Button blankets by Westshore Colwood Campus students. Curated by UVic Art History and Visual Studies students. A project of the Legacy Chair.
Button blanket robes are textile regalia worn in Northwest Coast feasts and ceremonies. Urban Regalia: Westshore Stories carries the vision of Gitxsan button blanket maker, fashion designer, and teacher Sugitt Lukxs — Yolonda Skelton from her studio to her students at the Westshore Colwood Campus. Westshore students tell stories from their lives and from making connections to the land using ovoids, u-forms, s-forms, melton wool fabric and buttons. UVic Art History and Visual Studies students curated this exhibition as part of their learning about oral art histories. Urban Regalia: Westshore Stories represents shared learning experiences and emerging connections between UVic and Westshore classrooms.
As people who identify as trans, gender fluid, non-binary, Two Spirit, and other diverse gender identities face complex and challenging societal responses, the act of representing oneself can be a brave act of defiance. FLUID, a new photographic portrait series by Los Angeles-based artist Blake Little, sets out to collaborate with diverse local, national and international trans and gender fluid people to capture and reflect some of the concerns and potentials of how they choose to represent themselves through photography.
Supported by the Chair in Transgender Studies. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Teacher’s Guide
This FLUID: Portraits by Blake Little exhibition Teacher’s Guide is free to download and use as reference in the classroom.
Join trans culture writer and filmmaker Chase Joynt for a discussion about the role of fantasy and fiction in the telling of (trans) histories along with a screening of his recent short film, Framing Agnes. Framing Agnes premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and is being expanded into a feature film with support from Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program. Joynt joined UVic’s Department of Gender Studies in July, 2019 after his term as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago. Copies of Joynt’s first book, You Only Live Twice—a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award that was also named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail and the CBC—will be on hand and available for purchase.
About Framing Agnes: In the late 1950s, a woman named Agnes approached the UCLA Medical Center seeking sex reassignment surgery. Her story was long considered to be exceptional and singular until never-before-seen case files of other patients were found in 2017. Framing Agnes features preeminent trans culture-makers breathing new life into those who redefined gender in the mid-century.
Starring Zackary Drucker (She Gone Rogue, Transparent), Angelica Ross (Pose, American Horror Story), Silas Howard (By Hook or By Crook, A Kid Like Jake), and Max Wolf Valerio (Max, The Testosterone Files).
Legacy Maltwood | at the McPherson Library – Mearns Centre, UVic campus, Room 025 and at UVic Libraries Special Collections and University Archives Room A005
This exhibition is part of a three day symposium, “Gendered Threads of Globalization: 20th Century Textile Crossings in Asia Pacific.”, March 27-29, 2020. Full symposium details here*** Please note, this Gendered Threads of Globalization Symposium was postposed.
Curated by Claire Aitken (AHVS undergrad student) with consultation by Hitomi Harama, local kimono and Japanese culture expert and Yorika Terada (AHVS undergraduate student). Project supervised by Melia Belli Bose, Associate Professor of South Asian Art History with Caroline Riedel, Curator of Collections, UVic Legacy Art Galleries.
This exhibition showcases a dazzling array of luxury textiles from the University of Victoria’s collection and on loan from private collections. These pieces, exquisitely crafted in China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Bangladesh, shed light on women’s roles as makers, consumers, and connoisseurs between the late 19th century to today. This era witnessed monumental shifts in the production, accessibility, and commodification of garments globally. In the process, particularly women’s skilled textile labour was devalued. This exhibition draws attention to not only women’s heritage textiles throughout Asia, and their modern adaptations, it also closely considers their traditional makers and consumers.
Image: Gypsy Wharf-Sojan Badiar Ghat (Detail: Dulali reaching for a lotus flower). Design by Surayia Rahman, embroidered by artisans of Arshi in Dhaka, Bangladesh, (2006). Photo courtesy of Kantha Productions LLC, (c) Maritime City Photography. Used with permission.
| Legacy Art Galleries + Art History & Visual Studies
Feb 8 to May 24, 2020 *** Closed early due to COVID-19
Legacy Maltwood | at the McPherson Library – Mearns Centre, UVic campus, Room 025 and at UVic Libraries Special Collections and University Archives Room A005
This exhibition is part of a three day symposium, “Gendered Threads of Globalization: 20th Century Textile Crossings in Asia Pacific.”, March 27-29, 2020. Full symposium details here*** Please note, this Gendered Threads of Globalization Symposium was postposed due to COVID-19.
Curated by Claire Aitken (AHVS undergrad student) with consultation by Hitomi Harama, local kimono and Japanese culture expert and Yorika Terada (AHVS undergraduate student). Project supervised by Melia Belli Bose, Associate Professor of South Asian Art History with Caroline Riedel, Curator of Collections, UVic Legacy Art Galleries.
