I don't like to define myself as an artist based on on single medium. I have been mixing digital media, performance, painting, collage and anything else I can get my hands on or try. I was told that I would eventually choose 1 or 2 mediums.  That prospect seems suffocating to me. It may mean I never master any one technique or medium, but I also don't believe in the concept of mastery. I think once you call yourself a master your practice then stagnates, because you believe you are at the pinnacle with nothing left to learn or explore. The word I use for my practice is "Wuulhu." which comes from the Wuikila language meaning "to fuse together." Traditionally this word may have been used for tool making or painting, or perhaps it had spiritual connotations - fusing to the supernatural. I use this word today to wrap my methods, ideas, symbols and actions into one process. I feel the message and the media can interact equally and the chosen medium can in turn be fused with others...continially remixed, re-fused and recombined and subtracted.

https://vimeo.com/57101918 Here is a link to a piece I am working on. Sala = Patience is a short video that has been used as part of a live audio visual performance and as a digital installation.

Patience = Zero :)

I should have known I was setting myself up for drama when I decided to make a piece about "Patience."

The last week and a bit I have been trying to work not only on this video, but on other projects, with chronic neck problems, Stomach flu, and an unpredictable computer.  At this point I have used up most of my Sala, and don't think I will be able to fully reflect until I am feeling more balanced out.

I have decided to take a break from digital media a.s.a.p.  My mission to "fuse" my digital work with visual art and performance has ended up being somewhat one-sided.  I am really feeling the urge to paint and make sculptures in the silence of the studio.

Here are 3 Images from my recent shoot:

Sala - Ovoid Erasure

Sala - Un-masking

Sala - Ovoid Erasure b/w

 Artist Statement 

 

Sala = Patience is the first installation of the Wuulhu Digitial 
 series. Wuulhu comes from the Wuikila language, and means "to fuse together." In the Wuulhu Digital series words will be re-interpreted through the fusion of traditional and digital technology. Sala (Patience) comes from the Heiltsuk language and is a word we have used while working in the studio, during technical glitches, and in moments of pressure, repetition and practice. This moving-image montage is the recording of a live-mural performance and it will be continually remixed when online and in live-settings. Sala is produced through labour, chance and enacting performance on the subject of patience.

The carved mask that is worn in the piece is the first mask I made while training with my Heiltsuk relatives, Bradley Hunt and his sons Shawn Hunt and Dean Hunt. The mask is called Kvulus Transformer. Kvulus is a Thunderbird being who has the ability to change between supernatural bird and human form, often changing into human when its feathers become too hot on its inner-skin. Kvulus with an egg on top of its head is the main crest that is represented by my family in Wuikinuxv.

This mask contains “traditional” elements, but presently it would not be danced ceremonially back home. It does not represent the traditional depiction of the Kvulus thunderbird mask, it instead reflects the transformation from human into the supernatural state. Previously, I have worn this mask in a performance art piece and received some second-hand criticism from an semi-anonymous source, for wearing it in that kind of setting. The question I wanted to ask this person was when should can it be worn? If not in ceremony, and if not in an arts setting, then where? Should I just sell this mask, keep it in a box, or hang it on a wall? Selling our masks to outsiders has been an acceptable occupation for a long time, but keeping them for personal expression seems to be taboo in some instances. If feel like we are sometimes stuck trying to re-create the past, because so much was taken away by Colonization. I feel like the movement to re-claim our traditions should also include our work taking new forms. This is how our People traditionally operated, like most artists, reacting to and interpreting the environment around them.

I have carved items intended for the ceremonial Big House and family Potlatch, but have realized that there are a whole set of protocols I need to address in order to make this happen. I have hung onto all pieces that I have carved and turned down offers of money for them in hopes that they can be danced and their spirits sung.....Sala.....Sala....Sala.

The ovoid shapes that are seen in the making this piece are forms that are practiced over and over again by Northwest Coast artists, and they become a signature of each individual. What is needed to create this shape, taking into account positive and negative space, line-composition and blood memory is the practice of Sala.

