Richmond BC, Canada #richmondartgallerybc
MOTHLIKE/silvery-blue is the culmination of years of research and activity at Brunswick Point in Ladner, and along the foreshore of the Fraser River Delta by artist Amy-Claire Huestis and her collaborators.
In 2022, Huestis and collaborators led a site-specific performance at Hwlhits’um (Brunswick Point /Canoe Pass), a place of critical ecological importance for migratory birds within the Key Biodiversity Area of the Fraser River Estuary, on the ancestral and present-day lands of the Coast Salish Peoples. For this exhibition, Huestis and collaborators followed an experimental score for the summer solstice composed of walks on the dike trail, a participatory public performance at Garry Point Park, and a dance performance in the Gallery. Artworks, recordings, and costumes from the 2022 and 2023 performances are featured here.
MOTHLIKE/silvery-blue is also a rich framework for communal connection with nature. With Richmond Art Gallery, Huestis has created educational and intergenerational community partnerships and programs to facilitate kinship to the more-than-human world. Huestis has built a “Nest-work” in the back gallery as a place for communal action and knowledge. It includes bird-friendly window treatments, artworks, and live footage of a barn owl nest box from Richmond Park’s Nest Box Program. Throughout the exhibition, the Nest-work will house gatherings, performances and storytelling activities on birds and the river estuary.
Threaded through this storytelling exhibition is the mytho-poetic tale of Silvery Blue, a fictional character who embodies the land. The artworks in the exhibition are created to be re-animated through dance, sound performance, and community participation—through this, a story cycle unfolds of Silvery Blue’s transformation from woman to butterfly to land. These artworks are made with ecologically friendly materials including recycled packing materials, foam, and fabrics, natural pigments, and honest cotton. Sound design and composition by Huestis’s main collaborator, Omar Zubair, plays throughout the gallery.
Huestis’ work celebrates our kinship with birds and the interconnectedness of all things, while raising awareness about the importance of protecting biodiversity in ecological areas currently under threat due to human development and expansion, drawing particular attention to the proposed expansion of the Roberts Bank Terminal in Delta, BC, adjacent to Brunswick Point.
Amy-Claire Huestis is a settler who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, on the lands of the Makah, the Nooksack, and then the Coast Salish. She is currently working on the ancestral and present-day lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the Hul’qumi’num Mustimuhw (Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group of Seven Coast Salish Nations), scəw̓aθən (Tsawwassen), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam). MOTHLIKE/silvery-blue was done in consultation with Hwlitsum First Nation.
Collaborators:
Omar Zubair, sound design and composition
Brigid Coult, director, and a BC Choral Federation Choir
Rachel Harris, dance
Jody Sperling, dance
Ellen Harris, Twyla Raffé-Devine and Lina Baang, dance
Murasaki Lau, nest design
Richmond Parks Nest Box Program
Birds Canada
Thank you to Hwlitsum First Nation, The City of Delta, Henry Anderson Elementary School and Anne-Marie Fenn, Birds Canada, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Richard Campbell and Angela Baggott for their support.
The Delta Animal Resistance, $10.00
Narrated in english by danielle wensley
