lineages and land bases 

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, FEBRUARY 22, 2020 - AUGUST 31, 2020

Artists: Chucháwlut Mary Anne August, Kenojuak Ashevak, P’elawk’wia Margaret Baker, Carl Beam, Karin Bubaš, Edward Burtynsky, Emily Carr, Robert Davidson, Patricia Deadman, Christos Dikeakos, Michael Drebert, Julie Duschenes, Sewiṉchelwet Sophie Frank, Lorraine Gilbert, Jochen Gerz, Brian Jungen, Zacharias Kunuk, Mike MacDonald, Landon Mackenzie, Liz Magor, Al McWilliams, Marian Penner Bancroft, Ed Pien, Bill Reid, Arnold Shives, Simon Tookoome, Sut’elut Monica Williams, Jeff Wall, Jin-me Yoon and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

The artworks gathered for this exhibition address differing understandings of the self and personhood in relation to nature, a concept that is culturally, historically and linguistically informed.

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim (the Squamish language) has no word for nature, although it has many words that relate to the land and water. Within this worldview, people are intimately bound to non-human entities, such as plants, rocks, animals or places, locating subjectivity well beyond humans. In contrast, the modern Euro-Canadian distinction between nature and culture provided the foundation, in the early 20th century, for the development of a national art and identity in Canada. Paintings of vast empty landscapes premised an idea of wilderness that effectively erased Indigenous presence from the representation of nature at the same time that these communities were being displaced from their homelands.

lineages and land bases presents more than eighty works from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s permanent collection by artists who have challenged the nature-culture divide, seeking new ways to conceptualize and represent their relation to the world around them while grappling with the troubled inheritance of settler colonialism. At the centre of the exhibition is a case study that assesses the intersections between the basketry of Sewiṉchelwet (Sophie Frank) (1872–1939), a woman from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), and the late landscape paintings of Emily Carr (1871–1945). The two women were close contemporaries and friends for 33 years, a relationship also shaped by the profound inequalities of their time. The comparison of these two distinct, yet interconnected, perspectives both prefigures and extends the critique of the separation of nature and culture seen elsewhere in the exhibition, urging us to think anew about the meaning of self and its ties to the non-human world.

Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Tarah Hogue, Senior Curatorial Fellow, Indigenous Art, with Sḵwx̱wú7mesh advisors Chief Bill Williams and Tracy Williams.

INTERPRETATION

Below are some images, audio, video and text interpretive materials, which were developed for the exhibition in collaboration with Ashlee Conery with support from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s AV, Graphics and Preparatory staff. These are the people who make museum magic happen!

You can read the exhibition didactics here.

PROGRAM

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw and Korean-Canadian Exchange, March 10, 2020

To produce A Group of 67 (1997), Jin-me Yoon arranged for 67 members of Vancouver’s Korean Canadian community to be individually photographed in two different settings at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In one set of photographs, the sitter gazes directly back at the camera, with Maligne Lake, Jasper Park (1924) by Group of Seven painter Lawren Harris in the background. In the other set, the sitter has turned their back to the viewer to survey Emily Carr’s painting Old Time Coast Village (c. 1929). Yoon’s work engages with the pictorial traditions of Canadian landscape painting and poses complex questions about audience, community and place.

In including this work from the Gallery’s permanent collection in lineages and land bases, I asked the artist about the community relations and responsibilities connected to displaying the work. This private event was initiated as a result, which was formed around the question “what am I here?” that the artist has continually asked of herself and others through her practice.

Together, we approached exhibition advisor and descendent of Sophie Frank, Chief Bill Williams, with the idea. The event prioritized exchange between youth and Elders, and included an exhibition tour, food, and conversation that touched upon experiences of colonization (which are recent and ongoing for both communities), creation stories, and relations with land, particularly on the unceded territories on which Vancouver is built.

Special thanks to Kaymi Yoon-Maxwell and the Gallery’s Education & Public Programs team for making this event happen.

PRESS

Salish Sea Sentinel, “Friendship between Sḵwxwú7mesh weaver, Emily Carr showcased in exhibit”