WAM@MOA

The World Art Market at the Musum of Anthroplogy, the first of its kind, was held last weekend. A very inspiring gathering of artists from all over the world and from different traditions were present to not only sell their work, but also to demonstrate and discuss their craft.

There was a Japanese potter, who not only was making pots, but giving them out free as souvenirs! The photo is of the one that was given to me.






There were some artists from Mexico, from a region where the traditional is a form of painting created from yarn. A board is covered with beeswax and then individual threads are pressed on to the surface to build up incredibly bright, multi-coloured pictures with traditional symbols and motifs.

The closing ceremony for the fair was a show of traditional dances from the First Nation people of Haida Gwaii. They bought out a great variety of masks worn during the dances, which I believe we were very privileged to see, including a transformation mask which I had never seen actually being used in its proper context. The effect of seeing the mask being worn for the dance and then opened for the transformation at the end is spectacular.