Erika Banks is a singer and has been active in HIV/AIDS education and prevention since her college years.  She first became involved with LIFEbeat’s Hearts & Voices program in 2005 when looking for performance opportunities for her church choir members to perform musical outreach in the community.

A friend quickly recommended LIFEbeat’s Hearts & Voices program as one the choir must be involved with.  That partnership between Voices in Unity Choir and LIFEbeat’s Hearts & Voices Program started 5 years ago and continues today.

Hearts & Voices, a program of LIFEbeat-The Music Industry Fights AIDS, is an ongoing free concert series for people living with HIV, provided by an ever-growing community of performers and volunteers. Together they create around 250 shows a year in hospitals, residential facilities, and day treatment centers all over NYC and beyond.

Hearts & Voices Mission & History:

Hearts & Voices began in the early 1990’s, when an AIDS diagnosis was considered a death sentence. Artists from the Broadway community and the cabaret scene began visiting their HIV+ friends in hospitals and hospices to comfort them with familiar songs. Word spread, and demand became so great that they formed a non-profit to organize the shows and reach out to new performers. By the mid-90s the program was mounting almost a thousand one-on-one bedside performances every year.

Eventually, the demands of the program overtook the limited resources of the organizers, and the program became part of LIFEbeat in 1996. Over the last fourteen years, we’ve organized thousands of shows and we’ve seen huge changes, not only in HIV treatment but in the demographic makeup of the epidemic.  Our shows also changed from one-on-one to a concert style format.

LIFEbeat continues to coordinate a network of hundreds of artists and volunteers, all giving freely of their time and talents to entertain & uplift thousands of audience members with music of all genres, from hip-hop to classical. Our performers inspire, empower, and bring hope and joy into the everyday challenge that is living with HIV/AIDS.

Getting involved:

It’s an amazing experience to see your music touch the lives of others. Our artists consistently tell us that performing for Hearts & Voices ranks among their most enjoyable, moving and memorable music making experiences. To receive more information and an application, which is the first step to joining the team, email us at performers@lifebeat.org.

The 2010 VMA Concert to Benefit LIFEbeat – Ke$ha and B.o.B. Performing Live!

For more details visit: http://www.lifebeat.org/news.cfm/news/143

Statement Concerning Change

Change is one constant in everyone’s life that simply cannot be stopped, or for the lack of better word changed.  Photography documents the changes in our lives, whether in the form of a snapshot or a professionally taken portrait. A picture captures a moment in our life which can be studied and then becomes a point of reference. Photography has documented history and continues to do so. It is the perfect tool for bridging the gap between the past and the future or the West or East, the good and the bad. While we speak many languages, photography is the one language that does not change and is understood by all.

Contribution to Change

This is a series of informal portraits depicting individuals in Iran. The pictures were shot in Tehran during two trips in 2009.  In my images, I sought to document Iranians in their environment exactly as I saw them. I tried to demonstrate the diversity of Iranians — from the old Haji (Muslims who have gone to pilgrimage) photographed in a public bath, to the young female musician who posed for me in a park in central Tehran.

For more info please visit www.ramintalaie.com

Throughout the 1990s, the West African country of Sierra Leone was wracked with a bloody, horrifying war that forced millions to flee their homes that forced millions to flee their homes.  American filmmakers Zach Niles and Banker White encountered the band in the Sembakounya Camp, and were so inspired by their story they ended up following them for three years as they moved from camp to camp, bringing much needed joy to fellow refugees with their heartfelt performances.  The film was a critical success, and introduced the world to the personalities and dramatic stories behind the band, not to mention their instantly appealing music. “As harrowing as these personal tales may be,” wrote The New York Times, “the music buoying them is uplifting.” Newsweek raved, “It’s as easy to fall in love with these guys as it was with the Buena Vista Social Club.”

