Rande Cook at Empty Gallery

We Draw the Line Here ! a political art show celebrating International Women's Day at the CACGV

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.

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.

Rande Cook and Carollyne Yardley at Alcheringa Gallery

Arts and Industry Open House at Rock Bay Square

Lisa Hebden and Rande Cook at Rad Juli

LessLIE, Dylan Thomas, Rande Cook and Francis Dick at the AGGV

September 20, 2013 - January 12, 2014

 

This exhibition highlights new and recent works from Coast Salish artists lessLIE and Dylan Thomas, and Kwakwaka’wakw artists Rande Cook and Francis Dick. The work encompasses personal stories, community histories and exploration of current events offering a unique view of First Nations art production in this region.

Varied in their approaches, the work selected for this exhibition references cross-cultural forms, re-appropriation of North American visual culture, and an honouring of individuals and ideas from the cultural history of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw communities. The themes explored by the artists range from intimate personal narratives, and extend to broader mainstream issues functioning as social commentary. The works reflect urban First Nations identity from the unique perspective of these four artists. 

Co-curated by lessLIE, Rande Cook and Nicole Stanbridge | Ker and Centennial Galleries

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!

May 16 - May 31, 2013

Rande Cook at Alcheringa Gallery

LUSA'NALA at Alcheringa Gallery

Participating artists: Mervyn Child · Rande Cook · Francis Dick · Calvin Hunt · Trevor Hunt · Richard Sumner · William Wasden Jr.
 
 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.

Rande Cook at Alcheringa Gallery on March 31, 2012

We hope you can join us at Alcheringa on Saturday March 31, between 2 and 4 pm when Rande Cook will be signing a new serigraph entitled ‘Dzunukwa’. This occasion presents an opportunity to meet the artist and to learn about the inspiration for this very special work. Dzunukwa is a stunning 16-colour print created in an edition of 80. The original painting was featured in his summer 2011 exhibition Continued Explorations of the Formline. Reserve your copy in advance.

Rande's Cook opening reception for "continued explorations of the formline”

            Alcheringa Gallery  - Aug. 6 to 26, 2011
Watch Video 
http://www.alcheringa-gallery.com/

Rande Cook at Alcheringa Gallery - 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday Aug. 6, 2011 at 7 to 9 pm 

 

 

 

 

Alcheringa Gallery

665 Fort St.

www.alcheringa-gallery.com

Rande Cook and Arlene Nesbitt by Debora Alanna

Innovative Visions of the Formline
Rande Cook
Works on paper and drum
13 May – 9 June 2010
Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort St, Victoria BC

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Rande Cook displays pride in his Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. A legacy of this First Nation’s tradition is the oral chronicles shared between its people. Visual depictions of stories, events and evocations embody art works. Impressions within oral histories befit specific, significant forms. Integral to this visual culture is the illustration of energy as Formline. Formline is not the outline of ovoids, circles and U form shapes that permeate the fundamental workings of this tradition; it is the coloured contour within the outline. Asserting the power and force found in living things, Formline tells stories, fortifies narratives with established shaping and colour.
Studying Formline as it transforms through time, and bringing his own interpretation of this evolution to his artwork, Cook presents more than a diachronic development. His innovative approach to Formline articulates and expands the historical application while respecting the Kwakwaka’wakw origins to this process. Sequentially, each work advances traditional design with crafted boldness.
Mapping sensation and reflection dominates Cook’s paintings. He develops intuitive terrain and elevates the sensibility of each idea he surveys. Taking Flight initiates the challenge to Formline with gentle colouration and graceful stretching. Supernatural amplifies that challenge, widening the central circle, releasing the restraint of visual modality from customary containment. Emerging heightens the feeling of possibility. A spacial incision releases the flow of energy, allowing burgeoning growth. Yellow ochre is the colour of healing, according to Cook. U forms, held by symbolic healing power enables the emergence of a new force. Bringing Light shows further release of Formline, with a lightening of palate and acknowledgement of presence, a disembodied spirit. In Play is mischievous teasing of Formline, testing and taunting the picture plane. Cook reveals introspection in Perception/Projection. Balancing elements are contrapuntal investigations. Painting a North West Coast traditional face, depicting the
recognizable nostrils and eye features, he continues to explore his challenges to Formline while confronting himself. Summer (drum), a circular painting on a drum is an explosive resonance, releasing Formline sensibility. A female figure, embedded in the reverberation of colour and abstracted Formline portrays in a contemporary stance. Elegance combines Formline and Cooks unique development. With a modish woman holding a wine glass, traditional structuring whirls and roots this work. Kwakwaka’wakw imagery tempers modern abandon.
More than half a century ago, First Nations artists were considering the importance of maintaining cultural integrity while developing new art practises. ” In 1948, (George) Clutesi claimed his art practice as a platform for ensuring that the old would not be totally sublimated to the new. He expressed his belief that “as long as paint exists on canvas, [my people’s] dances and legends will not be lost.[1]”[2] Through Rande Cook’s distinctive contribution to the enduring Kwakwaka’wakw culture, he advocates and advances his ethnic longevity, fearlessly contributing to its cultural vision.

