Salish Seas: an anthology of text + image

Artwork by Kelly Rowland

Curated by Tania Willard

Salish Seas is an exhibition of works by prominent and emerging Aboriginal artists in conjunction with the upcoming anthology, Salish Seas: An anthology of text + image. This project offers perspective to urban Aboriginal peoples living within these Coast Salish lands who are influenced and inspired by the Salish Sea and its associated rivers.
Salish languages are a grouping of indigenous languages of the Pacific NorthWest (BC and adjacent American states). The power of our words, either in our original languages or in English is manifest in the new and powerful works by the The Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast, a collective of Aboriginal writers and multidisciplinary artists.
Curated by Tania Willard and featuring work by artists Sonny Assu, Janice Toulouse, Charlene Vickers, Merritt Johnson, Kevin McKenzie, Duncan Murdoch, Dionne Paul, joAnne Noble, Cease Wyss, Kelly Roulette, Kamala Todd and Michelle Sylliboy.
Artist works featured in the publication and exhibition include installation, painting, digital illustration and video. From Sonny Assu’s culture jamming Coke Salish print to expressive paintings by Janice Toulouse dealing with Aboriginal relationship to land, this exhibition examines ideas of home, origin, identity and honouring the land we come from, the sea and the rivers that connect us.
Kamala Todd’s film, Indigenous Plant Diva documents the urban aboriginal and plant based knowledge of Coast Salish artist Cease Wyss. Wyss’s work in the exhibition showcases three generations of Coast Salish women in vibrant digital illustrations from the book, Squamish People of the Sunset Coast. joAnne Noble’s powerful crow mandala image and Kelly Roulette’s portrait painting of a Native woman offer a strong aesthetic experience of the West Coast. Dionne Paul’s Coast Salish borders offers an abstract approach to representing West Coast territories; while Michelle Sylliboy’s close up images of the sea makes you feel like you are standing on a beach. All works are united in an exploration of living on the Coast surrounded by and connected to the Salish Sea and all the rivers that connect to it.
The Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast publication, Salish Seas: An Anthology of Text + Image will be launched at the exhibition closing, Sat Feb. 26th at 6pm at Gallery Gachet featuring a number of writers form the collective including Garry Gottfriedson and Michelle Sylliboy. Presented by the Talking Stick festival authors from the book including, Janet Rogers, Wil George, Russell Wallace, Greg Coyes, Wanda John and Joanne Arnott, will read at The Pond on Commercial drive. Mon Feb.7th at 7pm.

media contacts:
Exhibition: Tania Willard, curator. t: 250 299 5835 Lara Fitzgerald,Programming Director, gallery gachet t: 604 687 2468
Book: Joanne Arnott @ 604-277-794