipend to create a work-in-progress piece. This work is then shared at a public performance in Spring 2027 over a two night run.⁠
⁠
Each round of ExP is hosted by a different local company or collective. These hosts curate the event, give artistic support & mentorship, and bring the overall vibe and magic of each ExP.

Make sure you read all the calls on our website, as each host is curating with very different questions and curiosities. ⁠
⁠
Applications close August 28th at 11:59pm.⁠
⁠
Intrigued? Details, guidelines, and applications all on our website. See links in bio.

08/04/2026

As July Project comes to a close, we're excited to share

War & Bedtime - a July Project Showcase

August 21, 2026⁠
7pm⁠
What Lab Studio, 202-1814 Pandora St⁠
Entry by donation at door, suggested $10⁠

Together, over the past few weeks....
⁠
⁠We contemplated the ruffles - or is it frills - of a jellyfish⁠
We witnessed rest, an attempt at rest⁠
We threw balls for fun, until maybe it wasn’t fun anymore⁠
Wa watched a dance become a painting become a song become a dance⁠
We wondered if we'd ever meet the Spider King⁠.
⁠
Come celebrate the fact that we put pen to paper, metaphorically and actually.
Featuring a gallery exhibition and performances by⁠:⁠
⁠
Abeer Siddiqui⁠
Adair Harper⁠
Andrea Tarnawsky⁠
Azlan Nur Saidy⁠
Carol Diaz⁠
Jarin Schexnider⁠ ⁠
Julian Legere⁠
Keith Lim⁠
Laura Lore⁠
Natalia Martineau⁠
Rook Bridson⁠
Sarah Gallos⁠
Stefan Hannie⁠
Torien Cafferata
⁠
July Project is such a special gift. We can't wait to share it with you.⁠ 🩵⁠
⁠

⁠
Image of Rita Spirit's RitaSpirit work Time In Two, photo by Cole Schmidt

08/04/2026

As July Project comes to a close (in late August) we're excited to share War & Bedtime - a Showcase of what we've been working on these past few weeks:⁠
⁠
⁠We contemplated the ruffles - or is it frills - of a jellyfish⁠
We witnessed rest, an attempt at rest⁠
We threw balls for fun, until maybe it wasn’t fun anymore⁠
Wa watched a dance become a painting become a song become a dance⁠
We wondered if we'd ever meet the Spider King⁠
⁠
Come celebrate the fact that we put pen to paper, metaphorically and actually. Featuring a gallery exhibition and performances by⁠:⁠
⁠
Abeer Siddiqui⁠
Adair Harper⁠
Andrea Tarnawsky⁠
Azlan Nur Saidy⁠
Carol Diaz⁠
Jarin Schexnider⁠ ⁠
Julian Legere⁠
Keith Lim⁠
Laura Lore⁠
Natalia Martineau⁠
Rook Bridson⁠
Sarah Gallos⁠
Stefan Hannie⁠
Torien Cafferata ⁠
⁠
⁠
August 21, 2026⁠
7pm⁠
What Lab Studio, 202-1814 Pandora St⁠
Entry by donation at door, suggested $10⁠
⁠
July Project is such a special gift. We can't wait to share it with you.⁠ 🩵⁠
⁠
⁠
Image of Rita Spirit's work Time In Two, photo by

06/09/2026

It's that time of year again! July Project time.⁠
⁠
Have a project on your mind? Something that's been on the back burner for too long, or maybe it's so new you can't even really see it yet? In this five week workshop give yourself devoted (yet finite) time to dive into that project. ⁠Open and free to all that are interested - if you sign up, you're in!⁠
⁠
July Project, now in it's 12th year, has made over 120 new creations in its lifespan, ranging from quilts to dance pieces to EPs, wire sculptures, short stories, tattoos, rugs, comics, paintings, performance installations, radio plays, poetry, photography, to a billion other things. You name it, its happened at July Project. ⁠You can be an expert, a novice, a professional, "retired" from art, an art-curious being. Mid-career, no career. You're welcome here.
⁠
The JP group meets weekly, this year Mondays @ 6pm, to hold each other accountable in our goals, to give feedback (where wanted), and to celebrate in actually, finally, getting the ball rolling. The workshops culminate in a public sharing of the work we've made. ⁠
⁠
Up your alley? See the link in bio for more details or to register.

