Alberta Rose W.
At a time when the artist was beginning to process her family’s loss, the act of making Blood reminded her that sadness comes in waves and provided her a visual representation of the hope derived from familial support.
Beads track across acrylic ridges recalling rivers, northern lights, mountain ranges, sound waves and eyes. They are anchored into painted canvas stretched over a circular, bent wood frame, taking the form of a traditional Inuit drum. Blood (2016) by Inuvialuit, Scottish, Irish and Welsh artist Alberta Rose W., also known as Alberta Rose Williams, is made up of five of these drums, each made specifically for a member of her family—three siblings, her father and herself—that hang from the ceiling and slowly spin from the top of their frames.
Raised in Treaty 7 territory near the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley bands of the Nakoda Nation, Rose W. connects to her Inuvialuit heritage through her artistic practice. She often explores her relationship to her family by mixing traditional materials and practices drawn from both her Inuvialuit and European ancestry. Blood combines what she regards as Western art practices, namely paint on canvas, and traditional Indigenous practices, such as beading, as a way to embrace her ancestors, both European and Inuit.
Blood is also a site from which Rose W. illustrates and copes with her grief. The beadwork on the drums is a reminder of her mother Rita, the maternal link connecting each drum as well as the individuals they represent, who recently passed. The work honours her mother, who was also a beader, her family, her ancestors and the land. She remembers her mother and acknowledges her family’s support of each other through bereavement. The drums provide a space from which Rose W. also honours herself— reconnecting with her identity through materials while recalling her relationship to those whom she translates onto the canvas of each drum.
The artist’s memories and associations with each family member are expressed in the surface of the drums. Eyes created from lines of beads look out from a background of brightly coloured waves across a starry sky. Although they can be read in many ways, the undulating lines are in fact sound waves from song lyrics that remind the artist of the individual to whom the drum is dedicated. The wave on Rose W.’s drum illustrates the lyrics “Let it go, this too shall pass” from “This Too Shall Pass” (2010) by the band OK Go. On her father’s drum, the lyrics “Whatever will be, will be” from Doris Day’s “Que Será, Será” (1956) appear. The remaining drums reference lyrics that remind Rose W. of her siblings. The lyrics specifically refer to memories that Rose W. has of her family coming together in grief and of the words spoken to bring each other relief. Bringing forward her family’s faces and voices,
Rose W. acknowledges their relationships. At a time when the artist was beginning to process her family’s loss, the act of making Blood reminded her that sadness comes in waves and provided her a visual representation of the hope derived from familial support.
Blood was most recently installed in Current Terrain, an exhibition I curated with Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective at A Space Gallery during the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, ON. In Current Terrain, the five drums were mounted far enough from the wall to spin, each piece rotating independently of one another as visitors passed. As they spun, the backs of the drums revealed the threads and knots that secured the beads. The shapes of the faces beaded onto the painted side of the drum are mirrored through the maps of criss-crossing thread. Thus, the faces of her family are present on both sides of the drums, translated through the skills inherited from her mother. Experiencing these two faces is important as it makes visible Rose W.’s labour—both in the process of making and grieving. The effort communicated by the organized threads references the energy required in bereavement. The visibility of this labour speaks to the role of the work in Rose W.’s ongoing journey after loss.
In Blood the artist acknowledges the toll of grief on the individual and the family throughout the bereavement process. Yet, by hanging the drums side by side, they express the strength of Rose W.’s family as they continue to support one another. Blood exists as a reminder of the ongoing bereavement process while also providing support long after the more physical manifestations of grief have dispersed.