Exhibit visitor looks into an image featuring Gitxsan speaker Thelma Blackstock.
Photo by Trudi Smith taken at Alley Cat Gallery San Francisco, 2012. | Photo courtesy of John Wynne.
Anspayaxw, an installation of sound and photography, will bring to life the endangered language of the Gitxsan community of northwestern B.C. and explore the boundaries between language documentation and art. Held at the Satellite Gallery from Sept. 12 to Oct. 26, the exhibition will be accompanied by a symposium at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC on Sept. 14.
Surrounded by sound
Anspayaxw makes use of specially designed flat speakers which allow the photographs – taken by Denise Hawrysio during the fieldwork for this project – to become the actual source of sound. A variety of other sounds, such as the running water of the Kispiox River and bingo calling, are combined with the voices of Gitxsan speakers. Through 12 channels of audio diffusion, sound travels from one image to another, leading the visitor around the gallery.
John Wynne, a sound artist and creator of Anspayaxw, explains that his work is meant to emphasize the importance of languages that are currently threatened with extinction.
“Since many speakers of the language are middle aged or older, it is a real struggle to get young people to see the value of their endangered language,” says Wynne.
Wynne hopes the blending of Gitxsan voices with environmental sounds will create an immersive atmosphere and hold the viewers’ attention, while creating a space for them to think about the issues facing this language and people.
Anspayaxw is not just about endangered language documentation but about its appreciation as well.
“My work has documentary elements but there are times when it becomes abstract and almost musical,” Wynne says.
Stories told
Some of the voices heard in Anspayaxw highlight the experiences of Gitxsan people and their encounters with racial discrimination. Wynne says attention should be paid to what the speakers are saying within the piece, rather than simply understanding them as samples of an endangered language.
Wynne gives the example of Barbara Harris, one of the Gitxsan speakers in the exhibition and a symposium panellist. He describes Harris’ experience as a child, when she witnessed a segregation of hospital rooms between native and white children. Movie theatres and community events were also segregated and only one restaurant in town was allowed for the Gitxsan community.
“There are all kinds of stories and messages that people themselves are conveying within the piece, so I think there’s a huge range of what people can take away from this exhibition,” Wynne says.
Discussing the issues
A symposium On Endangered Languages: Indigeneity, Community, and Creative Practice will take place at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, two days after the opening of Anspayaxw. The discussion will focus on preservation and documentation of endangered languages, the role of digital media in these efforts, and creative ways that artists are engaging with this issue.
Kate Hennessy, an assistant professor at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology and symposium co-organizer, explains that the one-day discussion will address issues of respectful use of endangered linguistic materials in creative practice, as well as challenges associated with new digital technologies.
She notes, however, that the primary focus is on how artistic works, such as Anspayaxw, can contribute to the revitalization of endangered languages.
“We really hope that there will be a very dialogic engagement between the audience members and panellists,” she says.
Hennessy feels lucky to have been able to hear and engage with the Gitxsan language through working on this project.
“I think there is a real value in museums privileging and making language something that people hear. It’s not only about looking at objects in museums, it’s about hearing voices,” she says.
