An Artists with Their Work Program which is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and sponsored by AT&T Canada. The Burlington Art Centre gratefully acknowledges the financial support of our Membership, Corporate Members and Sponsors; the BAC Foundation; Arts Burlington Council; the Volunteer Council; the City of Burlington; the Ontario Arts Council; the Provincial Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation; The Canada Council of the Arts; and the Federal Department of Canadian Heritage. Special thanks to the Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts, for the loan of ‘Memory Claim #1’ and to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery Collection, for the loan of ‘Memory Work #2’, purchased with support of the Canada Council’s Acquisition Assistance Program. The artist’s words describing ‘Memory Claim’ series were first published in ‘Women and Medicine’, catalogue for the exhibition ‘Women and Medicine’, curated by Alison Brannen, Carolyn Pinder and Tobey C. Anderson at Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, Ontario 1996.
1333 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington Ontario L7S 1A9 Telephone: (905) 632-7796 • Fax: (905) 632-0278 Email: Info@burlingtonar tcentre.on.ca • Website: www.burlingtonartcentre.on.ca This publication, ‘Rebecca Baird’, accompanied the exhibition ‘Rebecca Baird’ at the Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, Ontario June 20 to August 22, 1999 Co-ordinator: Dawn White Beatty, Associate Curator of Programs Publication Design: Wordsmith Design & Advertising, Hamilton ISBN#0-919752-61-6
COVER: DETAIL OF “THE LIE OF THE LAND #1”, 1997. PHOTO: SIMON GLASS
DETAIL OF “MEMORY CLAIM #1”, 1995. Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts. PHOTO: BRIAN YUNGBLUT
REBECCA BAIRD
JUNE 20 TO AUGUST 22, 19 9 9 • PERRY GALLERY AN ARTISTS WITH THEIR WORK PROGRAM WHICH IS ORGANIZED BY THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO AND SPONSORED BY AT&T CANADA
An Artists with Their Work Program which is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and sponsored by AT&T Canada. The Burlington Art Centre gratefully acknowledges the financial support of our Membership, Corporate Members and Sponsors; the BAC Foundation; Arts Burlington Council; the Volunteer Council; the City of Burlington; the Ontario Arts Council; the Provincial Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation; The Canada Council of the Arts; and the Federal Department of Canadian Heritage. Special thanks to the Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts, for the loan of ‘Memory Claim #1’ and to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery Collection, for the loan of ‘Memory Work #2’, purchased with support of the Canada Council’s Acquisition Assistance Program. The artist’s words describing ‘Memory Claim’ series were first published in ‘Women and Medicine’, catalogue for the exhibition ‘Women and Medicine’, curated by Alison Brannen, Carolyn Pinder and Tobey C. Anderson at Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, Ontario 1996.
1333 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington Ontario L7S 1A9 Telephone: (905) 632-7796 • Fax: (905) 632-0278 Email: Info@burlingtonar tcentre.on.ca • Website: www.burlingtonartcentre.on.ca This publication, ‘Rebecca Baird’, accompanied the exhibition ‘Rebecca Baird’ at the Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, Ontario June 20 to August 22, 1999 Co-ordinator: Dawn White Beatty, Associate Curator of Programs Publication Design: Wordsmith Design & Advertising, Hamilton ISBN#0-919752-61-6
COVER: DETAIL OF “THE LIE OF THE LAND #1”, 1997. PHOTO: SIMON GLASS
DETAIL OF “MEMORY CLAIM #1”, 1995. Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts. PHOTO: BRIAN YUNGBLUT
REBECCA BAIRD
JUNE 20 TO AUGUST 22, 19 9 9 • PERRY GALLERY AN ARTISTS WITH THEIR WORK PROGRAM WHICH IS ORGANIZED BY THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO AND SPONSORED BY AT&T CANADA
“The focus of my endeavours at present is to try to communicate to people the belief I have in the perpetual existence of primordial beauty. This beauty transcends considerations of time and space. It is possible for me to demonstrate my perception of that which is brilliant and exalted in my immediate mental and physical environments. My desire is to continue my quest toward an actualized version of that which is captured by my mind’s eye.” REBECCA BAIRD
As a Native artist working primarily within an urban setting, Rebecca Baird’s art activities, through materials and themes, introduce aspects of traditional Native cultures in a contemporary context that reflects the reality of existence for Native peoples in our society. We have within our extended regional arts community the Six Nations of the Grand, Native Indian/Inuit Photographers Association and a large urban Native population. My hope is that this exhibition will contribute to the important dialogue among these groups and the non-native artists of this community, and to inspire and educate our gallery visitors. The exhibition is a selection of the artist’s mixed media works which incorporate materials such as sweetgrass braids and weaving, beading, feathers, hides, basketry weaving techniques and other traditional materials and techniques, in combination with contemporary artist’s materials, and techniques of mixed media and printmaking. The exhibition includes pieces from ‘Memory Claim’ series, of which she speaks: “Remembering and reclaiming what has been camouflaged through time, interference and obfuscation has been of great importance to the native peoples of Canada. Sweetgrass is one such link in this process of recovery. The tall, fragrant grasses are picked and cured at the height of summer in preparation for the burning, the soothing, the
