Beau Dick

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mask by Beau Dick

Beau Dick , actually Benjamin Kerry Dick (born November 23, 1955 in Kingcome Inlet ; † March 27, 2017 in Vancouver ), was a Canadian indigenous mask carver , sculptor , painter , gallery owner and activist .

Life

education

Beau Dick was the son of the traditional Kwakwaka'wakw wood cutter Blackie Ben Dick and his wife Geraldine Dawson. He first grew up in Kingcome and moved to Vancouver with his mother when he was 6 years old. At 15, Dick moved back to Alert Bay and learned traditional carving from his father and grandfather. Beau Dick inherited the position of chief in his indigenous community. Beau Dick was artistically influenced by the Kwakwaka'wakw carvers Doug Cranmer and Tony Hunt and by the Haida artists Bill Reid and Robert Davidson .

Political activities

Beau Dick campaigned for the rights of indigenous peoples with his ritual masks from the descendants of native Canadian peoples. In 2012, he removed 40 Atlakim forest masks from his gallery and brought them back to his village community in Alert Bay. The masks were ritually used and solemnly burned in a potlatch ceremony. Destruction included rebirth for Beau Dick, as it brings with it the responsibility of carving a new series of masks. In 2013, he marched with the Idle No More group from Quatsino to Victoria , where he symbolically broke a nangala (copper plate) at the Legislative Assembly in front of 3000 supporters in protest . In 2013 he became Artist in Residence at the Visual Art Department in Vancouver. He broke another nangala on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 2014 . For Beau Dick, breaking the copper plates was resistance to colonialism and capitalism in Canada.

Beau Dick died of a stroke at the age of 61 .

Artistic work

Beau Dick made fabulous masks of the Kwakwaka`waknischen mythology, which made him one of the most important wood carvers in Canada. For the Kwakwala'wak, the masks are animated by spirits and are essential for the practice of certain rituals. Dick created living masks of forest spirits, goblins, trolls, and carved animal and human heads. Frequent motifs were the forest spirits Dzunuk`wa and Bakwas .

Dzunuk'wa is a wild woman from the woods. She is a cannibal who wanders through the woods and picks up disobedient children, puts them in a basket made of arborvitae branches to eat them later.

Bakwas is a robber of the soul. He baits his victims with poisoned food. The one who eats his bait becomes a bakwas himself and always remains trapped as a ghost.

In 1986 Brian Mulroney and Elizabeth II visited Beau Dick's mask exhibition in Vancouver during Expo 86 . During documenta 14 he exhibited an installation consisting of masks and alienated ritual objects made of copper bars in the Kassel documenta hall . The installation was previously shown at the Athens Museum of Contemporary Art.

Works in public collections and museums

  • Totem poles in Alert Bay
  • British Museum, London
  • National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
  • Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver
  • Michael Audain Collection, Vancouver
  • Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
  • Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver
  • Burke Museum, University of Washington, Seattle
  • Heard Museum, Phoenix
  • Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem

Exhibitions

  • Michael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg Ontario, 2009
  • Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 2010
  • National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2010
  • Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver, 2015
  • Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, 2016
  • University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada undated
  • documenta 14 Athens, Kassel, 2017
  • Canadian Biennial, Edmonton, 2017
  • White Columns, New York, 2019
  • Remai Modern, Saskatoon, 2019

Prices

  • VIVA Awards from the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation, 2012

Films about Beau Dick

  • Meet Beau Dick: Maker of Monsters. Premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2017 by LaTiesha Ti'si'tla Fazakas and Natalie Boll

literature

  • Candice Hopkins: Daybook documenta 14. Pestel Verlag, Munich, London, New York 2017.
  • LaTiesha Fazakas: Beau Dick: Devoured by Consumerism . Figure 1 Publishing, Vancouver 2019.

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Globe and Mail (Canada) April 15, 2017 - Article on Nexis, retrieved October 9, 2017 from The Globe and Mail (Canada)
  2. ↑ Spiegel from June 10, 2017 - Article at Nexis, retrieved from Le Temps on October 10, 2017
  3. ↑ Spiegel Online from June 9, 2017 - Article at Nexis, accessed on October 10, 2017 from Spiegelonline
  4. ↑ Cicero from June 20, 2017 - Article at Nexis, retrieved from the Cicero on October 10, 2017
  5. ↑ Gießener Anzeiger from May 20, 2017 - Article at Nexis, accessed on October 10, 2017 from the Gießener Anzeiger
  6. ↑ Focus from June 10, 2017 - Article at Nexis, accessed on October 10, 2017 from Focus
  7. ↑ dpa from June 21, 2017 - Article at Nexis, accessed on October 10, 2017 from the dpa
personal data
SURNAME Dick, beau
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dick, Benjamin Kerry (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian sculptor and activist
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Kingcome Inlet
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 2017
Place of death Vancouver