Category: Writing

November 8, 2006 Anthology, Art Exhibition Catalogue, Writing

THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EMILY CARR’S WRITINGS

In Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon. Curators, Charles C. Hill, et al. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2006.

"Sophie Frank was an artist and a thinker and, in spite of her life circumstances, she continued to create many beautiful weavings. She maintained a long friendship with Emily Carr. A thirty year relationship between women is never devoid of personal thoughts and conversations about love,work,and tragedies. Sophie would have shared her cultural knowledge and many of her insights on art with a woman whom she was so fond of, a woman who would nevertheless go on to demean and primitivize her existence after her death."

I wrote this essay with Shirley Bear for the exhibition Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon organized by the National Gallery and the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2006. It is based on a performance piece Shirley and I created together called Dear Emily / Dear Sophie about Salish basket maker Sophie Frank and her long time friend Emily Carr using correspondence between the two women we discovered in the archives in Victoria. We presented it at the VAG when the redesigned Carr galleries were opened in 1996. The piece was billed as “a contemporary dialogue about art, appropriation and friendship”. It was later performed and the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria, and Emily Carr College of Art in Vancouver.

Download a PDF version of  the essay “The Presentation of Self in Emily Carr’s Writings.” Buy a copy of Emily Carr: New Perspective on a Canadian Icon here.

March 4, 2004 Book Review, Writing

BOOK REVIEW: “REID REDUCED” IN NOW MAGAZINE

Book Review of Bill Reid: The Making of an Indian by Maria Tippett (Random House) in Now Magazine, March 4, 2004 

Maria Tippett is first out of the gate with her bio of renowned Haida artist Bill Reid. It covers the bases, delivering a readable, informative text about the artist's life and work (Reid died of Parkinson's disease in 1998), but it's a cranky, limited first read of the man. Tippett's subtitle - The Making Of An Indian - identifies the theme of her study, and it's obvious that she perceives Reid as something of a charlatan. The inconsistencies in his story about his relationship to his Haida ancestry are seen as opportunistic, as are his collaborations with other artists and his use of assistants in his large-scale carvings.

Read Susan Crean's book review "Reid Reduced" of Maria Tippett's Bill Reid: The Making of an Indian online here.

November 10, 1995 Book Review, Writing

BOOK REVIEW: “NATIONALISM WITHOUT WALLS”

Book Review in Geist 22

Richard Gwyn tries to get away with two puns in the title of his book Nationalism Without Walls: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Canadian (McClelland & Stewart), trading off on both André Malraux's cultural manifesto of the 1960s Museum Without Walls, and Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Read Susan Crean's book review of  "Nationalism Without Walls: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Canadian," online here.

November 8, 1994 Anthology, Writing

WITNESS TO WILDERNESS: THE CLAYOQUOT SOUND ANTHOLOGY

In Witness To Wilderness: The Clayoquot Sound anthology, Arsenal Press, 1994.

An all-star collection of essays, poems, and photographs by 120 writers and artists to celebrate the ancient forests of Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island. Contributors include: Don Coles, Susan Crean, Lorna Crozier, Des Kennedy, Joy Kogawa, Patrick Lane, Mary Meigs, Susan Musgrave, P. K. Page, Al Purdy, Raeside, Phyllis Webb, and George and Inge Woodcock.

January 8, 1990 Anthology, Writing

“WRITING ALONG GENDER LINES” IN LANGUAGE IN HER EYE

In Language in Her Eye: Views on Writing and Gender by Canadian Women Writing in English (Coach House Press), 1990.

This collection of original essays, articles, and commentaries by 44 distinguished authors, poets, fiction writers, essayists, biographers, and journalists includes contributions from Margaret Atwood, Dionne Brand, June Callwood, Barbara Godard, Janette Turner Hospital, Linda Hutcheon, Paulette Jiles, Dorothy Livesay, Daphne Marlatt, Erin Moure, Erika Ritter, Jane Rule, Gail Scott, Carol Shields, and Susan Swan. Topics include the existence--or lack thereof--of a specifically female or feminist point of view; appropriation of voice; the influence of various currents in feminist literary theory; the particular versus the universal, and the ambiguities inherent in such issue. Articulate, revelatory, and humorous, these essays are essential reading for those interested in the most transformative and influential social and cultural movement of this century.

March 11, 1988 Book Review, Writing

BOOK REVIEW: “POLITICAL WIVES: THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS” IN BROADSIDE

"PACKAGING POLITICAL PARTNERS"

Book Review of  Political Wives: The Lives of the Saints, by Susan Riley. Toronto: Deneau, 1987

"If the world were evolving according to a feminist agenda, political wives would be on the endangered species list next to the Eskimo Curlew which once flourished on this continent in hearty numbers but is now so rarely sighted that it is presumed extinct. Instead, in this fin de siècle era of post-feminism and primetime electioneering, she has made a startling return, a comeback which has been completely scripted and staged."

"Packaging Political Partners" can be read online via the Broadside: A Feminist Review digital archives.

August 9, 1987 Article, Writing

“THE EROTIC NATIONALISM OF JOYCE WIELAND” IN THIS MAGAZINE

In This Magazine 21.

"Hers is not museum art, in format, size or feel; and you don’t have to come equipped with a theory in order to understand it. The images, stories and symbols she uses are the stuff of daily life and everyone’s history: airplanes and sailboats, hearts and flowers, flags and beavers, Laura Secord and Nellie McClung."

"Forbidden Fruit: The Erotic Nationalism of Joyce Wieland," was featured in This Magazine in the August/September issue in 1987.

April 8, 1987 Article, Writing

“LABOUR WORKING WITH ART” IN FUSE MAGAZINE

Fuse, Volume 34, Number 3; Summer 2011 (Originally published in 1987).

"The first critique of cultural policy that tends to emerge, then, is a class analysis expressed in terms of the twin issues of accessibility and portrayal (or the right of working people to see themselves reflected and respected in the media)."

I wrote this piece to document the extensive work being done by a handful of activist visual artists who were busy making connections and common cause with unions, in many instances working with groups like the Steelworkers on cultural projects. They often were active organizing artists in their own communities, too. Some of them, notably Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, and Mike Constable, are still around and much in evidence. Last year, editor Gina Badger put together an issue of Fuse, titled Performing Politics for 35 Years republishing a number of articles from the archives. Writers include Deborah Root (1996), bell hooks — interview by Ayanna Black (1990), Rachel Gorman (2007) and Greg Staats (2001). A great issue!

Read Labour Working With Art in PDF.

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