The movie, album and eventual U.S. tours helped expand their following, and soon the band found itself playing in front of enraptured audiences of tens of thousands at New York’s Central Park SummerStage, Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival and the revered Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. They appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, contributed a song to the Blood Diamond film soundtrack, participated in the U2 tribute album In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2, and earned praise and backing from Sir Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Ice Cube, Angelina Jolie and others inspired by their life-affirming story and captivating music. In one of the most surreal moments of their climb to fame, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars opened for Aerosmith at the 12,000 capacity Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

CONCERNING CHANGE

The senseless deaths and illnesses of friends and family, and the slimming hope for great change in their country as a result of peace, has only strengthened the resolve of Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars to do what they can to turn their country around. Their weapon in this struggle is music, and their message, while offering critique and condemnation of wrongdoing, remains positive and hopeful. Optimism in the face of obstacles, and the eternal hope for a better future motivates their lives and music.

“It’s been a long struggle out of the war, out of miserable conditions,” notes Koroma, “So now we are trying to develop ourselves as a band and be based in our country. We are really moving towards finding ways of elevating ourselves somehow. But we do not just think about ourselves alone, we try to bring out sensitive issues that are affecting the world. It is all of our responsibility that the masses are suffering. We bring our positive messages into the world so we can expect a positive change in the world. And, most importantly, bring about peace.”

For their second album, the members of the All Stars knew that they needed to prove to the world that they had the talent to produce an album that would rise above their unique story and stand on its own musical merits.  After recording some songs and demos in Sierra Leone, the group went to New Orleans, Louisiana to work on the album with veteran producer Steve Berlin, a member of Los Lobos who has produced for Angélique Kidjo and many others.  The residents of New Orleans in turn could relate both to the All Stars experience of being displaced from their homes and to the important role music plays in healing spiritual and emotional wounds and bringing communities together. The result is Rise & Shine, a masterful collection of songs that reflects how much Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have grown since their early days jamming around campfires in isolated refugee camps. The title of the album reflects the band’s desire to remain positive in the face of struggle, always greeting a new day with a spirit of excitement over what the future holds.

The band will be performing at Momo on May 15th & Celebrating Sanctuary on June 13th in London.

For More Info Please Visit:

http://refugeeallstars-audience.fm

“Hip hop Palestinian style with DAM the leading Arab rap group” CNN

“Intifada Hip Hop” VIBE

“Very impressive.  Hard to imagine how they managed to make such a good record in the current circumstances. Unlike many hip hop albums, each song is clearly different from its neighbour, some decorated with traditional Middle Eastern instruments like qanun and oud. There’s humour and beauty as well as pride, anger and defiance. Hearing the album wets the appetite for seeing the group play live ” BBC Radio CHARLIE GILLETT UK

“DAM lend their hip-hop beats a uniquely local flavour with the clattering use of indigenous Arabic percussion.” * * * *THE TIMES UK

“DAM address the big issues. Traditional Arabic strings and funky breaks help punch home the message * * *”THE OBSERVER UK

DAM is the first and leading Palestinian Rap Group and one of the most interesting groups to get international attention. It is composed of Tamer Nafar, 31, his younger brother Suhell, 27, and Mahmoud Jreri, 28. The group has been performing together since the late 90s. Tamer, who had been performing Rap since 1998 with his brother, was first contacted by Mahmoud Jreri. Mahmoud was writing his own lyrics so they quickly decided to join forces and the group was born in 1999. All three members of the group were born and grew up in the slums of Lod, a mixed town of Arabs and Jews, 20 km from Jerusalem.

DAM’s album is a tour de force and has been completely written and conceived at home with key producers from the local scene. It is a unique fusion of East and West, combining Arabic percussion rhythms, Middle Eastern melodies and urban Hip Hop/Rap.

Interview with Palestinian Hip Hop Group DAM from IMEU.NET on Vimeo.

The powerful lyrics of DAM are influenced by the continuing Israeli – Palestinian conflict as well as by the Palestinian struggle for freedom and equality. DAM also draw their influence from such controversial issues as terrorism, drugs and women’s rights.

Musically they take their inspiration from both Hip Hop artists (Nas, Common, 2Pac, Mos Def, IAM, NTM, Saian Supa Crew, MBS etc.) and Arabic music (Marcel Khalifa,Kazem Saher,George Wassouf, Majda al Romi etc.)

