INSTALLATION WORKS
Cetology (2002), Brian Jungen
Shapeshifters, Time Travellers and Storytellers Co-curated by Candice Hopkins and Kerry Swanson Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) Roloff Beny Gallery, 4th Floor Royal Ontario Museum October 6, 2007 to February 28, 2008 Admission: Adults, $15; Students/Seniors, $12; Friday Nights, $10 (4:30pm-9:30pm) Festival All-Access Pass Holders: FREE (Oct 19-21) In partnership with the Royal Ontario Museum’s (ROM) Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC), imagineNATIVE is proud to present Shapeshifters, Time Travellers and Storytellers. The first ICC-organized exhibition in the Roloff Beny Gallery in the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, this thought-provoking exhibit showcases new and existing works by eight leading contemporary Indigenous artists. Incorporating evocative objects from the Museum’s collections, the exhibition features video, sound, sculpture, drawings, painting and performance art, which explore the ways in which past and present continue to merge and shape one another. The exhibition features eight striking installations by internationally renowned Canadian artists Suvinai Ashoona, Faye HeavyShield, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Isuma Productions (Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn), Brian Jungen, Nadia Myre, Kent Monkman and American artist Alan Michelson. Five of the eight works have been created specifically for this exhibition. Each installation merges past and present, truth and
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fiction, story, and reality and challenges the idea of time as a linear narrative. For the artists, time and space occupy multiple vantage points in a manner that is cyclical, layered and, at times, paradoxical. The curators have brought together these contemporary art works with historical objects from the ROM’s Canadian First Peoples collections, including an 1899 carved mammoth tusk from Alaska, an Iroquois turtle wampum bag, a mid-19thcentury Paul Kane painting and 20th-century Inuit drawings. The objects and artworks in Shapeshifters, Time Travellers and Storytellers create a space for us to rethink representation in a manner that reflects on the ROM’s role as a cultural medium. Drawing on the history of the institutional display of objects made by Indigenous people, the exhibition looks to expand the discourses regarding the role of the museum as a container for the interpretation of culture. Over 25 works in total will be included in the exhibit, with complementary programming including a festival performance by Toronto-based artist Kent Monkman on October 19th (see page 28). Photo Credit: Brian Jungen, Cetology, 2002, plastic and metal, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Purchased with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program and the Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund, VAG 2003.8 a-z, Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery
