Projects
Workshops
June 22: Arts Programming Workshop with Amir Ali Alibhai of the Alliance for Arts and Culture.
June 24: Event Management Workshop with Paul Armstrong of Mundo Mundo Productions
June 25: Grant Writing Workshop With Mary Ann Anderson of Little Dog Consulting
June 26: Marketing and Publicity Workshop with Ruthie Sumiko Tabata of Theater Replacement
June 27th: Join us in the Honoring of Senior Mohawk Arts Administrator, Tom Hill who will speak to youth on the past, present and future of programming Native Art!
These events are intended for Emerging Native Youth Artists and Arts Administrators who Wish to Gain knowledge on arts admin from Senior Artists. Workshops are free of charge and will occur at the grunt gallery (116-350 e 2nd) 6-8pm. RSVP to Sharifah or call 604.537.9507
Website
Beat Nation: Hip Hop as Indigenous Culture
“Native graffiti art, indigenized iPods©, Inuit break dancing, indigenous-language hip hop and video, Indian bling and urban wear: the roots of hip hop culture and music have been transformed by indigenous cultures and identities into new forms of visual culture and music that echo the realities of Aboriginal people. Beat Nation is about music, it’s about art and it’s about the spirit of us as indigenous peoples and cultures.” (Tania Willard, Co-curator)
The Beat Nation Website, designed by Archer Pechawis, features:
Works by:
Jackson 2Bears, Sonny Assu, Kevin Lee Burton, Jordan Bennett, Corey Bulpitt, Bracken Hanuse Corlett, Andrew Dexel, Bunky Echo Hawk, Nicholas Galanin, Morgan Green, Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Doreen Manuel, Aleyna May, Leena Minnifie, Rose Simpson, Jolene Nenibah Yazzie, and the Native Youth Artist Collective.
Audio Tracks Featuring:
Miss Christie Lee, Rapsure Risin, Kinnie Starr, Manik1derful, Eekwol and Mils, Daybi, and Ostwelve.
And Writing by:
Kinnie Starr, Ostwelve, Ronald Harris, and Peter Morin
This project was made possible with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through Canadian Culture Online.
Website
Ruins in Process: Vancouver Art in the Sixties
Ruins In Process is a research archive and educational resource that brings together still and moving images, ephemera, essays and interviews to explore the diverse artistic practices of Vancouver art in the 1960s and early 1970s. Drawn from private collections and archives as well as public sources, it uses the capacity of the internet as an ideal medium to present the interdisciplinary activities and technologies that emerged at that time. With hundreds of images, texts, audio and video recordings, Ruins In Process will reward repeat visits and ongoing research.
This project is produced through a partnership between The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia, and the grunt gallery, Vancouver. Ruins in Process is made possible with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy. We are also grateful for the assistance of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Link: vancouverartinthesixties.com
Performance/Website
Cheryl L'Hirondelle
Nikamon Ohci Askiy (songs because of the land)
Photo credit: Nadya Kwandibens
Cheryl L'Hirondelle's commissioned project with grunt has been an ongoing and wonderfully engaging journey. It all culminates in a final concert performance and DVD launch on February 7, 2 p.m., at the Celebration Hall of Mountainview Cemetery (5445 Fraser Street).
From December 7, 2008 till December 31, 2008 Cree artist Cheryl L'Hirondelle will sing through the streets of Vancouver, B.C. as part of her project Nikamon Ohci Askiy (songs because of the land).
During the month of December, the artist will make daily journeys throughout Vancouver and "sing" the landscape she encounters. These encounters will be captured by mobile phone by the artist and whatever other technologies are made available by participating viewers/audience (video, photo, audio).
During the live performances, Cheryl will sing, record and upload audio clips to an online database. Each audio clip will be tagged to one or more of the 16 cree values. The clips will automatically be available to online audiences interactively through a rich online media experience available at VancouverSonglines.ca
This commission is funded through Arts Partners in Creative Development. The final performance and DVD Release takes place during the PuSh Festival.
Website:
The Medicine Project
Our new project, Medicine, is a curated website featuring First Nations artists. It includes installations, performances and art works exploring issues of the physical, mental and spiritual trauma that often represents the current realities of many Aboriginal peoples in Canada. It further explores how contemporary artists reference ancient techniques and symbolism around the theme of Medicine to talk about the historical and contemporary realities in their communities. These are individual stories that have wider social implications: the project curator highlights ways artists have made these realities known as they speak up not only for themselves but also on behalf of communities and cultures. Curator Dana Claxton's text examines concepts of Medicine through Aboriginal contemporary art by artists who employ prescriptive and healing notions within their work.
