Mouse Woman drawing by Luke J. Parnell
The Beat
A monthly newsletter about the art of
First Nations on Canada’s West Coast
This is the thirty-sixth issue of The Beat, a free, independent newsletter that brings you up-to-date on the art, artists and events of the First Nations on Canada’s Pacific Coast.
We respectfully acknowledge the Coast Salish Peoples, on whose traditional territories we live and work, and all the First Nations of the Pacific coast.
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The Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver has two exhibitions of special interest in November: Signed without Signature: Works by Charles and Isabella Edenshaw, November 25 2010 to October 2 2011, and Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens, through to January 23 2010. The latter concentrates on photographs of African objects by American artist Man Ray (1890-1976). Of particular interest to those who have a passion for any art, it provokes the viewer to think about the representation, reception, and perception of art as mediated by the camera lens, and as influenced by the context in which they will be presented. Contemporary movies are projected in the gallery. Related events are listed at http://www.moa.ubc.ca/events/.
Among them is When the Real Meets the Imagined: Northwest Coast Art and the Surrealists, on November 23 at 7 pm at MOA, by Marie Mauze of the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale in Paris. This talk is an opportunity to learn about the interest of the French surrealists in the art of the First Nations of our Pacific coast from the early 1920’s on.
Thunderbird – Hiilang nga xidid by Charles Edenshaw, ca 1890
Collection: MOA
Digital Scan: Bill McLennan
The MOA exhibition of works by Charles and Isabella Edenshaw includes work never before displayed in public. Many are new to Vancouver and others rarely seen. An opening reception, with everyone welcome, is at 7 pm on November 25 2010.
A talk and tour by Curator Bill McLennan on Tuesday November 30 at 7 pm will explain why certain works have been attributed to the Edenshaws (or not), and how their influence lives on.
The exhibition will be in the Museum’s Gallery 3, newly renamed the O’Brian Gallery in honour of the Michael O’Brian Family Foundation’s $1 million gift to the museum.
In Maple Ridge, a suburb 45 km to the northeast of Vancouver, the Maple Ridge Art Gallery is showing Transformation Tales: Stories Related through the Art of the Northwest Coast, through November 13 2010. The exhibition includes work by Wayne Alfred, Tim Paul, Henry Speck, Lyle Wilson and local artists Quentin Harris, Tracey Littlewood and Lisa Shepherd.
Transformation Tales at Maple Ridge
Photo: Ann Cameron
The Maple Ridge Gallery is at the ACT Arts Centre, Memorial Peace Park, near the Haney Place Mall, just off the Lougheed Highway.
Victor Reece, a noted and much-respected Tsimshian artist and storyteller, died on October 21 2010. Reece was born in 1946 near Prince Rupert and spent his childhood in Hartley Bay, his father’s village. He was a member of the Wolf Clan through his maternal Grandmother, Edith McDougal, matriarchal Chief of the Wolf Clan and his hereditary name is Whe’X Hue, meaning Big Sky. He studied at the ‘Ksan School of Art in Hazelton British Columbia and assisted in the design and construction of a traditional Tsimshian longhouse for the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s Great Hall.
Reece was part of the Big Sky Multimedia Storytelling Society, and performed often in the Talking Stick Festival. His Bear Mother Project resulted in three welcome poles at the entrance to the Community Hall on Pender Island.
Beaver Mother poles by Victor Reece and his team
Photo: Jeff Bateman
A video of Reece carving a mask is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlXwcV4Bfx8
The Aboriginal Curatorial Collective is seeking proposals for curatorial projects to coincide with the October 17-19, 2011 Curatorial Colloquium in Toronto. Curators of Indigenous heritage are invited to submit project proposals no later than November 23, 2010. It is their ambition to make Toronto an exciting site for the dynamic display of Indigenous arts during the Curatorial Colloquium. The ACC is a national arts service organization that supports, promotes and advocates on behalf of Canadian and international Aboriginal curators, critics, artists and representatives of arts and cultural organizations. The ACC develops and disseminates curatorial practices, innovative research and critical discourses on Aboriginal arts and culture. By fostering collaboration and exchange the ACC builds an equitable space for the Aboriginal intellectual and artistic community.
See the ACC website at http://www.aboriginalcuratorialcollective.org
Debra Sparrow Coast Salish Ceremonial Dress
Commissioned for the 2010 Olympics
Photo: Kenji Nagai
A public program called The Power of Weaving will take place at the Bill Reid Gallery in downtown Vancouver on Saturday, November 6 2010, from 2 to 4 pm. Textile artists Debra and Robyn Sparrow will demonstrate Coast Salish weaving and spinning techniques. Hear about their discoveries of old pieces in various international museums and their journey as contemporary weavers. They will also talk about the symbolic meaning of geometric designs, the mesmerizing effect of the whorl on the spinner, and the power imbued in weaving. This program is included with the cost of admission to the gallery. For information call 604 682 3455.
In Vancouver, the Lattimer Gallery’s annual Bentwood Boxes for Charity will run from November 27 to December 10 2010. It is a silent auction of small hand-made cedar boxes decorated by northwest coast First Nations artists that will be sold in a silent auction, partly to raise money for the Aboriginal Health program at BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre. The boxes will be displayed at the Lattimer Gallery and the gallery’s website at http://www.lattimergallery.com.
There is an opening reception for the project on December 3 from 5 to 8 pm at the gallery at 1590 West 2nd Avenue in Vancouver. Tickets for reception are $30, to donate holiday gifts to foster children. Call 604 788 0042.
