Local indigenous artist Sonny Assu tore apart the comic books he used to collect as a kid, for his current exhibition in Abbotsford.
“The series is based on an era in the mid 80s to the mid 90s from the comic book industry when they were just heavily publishing books and making them seem like all of the issues of comics would be super rare…” Assu said. “I started to recollect all these issues from that era and I’ve been selectively destroying them to make artwork out of, which is a really interesting, almost cathartic experience, to be tearing apart your childhood to make something new out of.”
Assu won a REVEAL Indigenous Art Award this year. He was one of 150 recipients.
“The awards are intended to recognize emerging and established Indigenous artists working in traditional or contemporary practices,” says the website.
The artists were notified that they won in January, but the announcement was only made to the public in May.
“They had to keep me pretty hush hush about it for a few months, of course I told my mom right away,” Assu said. “She was excited about it. She had to keep quiet.”
The $10,000 award comes with no stipulations. Assu said it helps keep food on the table and his studio humming and buzzing.
“But (it’s) also nice because they want the artist to use the money for their creative pursuits,” he said.
After the show in Abbotsford, the artwork is going to Maple Creek. Assu will also be showing art in Calgary in a joint exhibition at the beginning of October. He is planning on continuing a body of work that he started last fall.
“I was taking these scans of marine charts that I had from my grandfathers boat,” he said.
With the charts as the background, Assu is doing abstracted image interventions on top. He is hoping do large vinyl walls of the marine charts with interventions on them with a sculpture in the middle of the room bearing witness to those marine charts.
“The sculptural piece will be in reference to my grandfather, he was a commercial fisherman, and I spent pretty much my entire childhood and early adulthood with him – he was an important figure,” Assu said.
In mid-October Assu’s drum piece – which was on display at the Campbell River Art Gallery last summer – will be exhibited at a group show in Montreal.
Assu also has a book of his art coming out in late summer or early fall.