Near the end of the piece when the ovoid is covered over. I intend this not as an act of frustration or violence. I intend this to reflect the ephemeral nature of creation.  I have an non-conventional views when it comes to preserving artwork.  I have put many of my pieces in the fire or have painted over them.  I feel like this is based in the action of wanting to renew and intuition to revise.  Traditionally, where I am from we would let our carved figures go back into the the elements after they became "rotten." There was not the insane notion to archive, and tag and display everything as is done in a museum. At Potlatches ceremonial items are burned to mark a renewal and release. By covering the ovoid I am opening myself up to the future.

I want to expose myself and reveal moments of pressure, play, pain, and practice. I chose to make nocturnal isolation a requirement for its production as well. Sala also reflects my desire to be uncomfortable within my work. From this discomfort I feel I remain fresh in my steps. A non-linear movement with no defined finish line, requiring patience...Sala.

  

I'm posting another video piece I worked on over the last couple weeks.  Another mashup of sorts...fusing Flash Gordon, Buffy St. Marie, Sharks, Lions, Thunderbirds and Eagles.  My friend Darwin Frost made the Audio for it.  He was back in New York when I started working on it.  I was sending him a message to see if he was safe from Hurricane Sandy, and while I was writing it he sent me a letter to see if I was safe from the Earthquake that happened off the coast of Haida Gwaii.  I was already working w some of this footage and thought it fit like a glove.  The dancing figure in the video is a a depiction of the Thunderbird who is a figure that connects to thunderclaps, lightning and earthquakes. 

I installed this video along with Sala = Patience and another video called Salish Seas Rythm last November 10th and again on the 17th at the W2 Community Media Arts Centre.

Below are some visual documents of that.  The photos were taken by Joffrey Middleton Hope www.joffrey.ca 

Wuulhu - Installation - Woodwards Atrium - W2 - Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival

Live-Visuals from Trickster

Live Audio Visual Performance w Skookum Sound System - w Impossible Nothing - Biochemical

Live Audio Visual Performance w Skookum Sound System - w DJ Deano and Csetkwe - Alligator Tears

Csetkwe sings Alligator Tears

Deano w the H'lulu drum

I am still working with the video footage from the installation and performance on the 10th.  Below is a poster I designed for the installation and performance.  It was the first time I have had access to so many projectors...I think 10 in total.  I have wanted to transform public spaces with big projections for a while now and this felt like my first real taste of it.  I've been thinking about "projection bombing" and intervention performance using projections.  Still need to conduct some more technical research, but would like to approach that in the new year.

Sala = Patience is still in a fine color correction edit.  I have been looking at changing the "ending", but I haven't come up with an idea that I feel works for the piece.  I still like the idea of the surreal "otherworld" being revealed as the everyday.  There isn't much I feel like I can do with my current footage to alter it, so I will have to figure out a new way to execute it.  I like being in this place between though.  I feel like this is integral to the production. Patience and pondering.

Installation and Catchup

Back to posting here.  I've attached a few images from my Residency in Regina w the Sakewewak Collective and the Mackenzie Art Gallery.  It's been interesting getting back into the school swing of things.  I have also landed down into another mini-residency at the W2 for the Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival.  I will be installing digital installations and performing with Skookum Sound System on the night of the 10th.  I have been spending most (meaning all) of my time getting ready for this.  Hoping life will return to the chaos I am used to after the 11th.  I have also spent considerable time on my artist statement for my Sala video.  I am going to re-work the ending, but will need to setup another photo shoot to shoot it.  I also I working on the visual ideas for a more satisfying conclusion.

I've been working on a lot of video mashups for our next show....I am attaching the link to the "Father" video I made.  It's a rough mix I did over a few days.  Chopping up footage from Return of the Jedi and  Empire Strikes back.....lot of rendering time.  I posted it up on the day Disney bought the star wars franchise....noticed an influx of star wars memes and mashups the day I posted.  In my opinion Disney can't do much worse than some of the newer Star Wars efforts.  I like the originals.  Nice metaphors on the machine-like qualities of political power and the fight to retain a good spirit even though the darkside has a strong pull.

