TRANSFERENCE, TRADITION, TECHNOLOGY

Edited by Dana Claxton, Melanie Townsend, and Steven Loft Walter Phillips Gallery Editions in association with Indigenous Media Art Group and Art Gallery of Hamilton

BOOK LAUNCH AND SIGNING: The book will be launched at the ACC Colloquium at Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg at the ACC Colloquium at Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg , March 17 - 20, 2006. New Banff Centre book lands at the intersection between Aboriginal art and digital culture. In a dialogue with Hawaiian artist Puhipau, filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk talks about the process of putting Inuit stories on film, first in a series of shorts made for the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, then in his acclaimed feature Atanarjuat The Fast Runner. Why did I start working in video? he says in the new book Transference, Tradition, Technology. I guess I saw southern filmmakers coming up north to make programs about us. And they would do a terrific project, but you’d see the props and they were not the way they should be. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I started doing it, to do it right.

Kunuk’s inspiration and motivation, his adaptation of modern techniques to traditional stories, follows a few of the themes of Transference, Tradition, Technology, subtitled native new media exploring digital culture and released by The Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery Editions in association with Indigenous Media Art Group and Art Gallery of Hamilton. A history of Native media art, it includes work by artists including Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew, Dana Claxton, Alanis Obomsawin, Buffy Ste-Marie, and Skawennati Tricia Fragnito, among many others.

This book of essays by artists, curators, and scholars frames the landscape of contemporary Aboriginal art, the influence of Western criticism and standards, and the liberating advent of inexpensive technologies including video and online media.

To govern ourselves means to govern our stories and our ways of telling stories, artist Marjorie Beaucage is quoted in the book, speaking about the creation of the Aboriginal Film and Media Arts Alliance in the early 1990s. It means that the rhythm of the drumbeat and the language of smoke signals can be transformed to the airwaves and modems of our time. If we remain true to the value of traditional storytelling practices, we can use the new technology without destroying the culture.

Transference, Tradition, Technology contributes to a series of Aboriginal programming events and exhibitions currently on at the Walter Phillips Gallery and Visual Arts at The Banff Centre. The Gallery’s current main exhibition, Jimmie Durham: Knew Urk, on through March 26, is a recent collection of mixed media works that make up Durham’s first exhibition in Canada, and his first solo show in North America in over a decade. Companion to the Knew Urk exhibition is a hard cover artist book by Durham titled The Second Particle Wave Theory (as performed on the banks of the River Wear, a stone’s throw from Sunderland and the Durham Cathedral). In the Gallery’s PLAN B curatorial space, Kent Monkman’s Paul Chaat Smith, on through March 2, is a series of paintings and commentary by one of Canada’s most dynamic painters and curators, Chaat Smith, who currently works at Washington’s National Museum of the American Indian.

NATIONAL FILM BOARD’S NEW I CAN MAKE ART SERIES FEATURES TWO NATIVE ARTISTS

I Can Make ART is a series of six short films that takes a kids'-eye view of a diverse group of Canadian visual artists. Intended for 9 to 12 year olds, each of the six films features one artist and one related art activity inspired by that artist's work. With tie-ins to science, math, history, social studies and language arts, I Can Make ART will excite interest in the creative process and provide an exceptional learning experience with a uniquely Canadian angle. The series of 6 educational films includes Maude Lewis, Emily Carr, Kai Chan, Marcelle Ferron, Maude Lewis, Inuit artist Andrew Cappik and Ojibwe artist Ron Noganosh.

I Can Make ART like Andrew Qappik

Andrew Qappik is a world-renowned Inuit printmaker from Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Originally inspired by images in the comic books he read as a child, Andrew now finds his subjects in the stories, traditions and day-to-day events of his world.
In I Can Make ART like Andrew Qappik, he captivates his student audience by creating a soapstone relief print before their very eyes. Then it's the kids' turn. They explore Andrew's symbolic imagery-and their own-as they each create a self-portrait relief print. Imbued with a deep appreciation and respect for life in the North, I Can Make ART like Andrew Qappik offers an intimate look at a rarely seen and truly magical creative process.

I Can Make ART like Ron Noganosh

Ron Noganosh is a highly regarded sculptor and installation artist who transforms everyday items - rusted hubcaps, computer parts, feathers - into artworks that are at once funny, imaginative and thought-provoking. Inspired by Ron's found-object sculptures, students discover how to turn "junk" into art. Themes of personal and cultural identity surface as they develop skills and confidence while discovering a world of creative possibilities. Conveying a strong sense of respect for the environment and for cultural identity, I Can Make ART Like Ron Nogonosh offers kids a new way to create art and make powerful statements about their world.

To Order, visit the NFB s web site: GO THERE >
or call: 1-800-267-7710
I Can Make ART like Andrew Qappik Order #: C 9105 091
I Can Make ART like Ron Noganosh Order #: C 9105 095

BARRY ACE’S NEW WEBSITE LAUNCH

Barry Ace’ s new website features his trademark Super Phat Nish, icon of urban Indian pop culture depicted with humour and playfulness and highlighted by his intricate beadwork. Skate-boards, patches, lunch boxes, satchels, hats, clothing and other urban pop culture objects are imbued with his view of the stereotypical representation of Indians and his acknowledgement of the longstanding connection with urban African American culture. Super Phat Nish becomes the new cool urban guru and role model that reveals that one can maintain one’s distinct cultural sensibility in the city. The site is designed by New York designer, Patrick Tafoya. Barry Ace is an established artist, writer and curator living and working in Ottawa. GO THERE >

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