BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition February 2018

CITY
TAKASHI MURAKAMI: THE OCTOPUS EATS ITS OWN LEG
ICONIC ARTIST’S FIRST RETROSPECTIVE IN CANADA COMES TO VANCOUVER
LUIZA BRENNER
Photo by Maria Ponce Berre
Takashi Murakami has collaborated with the likes of Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, and Louis Vuitton.
It might still be rainy season in Vancouver, but
the Vancouver Art Gallery is already blooming.
Starting on February 3, the gallery will welcome
Takashi Murakami’s first major retrospective in
Canada. Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its
Own Leg showcases over 50 works spanning three
decades of the artist’s career.
The touring exhibition, first conceived
and presented by Michael Darling, the James
W. Alsdorf Chief Curator at the Museum of
Contemporary Art Chicago, “offers unique and
dynamic insight into the visual world of Takashi
Murakami,” describes Diana Freundl, Associate
Curator, Asian Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
“One that mines the cultures of folklore, comics,
anime, manga, fashion as well as both Japanese
and Euro/American art histories.”
Even if you’re not an art aficionado, you’re
probably familiar with Murakami’s work outside
the museum realm. The artist’s cartoon-like
flowers and monsters are printed in Louis Vuitton
bags, on Kanye West’s 2005 Celebration album
art, and on Supreme skate decks, to name a few.
“Both he [and his work]effectively blur boundaries
between vernacular and fine art,” says Freundl. For
that, Murakami’s work seems to be more relatable
and democratic than most contemporary
artworks.
Visitors can expect massive sculptures,
paintings from his earliest mature work to his
recent large-scale projects, including a newly
created five-metre-tall sculpture and three
multi-panel paintings designed exclusively for
the Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition. In talking
about the hardships of installing a show of this
magnitude, Freundl says that the “energy and
effort required to finish one artwork should be
considered when mounting it, and hopefully that
gets translated when visitors walk through the
exhibition.”
A range of events will also accompany the
show. There will be a now sold-out lecture with
Murakami, and a much anticipated Murakami’s
Birthday Bash on February 2. Celebrating both
the artist’s birthday (on February 1) and the
opening of his exhibition, the evening will begin
at the Vancouver Art Gallery, with an exclusive
exhibition preview with the artist, followed by a
seated dinner and after party at the Commodore
Ballroom.
Grab your bag, blast Kanye on your
headphones, hop on your skateboard, and head to
the Vancouver Art Gallery, because this show will
be an epic one!
Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg
runs at the Vancouver Art Gallery from February
3-May 6.
COASTAL FIRST NATIONS DANCE FESTIVAL
FLYING GWITCH’IN FIDDLER TELLS TALES OF THE YUKON
ERIN WARD
Boyd Benjamin picked up the fiddle for the
first time at 14-years-old. With the melody
of a song played at an old-time dance in Old
Crow still running through his head, he sat
down to try and recreate what he’d heard. That
experience — sitting with the fiddle, learning
to play a song that was played nowhere else —
launched a life-long passion for fiddle music
and for sharing the story of his home.
“It’s a unique way for me to express myself
because that’s sort of who I am,” he explains.
“It’s my upbringing and where I come from.
I was taught that our culture up North is
precious and [playing fiddle music] is a way to
keep that going.”
Known as the Flying Gwitch’in Fiddler,
Benjamin, along with singer/songwriter Kevin
Barr, has performed his music across the
country. This March will be the first time the
duo has performed as part of the Coastal First
Nations Dance Festival at the UBC Museum of
Anthropology. The festival, which runs from
February 27 to March 4, will celebrate the
songs, dances, and stories of the Indigenous
peoples of the Northwest Coast of North
America.
Benjamin explains that Old Crow, a small
6
community just below the Beaufort Sea in
Northern Yukon, is known for its fiddle music.
Continuing this tradition, he says, is a way to
keep the culture of his community alive and
vibrant.
“Some of the music we play is only heard
in Old Crow, and some of the dances we
do only happen in Old Crow,” he says. “We
speak Gwitch’in, and the language is fading,
so my contribution to that part of culture
is the music that I play. I’m contributing to
our culture in a way so as to keep that alive
musically.”
With his music, Benjamin is telling the story
of the cultural tradition of fiddle music in Old
Crow, of the dances and songs unique to his
community. In telling that story, and in sharing
his fiddle music, he keeps those traditions alive
— not just by playing some of the old-time
songs he’s heard since childhood, but also
by making new ones to continue that legacy
of bringing community together over fiddle
music.
The Coastal First Nations Dance Festival runs
at the Museum of Anthropology from February
24-March 4.
Boyd Benjamin keeps his heritage alive through the cultural tradition of fiddle music.
Photo by Gary Bremner Photography
February 2018