Daina Warren | Curators | The Activation Map

Curators Daina Warren

Futuristic Regalia

February 6, 2004 to March 5, 2004
Exhibition
The three artists work with the wearable costume as a means to represent the indigenous body, while dealing with the stereotypes and realities of aboriginal communities. They reconnect with history through the language of ceremonial clothing, the use of traditional family crests and the incorporation of organic materials.

January 9, 2004 to January 31, 2004
Exhibition
Marianne Corless has produced a series of portraits and flags, constructed out of recycled animal pelts, recycled blankets and human hair, that symbolize the historical origins of Canada.

February 15, 2002 to March 9, 2002
Exhibition
Robert Burke was born and raised in the North West Territories. This is where much of his experience and concepts are drawn from. He refers to himself as an "Aboriginal" because of the two cultures he has experienced through his black military father and Chipewyan mother. His visions are accounts of the timberland and wildlife within the forests where he lived and worked as a logger most of his life. His triptychs are abstracted ideas and thoughts, jumbled together to create a vividly fascinating world of human and animal figures. It was during his early twenties that Robert Burke started his artistic endeavours but then went into logging. It hasn't been until recently that he has taken up the brush again, becoming an emerging artist with a background as colourful as his paintings.

June 15, 2001 to July 28, 2001
Exhibition
Two cultures, two artist, two thoughts - an exhibition that focuses on conceptual ideas around traditional Native themes within contemporary materials. Both artists apply the use of traditional First Nations organic material in celebration of their native ancestry as well as use the duality of metals and found objects to reference the non-native aspects of their cultural background. It is at this point that the artists diverge in their artwork. McKenzie has taken a more political direction, concentrating on icons of industry within contemporary culture in contrast to Marchand, who chooses to discuss the ties of Aboriginal spiritualism and creative process.