This exhibition showcases a dazzling array of luxury textiles from the University of Victoria’s collection and on loan from private collections. These pieces, exquisitely crafted in China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Bangladesh, shed light on women’s roles as makers, consumers, and connoisseurs between the late 19th century to today. This era witnessed monumental shifts in the production, accessibility, and commodification of garments globally. In the process, particularly women’s skilled textile labour was devalued. This exhibition draws attention to not only women’s heritage textiles throughout Asia, and their modern adaptations, it also closely considers their traditional makers and consumers.
Image: Gypsy Wharf-Sojan Badiar Ghat (Detail: Dulali reaching for a lotus flower). Design by Surayia Rahman, embroidered by artisans of Arshi in Dhaka, Bangladesh, (2006). Photo courtesy of Kantha Productions LLC, (c) Maritime City Photography. Used with permission.
| Legacy Art Galleries + Art History & Visual Studies
A printing block. Glaze samples. Pouches of pigments. Why are these items in UVic’s archives, and what can they tell us about the lives, relationships, artworks and practices of the artists who owned them? Bringing together materials from UVic’s Special Collections and University Archives in partnership with the Legacy Art Galleries, Object Biographies is a glimpse into the lives of artists through their archives.
Urban Regalia is an exhibition that unfolds in two movements at the Legacy Gallery Downtown. Curated by Carolyn Butler Palmer (Associate Professor, UVic Art History and Visual Studies), the first movement Contemporary Fashion by Sug-ii-t LukxsDesign features Gitxsan designer Yolonda Skelton’s work, which mixes the aesthetics of Gitxsan button blanket robes with a twist of Audrey Hepburn’s style. The second movement opens in January 2020 and will be curated by Dr. Butler Palmer’s students and feature the button blankets of Ms. Skelton’s students at Westshore Centre for Learning and Training-Colwood Campus.
Curated by Lorilee Wastasecoot (BC Arts Council Curatorial Intern)
We Carry Our Ancestors weaves together generations of Indigenous women through cedar basketry. For the first time ever, Legacy Art Galleries will exhibit Nuu-chah-nulth and Salish historical baskets from the collection alongside portraits of weavers including Alice Paul, Rosie Ross, Mary Jane Jackson, Mathilda Jim, Julianna Williams, Liz Happynook, Lena Jumbo and Ellen Jumbo by documentary photographer Ulli Steltzer. Contemporary baskets by Salish artists Angela Marston and Brenda Crabtree, among others, will also be exhibited. Through new and intensive community research, this exhibition honours the resilience of women who have carried their cultures forward by passing down the art of cedar basketry to future generations.
Image: Ulli Steltzer, Alice Paul, 1975, Gift of Ulli Steltzer.
Programs & Events
Cedar Weaving Workshop With Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ weavers Rose & Brian Wilson
COST – Admission is always free | Weaving kits are between $15-$30. All proceeds go to the artists. Come overload your senses with the touch and smell of cedar while listening to weaver Rose Wilson and her son Brian from Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation share how they process, harvest and weave with cedar. Weave your own cedar bracelet, headband or small basket. No previous weaving experience necessary.
Join us for a tour, discussion and tea with curator Lorilee Wastasecoot to respectfully close We Carry Our Ancestors.
By Bus – Sacred Cedar: History, Art and the Land
Land Based Workshop with Sarah Jim and Tiffany Joseph
Saturday, Oct. 19 | 9:15 am to 2:30 pm | *return time is approximate | Faceboook Event REQUIRES REGISTRATION To register, please email legacy@uvic.ca | *Space is limited COST – $20 Students / $30 General Public/UVic Staff & Faculty | *Please bring cash ***Please arrive at 9:15 at Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory Curator Lorilee Wastasecoot will give a short introduction and tour of the exhibition We Carry Our Ancestors: Cedar, Baskets, and Our Relationships to the Land. _____________________ 10:00am – The bus will travel from Legacy Art Gallery Downtown to Todd Inlet or SṈIDȻEȽ to support the SṈIDȻEȽ Resiliency Project by contributing to the land restoration and cultural revitalization work of Tiffany Joseph and Sarah Jim. We will gather and spend time on the land to talk about how XPȺ, which is SENĆOŦEN for cedar, is sacred and has been central to the way of life to the W̱SÁNEĆ people. Our co-hosts, Sarah Jim and Tiffany Joseph will talk about the significance of cedar through history, art, and contemporary relationships with cedar and explore the restoration strategies they contemplate in their work at SṈIDȻEȽ.
Tiffany Joseph is of ancestry is of Sḵx̱wu7mesh (Fresh Water people) and W̱SÁNEĆ (Saltwater people, Emerging people) peoples and she is a SENĆOŦEN Language & Culture Revitalization apprentice.
