Boarder X and Vernon Ah Kee Surf to Edmonton

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Micheal Langan / Colonialism Skateboards Collaboration with Kent Monkman, "The Four Continents," 2018

skateboard desks. (photo by Don Hall, courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery)

Boarder X, a show that features work by Indigenous artists that use snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing to demonstrate knowledge and relationships to the land, opens Jan. 26 at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton.

The show, organized and circulated by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, examines contested spaces, political borders, hybrid identities and traditional territories, and is curated by Jaimie Isaac.

It runs in conjunction with Vernon Ah Kee's cantchant, in which surfboards become a metaphor for Aboriginal peoples.

The work refers to the 2005 Cronulla race riots near Sydney, providing a compelling statement on the racially motivated conflicts between white Australians and more recent non-Western immigrants.

The riot chant “we grew here, you flew here” is ironically transformed into the proclamation “we grew here" and reinforced by the suspended boards, which resemble shields. The show, organized by the National Gallery of Canada, includes a video of professional Aboriginal surfer Dale Richards riding one of the boards. 

Source: Art Gallery of Alberta