Artists Statement
Maybe the predominant colour in my painting should be full value green -
for that is what anyone in the past with interests in so called
'environmental' issues would be accused of - being Green. But presently with
global warming showing it's devastational affects, everyman and everywoman
has noticed the extreme revolt of Mother Nature in order to create balance.
What's more it is hot media coverage right now and assures high rates of
viewers numbers.
Now
everyone knows why we should care.
Going West - young man or woman is no guarantee as recent science-based
reports issue the warning that the West Coast of Canada will experience
more extreme weather patterns due to a more industrialized approach in, as
an example, China, partially caused by the out-sourcing of the Western
world and the spread of popular culture. But it does no good to point the
finger outward at others - so I will point a gentle green finger inward at
ourselves.
Particles AKA smog, caused by wood burning and incomplete combustion of
cheap brown coal. and the common use of oil by-products is the main
culprit. Those dark particles released cause a different kind of chemistry
to occur in the air and they catch the heat of the sun and magnify it with
obvious affects.
Our air filters, holders of soil and groundwater’s and callers of the rain,
the trees, are being cut down; old growth forests and the flora and fauna
that they support are at great risk.
As tree huggers we know what trees are but what is coal and oil? Strangely
enough these are, like trees, part of the natural world that transform
during their life and death cycles. Plants and Animals naturally
transformed through the putrification of the ages to become reservoirs of
combustible substances.
Simply put, our harvesting and burning of these fossil fuels and plant
matter allow us to heat our houses, to accelerate flowing waters creating
hydro electricity that illuminates our homes and streets. We operate our
cars, planes, trains and run machinery that produces our goods based on
this harvest. Almost anything one can think of that is a convenience of
the modern world depends on these ‘natural’ fuels. Without these
conveniences we would not be able to exist as we have, as humans become so
reliant on this artificial construct that we are as helpless as babes
within the natural world.
We pretend that we are not helpless as we ski down pristine slopes, trek
and climb and generally pollute and disrupt all aspects of nature. We
continually manufacture stress and deliver it to the wilderness via our
actions and our continual practice of polluting.
These smog particles create health issues for both humans and animals and
they continue to have an affect on the unborn. They poison the flora as
well, the soil and the groundwater’s.
As our dependence grows and our need for 'bling' magnifies we stand to lose
our 'symbols' of the natural world. Water, our source of life is strangely
not revered as a life sustainer for all things. In Canada we have cities
that dump raw sewage directly into oceans with no conscience or
recognition of disastrous repercussions nationally and globally.
Animals of the natural world are diminishing and dying - yet still we
ponder why - and we have studies. Theirs is a very intricate balance
within the natural world.
We have countered by setting up artifices of environmental locales for
those species which can be captured and managed and moderated within
'parks'. However these pseudo-domesticizing units are not completely
successful. Animals have migrant paths around food sources, they have
patterns and practices. Fences are not a recognized genetic pattern. Fences
do not protect from a depleted environment.
Fenced Parks are not protected
from environmental disasters happening all around their borders.
So consider the green as somewhat magnified in my image!
My painting in response to this passionate incentive of
an art exhibition including contributing artists addressing the
diminishing numbers of Woodland caribou portrays a warning. Caribou
sub-species were formerly found across this country from sea to sea to sea
in great numbers. With modern industrialization practice that number began
to diminish in the 1960's. - 80's. Now they are found in less numbers than
the pieces of silver which hold their image. Simply ironic that presently
the numbers of Woodland Caribou & Mountain Caribou in Jasper each
represented by a quarter coin would equal about $ 62.50
A contemporary flag field, with a slight green - sulphuric tinted
background supports a dead river scroll container. The elegant ceramic
shape is reminiscent of that created by ancestors of the Blackfoot -
ceramicists, thousands of years ago, here in Alberta. I first viewed
these in the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina. They sit on a shelf, bits
and shards reconstructed, beautiful objects of another time - labeled
relics - of little information, to be viewed as symbolic remnants of what
once was a vital practice.
I have chosen to portray a partial image of a caribou, not unlike that
found on two bits, on the side of this cultural vessel. This caribou vessel
is situated on a moss green cross representative of trees and lichen. A
small herd, a band of caribou, some blood red, some ghostlike are postured
as overlapping this deluge headed into the future in the bottom third of
the painting format.
My metaphor or parallel for these ‘dead river scrolls series’ are the Dead
Sea Scrolls, found circa the late 1940's. The finding of these particles
of knowledge stored within ceramic amphora for millenniums were not made
known to the general public until the 1960's. No one is sure of the
meaning of the knowledge contained - the studies are ongoing. Reasonable
facsimiles of these scrolls were exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum in
New York. Some people believe that their meaning may contradict current
interpretation of historic views held and therefore seem to desire to
protect from that which might appear to threaten a held belief system.
Let us not create a similar legacy by disregarding the very apparent information
provided by the living caribou.
I submit this statement knowing full well that as an artist I am using
materials that are manufactured.
Joane Cardinal-Schubert, RCA , 2007
Aboriginal artist recognized
for “penetrating ideas”
By
Matthew Fox
Multimedia artist and writer Joane
Cardinal-Schubert, BFA’77, LLD’03, recently received a 2007 National
Aboriginal Achievement Award, but the recognition doesn’t signal that her best
work is behind her, or that she has any intention of slowing down.
“Artists,” she says, “do not retire.”
The multi-dimensional Calgary-based artist
just returned from the Banff Centre where she designed the set, costumes and
lighting for a national touring dance work entitled Pulse. She is also serving
on an Aboriginal Cultural Collective conference panel in Saskatoon this month,
and has been appointed the Royal Canadian Academy of Art’s Alberta membership
representative for its June meeting in Winnipeg.
Cardinal-Schubert enjoyed a successful
exhibition at Calgary’s Masters Gallery in March. Urban Warshirt-Metro Techno,
a mixed-media work on paper, was a featured piece.
“Many years ago, I decided that we all wore warshirts—indicators in our
dress of our personal powers that almost serve as fair warnings,” she says.
“Historically, aboriginal people have been viewed with an ‘anthro/ethno
gaze’ as dead people and I wanted to change that. This particular warshirt is
dealing with a contemporary urban reality.”
The
National Aboriginal Achievement Award recognized Cardinal-Schubert’s
“penetrating ideas on contemporary First Nations’ experiences and its
denunciation of Euro-American religious and governmental systems.”
“I felt an incredible responsibility in
accepting such a national honour,” she says.
Throughout her career, Cardinal-Schubert
has held various roles within the university community. After completing her
undergraduate degree, she was assistant curator at the U of C Art Gallery in
1978 and at The Nickle Arts Museum from 1979 to 1985. Cardinal-Schubert also
served for several years on the U of C Senate and the Alumni Association board.
In 2003, the university recognized her with an honorary degree for contributions
to the visual arts in Canada and to her community.
Cardinal-Schubert’s art is featured in an
exhibition at Banff’s Whyte Museum until October 8, in an international
touring exhibition in Québec until April 2008, and in an online Glenbow Museum
exhibit.
She says her body of work will keep on
evolving. “I’m continuing with more urban works—such as the warshirt—and
a series of ‘modern dancer’ paintings.” Proof this artist isn’t the shy,
retiring type.