The time of things
Skeena Reece (installation view – CVAG – window gallery) Master Gesture, 2019 series of 8 digital prints 24” x 42.67” sourced from single-channel video
Maureen Gruben (installation view – CVAG gallery - Gather Place) Stitching My Landscape / Goose Call / Gestation / Memory Bones
Maureen Gruben (installation view – CVAG gallery – Gather Place) Stitching My Landscape, 2017
Maureen Gruben (installation view – CVAG gallery - Gather Place) Goose Call / Gestation / Memory Bones3. Maureen Gruben (installation view – CVAG gallery – Gather Place) Stitching My Landscape, 2017
Artists’ video statements, 2018 CVAG HUB/reception - touch screen interface with video monitor post-production: Legacy Art Galleries
(installation view – CVAG south gallery) Marika Echachis Swan (left wall) Daphne Boyer (back wall)
(installation view – CVAG south gallery) Daphne Boyer (left wall) Susan Pavel (front wall) Marika Echachis Swan (right wall)
Susan Pavel (installation view CVAG south gallery l-r) Speaker Sash, 2019, wool dyed with one mushroom and bone pin Our Healing, 2017, wool Of the Earth, 2019, wool and bone pin
Marika Echachis Swan Archival Tlaoquiaht Carved Woman photograph 19.5” x 23.5” (framed) (installation view – CVAG south gallery)
THE TIME OF THINgs - The Continuum of Indigenous Customary Practices into Contemporary Art
“Think of magic as a tree. The root of supernatural ability is simply the realization that all time exists simultaneously. Humans experience time as a progression of sequential events in much the same way we see the horizon as flat: our reality is shaped by our limitations.” - Haisla writer, Eden Robinson
The artists I have chosen to present in the exhibition The Time Of Things are five women whose work is informed by Indigenous worldviews: Daphne Boyer, Maureen Gruben, Susan Pavel, Skeena Reece and Marika Echachis Swan. They come from various nations and backgrounds. There are many Indigenous people who are from other territories who now live on or near Coast Salish land. This situation raises several questions for artists. How do they locate themselves on new territory? How do they create art while being respectful of the cultural sovereignty of their generous Indigenous hosts? How do they respect local protocols and avoid cultural appropriation? How do these complex enquiries inform their artistic practice?
With the exhibition The Time of Things we remember and honour the many generations of Indigenous women who have nurtured their own creative gifts, who have respected the land, who have perfected their skills, and who have generously transmitted their knowledge to the next generation. Today, women are noteworthy heroes of the current revitalization of Indigenous linguistic, cultural and artistic practices.
This exhibition was first presented at the Legacy Art Gallery in Victoria, BC from April 11 to July 7, 2018. Subsequently, it was presented at the Comox Valley Art Gallery in Courtenay, BC from March 14 to May 9, 2020.