Think of Krystle Silverfox’s new creation at the National Gallery of Canada as the complete history of the Yukon. Inspired by an Indigenous legend about the creation of the world, Copper and Concrete sits on a plinth about the size of a microwave oven. But it carries much wisdom about Yukon’s overlapping Indigenous and settler histories.
The work is among the treasures being exhibited at the National Gallery by the five finalists for this year’s Sobey Art Award. Generally, artists in these exhibitions present older pieces because they are put on the shortlist only a few weeks before the exhibition’s layout is planned.
But Whitehorse-based Silverfox, the finalist for the West Coast and Yukon, is not one to rest on her laurels. She decided to create a new work referencing, among other things, the Indigenous creation legend, a red Hudson’s Bay blanket, Potlatch ceremonies and copper deposits near her ancestral home at Selkirk First Nation in Yukon.
Krystle Silverfox, installation view at “2022 Sobey Art Award Exhibition,” National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa, showing “Copper and Concrete” in the foreground and “All That Glitters is Not Gold…” (collection of the artist, © Krystle Silverfox, photo courtesy NGC)
Copper and Concrete is like a baby sister to All That Glitters is Not Gold…, a much larger and showier work that explores similar narratives. That work served as Silverfox’s 2019 master’s thesis in interdisciplinary studies at Simon Fraser University. Something of a signature piece for her, it is also displayed at the National Gallery until the Sobey exhibition ends on March 12.
All five finalists are BIPOC artists and they all, in various ways, mine colonialism, ancestral roots and lived experience through a contemporary lens. Collectively, they are redefining Canadian art, not as hyphenated Indigenous, African or Asian artists but simply as artists living in this place.
Divya Mehra, Afterlife of Colonialism, a reimagining of Power: It’s possible that the Sun has set on your Empire OR Why your voice does not matter: Portrait of an Imbalanced, and yet contemporary diasporic India vis-à-vis Colonial Red, Curry Sauce Yellow, and Paradise Green, placed neatly beneath these revived medieval forms: The Challenges of entering a predominantly White space (Can you get this in the gift shop?) where all Women and Magical Elephants may know this work, here in your Winnipeg, among all my Peers, desiring to be both seen and see the loot, through this Jungle Vine camouflage, celebrating an inheritance of loss through occupation of these outmoded spaces, 2018-2022, PVC-coated fabric, acrylic paint, plastic and electric components (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, purchased 2019 (48651); © Divya Mehra; photo courtesy NGC)
Winnipeg artist Divya Mehra, who has received the top award of $100,000, represents the Prairies and the North. Her practice includes installation, photography, sculpture and text – and Canada’s second-most famous piece of bouncy architecture. The most famous, of course, is the jumping castle erected among protesters’ trucks in Ottawa last winter on Parliament Hill so children could play while their parents gave the finger to politicians and police officers. It became a symbol of that lawlessness, just as Mehra’s brightly coloured Taj Mahal critiques the commoditization and demeaning of Indian culture in Canada, a recurring theme in her work.
Mehra’s piece has intentionally gone by several different names over the years. Here’s one of the shorter ones: Afterlife of Colonialism, a reimagining of Power: It’s possible that the Sun has set on your Empire. The work, acquired by the National Gallery in 2019, has toured Western Canada extensively but has had only a few brief appearances east of Winnipeg. This is its first showing at the National Gallery. You can’t help but giggle upon seeing it. By comparison, the other works in the exhibition are overwhelmingly earnest.
Tyshan Wright, installation view, “2022 Sobey Art Award Exhibition,” at National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa (collection of the artist, © Tyshan Wright, photo courtesy NGC)
Tyshan Wright, of Halifax, is the finalist for the Atlantic provinces. He is best known for work that explores the history of Jamaican Maroons, Africans who resisted slavery and lived freely off the land. But they still suffered hardships, and, in 1796, many were exiled by Britain to Halifax, later decamping for Sierra Leone. Wright recreates Maroon ceremonial musical instruments that were banned in Halifax, using materials available in Nova Scotia rather than traditional materials from Jamaica. Thus, Jamaican and Nova Scotian histories are entwined in his art.
Azza El Siddique, “Measure of One,” 2020
steel, expanded steel, water, unfired slip clay, slow-drip irrigation system, EPDM pond liner and cement bricks, installation view (collection of the artist, © Azza El Siddique, photo courtesy NGC)
Ontario’s finalist is Azza El Siddique. Born in Sudan, she creates elaborate installations that examine processes of transformation using liquids, scents, metals and heat. Her works resemble laboratories, game sets and manufacturing plants. The large pieces are influenced by traditional Egyptian and Nubian culture.
The Sobey exhibition features El Siddique’s Measure of One, a meditative arrangement of steel, clay pots and water that create an irrigation system that resembles a giant altar. In the installation, water washes over unfired clay vessels at regular intervals, altering or entirely disintegrating their forms. The mixture of eroding clay and water joins a cyclical path of destruction and renewal, forming new shapes.
Stanley Février, Installation view at “2022 Sobey Art Award Exhibition” at the National Gallery of Canada, (collection of the artist, © Stanley Février, photo courtesy NGC)
Stanley Février, the Quebec finalist, is of Haitian descent. He explores inequalities within society, especially discrimination, using installation, photography, performance and other media. On display is a room-sized faux graveyard installation, The End of a World. Row upon row of tombstones represent a changing art world as institutional practices that favoured white male artists become more inclusive. Février’s installation could well serve as a symbol of this year’s Sobey competition.
Each of the four finalists gets $25,000. The award was established in 2002 and was initially given only to artists aged 40 and under. Now all ages are eligible. Previous winners include Brian Jungen, David Altmejd, Annie Pootoogook and Michel de Broin. ■
The 2022 Sobey Art Award Exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa from Oct. 28, 2002, to March 12, 2023.
Correction Nov. 16, 2021, 7:15 p.m. This article has been updated to reflect the announcement of Divya Mehra as the winner of the Sobey Art Award.
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