Sarah Jim is an emerging artist from W̱SÁNEĆ. Her ancestry is mixed but her roots are in Tseycum First Nation. She has developed her skills and interests further by attaining a BFA at Uvic. Due to her close relationship to the land, she has been making art that consists of local flora and fauna, Coast Salish elements, and dreamy landscapes. Sarah’s intense interest and love for W̱SÁNEĆ territory has taken her down a path that allows her to interact with the natural environment by learning about the native plants of the area and reflecting upon those interactions visually.
NOTE ***Please dress for the weather. We will be working outside so please be prepared for some physical activity with proper footwear, rain jacket and water bottle. ***We will have lunch together on the land so please bring yourself a bagged lunch and any snacks that you may need.
Victoria-born artist Myfanwy Pavelic (1916-2007) was fascinated with the inner and outer dimensions of being human. Imbued with prescient human insights, and largely self-taught, she created insightful and compelling portraits in pencil, collage, acrylic and oil.
In an exhibition that spans her entire career, guest curator Patricia Bovey explores how Pavelic’s keen observation, empathy and knowledge of anatomy allowed her to capture her subjects’ inner essence – fears, vulnerabilities and strengths – consistently revealing the tensions between within and without. Her self-portraits honestly convey her own inner explorations and she used this experience to probe the depths of celebrities including acclaimed violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and renowned actress Katharine Hepburn. Multilayered in feeling and expression, her works exude dignity, beauty and the depths of joy, sadness and despair.
Opening Celebration &Curator Talk – Saturday, May 25 | 2 – 4pm With Guest Curator, Patricia Bovey
Curator Talk with Patricia Bovey
Thursday, July 25 | 7pm
Myfanwy in Context – This illustrated talk will address the significance of Myfanwy Pavelic’s art and situate her visual acumen and accomplishments with portraits within the context of several major Canadian artists including Emily Carr, Paraskeva Clark, Vera Weatherbie and Molly Lamb Bobak.
Image: Jim Tanaka, 2019.
From Self-portraits to Selfies: The Psychology of Representing Self
Join Jim Tanaka, UVic Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Brain Sciences, at the Legacy Downtown for an interactive evening exploring the connections between Myfanwy Pavelic’s self portraits and our present day notion of selfies. Drawing on current ideas of what makes a good selfie and whether they can capture a person’s true essence, Jim will discuss the psychology of self portraiture and why we take selfies.
Charles Campbell and Farheen HaQ with Yuxwelupton Qwal’qaxala (Bradley Dick)
This collaborative project intersects our practices as visual artists, racialized bodies and guests on these territories. We ask the question: How does our creative work of making space for our voices and experience meet the ground and history here?
“What I see us recording is the movement of time and the way that the rock is not solid, and the way that it’s been cracked and formed and changed and it moves…”
“The effort we’re making to find our place on this land, to touch it and be grounded by it, also speaks to our ungrounding, to the places we’ve been disconnected from, where we no longer have a place.”
– Farheen & Charles in conversation
Opening Celebration
Friday July 26 | 7 pm Join us for the opening celebration of The Ground Above Us with artists Charles Campbell, Farheen HaQ and Yuxwelupton Qwal’qaxala (Bradley Dick). Refreshments will be provided!
IBPOC Meditation Night
Wednesday Sept. 11 | 7pm Join us for an evening of quiet reflection as we take in the exhibition The Ground Above Us and sit with intention and presence on Lkwungen territory. This meditation night is open to self identified Indigenous, Black and People of Colour. No meditation experience required. Some meditation cushions will be provided but please bring your own if you are able.
Farheen HaQ, Charles Campbell and Yuxwelupton Qwal’qaxala (Bradley Dick)
Closing Conversation
Thursday Sept. 12 | 7 – 9pm Join Farheen HaQ, Charles Campbell and Yuxwelupton Qwal’qaxala (Bradley Dick) in conversation as they speak about their process, lessons learned, and using art as a vehicle to deepen friendships and come into better relation with the lands of the Lkwungen people.
With support from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Art by women is under-represented in most public collections and exhibitions. How can this be changed and how is it changing at the Legacy? Women Artists, Changing Collections: Recent Acquisitions presents works by women that are new to UVic’s Legacy Art Galleries’ collection. These artists come from diverse backgrounds, have multiple inspirations and help viewers to see from unique perspectives.
Legacy’s mission is to promote dialogue around issues that matter, leading the gallery to feature art and exhibitions by Indigenous women, women of colour, and gender-diverse artists. This exhibition aims to highlight the possibilities, difficulties and importance of presenting works by under-recognized groups.
