Focus Gallery
In the Focus Gallery, row upon row of colourful, clever, often whimsical postcards cover much of the walls. Every postcard features an original artwork, with a message written on the back. The postcards are hung with bull clips so people can take them down and read them.
The postcards are part of an exhibition entitled Eleventy-Leven: 11 Years of Collaboration and Exchange. The show includes work by Joyce Majiski of Whitehorse and Zea Morvitz of Inverness, California. The two artists exchanged postcards with each other every Friday in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2019.
In the 2011 iteration of the exchange, the artists didn’t have a theme. They began the project with a standard postcard size (5” x 7”), then they started to get a little more creative, according to Majiski. She made a pop-up card. Morvitz responded likewise, with a pop-up card of her own. Then Morvitz started to “one-up” Majiski by enclosing small books as part of the exchange. The inventiveness ramped up from there.
The next exchange in 2012 had the alphabet as its theme, while a third exchange focused on alchemy.
“I can’t say anything’s my favourite,” says Majiski. “But I do love our alchemy exchange because there’s a lot of science in there.”
I love the alchemy exchange as well. It reminds me of an ancient and marvelous tarot deck. Morvitz drew fantastic creatures encased in globes. Majiski offered a few glimpses into her life, including her experience with knee surgery. She humourously depicts it with 16th century barber surgeons holding her down as she thrashes on the bed.
The postcards are like mini journals, capturing the artists’ creative journeys over time. For Majiski, the exchange was also something of a travelogue. The postcards document when she first became interested in water as a theme, reflected in larger exhibitions in Spain and Mexico, and The Song of the Whale at the Yukon Arts Centre in 2020.
As the exhibition chronicles, the collaboration grew beyond the postcard exchanges. The artists’ first full collaboration, where they literally made the work together, comprises two long scrolls on rice paper featuring Miles Canyon.
Morvitz came to Whitehorse and the pair went to Miles Canyon. Each artist started working on separate pieces of rice paper, then moved on to work on the centre of the other artist’s piece. They continued the collaboration in Morvitz’s California studio.
“We really had a sense of trust and a lot of respect for each other, so working on the same piece seemed to be quite a natural, fluid thing to do,” says Majiski.
The artists went on to co-create two larger accordion-style books, one which incorporates the wabi-sabi aesthetic, another with the theme of water. This collaboration had the artists exchanging and working on the same pieces. They used many media in creating the books. For example, Majiski used a letter press, while Morwitz used frottage – making marks by rubbing the paper on objects such as rocks.
The research and artistic exploration involved in their collaborations fed into their solo practices. Smaller work is intertwined with larger work.
“Everything is related to everything else,” Majiski says.
Did she ever get tired of the commitment to exchange work with Morvitz?
Majiski says no. “This is a way to play with different media too. Anything goes. I allow myself to do whatever I want. And I do, I use all my little scraps.”
She adds that it’s a practice, “like exercising a muscle.”
Now, with the exhibition, she gets to see the magic of all the collaboration and exchange in one space. And it looks amazing.
“Every week I do this thing,” she says, referring to the postcard projects. “And then I do this thing and then I do this thing. And now I see it all together and it’s like, ‘Holy shit! Look at all this stuff we made!’”
Eleventy-Leven and Kaska Dena Designs are showing at Arts Underground until October 30.
Edge Gallery
In the Edge Gallery, visitors are immediately greeted with pops of vibrant red, blue, pink and violet. The colours come from the floral granny hanky fabric used by Natasha Peter, an emerging fashion designer originally from Ross River. Peter’s exhibition is titled after her business, Kaska Dena Designs.
Using both traditional and contemporary influences, Peter’s work features modern dresses sewn from the granny hanky fabric, which she says brings back memories from her childhood. There are also jean jackets embellished with the fabric. Even footwear is adorned with the hanky design, including heeled booties and a gorgeous pair of white mukluks.
The clothing is accented by jewellery, some of which is a mix of beadwork and other materials, such as fur and horse hair. Other pieces are made from carved materials such as ivory or antler, and have a wonderful symmetry and balance.
All of the work was designed and made by Peter, who learned sewing and beading from Elders in Ross River. She also learned how to carve from her father, Gordon Peter. However, it wasn’t until the last five years that she started making artwork after she left her camp job.
“When I first started do this – the beadwork, the whole fashion journey – was five years ago and [I was] just randomly talking, ‘One of these days my stuff is going to be in a gallery, it’s going to be on a runway, people are going to know me.’”
Peter’s determination and exceptional talent have brought her to where she wanted to be. She’s now having her first gallery show.
“The show is amazing, I’m like super happy,” she says. “I was there when they set it up, and I was kind of like, holding back my tears. I was like ‘Oh my god I can’t believe this is happening.’”
She’s also been invited to participate in a fashion show in Alberta, which was postponed due to COVID-19.
Peter started making work as a hobby and a way to make some extra income after returning to school. However, it wasn’t long before she was getting noticed on social media and people across Canada were asking for custom orders of her clothing.
She’s also had local exposure at the Adäka Festival, the Yukon First Nations Arts online shop, and Unorthodox Yukon, where one of her neckpieces sold less than an hour after she dropped it off.
“I couldn’t believe that,” she says. “I was so impressed with that.”
Peter’s passion for fashion has more than financial rewards. The process of designing and making clothing and jewelry is therapeutic as well.
“Little did I know that when I created it, it was healing me,” she says.
Peter gets her design ideas from a number of sources. She’ll find things she likes on the internet or in magazines. Or she’ll take a walk and be inspired by what she sees.
“An idea hits my head, and I make it,” she says. “It’s like that with everything I make.”
She’s incredibly productive. With the exception of a sealskin corset, everything in the Arts Underground show was made in one month. Last summer she filled 20 jean jacket custom orders in a month.
With so much production underway, Peter’s Kaska Dena Designs became an official business last month. Her business license is framed and hanging on her wall. She’s taking programs in business at Däna Näye Ventures and Yukonstruct. Most importantly, she’s proud of what she’s accomplished.
“There’s a lot of things I still need to do but it all comes in time and I’ve made it this far,” she says. “And I can’t believe I made it this far. This is the first, the very first thing I’ve done in my life that I’ve stuck it out, this long. And I’m pretty impressed with it.”
Eleventy-Leven and Kaska Dena Designs are showing at Arts Underground until October 30.