DAM’s debut album “Stop Selling Drugs” was released locally in 1998, followed by the second album called “Min Irhabi” (“who’s the terrorist?”) which was released in 2001. The controversial title track of this album was released on the net and more than 1 million people downloaded it within one month from the website ArabRap.Net. The song was also distributed free with Rolling Stone magazine in France and became a “street” anthem. It was also featured in a compilation in France with Manu Chao, Zebda, Noir Desir and many other top artists.  Furthermore, the lyrics of the song were taught in some Universities around the world because of their deep meaning, and were also used in pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the world.

Further information on DAM on:

www.dampalestine.com

www.myspace.com/damrap

www.slingshothiphop.com

http://www.dubaifilmfest.com/en/films-explorer/?id=2839

Raoul Peck was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and studied film at the DFFB in Germany.  His films include Haitian Corner, Lumumba, Death of a Prophet, The Man by the Shore, Lumumba, and Sometimes in April.  In 2001, he received the Human Rights Watch Lifetime Achievement Award.

Director Statement

With this film I wanted to explore the often hidden side of power.  No doubt, an occasion for me to revisit my own political experiences in Haiti and elsewhere. What’s the final day like for a man with unrestrained power, whose supremacy has never been challenged, who is now plunging dizzyingly into a black hole of events he cannot control?

I wanted to explore what happens behind closed doors, during a tragic and unruly “farewell to arms,” when everything becomes possible and irretrievable at the same time? Redemption as well as demise. During these minute gaps in history, a person reveals crudely his true essence, his fears, and his desires—given that there is no time left for craftiness.

We might even see a little bit of ourselves in these characters. With this film, I also wanted to return to my country. I wanted to re-examine, with a Shakespearian perspective, the tragic and foolish nonsense of the past 60 years of upheaval. A battle for “democracy” which took no prisoner. Nowhere else but in Haiti has reality generated so much confusion and so many contradictions.

We chose to shoot Moloch Tropical in a unique location, the Citadelle Henry, built by King Henry Christophe at the beginning of the 19th century atop a steep mountain. With a size of approximately 100,000 square feet, it is the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere. Perhaps, more importantly it is the indestructible symbol of the only nation in human history that was created by victorious slaves.

The single and unique time in which the trail of slavery that began in Gorée Island (another symbol) was permanently broken. But at what cost?

MOLOCH TROPICAL

Inspired by the kingdom of 19th-century king Henri-Christophe, one of the revolutionary leaders who won for Haiti its independence from French colonial rule, but set in a modern milieu, Moloch Tropical presents a fictionalized portrait of the final days marking the collapse of a regime. The hot air is thick with a tightly coiled tension at President Jean de Dieu’s palatial fortress outside Port-au-Prince. His security force rattles with civil unrest and international diplomats one by one turn their backs on the president’s summit invitation. Hobbling around his quarters, de Dieu erratically exerts scraps of control as his authority rapidly disintegrates into humiliation.

Using symbolism and an almost Shakespearean madness that reverberates across modern governments, Haitian-born auteur Raoul Peck (Lumumba) meticulously drapes the poetic across the political in a searing critique on the universal malady of absolute power corrupting absolutely. Adding to Moloch’s atmosphere, elegant cinematography by Eric Guichard richly captures the lush mountainous landscape and the opulent mise-en-scène of the historic La Citadelle Laferrière.

Special benefit screening for Handicap International.

–Roya Rastegar

The public screening is today at 3:00 pm at SVA-1.

[MOLOC] | 2009 | 107 min | Feature Narrative

Directed by: Raoul Peck

France,  Haiti

New York Premiere

Interests: Politics,  Violence

www.velvet-film.com

She completed a series of portraits, which include the likes of Banksy, which was published in Marmalade Magazine, Brian Haw the peace protestor and the singer Alison Goldfrapp. But her real obsession is insects, Spiders and drawing out the beauty in all creatures. Dead or Alive!

Jessica is interested in the psychological dramas we project onto these creatures, their symbolism and the emotional tension that is held in the image.

She has exhibited in the UK and published a book of her drawings with Cederteg Publishing. She has collaborated internationally, recently with Helmut Lang for their new collection to be launched early next year. There is more to Jessica than meets the eye but that’s for us to know and you to find out!