The paintings are more like studies for me.  They are pretty small in size.  The circle is part of my daily practice.  I like to warmup before I draw by making circles for 5 or 10 minutes....both clockwise and counter clockwise.  I've taken that into my paintings as well.  Trying to make a nice circle without a stencil or compass.  The other painting is a self-portrait.  It's based on my first night in Regina.  It was dark, windy, snowing and the only thing I could see that was open was a Mcdonalds.  Fortunately My trip went a lot better after that first cold night.  The bottom picture is of a couple of the youth (sisters) I workshopped with, practicing before the exhibition.  They were really adept at handling the interactive part of the live-visual thing and a lot of the youth taught me some new tricks in my program and also taking a more experimental approach in the performance with it.

Bizzy Bee

I am coming into my second week in Regina.  I have been facilitating a lot of multimedia workshops with youth and doing artist talks.  I've been doing the workshops in the inner-city as well as a school in Ochapawace, which is 180 kms out of Regina.  These workshops and talks are being produced through a partnership with the Sakewewak Artists' Collective where I am dong my residency and the Mackenzie Art Gallery.  It has been very fulfilling work and a lot of what I have been talking about is our relation to technology and the different feelings that come with that when engaging in a digital and non-digital practice.  I have been showing a 2 min video as part of my talk that features hiphop artist KRS One.  He is an artist that has been educating with his music since the 80's.  In the video he talks about the 4 elements of Hip Hop, Emceeing, Djing, Breakdancing and graffitti and how the essence of these forms require no technology.  I think I'll post the video on here soon....cuz I am about to go on a tangent.  What's been funny to me is that only one youth knew who KRS One was.  I must be getting old.

My video piece Sala is slightly on hold right now.  It has given me pause to think more about the ephemeral nature of it.  Been reading and discussing Performance Art a lot while I have been here.  I moved from my hotel into Michelle Serreda's awesome 2 story house.  She performs, teaches and produces Performance Art across the world.  We've been having some very fun discussions about Fluxus, Absurdity, process oriented work, cultural work etc.  It's helped me meditate a bit on my piece.

I have also been painting a little bit and making some digital work for the upcoming group exhibition, Wuulhu - to fuse together, here that I will do with the youth I am collaborating with. And a a design I made for an event I will be performing in at the W2 in Vancouver in November called Indigenous After Dark.  I will be performing live-visuals with my group Skookum Sound and will be mapping video installations throughout the W2 space and in the Woodwards atrium.  I have been busy organizing the technical aspects of that in my spare time.

Image for Indigenous After Dark Poster

Image Design for poster - Wuulhu group show w youth from Ochapowace and North Central Family Centre.

sala = patience - stills and screen captures

travelin'

I have arrived in Regina for a 2 week residency.  I will be spending some time making a series of new drawings while I am here.  I walked around the city today.  It was empty of pedestrians and everything was closed with the holiday thing going on.  I was fascinated by the square and rectangular shape of nearly all the buildings.  I guess this isn't so unusual, but the way the stack into each other creates some interesting shapes and grids.  I started working on a geometrical drawing based on my little excursion today.

I have finished the first edit of my video, Sala.  I am still working on the artist statement for it and will continue editing and refining the piece.  I felt like I should change the name of the piece to exhaustion or stamina.  Taking photos in photo-montage style with no remote while trying to record a live-painting isn't the easiest thing.  My neck and back are still pretty sore from painting on the floor in awkward positions.  I partly did this on purpose and was actually inspired by an interview I listened to w Jack White a musician with the White Stripes and Dead Weather.  He was talking about how he makes himself purposely uncomfortable on stage with how he sets himself up when he is drumming with the Dead Weather.  He said he wanted to create these uncomfortable scenarios so he felt sharper and was challenging himself as an artist to not get too complacent.

I will post some stills tomorrow...internet here at the hotel won't let me

More to come....