0:01

to our community tour led by arlo maverick my name is michael magnussen i’m the new public programs and outreach

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coordinator at the art gallery of alberta to start this program i would like to do a land acknowledgement we are currently

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in the aga building which is in 36 territory in edmonton the traditional land of our diverse indigenous peoples

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including the cree blackfoot metis dakota sioux iroquois inuit and ojibwe salto anishinabe

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we acknowledge and extend gratitude to the many first nations metis and inuit whose footsteps have marked these lands

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for generations and who continue to call this place home today this is the fourth edition of the

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relaunch of our community tour program which invites a new speaker each month to lead a tour of a current exhibition

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giving our audiences a unique perspective on the work on display we are in the exhibition black every day

0:54

curated by darren w jordan this exhibition marks the 15th anniversary of five artists one love an organization

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dedicated to promoting the vibrancy of edmonton’s african canadian communities also i would like to say a big thank you

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to natalie meyer who is currently in the gallery and did a lot of work on this exhibition as well

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this aj live community tour is made possible from the heart and soul fund by epcor

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i’d also like to thank the canada council for the arts this is a hybrid program with people

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attending in person and online we will have a q a um if you’re viewing this tour virtually

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please use the q a function and we will try to answer those questions at the end uh now i will introduce arlo

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arlo maverick is an edmonton-based hip-hop mc who sounds explores jazz electro and soul yet identifies itself

1:45

as hip-hop through fusing nuances of hip-hop’s golden era and jazz theory

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lyrically arlen mavericks music is poetic narration of everyday life experiences his recent song black every

1:57

day inspired the title for this recent exhibition so without further ado take it away arlo

2:03

thank you world uh i am arlo maverick and today

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i’m going to take you guys to the black everyday exhibit here at the art gallery of alberta um as michael had mentioned

2:19

how artists will love 15th anniversary this is a exhibit of

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culture um life experiences all of the above uh from the black perspective from the

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african canadian perspective the perspective that you often don’t see but today you’re going to

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get an opportunity to see my thoughts on some of these paintings that uh some of these uh installations i guess you could

2:44

say that are featured there so let’s go for a ride

2:52

and i want to thank the audience that’s here right now as well as the people who are at home watching so uh the first

2:59

artist we’re gonna look at is jay dante um he is an artist visual artist here in

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the city as you can see a lot of uh reality-based stuff from what i see but

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also mixed in with uh something is more exaggerated and extreme he’s got the

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nike shoe in the first one here but then he’s got like this crazy thing coming out of the the head of the of the person

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um which i don’t know what it means but it uh it’s artistic you know um then we

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come over to this here a sculpture of a woman’s body uh

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which is interesting because of the fact that it you see

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the natural shapes of it but at the same time though it resembles a vase or a

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vase however you pronounce it um it allows for it to be um not just

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celebrating um the human body but at the same time celebrating um just art as a

3:55

human bodies are a work of art so let’s keep going another image that uh again just shows

4:01

some exaggeration but at the same time shows the the beauty of curves and and

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just distorted in a weird interesting way um this one here another one that is uh

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really fascinating as there’s different textures to it and obviously the

4:20

additional eye that’s there just really cool you know all right let’s keep going keep going

4:26

over here we have mr richard lipscombe now

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the lipscombs for those who may not be aware are a family that actually dates back many many years in this province a

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lot of people thought that or think that black people originally arrived here in the province in the 70s but there’s a

4:47

long history that actually dates back to the early 1900s and the lipscombs are one of the families of that

4:53

i’m actually good friends with jesse lipscombe and curtis lipscombe the sons of richard

5:00

lipscombe who are also artists as well too curtis is a producer that i’ve worked with and jesse is a

5:07

actor in addition to being a visual artist as well too who i’ve had the opportunity to work with and he’s also

5:12

does track and i’ve done track and field with him so as we look at some of these paintings here

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um this one i think is cool still because um

5:24

the prairies is something that we often don’t think of as being black right but there’s a long history amber valley so

5:31

many stories that um speak towards us as black people being on the prairies

5:37

going all the way back to the days of john ware so we’ve been here for quite some time so it’s really cool that he

5:42

was able to illustrate that because you wouldn’t expect to see that from a black artist but we are very much

5:49

prairie folk as anybody else you know um this one here

5:57

it’s a painting singer keyboardist pretty simple as is

6:04

not much to break down there um

6:09

black people we don’t like to get our hair wet so obviously the umbrella shows that uh

6:15

this beautiful sister here is trying to stay um dry she doesn’t like the rainy days you

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know she also the arlo maverick um here in this picture here i think this is really cool still because it kind of

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um from my perspective it captures the

