eat salmon loops for dinner tonight

If you're in Vancouver, check out tonight's opening at the Belkin Satellite Gallery (555 Hamilton Street): Sonny Assu: As Defined Within the Indian Act. This is the first solo show by friend Sonny (of previous bear-painting fame). If you can't come tonight, Matthew Hills will give a curator's talk on Saturday, 22 April at 2:30pm at the Belkin Satellite gallery as part of Gallery Hop Vancouver. The show runs until May 21st.

From the press release:

Combining a Pop aesthetic with traditional Northwest Coast style and forms, such as the button blanket and formline, Assu cultivates a wry critique of current artistic and socio-economic issues pertinent to contemporary culture. The exhibition will include several new paintings and sculptures that experiment with notions of commodification and the ready-made. The result is an engagement of tradition that refuses to acquiesce to the stereotypes of First Nations art and artists, while respecting Native culture and addressing an urban context. Placing an emphasis upon the exploration of identity, Assu’s practice compels the viewer with incisive wit that undermines notions of a static First Nations identity and temporarily allays the ubiquitous misrepresentation of First Nations cultures and peoples.

Read more here.

If all of that is still not enough for you , I helped sew the buttons onto the blanket. So come check out my mad button-sewing skillz. I am a sewing machine!