Peter Morin, Marie Côté, Ziya Tabassian: Land Songs, Water Songs / Chants de terre, Chants d'eau

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From left to right: Peter Morin, Marie Côté, and Ziya Tabbassian

Photo of Ziya Tabbassian by Guy L'Heureux.

Artists Conversation & Opening Reception: June 29, 6:30−9pm

As Canadians seek to discover ways to enact meaningful change in our time of Truth and Reconciliation, there is a growing sense that finding common ground between Indigenous and settler cultures is critically necessary to move forward. In their new collaboration, artists Marie Coté, Peter Morin, and Ziya Tabassian use visual art and performance to address the history of colonization to clear a path for new relationships.

For these artists, drums are essential instruments in building connections with environment, territory, and history. Drums are made to be held, to connect with the body. Hands move and manipulate the materials to make worlds. Drums are heartbeats from which songs are born. Coté and Morin join forces with musician Ziya Tabassian to consider the sonic system of the drum, the land, and bodies of water to become an interface for culture, language, and story.

The immersive installation in the Gallery combines numerous hand-made ceramic drum hoops and drum sticks, drum heads made from elk skin and deer skin, a large-scale drawing made from locally sourced clay from Semiahmoo traditional territory, along with a projected video with surround sound.

“Peter Morin is an artist who has been at the forefront of addressing colonial history through his inventive, collaborative artmaking along with his physically intense and emotionally charged performance,” says Surrey Art Gallery Curator Jordan Strom. “Together with Quebec artists Coté and Tabassian, Morin has created a deeply moving immersive experience that visitors won’t soon forget.”

The installation extends out of Peter Morin’s and Marie Coté’s art residency at the Gallery in the fall of 2017. Since then, the artists, along with percussionist Ziya Tabassian, have continued to work in partnership with local Indigenous Peoples to integrate dreams, stories, and their own ancestries into this new multimedia art installation. Land Songs, Water Songs / Chants de terre, Chants d'eau is a presentation of Surrey Art Gallery’s Open Sound 2018 program.