Derek Brunen’s short video Loving-Kindness, currently on view at Duplex, features an older gentleman who is working on himself. He enters a vehicle parked on the street and meticulously adjusts the interior to his preference. He is groomed, dressed, and accessorized with an awkwardly fashionable leather clutch and a bracelet of wooden beads. Then he inserts a CD to commence his five-minute audio meditation on Loving-Kindness and heads out on the road. 
Derek Brunen, Loving-Kindness
Loving-Kindness, known in Buddhism as Mettā, cultivates benevolence through a discourse of love based on acts of goodwill. The voice on the recording is like that of a female yoga-instructor. Her kill-you-softly tone makes it unclear whether the CD is relaxing him or torturing him. We see the camera focus on his hands as they tighten their grip on a section of the passenger seat. The camera also rests on the knot of his tie and his breathing. He honks once on the way to his destination: one of many possible beaches in the city.
When he arrives, he gets out and looks toward the water. The camera frames him from behind through the windshield as rain hits and slides down the incline of the glass. He gets back in the car and starts the five-minute meditation again. While he drives through a recognizable Vancouver cityscape, the script for Loving-Kindness provides the score for an afflicted aging urbanite practicing mindfulness. However, we are not shown much practice. We are only given facile instructions for the kind of debased pseudo-spiritual routine that elite workaholics subscribe to.
When I describe Brunen’s video to a friend, he imparts an anecdote: he witnessed a car cut off a group of pedestrians who had the right of way at a crosswalk. One of the group kicked the passing car in response to the driver’s reckless disregard for life. What destination could be so important that lives could be lost on the way there? Following the kick, the driver pulled over, got out of his car, and was furious at he who put shoe to vehicle. My response to this anecdote was that the driver should try listening to five minutes of Loving-Kindness, and my friend replied, that he probably was when he cut off those pedestrians. He was probably “working on himself” too.
Duplex: http://projectduplex.ca/home
Derek Brunen: Loving-Kindness continues until June 12.
Steffanie Ling's essays, criticism, and art writing have been published alongside exhibitions, in print, and online in Canada and the United States. She is the editor of Bartleby Review, an occasional pamphlet of criticism and writing in Vancouver, and a curator at CSA Space. She is Akimblog’s Vancouver correspondent and can be followed on Twitter and Instagram @steffbao
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Derek Brunen at Duplex
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