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uh adventure and just some of the the um creativity or even just the the

6:39

playfulness of kids um here she is hopping on us on a chair and going on to

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the sink just so she could see herself in maybe she wants to fly away it’s really cool still really like that

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one this one here um i think it’s really cool still because of the fact that you have

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the father or possibly a grandfather right and then you have the son or possibly a grandson and the reason why i

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think this is so cool is because um it celebrates black fathers at least from our perspective that’s something

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that we don’t often get a chance to see um we hear a lot of um negative things being said about

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black fathers but here is something that shows um legacy shows that shows uh care

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shows love shows that shows uh um just the importance of black fathers and the importance of that relationship with

7:28

whether it’s a grandfather whether it’s the father or maybe it’s an uncle who knows but that community so important so

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important so let’s keep going let’s keep going and we get to this masterful piece here

7:41

now the gentleman who did this goes by mccurley

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some of you guys may know this and you guys may not know this right but not only is he a visual artist he’s also

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a b-boy so b-boys for those who may not be uh familiar with that they are what we

7:58

call break boys so they’re the ones who do the pop and then lock and i’m not gonna do it right now because i’m not the best of shape but

8:05

they’re the ones who do the windmills popping unlocking all that stuff there and curtis or sorry trevor

8:11

in addition to being a visual artist is very much part of edmonton’s hip-hop community so

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this piece here deep in the night a butterfly

8:23

a passerby comes sacred geometry with psychedelic threads woven through the top through

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time and unapologetic markings start dripping floating

8:37

a photocopy of struggling dusted minds along this path let us bend for those

8:43

who’ve unlocked ancient code so we rest in peace among

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the rust and nights that have come and gone yo

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language has no rule but to be understood the butterfly told

9:01

so we wrote it on the wall for all to see

9:07

in the shadows souls flutter in the darkness we can’t even see

9:14

the colors we speak powerful words powerful words for those

9:19

who may not also be aware trevor is also part of an organization called rus magic

9:25

now if you’ve seen the music video for black every day you’ll notice that there is a mural that’s behind myself and

9:30

stephanie french who sings on the chorus that was a a piece that was commissioned by russ

9:37

magic so a lot of the beautiful art you see within the city of edmonton is courtesy of rust magic but let’s keep

9:43

going here let’s keep going here uh can we do a little dance do a little dance

9:49

a little dance come around come around come around come around hope you guys are keeping up with me

10:01

one thing that’s very important issue game if shoe game does not come correct

10:07

don’t show up that’s the ladies that showed up today they know what’s up they know what’s up

10:15

not much to say about these shoes here but they look dope they’re popping to fly let’s go around

10:22

to the next part over here

10:29

so there’s a lot to be taken from this here you have

10:35

i i think that was he’s from fat albert i can’t remember his name

10:42

right um you have this thing here i have no idea what it is a

10:49

lot of stuff going on one particular thing but the cool thing was that it represents

10:55

so much hip-hop within this we have some graffiti stuff that’s here and for those who are

11:01

familiar with trevor’s stuff you know that he is a uh graph artist that um

11:06

that likes to bomb puts up murals and things of that nature so let’s keep going let’s keep going

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and again ladies and gentlemen this is just my take on what i’m seeing because this is my interpretation

11:17

as we come in here come in here come in here we have keon now

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keon is an artist who i’ve worked with before he’s done a piece on me but

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here we have [Music] so we have warhol and basquiat

11:38

so it’s really interesting in the sense that you have two artists that

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um are so iconic um basquiat for those who may be

11:50

familiar with jay-z’s recent hair stylings are modeled after basquiat and

11:55

what’s fascinating about basquiat is that when you look at the early inception of what hip-hop is actually

12:00

making its its presence to the world basquiat is there creating art that is

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very representative of what is actually going on and obviously warhol we all know warhol you know but let’s keep

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going let’s keep going

12:19

okay so this one here mr lewis rest in peace

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and while i want to bring attention to at the end

12:30

i want to center in on this piece right here now

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one of the things that often happens within the world of art is that we celebrate

12:41

pop culture icons we celebrate people who have done things in great places outside of our localities

12:48

this brother right here goes by the name of robert tyndale also known as bobby t and he is someone who

12:54

has done a lot of amazing work within the city here so for keon to do a a painting that

13:00

represents him allows it to be localized it allows it for allows for him to become someone

13:06

that a young kid looking up one day will look at him and and possibly have the same reverence as the bosque or the or

13:14

the the john lewis or whoever it may be you know so let’s keep going let’s keep going let’s keep going

13:20

all right so shoko

13:26

is an artist that i am new to not 100 familiar with this stuff but i’m

13:31

going to explore it let’s take a look i like this one the reason why i like this one is that

