Dennis Shorty | Our Relations
Dennis Shorty
Our Relations
Focus Gallery, October 7 - 29, 2022
The exhibition shows a new body of work that took me about 12 months to complete. It is of carved soapstone sculptures mixed with moose and caribou antler and copper.
It was a challenge for me to work with soap stone and will further my artistic career and knowhow. The goal was to incorporate materials that are familiar to my current art practice like antlers, wood and copper and to introduce soapstone as an expansion upon my current sculptural practice.
In each sculpture there is a strong reference to my Kaska history, culture and traditional background. I explored a new facet of art-making through the use of a new material and different tools.
I am influenced by my childhood memories. All my teachings by my grandparents and parents are coming back to me. When I was taken away to attend residential school most of the traditional knowledge I was taught was lost. I used soapstone to explore a different way of telling my stories through rock carvings.
I like to inspire our youth and elders to start healing through our culture and traditions and our long time ago way of living.
I would like to bring back our elders teachings and encourage them to start their healing journey and I would love to encourage all to tell their own stories.
I worked with soapstone because I was inspired by John Sabourin, soapstone carver from Yellowknife, Bud Young soapstone sculpture carver from Whitehorse and Mark Preston my fellow artist friend, who encourages me to stick to my true Dena art style but to try a different medium like stone. I am very grateful for that.
I hope to encourage emerging young Yukon artists to preserve their culture through art and language.
Souga Sinla!
Dennis Shorty
DENNIS SHORTY is of Kaska heritage and has lived most of his life near Ross River, Yukon. By watching his grandfather and father carve traditional tools and toys, Dennis became interested in art. For him, making art is a spiritual path and a way to communicate with his ancestors. Carving natural materials, including copper, moose, caribou and deer antler, musk ox, sheep horn and wood, he achieves his refined and detailed imagery with the use of a variety of hand and power tools. Acknowledging their importance to the survival of First Nation people, Dennis carves animals to honour them. When depicting humans, he includes their animal totem to relate the work to the idea of transformation and legend. He utilizes natural pigment derived from cranberries, coffee or tea for accent colours to achieve the traditional Kaska colours such as red and blue; red is considered sacred, while blue represents the sky.
Past Exhibitions