healing; the rituals which acknowledge and affirm the past while bringing forth a newly found integrity, focus and clarity. “Memory Claim”is a new series represented here by large bundles of sweetgrass and a sweetgrass mandala. Inspired by the beautiful baskets made by the women of Walpole Island Reserve, these works combine hide, birch bark, porcupine quills and beads, all elements used in traditional native basket-making. The women of this reserve played a central role in the development of this work as well as an earlier piece, “A Time Within Memory”. They taught me where to find the sweetgrass, how to cure it, how to weave the delicate patterns that shape the medallions of the mandala, and they assisted in its creation. As I worked with the women, stories began to surface about sweetgrass and how its effect was so significant at one point in Canadian history it was outlawed. I became aware of the material’s political energy through the stories of the Miq Maq women who weave special sweetgrass braids into their baskets in defiance of this culturally oppressive prohibition. This subversive activity was incorporated into the styles of basket-making as a way of keeping alive the spiritual and cultural history of this people. As such, encoded in these baskets is a history not just of basket-making but of a way of life. The existence of these artifacts, and their contemporary role, became for me an indictment of this intricate past – a history conflated in the repetition, the spirals, the braids and the distinctive aroma of sweetgrass.
The contemplative mandala and bundles of sweetgrass in the ‘Indigena’ national group exhibition at the Canadian ‘Memory Claim’ participate in this process of honouring cultural Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec and is represented in memories and affirming the healing properties of tradition. The manthe collections of the Royal Ontario Museum of Civilization, dala, itself, is symbolic of a pattern of existhe Canada Council Art Bank, tence and a system on which meditative Thunder Bay Art Gallery, the visualization is based. In this context, the Department of Indian and Northern sweetgrass mandala also becomes a symAffairs, and the Department of bol of collaboration, of community, and of Foreign Affairs, as well as numerous a continuum. When composing the spiral private collections. disks, a cultural tradition is acknowledged, Rebecca Baird’s antecedents include remembered and revitalized. Despite the Stony Mountain Cree. Her work is repetition of a single motif, each disk is inspired by her great-grandmother unique, indicative of its maker. The variawho was one of the last Plains people tions speak to the individual interpretation to participate in the buffalo hunt. of artistic expression and to this process of When she was seventy-five years old renewal. Each subsequent ring of medal(1938) Victoria Calihoo danced the lions corresponds to a generational cycle, Red Jig and was awarded the esteemed while the loose, swirling edges of the manBuffalo Robe in appreciation of her MEMORY CLAIM #1, 1995. Walter Phillips Gallery, dala suggest both fluidity and continuity.” mastery. Of her great-grandmother Banff Centre for the Arts. Photo: Brian Yungblut Rebecca Baird Rebecca says, “By the time she passed in Rebecca Baird has exhibited extensively in Canada and 1968, her efforts at cultural preservation had impacted on me.” – Exhibition Coordinator: Dawn White Beatty internationally since 1983. Her work was recently included in
“The focus of my endeavours at present is to try to communicate to people the belief I have in the perpetual existence of primordial beauty. This beauty transcends considerations of time and space. It is possible for me to demonstrate my perception of that which is brilliant and exalted in my immediate mental and physical environments. My desire is to continue my quest toward an actualized version of that which is captured by my mind’s eye.” REBECCA BAIRD
As a Native artist working primarily within an urban setting, Rebecca Baird’s art activities, through materials and themes, introduce aspects of traditional Native cultures in a contemporary context that reflects the reality of existence for Native peoples in our society. We have within our extended regional arts community the Six Nations of the Grand, Native Indian/Inuit Photographers Association and a large urban Native population. My hope is that this exhibition will contribute to the important dialogue among these groups and the non-native artists of this community, and to inspire and educate our gallery visitors. The exhibition is a selection of the artist’s mixed media works which incorporate materials such as sweetgrass braids and weaving, beading, feathers, hides, basketry weaving techniques and other traditional materials and techniques, in combination with contemporary artist’s materials, and techniques of mixed media and printmaking. The exhibition includes pieces from ‘Memory Claim’ series, of which she speaks: “Remembering and reclaiming what has been camouflaged through time, interference and obfuscation has been of great importance to the native peoples of Canada. Sweetgrass is one such link in this process of recovery. The tall, fragrant grasses are picked and cured at the height of summer in preparation for the burning, the soothing, the
healing; the rituals which acknowledge and affirm the past while bringing forth a newly found integrity, focus and clarity. “Memory Claim”is a new series represented here by large bundles of sweetgrass and a sweetgrass mandala. Inspired by the beautiful baskets made by the women of Walpole Island Reserve, these works combine hide, birch bark, porcupine quills and beads, all elements used in traditional native basket-making. The women of this reserve played a central role in the development of this work as well as an earlier piece, “A Time Within Memory”. They taught me where to find the sweetgrass, how to cure it, how to weave the delicate patterns that shape the medallions of the mandala, and they assisted in its creation. As I worked with the women, stories began to surface about sweetgrass and how its effect was so significant at one point in Canadian history it was outlawed. I became aware of the material’s political energy through the stories of the Miq Maq women who weave special sweetgrass braids into their baskets in defiance of this culturally oppressive prohibition. This subversive activity was incorporated into the styles of basket-making as a way of keeping alive the spiritual and cultural history of this people. As such, encoded in these baskets is a history not just of basket-making but of a way of life. The existence of these artifacts, and their contemporary role, became for me an indictment of this intricate past – a history conflated in the repetition, the spirals, the braids and the distinctive aroma of sweetgrass.
