K’ānäthät​ , or “Thinking” in Southern Tutchone language, is a new animated short by Pauls.

In the first scene a landscape emerges, a formline sun centred in the middle of the sky. With mountains in the background, trees blowing in the wild, we see the Sun and its rays in slow orbit. The Sun blinks and smiles, goes down. The sky turns from day to night, becoming dark and full of sparkling stars. The Moon rises to the centre of the image, eyes shifting, lips moving. Trees blow in the wind while stars twinkle. Slowing down, stars, space, come down towards the ground. From a campfire we see flickering light. Three Indigenous figures stand talking, wearing contemporary camping and hiking clothes. Heads nod while each person talks. We see a close up of a human face speaking, mouth and eyes moving. The camera moves to a second human face, responding to the conversation. The fire continues to flicker. We see a third person, in a profile. Their head nods as they speak. An arm reaches out for some sticks; the hand opens, the sticks fall into the fire. The fire burns, and we follow the smoke rising. Eventually, we go back up into space, focusing once more on the Moon. Again, we see the mountains, the trees. Night turns slowly into day.

Cole Pauls ​is a ​Tahltan comic artist, illustrator, and printmaker from Haines Junction (Yukon Territory). With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from Emily Carr University, Pauls is currently based in Vancouver, where he focuses on two comic series,​ Pizza Punks​, a self-contained comic strip about punks eating pizza, and ​Dakwäkãda Warriors​. In 2017, Pauls won ​Broken Pencil​ magazine’s Best Comic and Best Zine of the Year Award for ​Dakwäkãda Warriors II​.

The urban screen, located on the north-east wall of the Wilson Arts Plaza, is an initiative of the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program in conjunction with the Libby Leshgold Gallery at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. To date, the program has included the work of Barry Doupé, Dana Claxton, and Marina Roy. The screen operates daily from 8am-9pm.

The Libby Leshgold Gallery respectfully acknowledges that we are located on the unceded, traditional and ancestral xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔ ɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories.

For further information please contact the Libby Leshgold Gallery.

Libby Leshgold Gallery
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
520 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5T 0H2
libby@ecuad.ca
libby.ecuad.ca