CONCERNING CHANGE

Fine Art as enviro-activism – Can it help get the message over?

Jessica Albarn’s hair-line drawing of the endangered bubble-bee addresses the fragile state of the bee population and how mankind depends on the insect for food pollination.  The limited edition print combines Albarn’s eloquent drawing of a bee with the ancient symbol of “man’s end” and a hidden glossy layer of geometrical honeycomb shapes.  The combination of nature, symbolism, and science underpins Albarn’s interest in the fundamental circle of life we have with these creatures, on first glance it maybe not be obvious to see the emotional tension that is held in the image.  We are being encouraged to become a nation of bee keepers rather than bee swatters…

In addition to drawing the beauty in all living creatures, Albarn completed a series of portraits, which include the likes of Banksy, which was published in Marmalade Magazine, Brian Haw the peace protestor and the singer Alison Goldfrapp.

She has exhibited in the UK and collaborated internationally, publishing a book of her drawings with Cederteg Publishing and collaborating with Helmut Lang for their spring 09 collection. Later this year she publishes her first children’s book with Simply Read Books, ‘The Boy in the Oak’.  (Written by Kristina Best)

Event Info:

jessica albarn

The Birds and the Bees…..and the Butterflies!

8th April 2010

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

http://www.nellyduff.com/index.php?/art/artists/jessica_albarn

With the album Zebu Nation, Razia has created an inspiring collection of songs that draw deeply on the music she heard growing up in the town of Antalaha in northeastern Madagascar. The source for the world’s most prized Bourbon vanilla, Antalaha is one of Madagascar’s wealthiest communities, although there remains a great gap between rich and poor. Razia was born on December 1, 1959 when her mother was just a teenager and not yet ready for the role of parenting. To diffuse the scandal, her mother was sent to the Comores Islands and Razia’s grandparents raised her in a bustling household filled with relatives. Razia first heard the infectious rhythms of local salegy music blasting out of the town’s ubiquitous radios. It was one of Razia’s older uncles that first introduced her to French music as well as The Beatles, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and other Western stars. Her uncle even invited her to sing the latest French pop songs on stage with his band when she was just ten years old.

Believing that her grandparents were her parents, Razia was in for a shock when she learned at age eleven that “Aunt Hassanatte” who regularly visited from the Comores was actually her mother. In fact, by that time Razia’s real mother had married a French architect and wanted Razia to join them in the West African country of Gabon. Suddenly, Razia was uprooted from the world she knew and traveled on an epic journey through Dar Es Salaam, across the Congo River to a new life and family. In Gabon, Razia discovered that the local church had a choir, but one had to be Catholic to join, and Razia was raised a Muslim. Music was far more important to her then the details of which God she prayed to, so she begged her mother to allow her to convert…which she did. Razia was also exposed to the funky grooves of Fela, Pierre Akendengue, Papa Wemba and other African artists who were popular in Gabon at the time.

After three years in Gabon, Razia was sent to boarding school in southern France, where she first started learning to play guitar. Seeking economic stability, Razia received her doctorate in Pharmacology and moved to Paris. But her passion remained with the arts, and in Paris, Razia made a living through modeling, acting and occasional music gigs. In 1987, Razia moved with a lover to New York City, and they worked odd jobs in order to earn enough money to spend three months a year living in Bali, Indonesia. Over the years, Razia also lived in Ibiza and Milan, working as a stylist, an actor and in fashion, struggling all the while to find her own musical direction.

