![]() Now nearly 73 years old, Davidson continues to push boundaries, never satisfied to rest on the same artistic ground. It's transformed into what it always was, which was a great world art." "And that's really a remarkable thing because in my lifetime the only place you'd see Indigenous art was in souvenir shops, and often it was made in Asia. Haida Modern director Charles Wilkinson We're looking at him as a great artist, as a world artist, which is the way that the world is looking at Robert, and an increasing number of coastal artists here. "We're looking at him as a great artist, as a world artist, which is the way that the world is looking at Robert, and an increasing number of coastal artists here," says Wilkinson. Wilkinson adds that while Davidson's indigeneity defines so much of what he does, the film doesn't narrowly look at him as an "Indigenous artist." "And it's now totally acceptable and totally cool to be a Native artist." "He was somebody to really look up to because he is a rock star of native art, moving into the realm of just being an artist, period," says Hunt. I can practice my culture, I can make work that resonates deep within my soul, and I can make a great living at it. And that was a real eye-opening thing for me. "I was also very interested in how successful he was, that he was making a living at being an artist - but not only making a living at being an artist. “It became clear that that the world views that Robert talks about and works into his art were world views that seem so critical to the health and safety of species in the world now, and it seemed like something that really needed to be done,” says Haida Modern director Charles Wilkinson. In fact a lot of times I lamented about wanting to be a truck driver because you can just turn off - but in art, you can't really turn off," he says. I didn't set out to be a carver, or an artist. "When I moved away from Masset to Vancouver, we were all carving in a vacuum because there was no evidence of the incredible art that the old masters created, and once I saw the standard I was really thirsty to relearn it," remembers Davidson. (In the film, Davidson jokes that they gave away far more of the prints than they sold.) In fact, Indigenous art was barely on the art world's radar. The film also recounts how Davidson and Reid decided to create saleable Indigenous art by silk-screening images and selling them - an approach that is ubiquitous now, but was unheard of at the time. ![]() "As well, the work is so beautiful that for a filmmaker it would be hard to resist working with images that lovely." Robert Davidson's 2005 acrylic on canvas, 'Grizzly Bear,' is from the collection of Diana Krall and Elvis Costello. Some expressed concern about bringing up the past others were worried they could be thrown in jail. So, Davidson offered to carve a totem pole - the first of its kind to be raised in 90 years - to give the elders the opportunity to celebrate their culture in a way they had been denied for decades. ![]() It was 1969 and Davidson was living in Vancouver where he had moved with his family as a teen, and was honing his carving skills under the tutelage of masters including legendary Indigenous artist Bill Reid, and through the artistic community at the UBC Museum of Anthropology.īut when he returned to his Haida Gwaii community of Masset, B.C., Davidson noticed there was almost no Indigenous art on display - one of the painful legacies of the residential school system as well as strict government and religious policies that saw the removal of totem poles, masks, carvings, and other expressions of Indigenous culture. Haida artist Robert Davidson was just 22 years old when he decided he wanted to do something that hadn't been done in his home community in nearly a century: raise a totem pole. ![]()
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