Arts&life

EDITORMANDY MOON |

TUESDAY, NOV. 26,2019 | THE VOICE

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Art exhibit displays rare drawings

Experiences witnessed by Residential School survivors as children

The exhibit displays not only pictures drawn by children, but of some clothing articles that made it through the years. civ ROGERS PHOTO

= By GINA ROGERS

There is Truth Here: Creativity
and Resilience in Children’s Art from
Indian Residential and Day Schools is
on view at the Museum of Vancou-
ver and “has quite a history of sur-
vival itself,” said Dr. Andrea Walsh,
associate professor of anthropology
at the University of Victoria

Dr. Walsh has worked with the
museum and the Osoyoos Indian
Band for almost 20 years on just the
Inkameep Day School portion of
the exhibit. The rest of the exhibit
was done in collaboration with sur-
vivors and their families from the
Alberni Indian Residential School,
and the MacKay Indiant Residen-
tial School in Manitoba. The sec-

tion of St. Michaels art was on loan
from the U’Mista Cultural Centre
in Alert Bay.

Since September, the museum
has seen upwards of 25,000 visi-
tors, including 2,000 students. Dr.

One piece from the Alberni In-
dian Residential School, “Pulling
out Hair’, hangs with a bundle of
traditional white sage above the
frame. This dried plant is consid-
ered sacred in many cultures and is

Walsh estimates that thought
the numbers have |, ols “| to have
risen since then. “Tt Was really exciting to pro-
For There is Truth tecti
Here, MOVs Cun. | See thoseandtolearn | jroper-
tor of Indigenous how this has been such ties in
Collections and En- ceremo-
gagement, | Sharon | a community effort.” | ™
“incorporated pieces = — JULIA HARRISON, EXHIBIT ATTENDEE _| rato te
from the MOV col- took

lection’ and “added a section about
schools that local First Nations at-
tended.”

the advice of Tsleil-Waututh com-

munity members when dealing
with the children’s art. “One of

whom brushed down the gallery
with cedar before we installed the
artworks”, Fortney said. This would
have prepared the museum space
to hold the art, which may harbour
negative energy from these notori-
ous schools.

One attendee, Julia Harrison,
knew of the primary Inkameep
Day School in Okanagan, but
didnt know of the other collec-
tions from Alert Bay, Vancouver
Island and Manitoba. “It was re-
ally exciting to see those and to
learn how this has been such a
community effort in terms of inte-
grating the community voice back
into the exhibit," Harrison said.

There is Truth Here is on exhibit
until Jan.5, 2020.

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
IN THE LOWER MAINLAND
» St. Paul's
North Vancouver, 1899 - 1958

Roman Catholic

» St. Mary's
Mission, 1863 - 1985

Roman Catholic

» St. George's
Lytton, 1901 - 1979

Anglican

» Coqualeetza
Chilliwack, 1861 - 1940
Presbyterian

SOURCE: HTTPS://BCTECA/HIDDENHIS TORY/EBOOK PDF

Twins to the Glory ex-
plores man and nature

Gallery honoured
to present Zhong
Ren’s first

Canadian Exhibit

= By ANITA ZHU

amous Chinese painter
| ae Ren has 38 pieces

on display at the Sunzen Art
Gallery.

‘The pieces can be viewed from
Nov. 22 to Feb. 21 in downtown
Vancouver. Ren is known for his
gonbi paintings. Gonbi is a Chi-
nese painting technique where the
artist uses ink, colour, and meticu-
lous brush strokes to create detailed
works of art.

“T have admired Ren for almost

20 years,” Dashan Pan, the curator
at Sunzen Art Gallery, said.

Sunzen Art Gallery was original-
ly established 17 years ago in Qing-
dao, China. The Vancouver location
showcased Ren’s work in its grand
opening.

Lu Wang, the director of opera-
tions at Sunzen, has worked at the
ocation in Shandong China for
years. She _
helps to
communicate
with Ren and
his studio
team.

Wang said
that Ren be-
came famous
in his early —
20s, and “always seeks to challenge
himself and break through the
challenge, again and again.”

The co-curator, Viahsta Yuan,
said that they represent Ren’s paint-
ings as four seasons.

“TRen] always seeks

to break through the

challenge, again and
again.”

—LU WANG, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS SUNZEN as

“My job is to basically create an
exhibition that could easily com-
municate to the audience why his
work is important,” Yuan said.

Yuan said the idea is that when
people walk in the gallery, they will
feel that they are emerging into an-
other realm with nature, which is
totally different from a modern city.

Part of Ren’s fall section was

— done on silk,
using a tech-
nique known as
taoran. Taoran
means “leav-
ing the blank
space,” on emp-
ty areas as well
the high-
— lighted area on
the branches of the bamboo.

“Ifyou see this snow on the leaves,
the bamboo as the highlighted part,
it all reveals the true color of the
silk, instead of using any dye to
paint in afterwards,” Yuan said.

Painting by Zhong Ren, displayed in the Sunzen Art Gallery. 4N/74 ZHU PHOTO