Stqe:ye' (Wolf) / Meatlover and Midden
Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun
September 21 – November 10, 2024
The Cabinet | Room 4390 – SFU School for the Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver
Reception, September 20, 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM | Refreshments will be served
In Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun’s Stqe:ye’ / Meatlover, Coast Salish designs, carefully cut from discarded pizza boxes, are set at right angles to each other, creating a three-dimensional cardboard portrait of the carnivore. The installation in the Cabinet refers to the territory of the artist’s ancestors at Senewélets on Gabriola Island. In a report by David Burley of Simon Fraser University of 1989, White-Hill, Kwulasultun learned that archaeologists had excavated the “False Narrows Midden” in 1966 to 1967 and had found several burial sites dating as far back as AD 300 to 400, several of which contained human skeletal remains. While Burley acknowledges that the petroglyphs and burial cairns show “the importance of this location in Nanaimo Ceremonialism,” at the time of the dig, no one consulted Snuneymuxw elders or knowledge keepers regarding the exhumations. White-Hill, Kwulasultun's work exemplifies Vanessa Watts’ concept of “Indigenous place-thought,” wherein his people’s connection to the land is inviolable. The use of fast-food containers evokes a contemporary midden, overseen and protected by the elegant and supernatural figure of Stqe:ye’ who helps to keep the memory of his ancestors alive.
Biography
Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun (he/they) is an artist and storyteller from the Snuneymuxw First Nation in Nanaimo, BC. His interdisciplinary art practice is rooted in honouring and celebrating the stories and teachings passed down by his family, community, and culture. He works across a range of mediums including digital art, sculpture, painting, installation, creative writing, and curation. He currently resides on the territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.
About
Open daily from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, The Cabinet is a display cabinet gallery space curated by the SCA's Denise Oleksijczuk on the 4th Floor of SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts at 149 W. Hastings St. in Vancouver.