Soul Tone Poem
October 19 – November 6, 1993
Exhibition
About the Program
Soul Tone Poem reflects Jan Wade's exploration into the nature of Black diasporic religious and spiritual practices. As a descendant of Afro American and European parents, she feels her education and influences have focused on her European side to almost complete exclusion of her Afro American/Canadian heritage. In broadening her understanding of how those other cultures have affected her own cultural survival, Wade has come to realize that Black culture outside of Africa has survived and flourished within such art forms as music, visual arts, and religious practices. In the past decade, her quest has led her to the lives and practices of people like Alourdes Margaux, a priestess in the Haitian Voudon tradition, and to Santeria, the worship of saints combining both Christian and indigenous African elements.Through this research and from her own experiences within the African Methodist tradition, Wade has come to believe that these practices can function today as a healing force against the effects of systemic racism in the same manner as they had helped against the plantation life of old. By identifying and adapting the healing and empowering properties within these myths and beliefs, these important traditions and knowledge of them can be sustained for future generations. Wade's most recent work addresses these themes, translating traditional imagery and symbolism into her present context and artistic practice. Woven into the fabric of her personal style are images of mermaids, crosses, horseshoes, and the hands of the healer, enriching the visual dialogue with their symbolism.
Artist
Jan WadeCurator
Glenn AlteenIdentifier
1993.1019 SOUCollection
grunt gallery Programming ArchiveLocation
grunt gallery (first location)209 E. 6th Ave, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5T 1J8
Unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ/selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations
In copyright. For uses beyond Fair Dealing, research requests, corrections, takedown requests, or other inquiries, please contact grunt gallery: archives@grunt.ca