Showing posts with label Alcheringa Gallery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alcheringa Gallery. Show all posts
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Ravenous. Carollyne Yardley and Rande Cook at Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria B.C. June 23rd. – July 19th. 2014 by Philip Willey.
Language evolves according to circumstance. Using terms like Indian, aboriginal, native, indigenous or First Nations is full of potential pitfalls. Writers must be careful to use the currently acceptable vocabulary. It’s important to be both involved and objective without being elitist or patronizing.
First Nations art has evolved considerably in recent years and it’s understandable that young First Nations artists should want to be more, dare I say it, relevant. One needs only to look at the art of Andrew Dexel who stretches recognizable ovals and trigons into dynamic curving shapes. We saw this evolution again in the show called Urban Thunderbirds/Ravens in a Material World at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria last fall. Four young artists, lessLIE, Dylan Thomas, Rande Cook and Francis Dick, got together to present a fresh look at the kind of First Nations art that has become so familiar especially here on the West Coast. They used traditional formats to make political statements. lessLIE showed bold prints with provocative wordplay and Dylan Thomas’s prints were stylized images of non-traditional subject matter. Rande Cook’s paintings suggested what it means to live in a city. One of his photographs showed the artist posing in the streets of New York City wearing a Kwaktiutl/Louis Vuitton mask. Francis Dick added a feminist perspective to the show by depicting First Nations women as cultural heroes. The work of these four artists and others like them is transformative. They are re-appropriating imagery to create new cross-cultural forms.
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| photo by Luke Marston |
So is it possible, or even desirable, to transcend cultural barriers and arrive at some kind of fusion? This is the kind of question posed by Rande Cook and Carollyne Yardley in their collaboration ‘Ravenous’ at Alcheringa. There are certainly elements of both cultures here.
As Chris Creighton-Kelly points out in his article about fine art (Focus Magazine, June 2014) both Picasso and Gauguin borrowed - some would say stole - motifs, styles, and content from so-called primitive peoples. The borrowing seems to have gone full circle. Of course some will see it as appropriation but neither Yardley nor Cook appears to have a problem with that. There is no sense of conflict. The show isn’t intended to be a break with tradition so much as a comment on contemporary society. There is an acute awareness of the modern world and the dilemmas faced by aboriginal people. Yardley and Cook have gone beyond deep-rooted stereotypical thinking and aimed for some kind of apolitical synthesis.
Rande Cook was born in Alert Bay in 1977. He is a chief of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation and very aware of his cultural heritage. He works in a variety of ways, wood-carving to jewellery making and painting.
In this show Cook uses the story of the Raven as trickster or shape-changer. “I vowed to never reproduce and sell sacred ceremonial objects,” says Cook. In order to do this he had to invent a new vocabulary of design motifs. He tells ancient stories using contemporary methods.
Carollyne Yardley was raised in Victoria. She uses classical painting techniques and a traditional i.e. fine-art, style to create work that reflects contemporary and personal concerns. She is the first non-native artist to show at Alcheringa.
Yardley describes her art as pop-surrealism…‘exploring character development through humour, portraiture, pop culture, and absurdity. The squirrel face is a metaphor for the secrets we keep.’ She is not shy about her fixation with squirrels.
Elaine Mond of Alcheringa Gallery sees the show as a ground-breaking collaboration; the first of its kind in Victoria that she hopes will broaden the base of the gallery. With ‘Ravenous’ at Alcheringa Rande Cook and Carollyne Yardley have taken an intrepid step in a new direction.
There’s nothing disrespectful or exploitative about any of this but my sense is that purists are going to find some of it a little hard to digest. They shouldn’t. The show is challenging. Art is never static. Definitions are constantly evolving. Anyone who finds it shocking needs only to look at the revisionist art of Kent Monkman. Monkman, of Cree and Irish descent, makes very strong statements about history, consumerism and the ironies of life in the modern world. Cook and Yardley have combined humour and spirituality to the same effect.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Monday, August 19, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Rande Cook at Alcheringa Gallery
In this exhibition of small paintings Rande Cook continues his
adventurous exploration of traditional form line design. He has created
a series that celebrates aspects of pop culture such as Belgian comic
book hero Tin Tin and a version of Japan’s Hello Kitty alongside a
portrait of the artist with his morning latte.
Another entitled Isla Cakes pays homage to his small daughter’s favourite cup cake. Also inhabiting Rande’s ‘Dream-time’ you will find a small Fiat car, a sailboat and even the ubiquitous cell phone.
Don’t miss this show!
Another entitled Isla Cakes pays homage to his small daughter’s favourite cup cake. Also inhabiting Rande’s ‘Dream-time’ you will find a small Fiat car, a sailboat and even the ubiquitous cell phone.
Don’t miss this show!
May 16 - May 31, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Monday, November 26, 2012
Edward Joe and Rod Smith at Alcheringa Gallery
Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC
Monday, October 1, 2012
LUSA'NALA at Alcheringa Gallery
Opening reception, Thursday October 4th from 7-9 pm.
Singing, dancing and drumming led by Calvin Hunt, Mervyn Child and William Wasden Jr., and Poet Laureate Janet Rogers will read from her most recent book, Red Erotic.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Rande Cook at Alcheringa Gallery on March 31, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Benson Avea Bego at Alcheringa Gallery
August 29th - September 30th, 2011
whimsical pen and ink illustrations chronicle the insects, birds, men and women of his home in Okapa, Papua New Guinea.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Rande Cook at Alcheringa Gallery - 2011
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| Opening Reception: Saturday Aug. 6, 2011 at 7 to 9 pm |
Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort St.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
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