An
institution like the Vancouver Art Gallery has an implied obligation to honour
the cultural history of the land on which it exists, and equal obligation to be
true to the current culture of the city that it represents.
In
some ways, it has done so. In the last decade, on unceded Coast Salish
territories, the VAG has shown the works of Osoyoos First Nations youth, who
created drawings while in Inkameep Day School on the reserve, in the '30s and
'40s. They have shown Haida art created within the last two centuries,
including the work of Bill Reid, also featured in a 2006 exhibit that celebrated
75 years of collecting Aboriginal art. Local artist Rebecca Belmore has had a
solo exhibition at the VAG, as well as Brian Jungen, the first living
Aboriginal artist to have his work shown as the Smithsonian National Museam of
the American Indian.
Now,
Jungen’s masks made of Nike shoes are also part of the VAG’s new exhibit,
called Beat Nation. Beat Nation, which opened on Feb. 25, is the VAG’s most
recent exhibition of Aboriginal art. However, with its wide range of young
Aboriginal artists who are all currently active within their field,
incorporating hip hop, and a strong youth culture, the Vancouver Art Gallery
has brought in an exhibit that seems to look forward at the future of Native
art, rather than the past.
Beat
Nation features multiple types of artwork: sculpture, photographs, paintings,
video installations, and music. While emphasizing West Coast artists, the show
also incorporates artists from across the nation. In total, 27 different
artists are showcased in the exhibit.
It
wasn’t until the 1980s that the VAG began collecting Aboriginal art on a
regular basis. Instead of focusing on the anthropological aspects of
collecting, and giving the works a museum treatment, the VAG has focused more
on collecting contemporary works, paving the way for this exhibit.
Beat
Nation itself has been in the works for some time. The Beat Nation show really
began in 2008, when the Grunt Gallery developed an initiative to create a
website that showcased the merging of hip hop with First Nations cultures.
The
curators of the website were Tania Willard, now a co-curator of the Vancouver
Art Gallery exhibit, and Skeena Reece, who now appears on promotional material
for the VAG exhibit, in traditional regalia that she had created called Raven:
On the Colonial Fleet,
which combines traditional elements of different First Nations groups with a
corset printed with Northwest coast designs, and a button blanket with a
grenade sequined on the back. The piece, which is used as part of Reece’s
performance art, is on display at the exhibit.
Reece
also spoke at the opening of the event: “Are you guys all having a good night?”
she asked, upon coming out at the FUSE opening. The crowd cheered. “You guys
all own your own land,” she replied. Reece explained to the lukewarm audience,
“I don’t want to be memorable,” following it up with, “I might go missing.”
The
talk, billed as comedy, took on a more serious tone. Reece said that she was
happy this exhibit could happen, and that there was a place for it. She
explained that she does not have a lot of energy beyond that of just survival,
and made a plea for those who actually do have the energy to defend the
creative spaces in Vancouver so that meeting grounds like Beat Nation may
continue to happen.
The
variety of work in Beat Nation is staggering; however, one of the most
hard-hitting pieces in the exhibit are the video installations by artists Bear
Witness, and Jackson 2Bears.
2Bears,
based in Victoria, BC, “uses the form of the remix as a tool for cultural
critique” by taking images and videos of Aboriginal representation in the media
and weaving the audio and visuals together. In his work Heritage
Mythologies, 2012,
he combines parts from news reports, commercials, still images, and movies, to
“explore popular mis-representations of First Nations culture.” All of this is
seen with a red overlay, which pulls back to reveal that the viewer is looking
through a transparent Canadian flag.
Bear
Witness is a member of a Tribe Called Red who combine dubstep and Pow Wow music
to create Pow Wow Step, and who performed at the FUSE opening as well. His work
is shown in the same theatre as 2Bears’, and primarily uses clips from movies
spanning old westerns to recent releases. A line from Elizabeth: The Golden
Age (2007),
“Do we discover the new world, or does the new world discover us?” is repeated
over and over. Also used is a scene from Inglorious Basterds where Lt. Aldo Raine is
talking about scalping Nazis. Contrary to popular belief, scalping was an act
committed often against the Native peoples of America by the colonial settlers.
Reece
recently told the Globe and Mail that she wasn’t aware that the exhibit was so
large, but that she hopes it signifies the start of something.
“I
didn’t even realize we were taking over an entire floor – whoa,” Reece said. “I
almost feel like somebody missed a memo. Was there a mistake made? How did
native people take over a floor? And then I was thinking, as a native person
not feeling very represented at the gallery, are they just putting all the
native artists on one floor to get it over with? Or is this genuinely the
beginning of more recognition?”
Beat
Nation will be at the Vancouver Art Gallery until Jun. 3, 2012
//Claire Vulliamy, arts editor
//Graphics by Katie So
//Claire Vulliamy, arts editor
//Graphics by Katie So
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