Interweavings, an exhibition at the Richmond Art Gallery, explores the importance of mentoring and tradition in contemporary First Nations art.
The exhibit presents approximately 30 works by seven emerging artists who have received the YVR Art Foundation Youth Scholarship, alongside works by their mentors, internationally acclaimed First Nations artists. It highlights the significance of mentoring relationships in teaching the value of cultural knowledge in the First Nations community and explores how tradition informs artists’ work in both traditional and contemporary contexts.
Interweavings is organized in partnership with the YVR Art Foundation, which was formed by the Vancouver Airport Authority to foster the development of B.C. First Nations art and artists. Since 2004, it has awarded scholarships to B.C. First Nations youth who aspire to become professional artists.
Ariane Medley’s baskets.
Mentoring in First Nations culture
According to curators Connie Watts and Nan Capogna, mentoring has always been an integral part of First Nations culture. The mentors are renowned artists and are deeply committed to sharing both their knowledge and experience with the new generation of artists whom they regard as their protégés.
In the early years of nation building, the Canadian government banned potlatches and established the residential school system in an effort to assimilate the First Nations people.
“During this time, artistic integrity and quality declined, the result of removing art’s fundamental meaning. But even reduced to the function of curios, Northwest coast art was still loosely entwined with cultural stories, beliefs and ideologies,” says Watts.
From the 1950s onwards, there has been a powerful revival of First Nations art and culture, with mentoring relationships a large part of this resurgence and cultural revitalization.
“Through mentorship the past is woven into the present, grounding a younger generation of artists navigating and embracing change in a contemporary world,” says Capogna.
Art runs in the family for most of the emerging artists – four of them identify family members as their mentors. Ariane Medley works with her aunt, Isabel Rorick; Tamara Skubovius with her grandmother, Grace Williams; Marika Swan with her father, Joe David; James Harry with his father, Xwalacktun (Rick Harry).
Others have chosen mentors based on their style or artistic approach. Morgan Green works with Rick Adkins; Cody Lecoy with Lawrence Paul Yuxwelptun; and Latham Mack with Dempsey Bob.
Lecoy chose Yuxwelptun as his mentor because his paintings provide a socio-political commentary on First Nations life.
In his work featured in the exhibition, Down the Rabbit Hole: A Train of Thought Transforming Land to Landscape, Lecoy depicts a surreal landscape ravaged by deforestation and oil slicks with the train of progress off the tracks. He says a 1920s Pilsener label depicting a horse and carriage, train, car and plane moving through a landscape including tepees of First Nations people inspired him.
In working with his mentor, Lecoy realized that artists are involved in the conversation of making culture.
“I’ve been under mentorship with Lawrence since 2011. Just in simple terms, being able to sit in his studio and see his art practice has planted the thought of possibility for my own career as an artist,” says Lecoy.
Tradition meets innovation
Haida artist Ariane Medley’s great-great grandmother was Isabella Edenshaw, the renowned basket weaver. Medley digs her own spruce roots and pulls her own cedar bark for basket weaving. Like generations of women in her family, she continues to practice the historical art form.
“I try to learn as much as I can about weaving because it is something that should not become lost as it once was,” says Medley.
Green’s artwork tells the story of the butterfly as a sun creature in her brooch Butterfly of the Rising Sun. According to Green, it is important to study tradition if innovation is to be meaningful.
“I think that tradition and innovation are the same, that Northwest Coast historical designs and sculpture were extremely innovative, ” says Green.
Interweavings
Nov.15–Jan.11
Richmond Art Gallery
7700 Minoru Gate
(604) 247-8300
www.richmondartgallery.org
Panel Discussion:
Challenging Traditions in Contemporary First Nations Art
Saturday, Nov. 29, 2–3 p.m.
