17 Janu
ary to 28 March\, 2010
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Opening reception:
Saturday\, Janua
ry 16\, 3 to 5pm
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Symposium:
Talking about
Thliitsapilthim\, Nuuchaanulth Ceremonial Curtains
Friday\, January 1
5\, 10 am - 5:30 pm
Saturday\, January 16\, 10 am - 12:30 pm
VAN COUVER: Curated by Professor Charlotte Townsend-Gault of t he University of British Columbia\, Backstory: Nuuchaanulth Ceremonial Curtains and the Work of Ḳi-ḳe-in brings together for the first time\, contemporary ceremonial curtains by Nuuchaanulth artist Ron Hamilt on (Ḳi-ḳe-in) and historical curtains from museum and private coll ections in Canada and the United States.
Painted on cotton\, these ar e amongst the largest (up to 3 metres high x 10 metres long) portable two-d imensional paintings in the world. Historical ancestral exploits and episod es from family histories\, conflicts\, captures and alliances are seen in t hese striking narrative works. The Nuuchaanulth were the first people Europ eans encountered when Captain James Cook landed at Yuquot in 1778 in what i s now British Columbia. Though much of the art of the Northwest Coast has c ome to be associated with poles and carvings of the Haida and Kwakwaka'wakw \, the Nuuchaanulth have made and used ceremonial curtains for thousands of years on the west coast of what is now called Vancouver Island.
Each curtain has been painted following the instructions from a family needing it to tell the ‘backstory’\, its history and spiritual pedigree\, that will enhance and validate the ceremony of naming\, celebrating a marriage\, mou rning\, or reconciling. Curtains were originally painted using locally deri ved pigments\, including charcoal\, ochre and other minerals\, on cedar pla nks or panels. The prohibitions on First Nations ceremonies that derived fr om the 1885 Indian Act meant that these events were driven underground\, hi dden from view. It was during this period that some of the fine older examp les in this exhibition found their way into public and private collections around the world. But the Nuuchaanulth never stopped creating and displayin g the stories that formed the backdrop to the most important events of thei r lives\, although they were now using sail cloth or cotton so that they co uld be folded up and hidden from the Indian Agents\, if necessary.
Ac companied by photographs\, documents and interviews\, Backstory: Nuucha anulth Ceremonial Curtains and the Work of Ḳi-ḳe-in promotes a deeper understanding of Nuuchaanulth art and culture and is a celebration of these remarkable curtains and the people who make and use them.
Ro n Hamilton (Ḳi-ḳe-in) is a Nuuchaanulth fisher\, storyteller\, poe t\, and scholar from the Hupacasath First Nation and lives on the Ahaswinis Reserve in the Alberni Valley. Hamilton is active internationally through his participation in public debates\, symposia\, and exhibitions concerning a trans-Pacific history for the cultures and art of the Northwest Coast. H e has contributed to the publications\, Indian Residential Schools: the Nuuchahnulth Experience (1996) and Listening to our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life Along the North Pacific Coast (2006). Ḳi-ḳe-in has made a vital contribution to Nuuchaanulth traditional art\, cerem onial and ritual life.
Charlotte Townsend-Gault is P rofessor in the Department of Art History\, Visual Art and Theory at the Un iversity of British Columbia and Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the D epartment of Anthropology at the University College London. Her interest is in contemporary Indigenous cultures and arts. Townsend-Gault was a curator of Land\, Spirit\, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Can ada (1992)\, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (1995) and Rebecca Belmore (2002) for the Belkin Art Gallery. She has written on the wor k of Marianne Nicholson\, James Luna\, and Stan Douglas’ Nu.tka\, and is at work on a book\, 'Masked Relations: Display and Disguise on the N orthwest Coast.' 'The Idea of Northwest Coast Native Art: An Anthology\,' c o-edited with Jennifer Kramer and Ḳi-ḳe-in will be publish ed in 2010.
Backstory: Nuuchaanulth Ceremonial Curtains and the W ork of Ḳi-ḳe-in is generously sponsored by The Audain Foundation and p resented with the 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad with support from the Br itish Columbia Arts Council\, the Canada Council for the Arts\, and the UBC Museum of Anthropology.
For more information contact Naomi Sawada at (604) 822-3640 or naomi.sawada@ubc.ca
Image:
Belkin Gallery
http://ww
w.belkin.ubc.ca/