I was born in 1969 in Comox, British Columbia. I am a member of the Dzawada‘enuxw Tribe of the Kwakwaka‘wakw First Nations, my mother being Dzawada‘enuxw and my father a Scottish immigrant from the Isle of Lewis. In 1996 I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. In 1999 I completed a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Victoria. In the early 1990s I apprenticed with a master carver in traditional Kwakwaka‘wakw design. Since 1992 I have exhibited work locally, nationally and internationally, mostly in public art galleries and site-specific works. I create both strictly traditional works for ceremonial purposes confined to the Kwakwaka‘wakw community, and conceptually based works for public art spaces.
My work for public art spaces are extensions on traditional Northwest Coast artistic expressions. I engage in the exploration of traditional concepts and incorporate contemporary media into the visual presentation of these concepts. While I consider that the material component of Northwest Coast cultural production is well represented in museums and commercial galleries, I fear that the conceptual foundations of this work are endangered owing to radical acculturation and language loss. Creating artworks that address these issues and express traditional concepts in new ways in public art spaces is my way of perpetuating and preserving Kwakwaka‘wakw/Aboriginal culture as well as sharing those concepts with a wider audience.
Marianne Nicolson’s Artspeak installation centres around an altered bentwood chest constructed from cedar and etched glass. While bentwood chests are traditionally meant to hold articles of value, Nicholson’s decorated chest will contain and spill light, so that shadows are cast onto the gallery walls. These projected shadows index the rich and ephemeral concepts from which this object is conceived. The viewer, upon entering the gallery, will physically interrupt the throw of light to add another layer of shadows. Referencing the traditional tale of how Raven stole the sun from a chief (who kept it in a box) to release it for the entire world’s benefit, Nicolson’s Bakwina`tsi: the Container for Souls proposes a distinction between the object and it’s contents. Nicolson’s chest is both a play on a consumable object and a receptacle and/or projector of cultural dialogue.
Marianne Nicolson, a member of the Dzawada’enuxw Tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation, first came to prominence in 1998 when she scaled a vertical rock face in Kingcome Inlet to paint a 28 x 38-foot pictograph—the first in the inlet for over sixty years—to mark the continued vitality of her ancestral village of Gwa’yi. In a similarly monumental gesture, Nicolson’s site-specific project The House of the Ghosts imaginatively transforms the Georgia Street façade of the Vancouver Art Gallery into a Northwest Coast ceremonial house. Using high-powered lighting, Nicolson will project the vision of a house front and totem poles onto the Gallery façade from dusk to dawn every night. By altering the Gallery in this way, the building itself becomes a site of cultural exchange, emphasizing its importance as a transformative space while wryly commenting on its historic role as a courthouse and jail where, decades ago, First Nations peoples were punished for defying the government’s Potlach ban. Nicolson sees this work as a positive and symbolic reassertion of a culture in a place where it was once forbidden, in a gesture that speaks to the vibrancy of Kwakwaka’wakw culture and the need to sustain it.
Something I was experimenting with today.
“Oh, so it’s the Song of Storms on piano, that’s pretty nic-
…
Oh.”
HEY GUYS.
So this is a little early for Music Monday, but I’m posting it now because of the following:
First off, you can download this track for free in any format you want (yes, including .flac and .ogg) here, just by inputting a price of 0 and checking out.
Secondly, the artist of that piece is running an Indiegogo campaign to create an entire album of jazz-ified Zelda songs, which once completed would be available to everyone for free download. It has only a fraction of its funding raised right now, and there’s seven days left before it ends.
So if you want more of this delicious music, played by professional jazz musicians and free for everyone to enjoy, that is something to get on — donate a few bucks and pass the word on to your friends!
(As an addendum: Since they get all of the money donated to their campaign regardless of whether they reach their fundraising goal, Travis Lien (the pianist you hear above) has stated that they’ll do what they can with what they get, and do their best to at least release a free EP in the future. So every bit helps!)
Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror
Team members share the challenges of Curiosity’s final minutes to landing on the surface of Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech › Curiosity’s mission site
Tjep. (Frank Tjepkema, 1970) grew up in Geneva, Brussels and New-York. After experiencing a variety of cultures during his youth he settled in the Netherlands in 1989 to study industrial design. He graduated Cum Laude from the Design Academy in Eindhoven in 1996. Tjep.’s graduation project based on artificial nature drew immediate attention and was selected for the Droog Design collection. His relation with Droog led to even more notable projects like the Do Break in 2000, the award winning British Airways Executive Lounge at Heathrow in 2004 and the Chair of Textures presented during Art Basel Miami Beach 2006, a Droog project in collaboration with gallery Friedman Benda.
Reflections Portraits by Tom Hussey
Tom Hussey portrays old people looking at their younger reflection in the mirror. These photographs are beautiful and melancholic.
This gave me chills
These are haunting.
Oh wow, this is beautiful work.
Back To The Future: Irina Werning
“I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today… Two years ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future…”
Pancho 1983 & 2010, Buenos Aires
Fer 1970 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Mechi 1990 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Marita y Coty 1977 & 2010 Bs Aires
Demian 1989 & 2010 London
Cecile 1987 & 2010 France
Nico Mella 1990 & 2010 France
Oscar 1978 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Ato 1992 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Lulu Geraldine 1980 & 2010 Bs Aires
Ian 1983 & 2010 London
Male Sil Flor 1983 & 2010 Bs Aires
Nico 1986 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Lucía 1956 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Marina 1988 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Flor 1975 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Mati 1977 & 2010 Buenos Aires
My Parents 1970 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Negra 1980 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Ingrid 1987 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Sue 1977 & 2010 London
Tommy 1977 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Morita Sisters 1979 & 2010 Bs Aires
Lali 1978 & 2010 Buenos Aires
Internet acquaintance and Lightroom guru Mark Sirota recently posted a few of the most amazing fireworks shots I’ve ever seen, with a smooth richness that’s just unearthly. The one shown above is his favorite, but I’ve got to say that mine would be the first or second in the slideshow.
Just wow.
(via Jeffrey Friedl)
The Most Astounding Fact by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” This is his answer.
When you take something great, like the musings of the mind of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, and combine it with something else great, like stunning images of life and wonder on and off of Earth … you get this.
It’s the sort of video that makes you prop your chin up in your hand, with your head tilted just so (yeah, like that), as you stare at your computer screen mumbling things like “Ahhh“ and “Wooahh” and other unintelligible noises that mean “I approve of this, and it makes me feel good.”
Watch it once, then twice, then with a friend.
“The universe is in us.”
“I feel big. Because my atoms came from those stars.”
Found your new favorite planet.
The world is so sparkly it’s like a galaxy in itself!
This is great to mute and watch with one of your favorite songs
