Museum of Anthropology's Great Hall (photo by Michael Elkan)
Museum of Anthropology Reopens After 18-Month Closure
The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC in Vancouver has reopened after an 18-month closure for renovations.
The renovations included seismic upgrades to its Great Hall, plus the reinterpretation of the displays of Northwest Coast Indigenous artworks and belongings.
Two new exhibitions focus on Indigenous perspectives on history. The first, in the Audain Gallery, is entitled To Be Seen, To Be Heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965 and is “an immersive, multimedia exhibition that explores how, during the period of potlatch prohibition and other forms of erasure in Canada, First Nations people in British Columbia represented themselves as Indigenous in urban public spaces,” according to the news release.
The second exhibition is in the O'Brian Gallery and features the Western Canadian premiere of Maori artist Lisa Reihana's in Pursuit of Venus [infected], “a digitally animated interpretation of the French Neoclassical scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, which depicts a decidedly darker narrative to expose the oppressive and often violent exchanges absent from the wallpaper’s utopian colonial portrayal.”
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Lucas Morneau, “Goalie Doilies,” 2021, cotton yarn, plaster of paris, crochet and plaster casting, 9.4" x 7.9" x 3" (photo by The Reach Gallery)
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Lucas Morneau, “Pasadena Pansies,” 2021, wool yarn, burlap, crochet and rughooking, 64" x 44" (courtesy of Saskatchewan Craft Council Gallery)
Lucas Morneau: Queer Newfoundland Hockey League
Sobey Art Award 2024 longlisted artist Lucas Morneau's solo exhibition, Queer Newfoundland Hockey League, is on view now through July 6 at the Saskatchewan Craft Council Gallery in Saskatoon, Sask.
“The show depicts a fictional hockey league made of 14 teams, represented by crocheted and rug-hooked hockey jerseys, queered hockey cards and crocheted goalie masks,” according to the news release. (The masks look like white lacy doilies.)
“QNHL aims to deconstruct homophobia in sports culture and to create a new, positive, and accepting brand of masculinity for sports enthusiasts.”
Plus, each work is fresh, fun and original, in case that wasn't clear from the doily goalie masks.
Based in New Brunswick, Morneau works in photography and textiles. They were the winner of the BMO First Art Award for Newfoundland and Labrador in 2016, the Cox & Palmer Pivotal Point Grant in 2018, and they were shortlisted for the Scotiabank New Generations Photography Award in 2018 and 2021. They hold a bachelor of fine arts from Memorial University and a master of fine arts from the University of Saskatchewan. ■
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