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it’s called spirit the whole fact that you see

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a smiling and joyous person is beautiful because a lot of times within

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popular media we don’t get a chance to see smiling black people you know so to see

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this the whole fact that there’s joy it’s not it’s not about pain the unfortunate thing is with our stories

13:59

that it’s often attached to pain and it’s not to say that we don’t go through pain it’s not to say that we don’t

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actually have those feelings or have those moments but there’s also a positive side

14:09

to us as well too so let’s keep going let’s keep going and unfortunately we come to

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what could be seen as tragedy now this one here peace hope

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this drawing shows a dove that flies away from deconstruction a bombed bust

14:25

in israel and lands where there is peace by an innocent child drumming to his own

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beat so you have all this stuff all this destruction

14:38

but all of a sudden there’s an innocence of the child in the the bird size to it right and i think that is so

14:46

important in the time that we’re in right now with everything that’s going on with covid and all these things where

14:52

we’re not sure where the world is headed knowing that the innocence

14:58

of children and the innocence of our future will always find a way to create a new

15:04

path and as someone who creates music i understand that sometimes we dance to the beat of our own drum and sometimes

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the beat of the drum of children is what we should be dancing to as opposed to dancing to the beat of adults

15:18

but let’s keep going here some more stuff from shoko

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this one here cesar caesar

15:29

right over here we have some more [Music]

15:35

pieces um this one here is untitled o5

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it’s very lifelike and i’m staring at it because it looks like it might actually just open up his eyes and say hi how you

15:48

doing you know um i’m waiting for it to do it but it’s not

15:54

that it hasn’t done it yet so

16:00

i think there’s something to be said about the level of intensity and the level of

16:08

and the amount of time that it takes to create something like this right and i think a lot of times when we see art if

16:14

we don’t get it we just don’t get it but there’s something within this that shows

16:19

a level of discipline and a level of concentration to get this to get a stone to get a

16:26

a piece of clay to get to the point of it being so lifelike to the point that i’m still waiting for it to say hi to me

16:32

that’s not easy that’s not easy let’s hop over here over here

16:38

this one here is still an untitled one um

16:44

and sometimes i wish i could actually understand the thought process that goes behind a lot of the paint the art i

16:50

shouldn’t say paintings the art that that people create in the sense that there’s a story that’s here

16:56

but what the story is i don’t know but let’s go over here

17:03

and again i’m a person who indulges in art from a music perspective but i can still

17:09

appreciate the artistic expression of other people over here we have shaheen small

17:16

a visual artist that i’m very familiar with as he’s been part of things like um

17:22

five artists one love he’s also been part of uh and other uh pop-up art installations

17:28

that have happened throughout the city here um for those who may not be within the greater emerson area

17:36

within the last well protocol within the last four or five years or so

17:42

the hip-hop world and the art world have been merging to create pop-up shows

17:48

at galleries that happen just in a random place and the cool thing about it is that

17:54

you have a dj you have people coming out to have drinks and dress up and look nice

17:59

but on the wall you’ll see art and the unfortunate thing is that

18:04

sometimes we think of art as being something that has to be in a place like the aga but art can be

18:11

wherever we want it to be so let’s take a look at some of the pieces that he has here

18:18

this one here death and rebirth to a chorus of biggie smalls because you were somebody before

18:25

anybody killed you now you’re familiar with biggie smalls he

18:30

has a song that goes you’re nobody till somebody kills you now look at what shaheen did he reversed

18:37

it you were somebody before anybody killed

18:42

you now in the world that we’re in it’s a lot of violence takes place

18:48

within all communities not just a black community all communities but the people who are being killed are

18:54

somebody to somebody and so i think this painting represents

18:59

that in the sense of this person who has lost their life for whatever the reason that whatever

19:05

reason it may be there was somebody to somebody else i think that that is just something that shows us that we have to appreciate life

19:12

and also take that time to appreciate those who are close to us people who we care about you know

19:17

um nipsy hustle now this is probably my favorite piece of

19:24

shaheen’s because of the fact that hey i’m a huge division hustle fan because of what he stood for what he was trying

19:29

to do for his community and b it’s so powerful in the way he uses the blues now

19:36

you have the bloods you have the crips so on and so forth but if i’m looking at this just from an artistic perspective

19:43

the braids in his hair have different shades of blue um the blue that

19:48

surrounds him the blue that’s in his eye the blue this in his beard it just creates this this really really powerful

19:55

piece that represents uh just nipsey in such a beautiful way you know

20:00

um lily i’m not sure who lily is give me time to catch up with me all

20:07

right now i’m not sure who lily is but it’s a really powerful piece and and you get

