Cultural Conflation: Diyan Achjadi and Shawn Hunt

Opening Reception: Friday, October 14, 2016 7-9pm

Artists Talk: Saturday, October 29, 2-3pm

In this exhibition, curated by Nan Capogna, Vancouver artists Diyan Achjadi (ECU Associate Professor) and Shawn Hunt explore art forms that have been appropriated from other cultures, often resulting in a conflation of sources.

Vancouver artists Diyan Achjadi and Shawn Hunt explore art forms that have been appropriated from other cultures, often resulting in a conflation of sources. Achjadi examines colonial histories and migration through her prints and drawings derived from a multitude of references that include 18th- and 19th-century porcelain paintings, textile designs, medieval bestiaries, chinoiserie motifs, Javanese batik patterns, and fragments of Dutch maps. By reordering these iconographic components in her meticulously made artworks Achjadi prompts a shifting of perspectives that encourage new readings of these multilayered works. Included in the exhibition are Achjadi’s new and older multi-media drawings and collages, lithographic prints, printed “toile” on Tyvek, and animations that have not been exhibited in western Canada.

Shawn Hunt’s sculptural works draw from Western art history and combine with traditional Northwest Coast carved forms. The forms, carved primarily by Hunt, also include ones procured from his father, J. Bradley Hunt, a carver; they incorporate components such as model totem poles, canoes, masks, panels, feast dishes and tool handles. In these new constructions Hunt reimagines artworks from the canon of Western art, reclaiming a dissected First Nations history. With two exceptions, Hunt will present all new sculptural works for this exhibition. Achjadi’s drawings and prints and Hunt’s new constructions provide a rich fusion of cultures that call forward complex and sometimes contentious histories.

Cultural Conflation is on display at the Richmond Art Gallery through December 31, 2016.