During the performance, Parker painted live to the sounds of Cunningham’s improvised soundscape while a short film directed by Cunningham and art-directed and starring Parker played in the background.
"How can we take down barriers and encourage interaction in a museum setting? How can ancient visual tradition be pressed in new directions while maintaining its cultural integrity? Our answer to these questions became the Animal Skin project." said Aaron Parker.
“This project is about preservation of traditional tribal culture by maintaining its relevance in the contemporary art realm,” said Parker.
Parker and Cunningham met years ago as students in a Pacific Northwest anthropology and art course, and have been looking for a way to collaborate since. The Burke provided the platform they were looking for to launch what they hope is the first of many performances. It’s ethnology collection also served as a source of inspiration for the piece. Even though Parker lives four hours from Seattle in Neah Bay, he was able to access images of Makah masks in the Burke’s online ethnology collection.
"While I am personally rather familiar with design elements from my culture, it was very helpful for me to flip through the digital collection before starting work on the art for our project, taking in diversity of forms and looking specifically at a range of limitations to work within while designing our masks." said Parker.
Come see Parker’s painting 'Superstition' from ƛ’ix̌aq: Animal Skin on display in the Burke lobby through Thursday, June 15.