20:13

locked within her eyes because she’s staring at you with such intensity right now

20:20

what’s around here i’m not sure but i guess lily’s right in front here what

20:26

a great piece great piece this one here guardian now

20:34

these two pieces here what i’ve read is that one’s supposed to represent

20:41

femininity in the sense of beauty the softness the caring the nurturing so on

20:46

and so forth and then this one here is supposed to represent uh masculinity in the sense of the protected the the the

20:52

provider the overseer making sure everything is good and i think that ying and that yang works so perfectly in the

20:58

sense of just capturing what family is about let’s keep going let’s keep going

21:04

hello are you enjoying the tour

21:10

are you enjoying the tour no that means i’m doing a horrible job

21:17

okay you got more people here it’s great it’s

21:24

great okay so right now we have artwork by judy robinson

21:30

now as a child grew up on the west end

21:37

and there was this african art store in west edmonton mall

21:44

it was owned by this woman by the name of judy robinson but i didn’t know her at the time and we used to go into there and be like

21:49

oh my gosh look at all this stuff here because at that point in time you had

21:55

uh movies like malcolm x and all this uh public enemy and there was a huge

22:00

movement for pan-africanism in the 90s now judy

22:06

owned the store with her husband and i bring that up because

22:11

a lot of her art represents so much of our struggle and our experience as black people and so much of the work that she

22:17

does as well too represents that as well and so to these paintings here

22:23

and i can’t really speak towards what this is but she says playing with paint

22:29

play is a rejuvenating spiritual experience that draws upon the intentional abyss of our minds this

22:37

work is simply a display of the pleasure inherent in playing with paints

22:43

so not really deep about this one here she was playing with paint all right but let’s keep going let’s keep going

22:50

um this one here it’s interesting because it was actually featured in the black everyday video

22:56

which judy was in as well too and i think it’s fascinating because of the fact that um as black people we have

23:02

a very interesting relationship when it comes to christianity some of us are devout christians that go

23:08

to church every sunday read our bible so on and so forth but there are still

23:14

things within religion that we often sometimes question and feel that there are contradictions or things that are

23:20

problematic so you have the good and you have the bad but to have that there i think is really powerful still let’s keep going

23:27

this one here uh the sheer scale of this work is meant to evoke the overpowering nature and

23:34

ability of our gods

23:40

inspired by the myth making masquerades of mali’s bombard people

23:46

this work attempts to capture the essence of an epic myth miss embody the dreams and aspirations

23:53

of a people by personifying such absolutely grandiose

23:58

ambitions into figures of utterly magnificent character gods

24:05

gives you a lot to think about gives you a lot to think about now this one here when i came into the gallery earlier

24:13

something struck me about it now i’m not going to read what it’s about

24:19

because art is very much about interpretation right and so when i see this

24:24

see this shark that’s just going and eating all these numbers so you have redemption colors that are

24:31

within there and part of me took from that bodies that possibly were in the ocean

24:38

as the transatlantic slave trade was taking place i could be right i could be wrong art is left up to interpretation

24:44

that’s what i interpreted so judy don’t hate me for it all right let’s keep going

24:56

now the stuff we have in here is courtesy of an artist by the name of renis

25:03

now renise is a jamaican woman and she

25:08

has a background that also um embodies uh

25:15

indian heritage for those who may not be aware within jamaica there were workers

25:20

that were brought there from india so a lot of us as jamaicans of jamaican descent have

25:27

and blood within us now the cool thing with renises that she tries to allow for her art to represent

25:33

both sides of that which is really really cool you know so a lot of the fabrics that are used

25:38

represent the heritage of her indian background um but

25:44

then she also juxtaposes that with the caribbean uh jamaican black ancestry as well too

25:51

so i’m kind of just jumping all over the place because they’re kind of all over here nothing in particular that i’m

25:57

looking at but a lot of this stuff is really cool still this one here

26:03

looking like it could be um the predator this is really cool still if you can get a real close-up on the

26:09

details on this one here

26:15

so it’s as if

26:21

it’s really fascinating because a lot of times you have to wonder about the artistic choices

26:27

that artists make and it’s not good it’s not bad it’s just

26:33

fascinating because if you can come around over here

26:43

and as we look inside here you see the fabric actually

26:48

put within the wood and it’s done in a way that uh is

26:54

brilliant and what i like about this is that

27:04

as artists we have these crazy crazy crazy crazy ideas and a lot of times

27:09

if i were to describe this to somebody before i did it they’d be like what are you talking

27:15

about and as artists a lot of times we have to just trust our gut and like ignore

