France Trépanier, "Offerings/Offrandes", Open Space, Victoria, Jan. 15 to Feb. 20, 2016

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Exhibitions in which the art object has a minimal presence have become a hallmark of the cutting-edge contemporary scene. But among the offerings of this affecting collaborative show is the chance to consider how dematerialized art that explores things like empathy and sharing, or relational aesthetics, as such work has come to be known, actually has a much older social history, one linked to our tribal roots, and perhaps even entwined with the double helix that is our genetic legacy. 

Offerings was sparked by a project France Trépanier, an artist of Kanien’kéha:ka and French ancestry, undertook during a 2005 residency at the Banff Centre. While there, she created small wax vessels in which visitors could place objects of cultural significance. The objects – and the stories connected with them – prompted Trépanier, now aboriginal curator in residence at Open Space, an artist-run centre in Victoria, to continue her exploration of gifting in different cultural contexts. In many aboriginal communities, for example, gifts of songs, stories or feasts carry profound spiritual, political and social implications. 

The largest element of the latest iteration of this exhibition is a longhouse, a traditional structure built in contemporary style from saplings covered in part by white fabric on which two time-lapse videos of the sky are projected. Treetops billow at floor level as clouds, then stars, swirl above in a compressed 24-hour cycle. On an adjacent wall are five photographic images of the torso and hands of Trépanier’s five collaborators, although that only becomes apparent after watching the show’s final component, a loop of five short videos, each one an offering, played on a nearby monitor. 

Krystal Cook, a Kwakwaka’wakw woman from Alert Bay, B.C., recites a poem, The Grandmothers are Dancing in My Hair, from her one-woman theatre show, Emergence. Bradley Dick shares a Coast Salish song he accompanies with drumming on his K’owaht, a hollowed-out cedar plank. Cathi Charles Wherry, of Anishnaabeque and English ancestry, presents a mysterious ritual in which she dips four round stones into bowls of pigment and wraps them in white fabric. Charles Campbell, a Jamaican-born artist, offers Elletson Road, in which he listens to someone via his digital phone, a piece inspired by his conversation with a former police officer in Jamaica. Farheen HaQ, a Victoria-based artist of South Asian heritage, presents Drinking from my mother’s saucer, which shows a floral teacup filled to the brim with coppery chai that trembles to the sound of thunderous footsteps.

The videos share a strong visual presence and are shot against a dark backdrop, which provides a satisfying formal unity. While they thus lack specific environmental contexts, the implied spaciousness of these offerings complements the meditative mindset created by the flickering sky atop the longhouse. What visitors can experiences here is a gift, a meditative interlude that opens the interior space needed to create the focused attention that both relational aesthetics and meaningful social engagement require. The project’s loop of reciprocity is completed with a website, offerings-offrandes.com, that invites community members to upload their own gifts of videos, photos, text and music.

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510 Fort Street, 2nd floor, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 1E6

250-383-8833

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