The Shape of Language

The Shape of Language

Before words are read, they are shapes; before they are interpreted, they are marks, objects, sounds, and material traces. The artists in this exhibition explore what happens when language is transformed into architecture, pattern, archaeological trace, visual form, and recorded object. In doing so, they reveal meaning not as something fixed within language itself, but as something continually produced through acts of looking, listening, recognition, and interpretation. Each of the participating artists investigates the ways meaning is encoded, not always through words themselves, but through symbols, abstraction, material, and gesture. In doing so, they create works that mimic or invoke language without relying on the viewer’s ability to read them. Rather than asking viewers simply to decode what they encounter, the works gathered here reveal that meaning is rarely fixed or universal.
For more information or a list of available works, please contact the gallery at info@equinoxgallery.com 

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Sonny Assu, Gone Copper!, 2015

Sonny Assu
Comic Sans
at the Fairmont Pacific Rim

Sonny Assu
Comic Sans
at the Fairmont Pacific Rim

Equinox Gallery is pleased to present Comic Sans, a solo exhibition of new works by artist Sonny Assu (Ligwilda’xw of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations). Assu’s vigorous, interdisciplinary practice explores what it means to be an Indigenous person in contemporary Canada, channeling sci-fi, comic books, graffiti and 90’s nostalgia to disrupt expectations of Indigenous cultural identity through the artist’s personal experience. In Comic Sans, Assu utilizes the traditional artform known as formline, a complex visual language comprised of ovoids, s-shapes and u-shapes, historically employed on utilitarian and ceremonial objects such as totem poles, house fronts and transformational masks. Through his bold mashups of Kwakwaka’wakw iconography with pop and western aesthetics, Assu has developed a unique visual language with which to reclaim Indigenous identity and explore the powerful crosscurrents shaping his worldview.
For more details on this exhibition, please contact info@equinoxgallery.com
This is an off-site exhibition located at The Pacific Gallery in the Fairmont Pacific Rim.
Location of this exhibition:
Fairmont Pacific Rim
1038 Canada Place
Vancouver BC
fairmontpacificrim.com

 

 

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Sonny Assu: A Selective History

Sonny Assu: A Selective History

Through large-scale installation, sculpture, photography, printmaking, and painting, Sonny Assu merges the aesthetics of Indigenous iconography with a pop-art sensibility. This stunning retrospective spans over a decade of Assu’s career, highlighting more than 120 full-color works, including several never-before-exhibited pieces.

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Sonny Assu
Legacy Format

Sonny Assu
Legacy Format

Sonny Assu recalls the transformative experience of visiting the Ottawa institution now known as the Canadian Museum of History with a letter in hand, written by his grandmother Mitzi Assu. In it she requests that her grandson be granted access to the Chilkat robe, dance apron, and frontlet that were the belongings of his great-great-grandfather, Hereditary Chief Billy Assu, which she and her husband Herbie Assu had sold to the museum decades before with the intention of their long-term protection and preservation. In the sterile space of the museum’s vast collections, curators placed the robe on Sonny’s shoulders. He describes feeling an energy transmitted through his body, the weight and materiality of the woolen garment, a spark conducting a direct connection to his Kwakwaka’wakw ancestors, and the knowledge, ceremony, and resilience woven into the regalia.
For more details or a list of available works, please contact the gallery at info@equinoxgallery.com
CLICK HERE to read Legacy Format, an essay by Kate Hennessy

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Sonny Assu, Who Will Say It’s Done?, 2023

Sonny Assu, Who Will Say It’s Done?, 2023

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Sonny Assu, Live from the ‘Latch

Sonny Assu, Live from the ‘Latch

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Sonny Assu, Sante Fe 10, 2023

Sonny Assu, Sante Fe 12, 2023

Sonny Assu
Omnibus

Sonny Assu
Omnibus

Equinox Gallery is delighted to present Omnibus, an exhibition of new works by Sonny Assu. In this exhibition, Assu is continuing to explore the way that language and myths can straddle multiple cultures and times by bringing together comics from his childhood and Assu’s classic pop culture sensibility with a Kwakwaka’wakw twist. The comics are all chosen for specific reasons — you can often find Indigenous references, for example Batman goes to Alaska and meets a Shaman, or a story focused on Warpath, an Apache Native American character and X-Men member. Assu has painted over the grid of comic books using bright colours and highlighting Indigenous ovoid and formline elements traditional to his culture. Assu’s conceptual influence for this body of work includes the work of Tim Rollins + K.O.S., Andy Warhol, and traditional Kwakwaka’wakw artists.
For a list of available works, please contact the gallery at (604) 736-2405 or info@equinoxgallery.com.

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