27:20

everyone who keeps calling us crazy because crazy in words

27:25

becomes art in real life remember that all right let’s keep going let’s keep going

27:32

this one here is courtesy of courtesy of braxton santiago

27:39

garno now i’m gonna give you guys a little bit of music history

27:46

in the late 90s early 2000s there’s a band in the city of edmonton

27:53

called the hyphonics the lead singer of the hyphonics was a

27:58

gentleman by the name of curtis santiago his brother had a son

28:04

who’s an artist and curtis in addition to being a singer and an amazing

28:11

musical artist is also a visual artist as well too so it shows you that sometimes

28:18

the ones who are looking for younger looking up to you

28:23

might be inspired by the things you’re doing so as artists it’s important for us to

28:29

always be modeling the behaviors of hard work modeling the behaviors of being creative and being

28:35

explorative because this is what happens when you’re surrounded by people who are creative so

28:46

i don’t know what the what the art represents [Laughter]

28:52

but it’s really good though it’s really good though it’s really good though again i’m not a visual artist

28:58

kid but this is on a different level you know let’s keep going let’s keep going

29:05

and again we’re gonna have some q a at the end uh i’m gonna come back to that

29:15

okay so

29:22

this piece here when i first came to the gallery really struck me

29:27

now the reason why it struck me is because i was trying to get a sense of what was

29:33

happening in the picture so we have a chair

29:38

we have a shoe we have paint brushes

29:45

we have this painting of colin kaepernick taking a knee

29:51

then we also have this door that’s open so [Music]

29:58

i didn’t know what to make of it and the reason why i didn’t know what to make of it was

30:03

was this a mirror was this

30:10

the nfl about to come into the door and be like hey get up was this what was it

30:17

so as i look at this i really wanted to talk to the artist and get their perspective in regards to why is

30:23

the chair here why is there just this one shoe here because all these things make sense and

30:29

sometimes as visual artists or artists period

30:36

the art we’re creating isn’t necessarily created by us it’s created by a muse there’s someone

30:41

who’s communicating something that has a greater purpose than what we think we’re doing

30:48

and maybe that’s what was happening when this was created i don’t know i’d love to know

30:55

this one over here searching freedom

31:01

also assisting freedom and this one here is farmer so this one is uh fetsum who is uh east

31:09

african um and so this one here is kind of interesting still because

31:14

it is play feel is in north america

31:20

somewhere where somebody is farming but the reason why i found that to be fascinating is that the gentleman is

31:26

actually from east africa so the landscape is very different than what i would expect but at the same time though

31:32

as i said we often don’t put ourselves into these environments as black people because we

31:37

see ourselves as being other we are canadians we are

31:42

americans we are people within this diaspora so

31:49

the art here is something that uh represents some sort of experience it’s

31:55

something he’s trying to try to communicate you know so let’s move over here

32:03

lisa mays now before we go on to lisa maze i just want to do a quick check in with

32:09

the audiences here right now are you guys good okay i’m looking like there’s like 100

32:15

people here but there’s just few people here but i got to check in with them to make sure they’re good um so this one here

32:22

next artist is lisa mays um again the maze family is a family that is very

32:29

much like the lipscomb’s family where there’s a heritage in a generation that goes way

32:35

way back right so amber valley one of the communities for

32:40

a lot of the earliest settlers right and so with this painting here i feel like it represents the

32:48

early 1900s a time where um believe it or not you would have cities

32:53

that had only black people in it in alberta and things like this are important because

33:00

when you create a painting like this and people see it they start asking questions in the sense of why are there

33:06

black people on the prairies and it’s no different than

33:11

white people on the prairie during this time period and so when those questions start to get get raised then we start looking at

33:17

education why is that not being taught within schools so a piece like this while it’s not

33:22

intentionally political or intentionally social it does the job of doing that

33:28

one here

33:34

this one here grandmother uh

33:39

yeah so this work is a dedication to lisa may’s lineage of grandmother’s grandmother is

33:45

a contemplation on colonialism and the rebuilding of identity

33:50

so again uh the layout of the work is meant to reference the spanish costa pasta system

33:57

um this is a system created to identify the mixing of different so-called races and

34:04

was utilized in the spanish colonies to indicate pasta’s

34:10

social status level of taxation and legal rights so

34:16

again when it comes to art this is what i find to be so fascinating is that if i were to just look at this

34:23

there’s certain things i can take from it but then there’s also other things that i

34:28

may miss and that’s where context is so important when it comes to art because after reading that now i’m

34:36

looking at this from a totally different perspective and someone else may come in and see

34:42

something that i didn’t see right away and i guess the cool thing with that is that we all have our interpretations but

