A storyboard from the current season of The X-Files, on display at Back Gallery Project in Vancouver.
Storyboards, props, blueprints and scripts from the making of the current season of The X-Files are now on exhibit in Vancouver—just in time for the much-buzzed season finale on February 22.
“X-Files: The Truth is Here (The Making of Season 10)” opened at Back Gallery Project on February 16 and runs until February 27.
All the material in the exhibition comes directly from series creator and director Chris Carter, who is a longtime friend of Back Gallery Project owner Monica Reyes.
“I’ve known him for a very long time—over 15 years,” Reyes tells Canadian Art. “This is something we first talked about seven years ago, and this time the opportunity presented [itself] and we decided to go ahead with showing what I think is relevant to an art-gallery context.”
Reyes—who has a character named after her in the series—met Carter well before she became active in the artworld, when she was still working as a barista and Carter was shooting earlier seasons of the show in Vancouver.
“I think that him being from LA, he was open to the idea that a barista has goals—and my goal was always to have an art gallery,” Reyes says. “It was really interesting to have someone like him supporting me [as I became a gallery assistant and gallery director], and then when I opened the gallery in 2008, they rented some of the works when they were shooting the movie.”
Among the objects on display are DNA-test results for Dana Scully and a “The Truth Is Out There” poster.
There are even some items in the exhibition related to the final episode of the series—so no cameras or cellphones are allowed in the exhibition until the last episode has aired on February 22.
Since the Back Gallery Project is a commercial endeavour, selected objects in the show are available for purchase.
Overall, Reyes says that she hopes the exhibition serves as a pointer to the show that made Vancouver a major film centre. (Seasons 1 to 5 were shot in Vancouver, beginning in 1993, as well as Season 10.)
“Back in the day, it is sort of what made Vancouver become Hollywood North—so it is quite rooted in the history of the city,” Reyes says. “It gave us another industry that was so lucrative, and may see another wave of that coming up.”
