The blanket arrives, as invitation and metaphor

February 28, 2014 - John Threlfall

It’s said that many hands make for light work, but it was more a case of many hands making the art work when it came to the creation and raising of the world’s largest button blanket. Witnessed by a standing-room-only crowd at First Peoples House, the Big Button Blanket received its inaugural performance during the opening ceremonies of the Provost’s Diversity Research Forum on January 29.

Created in collaboration with Tahltan Nation artist Peter Morin and History in Art professor Carolyn Butler Palmer, as well as their students and local Indigenous button blanket makers over the Fall 2013 semester, the six-metre by six-metre, 4,000-button blanket is now the central feature of the exhibit Adaslā: The Movement of Handsat UVic’s Legacy Art Gallery Downtown. More than just the chance to earn a world’s record from Guinness (confirmation currently pending), the Big Button Blanket offers an opportunity to start new conversations about Indigenous art forms and the traditions surrounding them.

“I want people to understand and think differently about button blankets,” says Morin. “This is an this art form that has been practiced for more than 150 years over a large geographic region. They are just as beautiful and significant as totem poles—and, in fact, I wanted to make a button blanket the size of a totem pole so people can see them better. It’s an invitation to see this art form differently.”

Morin, now with the Visual Arts faculty at Manitoba’s Brandon University, will return to UVic on February 22 for a free public performance with Governor General’s Award-winning Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore. “Button blankets are used as teaching tools—younger artists get told its story, how it was made, what it was made with, who made it, the importance and significance of it in relation to the larger community—so our collaboration will be about acknowledging the blanket as a metaphor for Indigenous knowledge practices,” explains Morin.

Belmore, who held the inaugural Audain Professorship in Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest with the Department of Visual Arts in 2010, has long been a mentor to Morin. “Her art has fundamentally changed how I see the world,” he says. “A lot of my practice is about the places where Indigenous and western knowledge intersect or collide, so it’s exciting we can work together on this.”

For both Morin and Butler Palmer, the exhibitAdaslā—a Tahltan word referring to the act of creation—hinges on the lack of general knowledge surrounding button blankets. “It’s a textile art form, and that’s often associated with women, and textile arts have been suppressed in their recognition in art history, as has Indigenous art forms,” explains Butler Palmer. “Even if they are recognized, they’re often configured more as ‘craft’ than art. So we’re challenging both the absence and suppositions of button blankets as an art.”

Ultimately, Morin sees the Big Button Blanket as an opportunity to further the importance, and understanding, of Indigenous learning. “We are changed when we come into contact with Indigenous knowledge,” he says. “In some communities, the buttons on one side represent the present and the stitching on the other refers to the past—grief or death, loss or ancestors. But in the Legacy Gallery, the blanket is purposely hung so you can see both sides: you can experience it as an art piece, but you’re also automatically participating in the Indigenous knowledge practice—whether you know that or not.”

Peter Morin and Rebecca Belmore will perform at 2 p.m. Saturday, February 22, at UVic ‘s Legacy Art Gallery Downtown, 630 Yates Street. Adaslā: The Movement of Hands continues to April 25 at Legacy Downtown.