Featured artists include Pitseolak Ashoona, Eva Campbell, Pnina Granirer, Angela Marston, Meryl McMaster, Carol Moiseiwitsch, Ellen Neel, Lou-ann Neel, Susan Point, Mary Pratt, Jennifer Stillwell, Marika Echachis Swan, and Jennifer Waelti Walters. The exhibition is curated by Young Canada Works intern Bradley Clements (MA, 2018) with BC Arts Council intern Lorilee Wastasecoot, (BA, 2018).
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada.
Curators Tour and Discussion – With Guest Curators Bradley Clements and Lorilee Wastasecoot
Join us for an evening of shared discussion with Kwakwaka’wakw artist and RBCM Repatriation Specialist, Lou-ann Neel and UVic Legacy Galleries Curatorial Intern, Lorilee Wastasecoot. The discussion will address the intersectional nature of working with museum and gallery collections. How can we move forward to better represent marginalized communities and better care for Indigenous art and material culture? Lou-ann and Lorilee will share how they are working to improve museum practices in order to strengthen relationships with Indigenous peoples, support cultural revitalization and build community.
Translations showcases the movement of ideas, aesthetics, politics, and people between England, Japan, and Victoria, Canada, by looking at the life and work of Anglo-Japanese artist Elizabeth Yeend Duer (1889–1951). Born a British citizen in Nagasaki to an Englishman and a Japanese woman, Duer studied Nihonga, a traditional Japanese-style painting, with the renowned painter and teacher Atomi Gyokushi 跡見 玉枝. Duer took on the artistic identity of Gyokushō 玉蕉. She immigrated to Victoria in 1940 and is among the remarkably few people of Japanese heritage who were not interned during World War II. Instead, she Japanized her new environment by producing Nihonga-style paintings of local indigenous wildflowers while her own identity was being anglicized.
Co-curators: Carolyn Butler Palmer, Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest, Art History & Visual Studies, University of Victoria; Mikiko Hirayama Associate Professor of Asian Art History and Director of Asian Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Cincinnati; and Janice Okada, B.A., M.M.St.
A project of the Williams Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest.
Image:Kamass Camassia quamash; Camas, Elizabeth Yeend Duer—Gyokushō 玉蕉, 1941.
Events
Curators Tour
Saturday, February 2, 2019 | 2PM
Join Williams Legacy Chair Carolyn Butler Palmer (Associate Professor, UVic Art History and Visual Studies) and exhibition co-curator Janice Okada (B.A., M.M.St) to learn more about the exhibition and Elizabeth Duer’s fascinating story.
This symposium examines intersections between Victoria, England and Japan from the late nineteenth century to the 1950s on a range of topics including Japan’s influence in England, the history of Japanese Gardens in Victoria, artist travellers to Japan, Japanese-Canadians and internment in British Columbia, interracial families in Japan, and Duer’s life, wildflower paintings, and ethnobotany.
We are excited to welcome Vancouver-based artist Cindy Mochizuki to the Legacy Gallery this March! Join Mochizuki in a collective embroidery and listening experience focusing on the historical and contemporary racialized experiences of women of Japanese Canadian and Japanese descent in British Columbia. Mochizuki’s project responds to the Legacy Gallery’s current exhibition Translations: The Art and Life of Elizabeth Yeend Duer—Gyokushō 玉蕉.
Image:105 Chrysanthemums, as part of 13 Ways to Summon Ghosts at the Gordon Smith Gallery North Vancouver, photo credit: SITE photography, 2017.
Join us at the Legacy Downtown for a beginner ikebana workshop and learn the Basic Upright Style Moribana, one of two styles that are the foundation for all Japanese flower arranging. The workshop will take place amid the beautiful watercolour paintings of Victoria wildflowers by Elizabeth Duer—Gyokushō 玉蕉.
Container, kenzan and plant materials will be provided so you can continue to create beautiful arrangements at home. Please bring a pair of clippers and a bag to carry the container and kenzan.
Amanda Gaunt is a teacher in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana. She studied in Japan for more than 12 years.
This 39th annual Art Education faculty exhibition presents the creative explorations of 19 UVic artist-educators, researching the relationships between the field of art education, their studio practice and teaching.
The BC school curriculum recently underwent significant change across all subject areas and grade levels. The new curriculum is in many ways modeled after studio art practice and focuses less on rote facts and more on “Big Ideas.” Through processes of inquiry, students are challenged to engage with core competencies of communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, personal awareness and responsibility, positive personal and cultural identity and social responsibility.
Each artist’s work can be viewed as research through making. Links are made between the craft, materials, concepts and philosophies of individual Art Educators and the “Big Ideas” articulated in the BC Art Education Curriculum. Viewers are invited to discover the patterns that emerge across the works of these creative colleagues that reflect directions in the field of art education that will prepare their pre-service students for the role of teaching in BC’s schools.
