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Contemporary at the ROM
Title: Cetology (2002)
Artist: Brian Jungen (Canadian)
Medium: Plastic and Metal
Permanent Collection: 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
Image Courtesy: Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Shapeshifters, Time Travelers and Storytellers
Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto
October 6, 2007 - January 6, 2008
Contemporary art can be provocative and powerful. Not following the traditional norms of landscape and portraiture. For art and cultural institutions it can
be a challenge to include the new and thought provoking alongside their older collection. It's not really anything new, for Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso, all considered
brilliant artists now, struggled to find acceptance during their initial forays and for some, such as Van Gogh, acceptance came after their lifetime.
How to manage the old with the new? Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)’s Institute for
Contemporary Culture (ICC) has organized their first ever exhibit Shapeshifters, Time
Travelers and Storytellers. It will showcase new and existing works by eight leading contemporary Aboriginal
artists as well as including historical objects from the Museum’s collections.
An 1899 carved mammoth tusk from Alaska, an Iroquois turtle wampum bag, a mid-19th
century Paul Kane painting and 20th century Inuit drawings will be presented along
with pieces by 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.
“We’re pleased to present works by this outstanding group of artists, many of
whom have had the opportunity to visit our First Peoples’ archives and respond to both the ROM’s
collections and the museum’s new architecture,” said William Thorsell, ROM Director and CEO. “By
linking the contemporary with the historical – a prominent theme explored by the ICC – the
artists have created powerful juxtapositions for visitors to experience.”
In an effort to join past with present Kent Monkman, a Cree artist, has created a new painting based on Paul Kane’s Medicine Mask
Dance (1848-56) which is part of the ROM’s Collection of Paul Kane paintings and sketches.
Faye HeavyShield also finds inspiration from the ROM, using the museum's
collections of Blackfoot/Western Plains beadwork and her own experiences growing up as a Blackfoot woman on the Blood Reserve to
create Untitled (2007), a new delicately hand-beaded piece,
representative of a book.
“We are excited to have the opportunity, the first in the ROM's history, to showcase the work of
contemporary multi-disciplinary Aboriginal artists, many of whom utilize the latest technologies in their work,
together with works from the ROM's collection of historical artifacts from Canada’s First Peoples,” said co-curators
Candice Hopkins and Kerry Swanson.
Traditional and historical merged with contemporary: a recipe for artistic creativity.
Shapeshifters, Time Travelers and Storytellers
Royal Ontario Museum:
October 6, 2007 - January 6, 2008
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