LUKE PARNELL EXHIBITION PANELS 7 & 8

Luke Parnell's Re-contextualising the De-consecrated is an challenging and inquisitive look into the exhibition history of Northern Northwest Coast Aboriginal Art. Parnell's installation of paintings and didactic panels surveys the exhibitions both aesthetically, and critically through writing. The viewer is confronted with varying degrees of positive and negative feedback on the significance of each exhibition, and can begin to see how perception of NWC art has changed and transformed over the years.

According to Parnell: Each artwork appropriates heavily from the exhibition that it explores.  The words for the didactic panels are completely appropriated and while the paintings are original each one is inspired by either artworks from the exhibition or the philosophy of the exhibition. The creation and methodology behind this series of paintings enables the work to explore notions of appropriation, authenticity and what is considered sacrosanct.

Over the course of the next two weeks we will be sharing with you all 8 of these responses. Below are the visual representations of the seventh and eighth exhibitions Parnell reviewed, Challenging Traditions, and Beat NationUnderneath each image you will see an excerpt of the accompanying appropriated text panel. We encourage you to visit the gallery to look at all of the work in context.

Challenging Traditions, Luke Parnell, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30"
 Excerpt of quote(s) taken from Parnell's The Transforming Image panel: The efflorescence of artistic activity among the First Nations peoples of the Pacific Coast over the last forty years has often been described as a renaissance. The potlatch prohibitions of the Indian Act of 1884 have been replace by a climate in which the production, preservation and expansion of cultural artifacts is actively encouraged. It might even be argued that the increasing appreciation of this art, both old and new has helped begin the political shifts that need to be made ...

Beat Nation, Luke Parnell, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30"
Excerpt of quote(s) taken from Parnell's Raven Travelling panel: There has been some criticism over the years by older community members who see this influence as a break from tradition and the movement of the culture towards a pop-based mainstream assimilation. These artists are not turning away from the traditions as much as searching for new ways into them. Hip hop is giving youth new tools to rediscover First Nations culture. What is most striking about this work is how much of it embraces the traditional within its development.




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