34:48

there’s a message that the artist is trying to communicate and i’m so glad that i read that because

34:54

it’s vital and very important let’s keep things wrong here still

34:59

more work from lisa mays and again just uh a lot of cool things that

35:10

this represents yeah ancestral mardi gras

35:18

okay let me keep going but something very powerful with that still

35:23

um okay

35:28

i actually want to stop on this here because i feel like a lot of her pieces are so like political and so important

35:34

okay so prior to being enslaved africans existed in large-scale and advanced

35:40

civilizations a lot of people aren’t aware of this africans weren’t just waiting around for europeans to come and bring them to

35:46

north america we were building civilizations major history european colonization and the atlantic

35:53

slave trade erased their identities and cultures mardi gras black indians is an

35:59

example of a newly immersed identity and culture demonstrated by the interchange between native americans and african

36:06

african slash african americans that runs parallel to the enslaved in the americas

36:14

carnival we all jump up jump up jump up but there’s a history behind the carnival

36:20

that speaks to the journey

36:25

of black people coming over to the new americas so for those who may not be aware it was

36:32

a lot of the costumes that you see in carnaval were actually used to

36:38

mock the slave masters so there’s there’s a whole history that’s there not going to get into it

36:44

but at the same time though while we have lost sense of what it is

36:49

about there’s a cultural and a historical meaning that was a form of rebellion which is always so interesting

36:56

that when you look at um african culture sometimes the protest isn’t as

37:03

um in your face as you think it is even when you consider the whole fact that a lot of the traditional songs that

37:10

were sung the hymns were actually codes in order to communicate to other

37:15

enslaved africans so so much texture so much history that’s there that needs to be taught within

37:21

schools and hopefully this exhibit helps in contributing to that let’s keep going let’s keep going

37:35

now what’s fascinating about holly is that i knew holly for a number of years and

37:41

never knew she was a visual artist which is kind of strange still because visual artists don’t really let you know

37:47

they’re visual artists sometimes they do sometimes they don’t but courtesy of five artists one love i was

37:53

able to find out that someone who i knew was a visual artist and i bring that up because

37:59

five artists one love has been important and imperative in allowing for us to realize

38:05

that there are black artists out there when darren jordan started this 15 years ago his

38:12

he knew that as a visual artist and as an artist period there wasn’t opportunities for

38:17

black people who created art so he created this thing and what it’s done is that it’s now allowed for

38:24

black artists to increase their profile have opportunities to be in galleries

38:29

like this where they could then use that as leverage to get into another opportunity so

38:35

i mentioned that story because of the fact that if there was opportunities like five

38:41

artists one love prior to five artists will love i possibly would have known that she was a

38:47

visual artist but it’s through creating opportunities like this that we are

38:52

encouraging and empowering people to actually step out with their artistry and be like hey i’m a visual artist

38:59

i now have a gallery i can put myself into so shout outs out to the whole fireworks one love for allowing me to know that my

39:04

friend was actually visual artist yeah huh okay so with this stuff here

39:13

i’m gonna pretend like i know what it’s what it’s saying what it’s doing it looks cool

39:18

it’s art that’s what’s important let’s come over here

39:29

now if you’ve seen the promo for this tour

39:34

you know that i stood in front of this piece right here now the gentleman who did it another fellow

39:42

jamaican aj louden who has done a bunch of murals throughout the city

39:48

here aj is probably one of um our most recognized visual artists here

39:53

in the city and the cool thing with aj is that not only is he a real cool guy just down the earth and

40:00

so chill his work always has these layers to it

40:07

i don’t just mean layers in the sense of what’s happening here but layers in the sense of the context that’s there right

40:12

so let’s look at some of the people that he has on here in this constellation of stars i guess you could say right

40:19

so we have uh

40:24

the brother from reading rainbow who’s also on star trek a camera okay

40:30

but then we also have uh and so he looks at labels him as problem solver right

40:36

then we have malcolm and martin as figureheads

40:43

right then we have john ware as a pioneer right we have nipsy hustle as a

40:49

visionary we have i’m not sure who this is but as a grio and

40:57

what i like about this is that you have

41:04

even is the warrior you know all these people who are

41:09

i feel like that might be that turner oh it’s a double check let me

41:15

go check here guys all right so we have pam grier where’s pam okay

41:20

there’s a van gogh okay all right uh we got nipsey we got amanda

41:25

gorman see dolores tucker up there

41:31

john ware and for those who don’t know john ware is a uh cowboy he

41:38

[Music] john ware when he passed away

41:45

was such a celebrity that and this was a black man during a time period where black people were not even