The contemplative mandala and bundles of sweetgrass in the ‘Indigena’ national group exhibition at the Canadian ‘Memory Claim’ participate in this process of honouring cultural Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec and is represented in memories and affirming the healing properties of tradition. The manthe collections of the Royal Ontario Museum of Civilization, dala, itself, is symbolic of a pattern of existhe Canada Council Art Bank, tence and a system on which meditative Thunder Bay Art Gallery, the visualization is based. In this context, the Department of Indian and Northern sweetgrass mandala also becomes a symAffairs, and the Department of bol of collaboration, of community, and of Foreign Affairs, as well as numerous a continuum. When composing the spiral private collections. disks, a cultural tradition is acknowledged, Rebecca Baird’s antecedents include remembered and revitalized. Despite the Stony Mountain Cree. Her work is repetition of a single motif, each disk is inspired by her great-grandmother unique, indicative of its maker. The variawho was one of the last Plains people tions speak to the individual interpretation to participate in the buffalo hunt. of artistic expression and to this process of When she was seventy-five years old renewal. Each subsequent ring of medal(1938) Victoria Calihoo danced the lions corresponds to a generational cycle, Red Jig and was awarded the esteemed while the loose, swirling edges of the manBuffalo Robe in appreciation of her MEMORY CLAIM #1, 1995. Walter Phillips Gallery, dala suggest both fluidity and continuity.” mastery. Of her great-grandmother Banff Centre for the Arts. Photo: Brian Yungblut Rebecca Baird Rebecca says, “By the time she passed in Rebecca Baird has exhibited extensively in Canada and 1968, her efforts at cultural preservation had impacted on me.” – Exhibition Coordinator: Dawn White Beatty internationally since 1983. Her work was recently included in
“The focus of my endeavours at present is to try to communicate to people the belief I have in the perpetual existence of primordial beauty. This beauty transcends considerations of time and space. It is possible for me to demonstrate my perception of that which is brilliant and exalted in my immediate mental and physical environments. My desire is to continue my quest toward an actualized version of that which is captured by my mind’s eye.” REBECCA BAIRD
As a Native artist working primarily within an urban setting, Rebecca Baird’s art activities, through materials and themes, introduce aspects of traditional Native cultures in a contemporary context that reflects the reality of existence for Native peoples in our society. We have within our extended regional arts community the Six Nations of the Grand, Native Indian/Inuit Photographers Association and a large urban Native population. My hope is that this exhibition will contribute to the important dialogue among these groups and the non-native artists of this community, and to inspire and educate our gallery visitors. The exhibition is a selection of the artist’s mixed media works which incorporate materials such as sweetgrass braids and weaving, beading, feathers, hides, basketry weaving techniques and other traditional materials and techniques, in combination with contemporary artist’s materials, and techniques of mixed media and printmaking. The exhibition includes pieces from ‘Memory Claim’ series, of which she speaks: “Remembering and reclaiming what has been camouflaged through time, interference and obfuscation has been of great importance to the native peoples of Canada. Sweetgrass is one such link in this process of recovery. The tall, fragrant grasses are picked and cured at the height of summer in preparation for the burning, the soothing, the
healing; the rituals which acknowledge and affirm the past while bringing forth a newly found integrity, focus and clarity. “Memory Claim”is a new series represented here by large bundles of sweetgrass and a sweetgrass mandala. Inspired by the beautiful baskets made by the women of Walpole Island Reserve, these works combine hide, birch bark, porcupine quills and beads, all elements used in traditional native basket-making. The women of this reserve played a central role in the development of this work as well as an earlier piece, “A Time Within Memory”. They taught me where to find the sweetgrass, how to cure it, how to weave the delicate patterns that shape the medallions of the mandala, and they assisted in its creation. As I worked with the women, stories began to surface about sweetgrass and how its effect was so significant at one point in Canadian history it was outlawed. I became aware of the material’s political energy through the stories of the Miq Maq women who weave special sweetgrass braids into their baskets in defiance of this culturally oppressive prohibition. This subversive activity was incorporated into the styles of basket-making as a way of keeping alive the spiritual and cultural history of this people. As such, encoded in these baskets is a history not just of basket-making but of a way of life. The existence of these artifacts, and their contemporary role, became for me an indictment of this intricate past – a history conflated in the repetition, the spirals, the braids and the distinctive aroma of sweetgrass.