Seattle’s Burke Museum at the University of Washington is holding a weaving demonstration on Friday November 5 to Sunday November 7 2010. Evelyn Vanderhoop will show the Naaxiin technique of weaving in connection with the exhibition Weaving Heritage: Textile Masterpieces from the Burke Collection, at the Burke Museum until February 27 2011.
See http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/event/weavers
The 2010 BC Creative Achievement Awards for First Nations’ Art were presented in a ceremony on October 22. The recipients of the $2,500 awards are Haida jeweller and carver Alvin Adkinds of Vancouver, Haida weaver Lisa Hagerman of Massett, Tahltan visual artist and educator Peter Morin of Victoria, Nuu-chah-nulth carver Tim Paul of Port Alberni and Kwakwaka’wakw carver Richard Sumner of Victoria.
Sto:lo artist Rena Point Bolton of Terrace will receive the 2010 Lifetime Creative Achievement Award for First Nations’ Art in recognition of her work in traditional weaving and basketry.
2010 Aboriginal Art Recipients and event sponsor Anne Murray (front right)
The call for nominations/submissions for the 2011 awards will be posted in late January, 2011. The deadline for nominations and submissions will be March 31, 2011. The next presentation ceremony will be held in October 2011.
One of the recipients, Peter Morin, is exhibiting his work at his MFA show called Circle at the FINA Gallery at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Each day, performance, experience, event, installation, and visual art work will be added to the space for the entire period of the exhibition, from November 1 to 12 2010.
Visions of British Columbia: A Landscape Manual, a book that gathers work by dozens of B.C. visual and literary artists, has won the City of Vancouver Book Award. The Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition in 2009-2010 that inspired the book included First Nations artists Bill Reid, Willie Seaweed and Brian Jungen.
The Vancouver Sun newspaper recently published an article on the impressive financial dimensions and the diversity of style and culture in the Northwest First Nations art market centered in Vancouver. See:
http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Beyond+mask+totem+pole/3649201/story.html
The Douglas Reynolds Gallery in Vancouver has now sold seven of the bronze edition of the figure of Raven based on a part of Jim Hart’s Celebration of Bill Reid pole to collectors (see The Beat October 2009). The sculptures are currently selling for $150,000. For more information see http://www.douglasreynoldsgallery.com
Artists Michelle Sound Perich and Lois Klassen, with curatorial assistance by Frederick Cummings, present a collaborative installation, Fancy Dancing, in which tradition, image and material offer the promise of an event. The show is from November 5 to 14 2010 at the 1612 Gallery at 1612 West 3rd Avenue in Vancouver. http://www.1612gallery.com
Haida Made: New Collaborations in Design continues at the York Quay Centre at Harbourfront in Toronto until November 7 2010. The show documents a unique cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration between First Nations artists and Canadian product designers. Participating Haida Artists include Reg Davidson, Gwaii and Jaalen Edenshaw, Christian White and Evelyn Vanderhoop. Meetings took place in the villages of Old Massett, Masset and Skidegate on Haida Gwaii and in Vancouver, British Columbia between July 2009 and August 2010. Artists were invited to weave together elements of contemporary art, craft production, ethnobotany, anthropology, community development and modern design to create new product applications for underutilized resources. Results included lamps, chairs, fashion and jewellery. See a more detailed review in the National Post:
http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/Pacific+Northwest+poised+modern+interpretation/3677992/story.html
Pacific Editions Limited in Victoria, a print studio and gallery for many of the artists of the Northwest is offering a “Museum Collection” of Northwest Coast and Ojibway prints on its website:
Steinbrueck Native Gallery on Western Avenue in Seattle has a show Ongoing Traditions, from November 16 to 30, followed by a pre-Christmas Jewelry Showcase in December. For more information, see:
http://www.steinbruecknativegallery.com
Maynard’s Arts & Antiques Northwest Coast and Inuit Art Auction was held in Vancouver on October 27 2010, with over 100 lots offered for sale. A Coast Salish human figure bowl went for $20,000, a Bill Reid silkscreen print Haida Grizzly Bear 1977 sold for $700, and three Tlingit horn spoons for $900, $420 and $120 respectively. Most baskets sold close to their estimated price. For more information see http://www.maynards.com
Heffel art auction house in Vancouver is offering Bill Reid’s Chief’s Staff from The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, a bronze sculpture from an edition of 9, almost 70” tall, with an estimate of $125-175,000 at its auction in Toronto on November 25 2010. See http://www.heffel.com
Three poles have been raised at Kitselas, near Terrace British Columbia. The largest, about 30’, tells the story of the Gitaus an ancient village of the area. The two smaller, near the longhouses in the park, are carved on the themes of Wolf and Raven. Artists Stan Bevan, Dempsey Bob and Ken McNeil and others from the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art carved the poles from May through the summer. They were raised on September 11 2010. For more on the event, see:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/terracestandard/community/103310304.html
To learn more about the Kitselas Canyon National Historic Site, see:
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Comments, news and new subscribers to this free newsletter are welcomed. Please write to: editor@coastalartbeat.ca Past issues are available at our website http://www.coastalartbeat.ca
Thank you to David Dumaresq, Bill McLennan, Jennifer Webb, Skeena Reece and many others for your assistance. The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project written and published in Vancouver Canada by Ann Cameron. Copyright 2010 Ann Cameron.