41:50

being treated as equals but he had been so

41:58

good at what he did that even those who did not like black

42:03

people had to recognize his works within the province of alberta so definitely

42:09

someone who you should know about if you don’t know about him yet okay and there’s actually a tie to curtis

42:15

lipstone or just lives i’m sorry because he actually uh uh he’s in a movie not sure if he played

42:21

him but he was in the movie i apologize my facts weren’t correct but

42:29

all right so sorry guys i’m kind of all over the place right now but this one here great work courtesy of aj

42:37

louden let’s keep going here still some more stuff from holly again uh

42:44

not really sure what to make of the art still it’s interesting um

42:50

fascinating and i wish that i was a more articulate gentleman when it comes to

42:57

art like this let’s keep going

43:07

so we’re at the last artist for this 15-year anniversary for

43:13

five artists one love now emily is someone who i’ve actually had the opportunity to work with i’ve

43:18

worked with her mother uh with uh the jamaican association of northern alberta but emily has also taken photos of me

43:25

and so yeah family and these ones here um there’s some photo she’s taken of a

43:32

beautiful black sister there some more stuff over here um great use of light as far as just

43:39

capturing it so that you only see uh these parts that are right here so you see our back the arm bit of the head the

43:47

legs right there and this one here uh yeah again just great use of art in the

43:53

sense of light in the sense of like capturing what needed to be captured there um

43:59

this one’s kind of cool still in the sense that i don’t that’s painted on or that’s what

44:05

it is but it’s it’s just really cool art you know and a really great photo um

44:10

and ladies and gentlemen that has uh that concludes our thing

44:16

oh shoot you gotta run back in here come on

44:28

all right so my apologies this man is a legend he’s an icon

44:35

many years ago in the city of edmonton there was a motorcycle that was made out

44:41

of wire wheel that schuma had created and he went all throughout the city with this thing on display he became

44:49

essentially iconic because of this because it was so crazy was life-size okay so shumbo is an artist as you can

44:55

see visual artist and um a lot of this stuff is just like really cool

45:01

stuff that this one here victory lap right so i’m assuming this represents someone who just finished running a race

45:09

victory lap like nipsy hustle right then we have the next one here protected so

45:19

what i take from this is that you have whatever the

45:25

ball in the middle is intended to represent is something that is protected because

45:30

it is of great importance right hence the name protected this one here

45:35

prayer trying to make out where the prayer would be but

45:46

i don’t know but it’s still interesting this one over here um this was eyewitness

45:54

this is some really cool stuff it’s like one of those rocks you’ve done on a up in jasper and then

46:01

you take it home with you and then you make it into something really cool i tried it before but it’s never turned out this nice

46:12

so that concludes everything um let’s actually hop back over to

46:18

black everyday wall and if anybody has any questions then we’ll take them let’s uh follow me follow me

46:41

yeah thanks so much arlo uh it’s michael speaking i am a disembodied

46:46

voice i’m just checking the q a now to see if we have any questions and so let’s just pull it up and if

46:53

there’s any questions from the audience please let me know does anyone have a question for arlo

46:58

yes okay great so what’s your question my question is

47:04

through this exhibit we saw through your perspective a lot of the embedded meaning in these pieces

47:10

that are connected to a particular cultural history and experience but art evolves and there is exchange

47:18

how what is your perspective on retaining meaning while allowing cultural exchange

47:25

and evolution but without losing that’s one question and i have a follow-up

47:30

all right um i think that

47:37

we have to be extremely careful when it comes to retaining art because

47:43

in more specifically north america and let’s say canada and the united states

47:50

corporations tend to drive culture so when you have

47:56

a system that um expects exponential growth

48:03

through products or services sometimes culture could be thrown to the side

48:08

and then you pick and choose what is going to be viable to a consumer as opposed to what is important to the

48:14

culture and the preservation of that culture so i think that we have to be very careful in doing so because you do

48:21

want to allow for advancements you do want to allow for other perspectives to come in and also help push the culture

48:27

further but you never want to forget the roots of it you never want to take something without acknowledging

48:33

where it came from you know we opened up today with the land acknowledgement in the sense that

48:38

we as my parents are from jamaica being here

48:44

this is not the origins of my family but i have to acknowledge and respect

48:50

the whole fact that there were people who came before me who still um

48:57

still are just as important to this culture and if i want to contribute something that’s cool but i never want

49:04

to contribute something and say their perspective doesn’t matter their input doesn’t matter so

49:10

i’m not sure if that answers your question yes okay but i do have a follow-up if i can so the other part of that is that

49:19

there is interest from people everywhere even me for example in of

49:26

course cultural expressions that are connected to african people africans so

49:32

my question is how what is your perspective of people from not from the culture connecting to

