Beat Nation reflects a g eneration of artists who juxtapose urban youth culture with Aboriginal iden tity in entirely innovative and unexpected ways. Using hip hop and other fo rms of popular culture\, artists create surprising new cultural hybrids—in painting\, sculpture\, installation\, performance and video—that reflect th e changing demographics of Aboriginal people today.
In Vancouver\, th e unceded territories of the Coast Salish Nations have been a meeting groun d for urban Aboriginal youth for decades and\, since the early 1990s\, hip hop has been a driving force of activism in the community. The roots of hip hop culture and music have been transformed into forms that echo current r ealities of young people\, creating dynamic forums for storytelling and ind igenous language\, as well as new modes of political expression. This movem ent has been influential across disciplines—similar strategies appear in th e visual arts where artists remix\, mash-up and juxtapose the old with the new\, the rural with the urban\, traditional and contemporary as a means to rediscover and reinterpret Aboriginal culture within the shifting terrains of the mainstream.
While this exhibition takes its starting point fr om hip hop\, it branches out to include artists who use pop culture\, graff iti\, fashion and other signifiers of urban life in combination with more t raditional forms of Aboriginal identity. Artists create unique cultural hyb rids that include graffiti murals with Haida figures\, sculptures carved ou t of skateboard decks\, abstract paintings with form-line design\, live vid eo remixes with Hollywood films\, and hip hop performances in Aboriginal la nguages\, to name a few. While focused on artists working along the West Co ast\, Beat Nation brings together artists from across the Americas and reve als the shared connections between those working in vastly different places .
As signifiers of Aboriginal identity and culture continue to shift and transform\, and older traditions find renewed meaning in new forms of e xpression\, one thing remains constant: a commitment to politics\, to story telling\, to Aboriginal languages\, to the land and rights\, whether it be with drums skins or turntables\, natural pigments or spray paint\, ceremoni al dancing or break dancing.
Photo: Dana Claxton
Baby Girlz
Gotta Mustang
Lightjet Cprint 4 x 5ft\, 2009
The Vancouver
Art Gallery
http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhi
bit_beat_nation.html