Website:
Dana Claxton
Dana Claxton's media productions have developed over the past 20 years into a singular body of work. Earlier focused on anger at the situation of the First Nations in North America, Claxton later turned to aboriginal ideas of spirituality and the sacred, and translated them into performance, film, video, installation, and photography. The site contains downloadable essays by Monika Kin Gagnon, Lynne Bell, and Bea Medicine reprinted from source texts. It also includes also a curatorial essay and an extensive interview. This site makes Claxton's work available to a wide audience in an easily navigated and information-rich format. Curated by Tania Willard.
Website:
Rebecca Belmore
Before now there has been no one reference to give viewers an overall sense of Rebecca Belmore's achievement. In Canada, her distinctive and insightful performances, videos, and exhibitions have brought contemporary aboriginal art to the forefront of the arts community. Internationally, she has participated in Biennales in Venice, Havana, Sydney, and Tirana as well as at InSite in Santa Fe. This stark, sleek retrospective site features video clips, extended biographical information, and critical writing by Jolene Rickard and Lee-Ann Martin from source texts. Curated by Daina Warren.
Website:
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun's site is a visually rich display of the paintings and other works by this essential British Columbian aboriginal artist. The retrospective section features a strong selection of Yuxweluptun's two-dimensional work from the past 20 years - both his surrealist political works and abstracts. The interdisciplinary section gives a cross-section of his works in digital media, sculpture, installation, and performance. The site also contains critical texts by curator Scott Watson and art historian Charlotte Townsend-Gault. The interviews and essays trace Yuxweluptun's concerns ranging from the mistreatment of aboriginal communities to the destruction of our environment. Curated by Elaine Moyah.
Website:
First Vision
First Vision is an online documentation of three curatorial projects featuring work of First Nations artists from the grunt archives and beyond. Curated by three young, dynamic artists from the aboriginal community, the site is a valuable addition to our growing presentation of contemporary Native art. First Vision is funded through the Gateway Project Canada Culture Online of the Department of Canadian Heritage, a program dedicated to making First Nations cultural material available to all Canadians.
Website:
brunt magazine
editions 1, 2 & 3
More than just an archive, brunt online is a web space that brings artists' work straight into your living room, or wherever your internet window to the world is. Not just a reprint of brunt magazine, it contains video streams of challenging performances, artists' reflections on their work, and critical writing on past exhibitions. Built to please, brunt online offers you art with no holds barred.
Website:
First Nations Performance Archive
Produced by Daina Warren and Jay Thompson, First Nations Performance features performance work by aboriginal artists produced at grunt since 1989. The site is comprehensive, containing almost 5 hours of video, numerous photos, essays, and other texts.
CDROM:
An Indian Act: Shooting the Indian Act
This CDROM is a documentation of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun's performance "An Indian Act Shooting the Indian Act". The performance expresses Yuxweluptun's frustrations with the outmoded and patriarchal Indian Act, which continues to entrench Native communities within the limitations of colonialism. Yuxweluptun's work speaks to the problems, realities, and lives of Native people today. An Indian Act: Shooting the Indian Act won the 2007 ImagineNATIVE Festival "Best New Media" award.
Available from the gallery shop
CDROM:
Chiasma
An online performance exchange between three international arts organizations, featuring:
Léa Donnan
Imperial Slacks - Sydney, Australia
Rebecca Belmore
grunt gallery - Vancouver, Canada
Hester Reeve
Folly - Lancaster, UK
Available from the gallery shop
Conference
Live in Public - The Art of Engagement
This three-day conference was an artist-initiated exploration of community-developed public art and the artist's place within it. Rejecting notions of social work or community development, the conference looked at the realities of publicly engaged art practices and brought together a variety of artists who examined roles, expectations, risks, and breakthroughs through a series of panels and an open space discussion.
Conference:
INDIANacts
INDIANacts - Aboriginal Performance Art is a three day gathering of artists and scholars to examine performance art practices arising from the Aboriginal culture. In the past twenty years or so a significant growth in contemporary native performance art has been generated by a unique combination of culture, tradition, time, and place. This art form has been approached from places as diverse as visual art, video and film, and the fringes of dance, music, and theatre. Whatever the background, a certain unique genre of work has been and is being created. The time for discussion regarding its history and processes is overdue.
Publication:
Live at the End of the Century
Live at the End of the Century highlights some of the many aspects of performance art that have been manifest in Vancouver. Touching on history, motivation, viewpoints, aesthetics, politics, theory etc, the writers in this anthology reflect the diversity of approach artists and writers have taken towards performance. This rich sampling of over 35 years of performance activity in Vancouver includes essays by Glenn Alteen, Warren Arcan, Ivan Coyote, Todd Davis, Margaret Dragu, Karen Henry, Kiss & Tell, Glenn Lewis, Aiyyana Maracle, Tanya Mars, Archer Pechawis, Judy Radul and Paul Wong.
Available from the gallery shop