Morrisseau History Detective Stories (Part II)

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Gatherings: Aboriginal Art from the Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery shown in Taipei

(September - October 2003)-

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The image on a poster, "Astral Plain Scouts", acrylic on canvas

© 1976 Norval Morrisseau /Winnipeg Art Gallery Collection/

Click on image to enlarge

原生與創生－加拿大原住民藝術家作品展　

Gatherings: Aboriginal Art from the Collection ofThe Winnipeg Art Gallery
　
本項展覽來自加拿大溫尼伯美術館，介紹加拿大自七○年代至今原住民藝術的發展。七○年代，原住民藝術家運用西洋現代藝術手法創作，結合藝術家個人心志與口述歷史故事，隱喻在作品中，開始獲得非原住民藝術團體的矚目；八○年代，經過藝術學院訓練的原住民藝術家，改以拼貼、攝影、綜合媒材、裝置藝術創作，一開始他們的創作因為不符合一般人觀念裡的「原住民藝術」，甚少公開展出，然而，經過鍥而不捨地發展，漸為標榜西洋現代藝術的文化機構所接受；九○年代的原住民藝術家，有較多機會完成專業學位及參加展出，以保存原住民藝術為宗旨的大型藝術機構相繼成立，藝術家的發展又進入另一個階段，他們運用當代藝術表現手法，表現文化雜交、地域性色彩以及自我認同等主題。

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The people of Taiwan recently gained a spectacular glimpse into Canada's cultural diversity, creativity, and history through the well-received exhibition of Gatherings: Aboriginal Art from the Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, at Taiwan's National Museum of History, during September and October, 2003. Associated events and extensive media coverage ensured Gatherings highlighted the rich and growing relations between aboriginal peoples in Canada and Taiwan. Gatherings, curated by Catherine Mattes, is a small but strong exhibition drawn from the Winnipeg Art Gallery's collection. It highlights three distinct periods of transition in contemporary Canadian aboriginal art since the 1960s, when the Winnipeg Art Gallery led the way in bringing these works into mainstream Canadian cultural institutions. Ranging from the dramatic paintings by Norval Morrisseau of the Woodland School, to more recent experimental installation art such the video/installation piece "Buffalo Bone China" by Dana Claxton and the photographic art of Rosalie Favell, Gatherings demonstrates amply the dynamic and modern diversity which has brought aboriginal art to Canada's centre stage.

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Upon the opening ceremony within National Museum of History

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Gatherings opened with a press conference and reception attended by friends and partners from the museum and cultural community, the aboriginal community, senior Taiwan officials responsible for aboriginal affairs, members from Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the media where they enjoyed traditional delicacies catered by a Taiwanese aboriginal company. Also on hand for the opening was Métis artist Favell, whose photographic art is featured in Gatherings. Accompanied by Jasmina Vlaović, WAG's Director of Museum Services and Collections, she delivered a well-attended lecture at the National Taipei University of the Arts, spoke at the opening reception, and presented a two-hour retrospective of her work at the National Museum of History the following day.

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Taken in front of the outdoor banner (National Museum of History)(from left to right: Carey Archibald & Jasmina Vlaović from WAG, Chloe Chen and Weldon Epp from Canadian Trade Office, Rosalie Favell, artist and Huang Huichi, Curator of National Museum of History)

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Gatherings provided an excellent and vivid backdrop to celebrate the existing Memorandum of Understanding between Canada and Taiwan in support of developing relations between aboriginal peoples which has now been in place for the past five years. A delegation of Canadian parliamentarians, led by Hon. Judi Longfield, were able to visit the exhibition while on a Taiwanese government sponsored visit, reinforcing the positive and constructive elements of a challenging relationship that does not include diplomatic recognition. Together, both Elijah Harper and Dr. Kung Wen-chi, Chairman of the Council for Indigenous Peoples of the Taipei City Government, toured the Gatherings exhibit. Harper, a regular visitor to Taiwan and a major contributor, as is Dr. Kung, to the momentum of growing Canadian-Taiwan Aboriginal ties, provided uniquely personal insight into the exhibition as he personally knows - or is closely related to - a majority of Gatherings' featured artists.

-Extensive mainstream Mandarin and English print and television media coverage of Gatherings ensured that the exhibition was well attended. Both Vlaović and Favell fielded numerous print, TV, and radio interviews while in Taiwan, offering insight into the development of contemporary aboriginal artistic expression within Canada. Both were also interviewed for Spirit magazine of Toronto and CBC radio has subsequently reported on the exhibition.-

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From left to right, Dr. Kung Wen-chi, Commissioner of Taipei Indigenous Peoples Commission, Elijah Harper, former Canadian MP, Weldon Epp, General Relations Director, CTOT, Jeff Ge, Exhibition Director, national Museum of History

 

The National Museum of History (not to be confused with Taiwan's National Palace Museum) is one of Taiwan's most-visited public institutions, with an average of more than 600,000 visitors annually (or as Winnipeg Art Gallery's Vlaović observed, roughly the entire population of Winnipeg every year), and active programming for Taipei-area schools. The Museum has previously hosted exhibits from Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum and the National Museum of Civilisation, and had taken the initiative to bring Gatherings to Taiwan. As Museum Director and established artist Huang Kuang-nan concluded, while hosting a wrap-up luncheon, the success of Gatherings guarantees that his Museum's appetite for future cooperation with Canadian institution continues to grow.

Jointly organised by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Taiwan's National Museum of History and the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, Gatherings received strong support from Taiwan's Council for Indigenous Peoples (CIP), Taipei City's Council for Indigenous Peoples, and EVA Airlines. Through all these partnerships and the creative energies of the featured Canadian artists, Gatherings allowed thousands of Taiwanese to experience this diversity and broaden their experience of Canada's First Nations well beyond existing stereotypes.

 

Source: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

* The painting on the poster for the "Gatherings": "Astral Plain Scouts", size not known, © 1976 Norval Morrisseau /Winnipeg Art Gallery Collection - Gift of Dr. Louis Cogan/