Artists’ Tour: Debra Sparrow and Cease Wyss
Sat Feb 8, 2020 | 3 PM
Installation view of Transits and Returns, exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, September 26, 2019 to February 23, 2020, Photo: Maegan Hill-Carroll, Vancouver Art Gallery
Free for Members or with Gallery admission.
Join artists Debra Sparrow and Cease Wyss for an in-gallery discussion of their works on view in Transits and Returns. Both artists will speak to ideas of presence, continuity and Indigenous approaches to learning. Their tour will hold space for dialogues around key concepts explored in the exhibition, including kinship, being in motion and situatedness.
The tour will end off-site at the Canada Line Vancouver City Centre Station with a closer look at Sparrow’s installation Blanketing the City, produced in partnership with the City of Vancouver Public Art Program and the Canada Line Art Program.
This tour will be facilitated by Stephanie Bokenfohr, Public Programs Coordinator, and Tarah Hogue, Senior Curatorial Fellow of Indigenous Art.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Born and raised on the Musqueam Indian Reserve, Debra Sparrow / θəliχʷəlʷət (Thelliawhatlwit) is an acclaimed weaver. Self-taught in Coast Salish design and jewellery-making, Sparrow was part of a group of women who began to rejuvenate the Salish weaving tradition at Musqueam in the 1980s.
T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss’ heritage includes Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Stó:lō, Kānaka Maoli, Irish-Métis, and Swiss. Her Sḵwx̱wú7mesh traditional name, T’uy’t’tanat, means “woman who travels by canoe to gather medicines for all people.” Wyss is an ethnobotanist, community gardener and interdisciplinary artist who works in digital media, storytelling and weaving.