Photo by of Kevin Shazam Li,

05/08/2026

Exquisite Pressure x

May 15-16
7:30pm⁠
$17, no one turned away⁠
What Lab, 1814 Pandora St.⁠
⁠
Warm welcome to our first featured artists for this round of Exquisite Pressure, + ! Check out their new work
⁠
⁠🖇️ Lonely Offices⁠ 🖇️
⁠
Lonely Offices is a sound theatre work by multimedia performers Rafael Zen + Khalil Alomar that discusses colonial-capitalistic-narcissistic techniques of submission (work culture, gender roles, linguistic barriers, borders, boredom, repetition) in a surreal universe where Severance meets John Cage, and Meredith Monk meets The Office. This exploration on noise art, live improvisation and experimental composition questions: how can we deny this compulsory culture of lonely offices?
⁠
⁠
🖇️ Rafael Zen is a Brazilian-Canadian sound performer and experimental composer creating on the stolen lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

They research cyborg performance, wearable technologies, speculative languages, q***r identity, and noise/disruption in improvisational composition. Their work blends video, theatre, installation, noise collage and sound performance, engaging with q***r cinema and decolonial storytelling. They hold an Master’s in Contemporary Art and currently research New Media + Sound Art at Emily Carr University.

Recent collaborations include works and awards with the Vancouver Biennale, BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery, Western Front Gallery, What Lab, Kokoro Dance Society and Theatre Replacement.

🖇️ Khalil Alomar is a q***r Lebanese-Canadian multidisciplinary artist pursuing a degree in New Media and Sound Art with a Minor in Art and Text.

He is interested in interventions against the autopilot of contemporary life, working in the fields of multimedia performance, intermedia installation, sound art and experimental composition.

His practice blends DIY analog electronics, digital tools and multimedia environments through the language of the glitch and the absurd, reclaiming one’s agency within digital and physical systems by investigating sonic and performative satires against compulsory labor, gender troubles, surveillance as confession, and other colonial-capitalistic schemes.
⁠
Tickets on sale now! whatlab.ca/exp-x-theatre-replacement/

04/19/2026

And last but not least from ExP x we have Ronald Li aka Ooze, and Teg Sooch!
rl and will share their work:

🌀 Live Lab Love 🌀

The story of those with no place to go, given a chance to live through scraped soles. And a familiar feeling, from beginning to end, of the countless hours that go into showing your love for just one song.

Exquisite Pressure
April 24-25th @ 7:30pm⁠
$17
⁠
Get your tickets now, while you still can! whatlab.ca/exp-x-ouro-collective

04/16/2026

ExP x is next week!

April 24-25th 7:30pm
$17, no one turned away
What Lab, 1814 Pandora St.

Say hello to our first featured artist for this round of Exquisite Pressure, ! She'll be sharing her work:

⚡️ Time in Two ⚡️

A journey through a hidden chapter of one’s life, where surrendering to limits leads to discovery.

Rita Spirit is a Ukrainian-born, Vancouver-based Popping and Hip Hop dancer specializing in freestyle. For over a decade, she has taught, performed, and competed across Asia, Europe, and North America.

She is the founder of Cypher Killa, her own dance event with a unique concept focused on cyphers and using dance as a tool for conversation, held in Ukraine, Sweden, China, and most recently Vancouver. For Rita, dance is a tool for healing, self-discovery, and connecting with others while expressing one’s own story.

Tickets on sale now! whatlab.ca/exp-x-ouro-collective
(psssst this show is going to be so 🔥)

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