CHASI has the privilege of speaking with UFV student Adam Nelson about his powerful art installation, which is currently on display at UFV. His work touched our team and provides a window into why work supporting people with addictions is so critically needed.
The current exhibition at the S’eliyemetaxwtexw Gallery might catch your eyes, or ears, as you walk past the open doors to B136. The exhibition, titled Land/Body Performance Archive, brings together creations from a selection of Canadian Artists including UFV students, faculty, and alumni. Nature sounds from one installation are audible from the hall outside, and flowing sheets with a projection of shadows on pavement grab the eyes of passers-by. But when you enter the gallery space, it’s hard to avoid having your focus drawn to a different sight: a body bag, surrounded by candles.
This is “Nameless Faceless” an installation from the mind of UFV student Adam Nelson. The body bag has a white theatre mask covering the “face” of the body, and electric tea candles surround it like a memorial. Beside, a small plinth holds drug paraphernalia, hinting at what might have occurred. On the wall behind, photos document a performance on a dark street in downtown Chilliwack, where the shock of a body bag is even more striking.
During performances, Adam himself is in the body bag, providing a devastating feeling of loss, even for viewers who understand that it’s an art piece. For the ongoing gallery show, the body bag is stuffed with paper, but the effect is not lost.
“I want to shock people,” Adam explained. “I don’t think anti-drug messaging goes far enough.”
Adam’s work is inspired by personal experience. He developed his first addiction around the age of 13, and addictions shaped his life for over two decades. “I was in treatment programs probably 20 times,” Adam said. “The first was when I was 16.” However, none of the programs worked for him.
At age 34, Adam survived a suicide attempt. He didn’t expect to wake up afterwards, so when he did, he had to make meaning from that second chance. He began following a 12-step program independently and emphasizes that he approached the process whole-heartedly and with completely honesty.
In January 2025, Adam celebrated 10 years of sobriety.
Now, in his final semester at UFV, Adam is a theatre major/philosophy minor. He is brutally honest about his experiences, and draws on them to create work such as “Nameless Faceless,” saying he wants “to put people in the headspace of what it’s like for people with addictions.”
But that process also involves putting himself in that headspace. As a performer and self-confessed claustrophobic, climbing into that body bag isn’t easy. “I had to invite the old Adam back in,” he explained. That work took its toll — after performing the piece for the first time, Adam felt intense depression and the urge to use drugs again for around three months.
“I talked to some of my theatre professors about it,” Adam said. The message was important, but so was his well-being. “They taught me some methods, a ritual, to get into that despair at the start of a performance and back out of it after.”
Adam has now performed “Nameless Faceless” in different venues, including at the Land/Body Reception and outside the Clock Tower in Chilliwack, as shown in the photos at the gallery. This spring, he plans to take the performance to Hastings Street in Vancouver.
“It is my hope that people won’t just look at the homeless and addicted but that they would actually see them. See their stories! See that they didn’t just wake up one day and choose to be an addict.”
Land/Body Performance Archive is open to the public until March 28. It can be viewed at the S’eliyemetaxwtexw Art Gallery weekdays from 12:00–5:00 PM, located in room B136 at UFV’s Abbotsford campus, with additional pieces displayed around the first floor of C Building. The exhibition was curated by Luke Pardy and Anna Griffith, and in addition to Adam’s work, includes creations by Sidi Chen, Candace Couse & Manjot Kaur, Urial Guerrero-Acconcha, Sterling Kai Pollock, Cobi Timmermans, and Lumina Quartet. More information can be found on the S’eliyemetaxwtexw Art Gallery website. Adam’s work can also be found on Instagram at @namelessfaces43.