The contemplative mandala and bundles of sweetgrass in the ‘Indigena’ national group exhibition at the Canadian ‘Memory Claim’ participate in this process of honouring cultural Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec and is represented in memories and affirming the healing properties of tradition. The manthe collections of the Royal Ontario Museum of Civilization, dala, itself, is symbolic of a pattern of existhe Canada Council Art Bank, tence and a system on which meditative Thunder Bay Art Gallery, the visualization is based. In this context, the Department of Indian and Northern sweetgrass mandala also becomes a symAffairs, and the Department of bol of collaboration, of community, and of Foreign Affairs, as well as numerous a continuum. When composing the spiral private collections. disks, a cultural tradition is acknowledged, Rebecca Baird’s antecedents include remembered and revitalized. Despite the Stony Mountain Cree. Her work is repetition of a single motif, each disk is inspired by her great-grandmother unique, indicative of its maker. The variawho was one of the last Plains people tions speak to the individual interpretation to participate in the buffalo hunt. of artistic expression and to this process of When she was seventy-five years old renewal. Each subsequent ring of medal(1938) Victoria Calihoo danced the lions corresponds to a generational cycle, Red Jig and was awarded the esteemed while the loose, swirling edges of the manBuffalo Robe in appreciation of her MEMORY CLAIM #1, 1995. Walter Phillips Gallery, dala suggest both fluidity and continuity.” mastery. Of her great-grandmother Banff Centre for the Arts. Photo: Brian Yungblut Rebecca Baird Rebecca says, “By the time she passed in Rebecca Baird has exhibited extensively in Canada and 1968, her efforts at cultural preservation had impacted on me.” – Exhibition Coordinator: Dawn White Beatty internationally since 1983. Her work was recently included in
An Artists with Their Work Program which is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and sponsored by AT&T Canada. The Burlington Art Centre gratefully acknowledges the financial support of our Membership, Corporate Members and Sponsors; the BAC Foundation; Arts Burlington Council; the Volunteer Council; the City of Burlington; the Ontario Arts Council; the Provincial Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation; The Canada Council of the Arts; and the Federal Department of Canadian Heritage. Special thanks to the Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts, for the loan of ‘Memory Claim #1’ and to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery Collection, for the loan of ‘Memory Work #2’, purchased with support of the Canada Council’s Acquisition Assistance Program. The artist’s words describing ‘Memory Claim’ series were first published in ‘Women and Medicine’, catalogue for the exhibition ‘Women and Medicine’, curated by Alison Brannen, Carolyn Pinder and Tobey C. Anderson at Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, Ontario 1996.
1333 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington Ontario L7S 1A9 Telephone: (905) 632-7796 • Fax: (905) 632-0278 Email: Info@burlingtonar tcentre.on.ca • Website: www.burlingtonartcentre.on.ca This publication, ‘Rebecca Baird’, accompanied the exhibition ‘Rebecca Baird’ at the Burlington Art Centre, Burlington, Ontario June 20 to August 22, 1999 Co-ordinator: Dawn White Beatty, Associate Curator of Programs Publication Design: Wordsmith Design & Advertising, Hamilton ISBN#0-919752-61-6
COVER: DETAIL OF “THE LIE OF THE LAND #1”, 1997. PHOTO: SIMON GLASS
DETAIL OF “MEMORY CLAIM #1”, 1995. Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts. PHOTO: BRIAN YUNGBLUT
REBECCA BAIRD
JUNE 20 TO AUGUST 22, 19 9 9 • PERRY GALLERY AN ARTISTS WITH THEIR WORK PROGRAM WHICH IS ORGANIZED BY THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO AND SPONSORED BY AT&T CANADA