Artist
Biography
...
Born in 1941,
Hazel Wilson grew up at Old Massett on Haida Gwaii
(Queen Charlotte Islands). Known as Jut-ke-Nay in
her native Haida language, she is a member of the Duugwaa
St’Langng 7laanaas clan on the Raven
side. When Wilson was 14, she was selected to become
a maker of appliquéd button blankets—ceremonial
robes created from melton cloth and decorated with
pieces of abalone, copper and pearl buttons. A
master of her craft, Wilson went on to make countless
robes for friends and relatives. In the early 1970s
she moved with her children to Vancouver, where
she continued to create robes both for family members
and for the southern market. In 2006, her work
was featured in Raven Travelling, a major
200-year retrospective of Haida art presented by
the Vancouver Art Gallery. Wilson continues to
live and work in Vancouver.
...
For the first three decades of her artistic career,
Wilson concentrated on making blankets with various
family crests, such as frogs and ravens. Although
traditional in conception, Wilson’s interpretation
of this traditional subject matter was nonetheless
distinctive: in addition to buttons, she attached
a range of materials to her robes, including
pieces of brass, shells from the sea and beadwork.
In more recent years, Wilson has extended her
art to include narrative forms that touch on
a range of contemporary concerns. In 2005, she
completed a major cycle of 17 blankets chronicling
the life and death of the sacred Golden Spruce
Tree (K’iid K’iyaas). In
2006, she began work on an even larger series
of narrative blankets that record the modern
and pre-modern history of the Haida people. Comprising
50 blankets in all, this series will address
such politically charged themes as large-scale
logging on Haida Gwaii and the devastating impact
of small pox in the post-contact era.
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Selected
Press
...
VANCOUVER
SUN
VANCOUVER
SUN
Gallery
Exhibitions
Selected
Other Exhibitions
...
Raven Travelling: Two Centuries
of Haida Art, Vancouver
Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, June
10 - September 17, 2006
Public
Collections
...
Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest
Coast Art (Vancouver, BC)
Haida Gwaii Museum (Skidegate,
BC)
Selected
References
...
Robin Laurence, "Haida Glee:
Transitions in Northwest Coast
Art," Border Crossings,
Issue no. 100
Gallery
Information
...
MARION
SCOTT GALLERY
2423 GRANVILLE STREET
VANCOUVER, BC CANADA V6H 3G5
TEL: 604.685.1934
FAX: 604.685.1890
ART@MARIONSCOTTGALLERY.COM |
