September 12 Vancouver - Bill Reid, Haida artist

(2 hrs) "Mother nature provides for our need, but not our greed" While in Vancouver, I made a visit to the Bill Reid Gallery, which showcases the work of a contemporary First Nation artist who has been very influential in Canadian art and environmentalism. Bill was born and raised in Victoria city (his mother was one of the 'stolen generation' sent to residential school and cut off from her culture). He reconnected with his Haida roots after visiting his grandfather at Haida Gwii (island north of Vancouver Island) when he was 28. He developed a style which fused classical Haida with modern art. He was already trained as a goldsmith so he made gold jewellery but also lots of other art. In his later years, he made a totem pole in his old age. As Parkinson's took hold, he worked with wire instead of drawing. Haida art is connected to the natural world, symmetrical around the vertical midline, with primary work (skeleton that holds it together) which must match in design and thickness and then intricate secondaries within, but symmetry is the heart of it all. First people's art often shows two aspects of the same creature eg front or overhead view plus side aspect, a bit like Picasso's work. Haida art contains tension, but it is controlled not exploded. On reviewing my photos from Victoria, I realised that the distortion of images caused by ripples on water connects to the 'graphicness' of Haida/first nation art (see pic above, taken by me, of the distorted reflection of a pile of kayaks) There were also a number of interesting films at the gallery about how the Haida use natural resources, including for dying fabric and for weaving. Alder bark produces bright yellow, cedar bark gives red (steep for up to 3 months for most intense colour), mosses for green, with different mordants and pots eg copper pot, to alter the colours. Salal berries for indigo, Oregon grape (mahonia) for deep purple. I learned that weaving requires good energy and breath, and people had time for song and dance art and culture because the land was so rich, and the art was used to teach. (Rcbm.ca/livingcultures for original films).