Whitehorse Star, Dec. 18, 2009
EXHIBIT WINDING DOWN – Joyce Majiski is seen with her interactive art at the Yukon Arts Centre that is part of the Llama project show Voz/Voice. Photo by Vince Fedoroff
Exhibit helps melt away the Yukon winter
by Justine Davidson
The Llama project is going south for the winter, and this weekend is the last chance to see the group exhibition created by a co-operative of Canadian and Mexican artists who came to the Yukon earlier this year to work, collaborate and teach.
Walking into the main gallery of the Yukon Arts Centre, the greys, blues and whites of the Yukon winter are immediately melted away by a bold, rust-coloured wall hung with shining tin hearts.
Corazones salvages or Wild Hearts is a piece by Mexican artist Lorena Silva.
The hearts are large, handmade replicas of icons given as offerings to the Virgin Mary in many Catholic churches in Latin America.
The penny-sized pieces are typically sold at the entrances to cathedrals and come in the form of hearts, hands, houses, cattle and cars.
The devoted buy a silver icon in whatever form is most appropriate to their prayers and pin it to the veil of the virgin or leave it at the altar to bolster their pleas….Read full article – Whitehorse Star, Dec. 18-09 (PDF)
Whitehorse Star, Dec. 17, 2009
ABSORBING CULTURE – Ted Menzies (left), parliamentary secretary to federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, tours the Yukon Arts Centre Gallery this morning with Al Cushing, the centre’s CEO. Photo by Vince Federoff.
What’s Up Yukon, Nov. 19, 2009
Art’s Imperative: Resistance and Resilience in the Animal Kingdom
by Sarah Lindstein
Hammered tin hearts adorn a shocking orange wall. On each tin plate, a shadow of an animal is emblazoned. Hammerheads frolic with turtles and trouts. Elephants walk with flamingos and horses.
This is the art of resistance, of going back to the roots of creation and respecting the natural world of the animals. The exhibition, Voz/Voice, is the art of the LLAMA project, a collaborative group of Canadian and Mexican artists who spent the past summer at artistic retreats in the Yukon, joining forces to create the visually stunning display at the Yukon Arts Centre. They have also spent a previous residency in México.
Together, the eight artists from the Yukon and México have explored the theme of resistance and resilience as it pertains to the natural world as well as the human-centric world. Multifaceted as well as culturally diverse, the artists all relate to each others works through a shared understanding of nature.
In this show, nature is the animal kingdom, displayed prominently through shadow figures, brass etchings and a wall-length textile painting of a leopard dissolving into spots….. Read full article – What’s Up Yukon Nov.18 (PDF)
Yukon News, Oct. 23, 2009
Mexican artist Lorena Silva is in Whitehorse to participate in the Llama Project. The internationally-renowned artist’s work will be shown starting November 5 at the Yukon Arts Centre.
What to do when the jaguar glows blue
by Chris Oke
What do pottery, genetically modified corn and a glowing blue Jaguar have in common?
All, in one way or another, inspire Mexican artist/activist Lorena Silva. Silva is visiting the territory this month as part of the LLAMA (The Listen, Learn and Make Art) Project. Silva is an artist of international renown, whose work has been exhibited throughout Mexico, Europe and Canada. Her painting was highlighted at Expo ‘86 in Vancouver. Silva has since moved on to more sculptural and ceramic-based work and recently took part in a ceramic symposium in Beijing.
While Silva will be exhibiting her work at the Yukon Arts Centre next month, and has been giving talks and workshops, she would also like to focus on some of the social causes that she’s championing…. Read Full Yukon News article-Oct 23-09 (PDF)
Whitehorse Star, Oct. 21, 2009
Artists to speak this evening
ARTISTS TO SPEAK THIS EVENING – From Earth to Art is the presentation of the LLAMA Project tonight at Arts Underground beneath the Hougen Centre. Local artist Lynne Sofiak, left, and Lorena Silva, from Mexico, are two of the clay artists speaking at 7 p.m. Photo by Vince Federoff.
What’s Up Yukon, Oct. 1, 2009
Art’s Imp
erative: The Art of Nature
by Tara McCarthy
As the sun pours through the window, artist Maria Luisa de Villa adjusts her long, wavy hair and launches into a round of questions. She’s begging to know what it’s like to live in the territory – from what the communities are like, to what people do, how they live and how they all survive the dreaded 40-below temperatures.At this point, our conversation has reached the half-hour mark with ease. But talking about the land is one of de Villa’s greatest passions; after all, nature is at the forefront of her mixed-media works.
Since the mid ’70s, de Villa has organized cultural exchanges and art forums for artists residing in México and Canada. And now she’s taking part in yet another cross-cultural artistic experience as one of seven artists involved in the LLAMA Project.
LLAMA stands for Listen, Learn and Make Art. And de Villa says the group is doing just that.
Whitehorse Star, Sept. 18, 2009
ACHIEVEMENTS RECOGNIZED – Patricia Deadman was one of five aboriginal curators selected to go to the Venice Biennale and Basel Art Fair.
Visiting artist selected to attend major art event
Patricia Deadman, the latest LLAMA Project artist to arrive in the Yukon as part of the Canada-Mexico exchange, was one of five aboriginal curators selected to go to the Venice Biennale and Basel Art Fair this summer.
The Canada Council’s delegation of aboriginal curators attended these global art events to network and promote contemporary Canadian aboriginal artists within in a global context.