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[1] Crosby, Marcia. Making Indian Art Modern. Vancouver, BC: Ruins in Process. Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. http://www.vancouverartinthesixties.com/
[2] Native Voice, September 1948, 3.

Image Informed
Arlene Nesbitt
Photomontage and digitally mixed media
21 May – 4 June 2010
Collective Works Gallery
1311 Gladstone Ave, Victoria BC

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Arlene Nesbitt’s work is awakening. Her sumptuous prints line the Collective Works walls, toying and tugging at what is present in our senses. Drawings on various surfaces superimpose photographs, expertly layered. Each work evokes an intense revelation.
Paul Trejo’s 1993 analysis of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind (alias Phenomenology of Spirit) [1] explains that Hegel used phenomenon to consider appearance. “... we can only know Reality when we have completely mastered the appearances, since the appearances (phenomena) partially hide and partially reveal Reality... and there can be degrees of truth in propositions.” “Phenomena of mind also partially hide and partially reveal the truth.”
Nesbitt has employed this understanding of Phenomenology in her work. Crumpled aluminum becomes phenomenon (Invocation, Tracks). There is a transportation of our senses, a marvellous transmutation from the reality of metal, of industry and its connotations of impairment. These works transfigure material existence it plays with our understanding of the truth of the object. Crushed rose petals become a metallic ballet. (Dancer 1 and Dancer 11) Genuine, Nesbitt’s work touches us because this suggestion of our physical world allows us belief. Beauty hovers, suggesting physicality, which alludes to our vulnerability, a rumpled idea.
Recalling Marshall McLuhan, Derick de Kerchove said: “... he was constantly discovering, as if feeling the shapes of knowledge with his hands. ...thinking not with his head but with all his senses... did not deduce things... he perceived directly...” [2] Here, there is a correspondence to Nesbitt’s working process. Through works like Hybrid 1 and Hybrid 11, machinations layer the sensation of circulating discovery. Strokes of crayon or droplets on Mylar over industrial histories inculcate living memory through her sensual processing. Nesbitt’s direct perceptions communicate visual acuity.
In works such as Out of Kilter and Fence, Nesbitt employs nature, supplanting awe with consideration. We struggle to see foliage; she obfuscates the view with pattern and structure. Superimposed, coloured touches transfer complication to our preconceptions. We encounter a hermetic restlessness, a withdrawal to ruminate, to introspect. We recognize this need, and her work has brought us to the hermitage.
Nesbit considers the disposition of bones and teeth in Bones, a triptych. Her powerful presage to mortality directs our emotional enlightening, applying gentility to our fear. We become receptive to Nesbitt’s wilful surface light stirring our biases.
Meeting is a playful portraiture. Nesbitt soaks colour, enlivens the surface, composing a current that radiates around the intimation of two figures. A portent, the radiance inundates, and reciprocity is phenomenon. video

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[1] Trejo, Paul. Summary of Hegel’s Philosophy of Mind, 1993. http://philosophy.eserver.org/hegel-summary.html
[2] de Kerckhove, Derrick. Zulu Time (orig. L'heure zulu), 1999 NFC documentary, director Jonny Silver

Rande Cook at Alcheringa Gallery

    

Opening reception :

Thurs. May 13, 2010 

7 to 9pm