"Copper Thunderbird: Invention, Inspiration and Transformation" at UVic's Legacy Gallery opened on WEDNESDAY!

July 9th, 2008 - November 30th, 2008
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@ 630 Yates Street, Victoria, British Columbia
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"Untitled", © 1979 Norval Morrisseau
/Michael C. Williams Collection/
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SET DESIGNER FELT MORRISSEAU'S PRESENCE
Art show features costumes from Copper Thunderbird
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Grania Litwin, Times Colonist; Published: Thursday, July 10, 2008
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What: Norval Morrisseau exhibition
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Where: Legacy Art Gallery and Café, 630 Yates St.

Celebrated production designer Mary Kerr has worked for many years in dance, opera, film, television and extravagant special events.
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But when the University of Victoria theatre professor was asked to create sets and costumes for Copper Thunderbird - a play about the invention, inspiration and soulful journey of revered First Nations artist Norval Morrisseau - she was both terrified and exhilarated.
"It was payback time," she said flatly.
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She had met Morrisseau while an art student in Winnipeg and helped uncrate pictures for an early show. "He was leaning against a wall in this funny, flecked, really bad suit with cuffs and white socks. His greasy black hair was pulled back and he was very thin. He was an intense presence, smoking and watching us intently."
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Opening the crates, she was awed by the strong black outlines, graphic strength of line, flatness of imagery, X-ray interiors and medicine snakes in bright colours.
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"He has been a presence with me ever since," said Kerr, who was at the Legacy Art Gallery helping uncrate and hang another exhibition this week. It features a dozen works by Morrisseau, who died in 2007, as well as costumes, paintings and pictures of her set designs for Copper Thunderbird, which was performed at Ottawa's National Arts Centre last year. There are also works by several artists inspired by Morrisseau's Woodland School.
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"Morrisseau has been on my radar ever since I met him and to be honest, I felt his presence through the creation of the play. Every now and then, when I would get stuck, I felt him guiding me," said Kerr, who designed the opening and closing ceremonies for the Commonwealth Games in 1994. She has also worked with the Canadian Opera Company, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Danny Grossman Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada, the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, and most of this country's regional theatres.
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Her creative process always involves a leap to an inner space "where magic happens," and that's partly why she feels a strong connection to Morrisseau. He called his source the House of Invention, and described how his soul travelled there for inspiration and renewal.
"I think everyone has that ability, but many have turned off the switch," said Kerr, who feels lucky to have sustained the connection. "But it doesn't mean I'm not terrified each and every time I start a new project, that I may not be up to the standards of a great writer, a great musician, a great painter." For instance, in Copper Thunderbird, she didn't want to simply document the artist's life or project huge images of his work on stage. "I wanted to open up and explore his brain."
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She explains that Morrisseau's art, and her own, are about service and healing. "Colour is one of the most joyous things in our lives and he often talked about its healing power." She recalls looking at a picture of his many years ago. "It was of a shaman, and suddenly I felt pushed back by it, so dizzy I could hardly see straight. That painting was still working," she said with a broad smile.
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The exhibition, which includes several works from the collection of the late Michael C. Williams, is co-curated by Martin Segger and University of Victoria fine art student Marlaina Buch.
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Grania Litwin
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* The image in this posting: "Untitled", 36"x35", © 1979 Norval Morrisseau /Provenance: formerly owned by Michael C. Williams and donated to UVic as part of his estate; Michael C. Williams Collection - now part of the MALTWOOD Art Museum & Gallery Collection/