Directors' Choice

For the Cowichan Valley Arts Council's premiere exhibition at their new space on Station Street in downtown Duncan B.C., the CVAC Directors, acting as curators for the exhibition committee have each chosen three artists to celebrate the new exhibition space.

For the first edition of "Directors' Choice", each director utilised their own personal selection criteria for this invitational show comprising 18 artists of various backgrounds and disciplines. A brief illustrated essay by each curator forms an exhibition catalogue available at the show.

Director's section curated by Jeffrey Birkin

Curator's essay:

For my section of "Director's Choice", I have chosen three artist's from three predominant bays in the Cowichan valley, Cowichan, Genoa, and Maple; Thom Anderson, Tom Faue and John Harry.

Although all three are from diverse artistic and ethnic backgrounds, the work of each artist reflects a spiritual connection to the land around them which comments on society's commodification of all things at the cost of spiritual values.

Tom Faue of Genoa Bay often works with found elements.

Tom constructs powerful organic archetypal work from his floating studio in Genoa bay.

For his work "Pacific Shaman", 2008, Tom began with a whale bone gifted to him which sat around his studio for a number of years. Later a deer skull acquisition gave a head to the whale bone body. The piece then sat idle for a time.

On a trip to Ohahu, along the beach one day a heavily weathered plastic bottle top washed up and caught Tom's eye as symbiotic to the motif he was working towards with "Pacific Shaman".

Later Tom was given an old native salmon harpoon recovered from the Cowichan estuary which Tom utilized to energize the final piece.

Thom Anderson of Maple Bay I first encountered through his participation in the last CVAC Spring Art show as a painter.

I then learned of his history as a mixed media artist and wood sculptor collected by many prominent collectors.

The work of Thom's I chose for this exhibit, although executed in the 1980's is nonetheless very telling of the world's current economic woes and comments on the real human cost of placing an economic value on everything.

John Harry of Cowichan Bay I first encountered a number of years ago as a drum-maker. Since those days I have had the pleasure of learning of many of the traditional pieces John creates for the traditions of the Cowichan tribe. For this exhibit I present John's “Bone Game” yellow cedar, paint, deer horn, 2008.

"It is usually played outdoors in the summer time. The people who want to play this game line up in teams facing each other. They sit on the ground. Each side chooses a leader. He is usually the owner of the two pairs of deer bones that are used in the game. One bone is marked with... black bands around it and one is plain. The objective is to guess in which hand the plain bone is hidden. There are ten tally sticks plus one which is called the "kick" stick.

Before the game begins, each side collects and records money in equal amounts for each side. This will be the pot that the winning side divides at the end of the game. To decide which team starts the game, the leader who guesses the plain unmarked bone twice wins the kick stick for his team. He then starts the game by leading the group as they sing his song. He indicates two people who will hold the two pairs of bones. They shield their hands from view as they decide in which hand to hold the plain bone.

The song is accompanied by a drumbeat. Sticks are pounded on boards lying on the ground in front of the players.

The leader on the opposite team now tries to guess in which hand the unmarked bones are. Each time he guesses incorrectly he must throw one of his tally sticks to the opposition. When the leader has guessed both of the unmarked bones, they are thrown to his team.

He chooses two players to hold the bones and then leads his group as they sing his song. The game is over when one team has lost all of the tally sticks to the other side. In addition to being an exciting game, Slahal allowed members of neighboring towns to experience the force of the other players' spirit powers, who helped them in the game. Whether playing Slahal, participating in Sgwigwi, or taking part in other public events, guests usually sat in the direction of their home, making the Slahal field or the interior of a house a "map" of the larger world. The bodies of participants expressed the order of the Lushootseed cosmos, linking body, house, community, and world."

It has been a pleasure working with these artist's for my section of the first edition of "Director's choice" for the Cowichan Valley arts Council at Station street's first exhibit. Each of these three artists address the issue of spiritual values vs commodity in their own unique way.

~ Jeffrey Birkin, October 20, 2008

Eighteen local artists are showing work in the Cowichan Valley Arts Council’s new Station Street office gallery opening this evening.

A found-object piece by Genoa Bay sculptor Tom Faue will decorate the walls during the Directors' Choice exhibit.

The debut saw six CVAC directors each pick three artists to show work this month.

Faue's hanging his piece Pacific Shaman to show other artists what he's working on.

The fanciful creation comprises whale bone, plastic bone, a fish "hoochie", local deer antlers, sand and shell.

But Faue said making art from trash is an old idea that's part of a new trend.

"Some call it mongo art, which is American slang for found objects," he said.

"People have been doing it forever, it was even popular in the 1920s and '30s," he said, citing Picasso's famous bull's head made from bicycle handlebars.

Faue's junk masterpiece joins other works made from wood and plus canvas creations in CVAC's new multi-use gallery space and office.

"It's nice to see local artists running a gallery," Faue said. "We get more input that way."

Director Misha Koslovsky said CVAC headquarters will have revolving art shows, action poetry sessions plus space for meetings and workshops.

The Station Street space replaces CVAC's former less-noticeable digs on Kenneth Street.

"The street presence will be wonderful too."

"The intent," said Koslovsky, "is to promote artists who are CVAC members and act as an advocacy group for the arts that are under attack.

"We want to demonstrate local arts interest."