Art and culture collide this summer on Vancouver Island and the result is going to be beautiful artistry and a sharing of traditions of Pacific nations.
Ladysmith, Victoria and Metchosin are getting ready for Art Jam 2010, which is bringing together renowned Japanese and First Nation artists and performers as part of an ongoing cultural exchange.
This year, Ladysmith is getting a piece of the experience, which started in 2004 when Sugimoto Hiroshi of Tokyo Japan exhibited his work at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The Ladysmith Waterfront Art Gallery Centre is the location of an exhibit called Pacific Rim Connection Art Jam 2010, sponsored by the Art Council of Ladysmith and District.
Stz’uminus First Nation carvers John and Luke Marston, who participated in Art Jam 2008 in Ome, Japan, are among those exhibiting at the gallery.
"It had a very profound impact on me," John said, of travelling to Japan in 2008. "To have it turn into this long term exchange that is going to happen the rest of our lives in an amazing thing."
The Marstons are talented carvers who have been gaining recognition. In 2009, they had an exhibit at the Inuit Gallery of Vancouver. John has work in the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver and he was awarded a B.C. Creative Achievement Award for Aboriginal Art. Luke carved a bentwood box for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and carved a totem pole erected at Government House.
This artistic exchange, like many of the brother’s projects, is an opportunity to share their Coast Salish culture.
John said an elder encouraged him to take every opportunity he received to share his culture.
"It helps create understanding between people," John said. "A lot of good can come for sharing what our nation is all about."
Art acts as a bridge.
John incorporates traditional legends into his pieces, but sometimes uses a modern story too.
"Art grabs you emotionally and visually," John said. "It’s a perfect medium for bridging that gap."
"I feel you can live your life through art," Luke said. "I think it just enriches your life."
And the experience in Japan beautifully exhibited how as artists the First Nation and Japanese carvers are not that different.
John said travelling anywhere always opens your mind.
"That’s what it does for your art also," he noted. "There’s not a lot of difference between us."
Luke echoed his thoughts, noting the Japanese carver they stayed with would go into his studio and work with his tools and doing the same things the brothers do here in Canada.
Art Jam 2010 activities, including musical performances from the visiting Japanese Noh theatre, run July 6 to 21 at various Victoria galleries and the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts.
The Ladysmith Waterfront Art Gallery Centre exhibit goes up July 9. Robert Amos, an arts writer for a Victoria newspaper, who is heavily involved with Art Jam, helped bring the exhibit to the gallery.
"We are really lucky to have this on our ground," said Dennis Brown, the curator of the Ladysmith show. "It’s just a good exchange of information and culture. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for everybody in the community as well as the artist community to share time and space with travellers from a distant land."
