Bill Reid

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Bill Reid works on a totem pole. (courtesy of the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver)

As a baby in Skidegate, Gwaai Edenshaw bounced in a Jolly Jumper suspended from a totem pole being carved by Bill Reid, the renowned Haida artist. When he was a teenager, Edenshaw left Haida Gwaii for Vancouver, where he became Reid’s last apprentice. 

Reid made an immense contribution to the resurgence of Haida art and mentored many young carvers, including Robert Davidson and Jim Hart, who went on to become well-known in their own right.

Now, to mark the 100th anniversary of Reid’s birth, Edenshaw, along with Beth Carter, the curator of Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in Vancouver, has organized To Speak with a Golden Voice, a show that honours Reid while also highlighting work by other artists he has inspired. 

“Bill Reid created an impression on me and set me on my path within the arts,” says Edenshaw. “Inside my practice, there are echoes of the learning I did while working with him.”

The title of the exhibition, on view until April, is a reference to Reid’s early work at the CBC, where he was known for his deep melodious voice. But metaphorically, it also evokes his ability to tell stories through his art. 

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Bill Reid at the CBC around 1950. (courtesy of the CBC)

One of Reid's best-known sculptures, The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, shows a traditional dugout cedar canoe that carries Raven, Mouse Woman, Grizzly Bear and other passengers who symbolize the natural world on which the Haida depend. The work was featured on Canadian $20 bills issued between 2004 and 2012.

Reid, who died in 1998, was born in Victoria to a Haida mother and an American father with Scottish-German roots, and began exploring his Haida heritage when he was 23. He studied jewelry making while working at CBC Toronto, but it was a 1954 trip to Haida Gwaii, where he saw work by his great-great-uncle Charles Edenshaw (no relation to Gwaai), that transformed his life.

The show has four thematic threads. Voice covers Reid’s writing and his CBC years. Process charts his creative journey via rarely seen sketchbooks, drawings, casting molds and works in progress. Lineage examines Reid’s family ties, as well as the artists influenced by him, while Legacy explores the many facets of Reid’s personality.

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Bill Reid, “Sketch of the Spirit of Haida Gwaii,” circa 1986, pencil on envelope (Bill Reid Foundation Collection; gift of Bill Ellis)

“A big driving force for this show was showing and telling who Bill was and the connections between him and all the tendrils he put out that have survived through other living artists,” says Edenshaw. “Bill’s influence on the current Northwest Coast art world is enormous.”

That influence extends beyond the bounds of visual art. Musical artist Kinnie Starr created an installation, Carried on a Voice Of Gold, using recordings of Reid’s voice. “She has done a lot of experimental work,” says Edenshaw. “She did the score for my movie (Edge of the Knife, the first Haida-language feature film, co-directed with Tsilhqot'in filmmaker Helen Haig-Brown) and she also happens to be my wife.”

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Bill Reid, “Raven Brooch,” 1962, 22k gold, 2.5” x 2” (SFU Bill Reid Collection 2002.1.6; gift of Martine Reid; photo by Kenji Nagai)

Contemporary Haida artist Cori Savard was commissioned to do a painting, which she based on Reid’s jewelry.

Reid’s personality is evoked through short interviews with his apprentices, including George Rammell, Don Yeomans, Rick Adkins and Jim Hart.

“We wanted to express the many sides of Bill, his humanity as well as his foibles,” says Edenshaw. “One of the ways to do that is through the voices of people who worked with him.” 

Edenshaw also contributed a work, Putting Things Together in His Mind, which takes the shape of a squatting man wearing a potlatch hat.

“It reminds me of Bill,” says Edenshaw. ■ 

Bill Reid: To Speak with a Golden Voice is on view at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in Vancouver from July 16, 2020 to April 11, 2021.

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