Welcoming Artists Preparing for Yəhaw̓ Show
“The Creator has left the sky too low. We are going to have to do something about it, and how can we do that when we do not have a common language? …We can all learn one word, that is all we need. That word is yəhaw̓ – that means to proceed, to go forward, to do it.”
In November, Centrum begins the residency month with a cohort from Yəhaw̓ Show. yəhaw̓ is an open call exhibition celebrating the depth and diversity of Indigenous art made in the Pacific Northwest. The exhibition will take place in February, 2019 at King Street Station, Seattle, WA.
Yəhaw̓ is a project curated by Asia Tail, Tracy Rector and Satpreet Kahlon and sponsored by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. Centrum’s connection to the project is through Asia Tail and Satpreet Kahlon. Asia was nominated for the 2018 Emerging Artist Residency, but wrote to me last Spring to say she was not able to apply because she was curating a large show at King Street Station. As it turned out, she was collaborating with Satpreet Kahlon, a 2016 alumna of the EAR residency at Centrum.
They asked if Centrum could provide time and space for artists creating work for yəhaw̓, and we said YES.
Erik Sanchez is a shoalwater bay Indian artist creating narrative photography and documenting contemporary society and the topography around him. Sanchez’s hypnotic landscapes, combined with melodramatic characters, create surreal portraitures.
Re-emerging mixed media artist, Liz Rideau is an enrolled member of the Haida Tribe from Southeast Alaska and a Filipino American born and raised in South Seattle. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest’s urban multi-cultural environment helped her balance city-minded street smarts with a strong connection to nature and her people. She graduated from Pepperdine University with a Fine Arts Degree in 2003 and is now a wife, mother of 3 and full-time manager for a Tribal Behavioral Health Program.
“I needed to step away from my busy life to center my thoughts around the upcoming Yehaw-Indigenous Artist Exhibition and Centrum’s residency provided the solitude I truly needed. It is quiet, introspective and offered me the room to spread-out ….my supplies, my thoughts and my spirit. Thank you for this opportunity.”
Marisa Erven is an Art Director and Experience Design Lead who specializes in world-building and the development of new intellectual properties. Her extensive experience includes work on emergent technologies and award-winning video games. Find Marisa on Instagram and Twitter at marzie_e, or on Facebook at https://m.facebook.com/marisaervenart.
Kalee Nelson is from the Tsimshian tribe from Southeast Alaska. Her art focus right now is on traditional form line design.
Corean American Artist, Che Sehyun, works through songs, stories, photos and film that reflect his culture, lived experience, and our collective indigenous roots. The first generation in his family line to be born outside of Corea in perhaps over 40,000 years, Che learns from and supports his ancient Corean culture of Buddhism, Taoism and Shamanism, which permeate his artistry and life ways.
Che is currently working on the G’ma Project (G’ma = Grandma, www.GmaProject.com), which honors elders, cultures and ancestors in the modern world in collaboration with local artists and a global online community. There are two parts to the project: (1) #GmaProject #DigitalDialogue happening on Facebook (facebook.com/GmaProject) and (2) on Instgram (@GmaProject).
Lisa Anderson is a member of the Esselen nation of Monterey County, Big Sur. She is the proud grandmother to three aspiring young women.
Veronica Slater and Pamm Hanson are working side by side in the studio. Slater is from England, where her work has ranged from time-based installation to painting on canvas. Hanson is from Seattle and has returned to Centrum’s residency annually to renew/refresh her practice with The Painting Group.
Veronica Slater: “Consistent throughout the artist’s practice is the idea of home; the emotional weight of its human construction as an intimate living, space and the ambiguity of place within and without. The artist’s work also investigates the human baggage of seeing; the layers of fictions which we create in order to define who and where we are.” – Georgina Coburn
Pamm Hanson has been working on a series of self portraits: “As a woman over sixty, I live with our culture’s campaign for my disappearance. As an artist, I defy it. I look in the mirror and I paint images of myself, large canvases that put my aging face on display.”
Paula Luttringer will be using her time at Centrum to organize her photographs for an upcoming show. In 1977, Luttringer was kidnapped and held in a secret detention center in her native country, Argentina. She fled Argentina immediately after her release and did not return until 1995, when she began using photography to interpret her experience there. Luttringer was awarded a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 2001. Her work appears in the collections of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. She currently lives and works in Buenos Aires and Paris.