Deadman, a co-founder of the LLAMA Project, is a visual artist, independent curator and writer. Living in Woodstock, Ont., she is a Tuscarora from the Six Nations.
She started out as a painter but soon moved into photography, sound and installation work. Working with film, Deadman works in a darkroom to manipulate her large-scale images that address themes of land, culture and history….
Yukon News, August 26, 2009
Love the people, not the bureaucracy (Letter to the Editor)
Last Friday, I was interviewed by the Yukon News (“Yukon woos ‘unwelcome’ Mexicans” Friday, August 21). I am concerned that people were given the wrong impression about how I feel about Canadians and coming to Canada.
In all of my travels to Canada I have been warmly welcomed as a visitor and find Canadians incredibly open and generous. I am very happy to be here as part of the LLAMA Project’s Mexico/Canada exchange of artists (people can learn about the project at www.llamaproject.com).
The main difference between this trip and others I have made to this country was the new travel visa requirement the Government of Canada suddenly put in place this summer, just as I was preparing to travel. The staff at the Canadian Embassy were not prepared to deal with the flood of requests in such a short time. The resulting process was not pleasant and people were stressed. Although I think it will get easier with time, the Government of Canada implementation of this new visa requirement was very fast and felt unwelcoming. The people in Mexico were not very happy about this change in our relationship.
This does not change my attitude about the Canadian people, who I think are very generous.
Cesar Damian
Yukon News, August 21, 2009
Mexican photographer Cesar Damian with local artist Joyce Majiski in Whitehorse last week.
Yukon woos ‘unwelcome’ Mexicans
by Genesee Keevil
Canada is the rudest host country Cesar Damian has ever visited.
“It’s like, ‘Please come to dinner – but I don’t want you at my dinner,’” he said.
Last year, the Mexican artist was invited to the Yukon as part of an artist exchange. But Canada changed its regulations just before he left.
Overnight, Mexicans travelling to Canada required a visa.
When Damian arrived at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City the lineup snaked on for blocks.
“There were people in line with flights leaving that day,” he said.
“They had their tickets in their hands and their suitcases.”
The changes, which took effect without warning at midnight on July 14th, were set to staunch a flood of Mexican refugee claims in Canada…..
Whitehorse Star, August 21, 2009
Arts Fund awards grants for community projects
The Arts Fund is contributing $102,665 to seven recipients to promote visual and performing art projects in their communities, Tourism and Culture Minister Elaine Taylor said Tuesday.
Eleven projects with requests totalling more than $184,000 were adjudicated from the June 15 intake.
One project to receive funding ($25,000) is the Llama Collective, a Canada-Mexico artist exchange. Seven professional Canadian and Mexican artists will collaborate with each other and host a range of public events and workshops.
The culturally diverse artists work in photography, ceramics, print making, sculpture, installations and mixed media. Their dialogues and art work will explore themes related to the environment, culture and social justice….
Yukon News, August 19, 2009
Vancouver-based artist Haruko Okano is giving a talk tonight at the Old Fire Hall on the subject of environmental art. Photo by Ian Stewart.
Art has potential for making unlikely bedfellows
By Vivian Belik
Imagine an engineer, an artist, and an environmentalist working together to clean up an old mining site.
It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.
But for Vancouver-based visual artist, Haruko Okano, it’s a dream partnership.
Two years after completing an artist residency in Dawson City, Okano has returned to the North in search of unlikely collaborators in the resource and environmental industry.
Okano, who uses the natural world as a pallet for her art, sees opportunities for artists to help solve environmental problems.
“The (resource) industry can stretch and break the idea of working with artists, and artists can stretch their idea of art,” said Okano.
She points to the Elevated Wetlands project in Toronto, an art installation that also functions as a water filtration system for the polluted Don River….
Whitehorse Star, August 14, 2009
ARTISTIC AMIGOS - Haruko Okano (left) of Vancouver and Cesar Damian of Pachuca, Mexico are two of seven artists in the Yukon as part of the Llama Project. Damian uses photography to explore themes of human migration while Okano uses natural materials to build whimsical, ephemeral creations. Photo By Kieran Oudshoorn
Visiting artist weaves immigration theme into his work
For Cesar Damian, finding out he would need a visa to enter Canada just weeks before he was scheduled to arrive in the Yukon for an artists’ residency was hardly the most difficult travel arrangement he had ever faced.
Seven years ago, the Mexican photographer smuggled himself over the Mexico/U.S. border at Nogales, one of the most notorious underground crossings along the heavily guarded frontier.
He didn’t do it to look for work as so many do, but to understand what it was to emigrate under cover of darkness, travelling at the mercy of the hired smugglers, or coyotes, who transport hundreds of people in to the U.S. from Mexico every day.
“That night, I become a photographer,” he says of the experience, “a real photographer. It was a very hard experience. And it was beautiful.”….
What’s Up Yukon: February 19, 2009
A Collaborative Cup of Inspiration
By Darrell Hookey
Like all good ideas, this one began in a coffee shop.
Michael King, co-owner and operator of Bean North Coffee Roasting Company, had been looking for a way to promote canned coffee. “That’s the most environmentally friendly way to package coffee,” he says. “Bags are all the fad, but there’s no way to recycle.”
Joyce Majiski, a local artist, was in King’s café on the Hot Springs Road and had been telling him that she was organizing an art project involving six artists … three Canadian and three Mexican….
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