49:39

something that has an origin connected to struggle so even though someone may admire and

49:47

want to you know engage with it the the history of the struggle is not

49:52

within your ancestors no part of the memory of your body or many many things that are you know

49:58

connected to that so how do you protect that but still allow for people

50:03

to engage without taking something which they will never understand the true meaning perhaps perhaps perhaps okay

50:12

wow that’s that’s a real tough question to answer

50:18

i think that what’s fascinating as

50:24

humans is that we’ve all

50:32

we’re all connected to a struggle in one way or another right and

50:40

you can never say wow wow

50:45

cecilia you got me on this one here coming on this one here um

50:53

i think it’s it’s a matter of looking at things from a respectful approach right um

51:01

the enforcing thing is that as black people um we have been commodified and not

51:07

compensated for the commodification of our art right in the song black every day the second

51:13

verse i say the least appreciated the most imitated the least appreciated

51:19

the most appropriated but really compensated right black is beautiful how is it now fact

51:24

when kevin and becky won a black girl right and i say that in the sense that

51:31

the next line says they want to walk like our queens be strong as our queens but don’t want the struggle to develop

51:37

those genes right so in a lot of ways people look at black culture and be like

51:42

i like that that’s cool i want to take that

51:48

but i don’t want to know about the struggle that goes along with that it’s like

51:54

doing all the things that are cool that are black until the police show up

51:59

and all of a sudden you’re like hey i’m just a white dude you know

52:05

the black guys are still gonna be black right and which comes back to the conversation of

52:11

black every day in the sense that the struggles that we have as black people are ones that we can’t turn off

52:18

we can’t turn on they’re just part of who we are that’s not good that’s not bad that’s

52:23

just how life is right and i think that when we get to a place where

52:29

you have people who are not fair weather activists who are just like

52:36

well it’s cool for me to support black movements today so i’m going to support

52:41

it but when it’s not cool i’m going to step back when i know that

52:46

my white counterparts my latino counterparts my uh filipino

52:53

counterparts are always going to be there with me in this

52:59

then when i see them wanting to uh partake in the culture i don’t see it

53:04

as appropriation i don’t see it as they’re using it when it’s convenient i see it as this is my brother who or my

53:11

sister who is always there and i think that that’s where um

53:17

often people get upset because kim kardashian will have

53:22

brains if she does it it’s seen as being beautiful a black woman does it is seen as ghetto

53:28

so when we have a world in which our expressions that are rooted within our struggle

53:34

are appreciated when they’re adorned by us or when they’re contributed by us

53:41

then now now there isn’t that situation of

53:48

people just wanting to um

53:53

benefit off of us when it’s convenient for them if that makes sense

53:59

hopefully i’ve answered your question yes okay okay thank you that was such a good question

54:05

does anyone else have any questions that they would like to ask arlo anyone in the digital sphere

54:12

maybe we’ll just take a moment to encourage people to come to the aga to check out this exhibition it’s on for um

54:19

a week in a little bit so please come to the aga and check it out it’s really wonderful in person and you get to truly

54:25

appreciate it for all its value when you’re seeing it up close hmm well i guess if there’s no other

54:32

questions we’ll just say big thank you arlo this has been truly fantastic thank you

54:42

thank you thank you so much do you have anything else you want to say any last words

54:48

i think the biggest thing is that um a huge thank you to darren jordan for curating this for 15 years and the whole

54:54

team that’s behind it as well too um as i mentioned earlier there weren’t places where black artists

55:00

were able to uh have this stuff seen and recognize and appreciate it because there are cultural nuances that people

55:07

may not necessarily get but with five artists one love

55:13

darren has allowed for black visual artists black artist period to

55:19

um level up but he’s also allowed for them to um

55:27

take their stuff to [Music] places that it may have never gone to before and also receive the education

55:33

that’s needed for them to actually understand how to navigate these spaces because a conversation that we often have is

55:39

that why are we not seeing black artists in this space or that space or that

55:44

space and sometimes it comes from they’re not having the knowledge of how to access these spaces so when you have

55:50

something like five artists for love that is not just about the display of art but the education

55:56

that goes behind the business of art then now you have more opportunities for

56:01

us to be seen and hopefully this is something that um continues on and

56:07

maybe the 30th anniversary will be even bigger to the point where it’s a national thing so again thank you to

56:13

[Music] darren jordan for having the idea and going through the challenges that

56:19

obviously must come along with doing something like this for 15 years you know and thank you to the aga for

56:25

posting this thank you to those who came out you know um really appreciate it and

56:32

yeah i guess that’s well thanks again and uh good night to everyone watching um in cyberspace

56:38

thanks again arlo bye for now peace

56:47

yes

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