Eventually, Razia met and married Jamie Ambler, a musician, filmmaker and advertising creative director, and he worked with her to record her first album. While Razia was happy to have gotten some of her songs recorded, the pop-oriented, English-language R&B and jazz direction left her unfulfilled. Razia had been traveling often to visit her family in Madagascar, and after she had a chance meeting with members of Njava, one of the country’s best bands, she decided that she needed to record songs in the Malagasy language and inspired by the rhythms, melodies and instruments she fell in love with as a young child.  Thus began the long and challenging process of recording Zebu Nation. Work began in 2006 In Belgium, where Njava was based, but Razia felt that the only way to truly capture the sound she was looking for was to bring the producers to Madagascar to record with local musicians in the right setting. For six weeks, they traveled around the island, and discovered along the way the environmental damage taking place as the result of unfettered slash and burn agriculture and climate change. Razia’s longing to protect and preserve the environmental and cultural heritage of her homeland permeates the songs on the album, and gives Zebu Nation a powerful, real- world significance.  While it has taken her many years and life detours before she arrived at this musical destination, with Zebu Nation, Razia Said has finally returned home

CONCERNING CHANGE

Madagascar is home to thousands of plants and fauna unique to the island, which is the world’s fourth largest and situated in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. One third of its native forests and vegetation have disappeared in the last thirty years, and scientists predict that several species of amphibians and reptiles found in Madagascar’s mountainous north could become extinct in the next 50-100 years because of global warming.  The loss of forests in Madagascar is what galls Razia the most. “To see my country stripped like this is heartbreaking.” Her song “Slash and Burn,” is an outcry against the rampant practice of clearing brush which devastates Madagascar’s fragile soil. “What I saw shocked and appalled me,” Razia says. “I found the decimation of what once made Madagascar unique in the world: its intense, vivid flora and fauna, its forests, its very essence. I saw an entire country being destroyed.”

In addition to delivering an urgent message, Zebu Nation creates a personal, soulful portrait of Madagascar. Razia says, “The songs of Zebu Nation let listeners journey to the magical place I have always known and loved.” Songs such as “Yo Yo Yo” and “Mifohaza” speak to the richness of Malagasy sounds and rhythms, while “Omama” sends a message of love and thanks to Razia’s grandmother, who still lives on the island.  “As the strife and political chaos of the country are growing daily,” says Razia, “some of the Malagasy people are turning to art to inspire unity. We want to share in that movement and tie in with communities and organizations that are working on projects for change in Madagascar.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE

FOR MORE INFO VISIT: http://www.raziasaid.com/

CONCERNING CHANGE

My whole aim in art is reinvention. Hip Hop’s basic principle’s are that, taking substances that where once used for one purpose and then utilizing that object, concept, etc to create something, new, vibrant, relevant to the now. Art is not a museum piece! It must be ever changing, that is why Hip Hop has to me the greatest potential, its very nature is of expressing individuality and personal expression, but stresses the need for authenticity and truth. As an Emcee and Beatmaker, I take existing sounds, compositions, language and idea’s, re-work them, re-mix them and find my voice within it, dig through my past, OUR past and find my present and define my future with the hope to inspire anyone who listens to frankly do the same. I could say hey I make music to enlighten or educate people, but frankly I don’t consider myself an authority on anything, not even myself, I just hope I can nudge them to aim towards personal, artistic and global analysis because I have taken that step within myself, in my own life. I am to be an example. ~ Mtume Gant

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST:

http://www.corerhythm.info

Vishavjit Singh found his love for arts at a very young age. He started doodling Sikh characters in his free time. But thanks to his South Asian heritage was encouraged to leave arts for the sciences in teenage years.

He studied Biological Sciences at University of California, Santa Barbara and Biostatistics/Epidemiology in Graduate School at University of California, Berkeley. The 9/11 attacks in United States and the subsequent hate crime wave adversely affecting many Sikhs created the ripe conditions for an artistic spark. Inspired by the creative response of American editorial cartoonists to the tragic events, Vishavjit started creating cartoons focusing on Sikh news/events.

As a survivor of 1984 genocidal killings of Sikhs in India his cartoons focus on the fine line that separates contradictions from righteousness, lies from truth, inspiration from vanity, figment of imagination from reality all within the context of Sikh community around the world. He creates cartoons on a weekly basis that appear on his website, www.Sikhtoons.com. His work has been featured in museum and gallery exhibits, film festivals, youth retreats/camps and conferences. Many Sikh news and portal websites/magazines publish his work on a regular basis. He currently resides in New York State with his wife.

CONCERNING CHANGE

One salient lesson life has taught me, Change is the only constant in life. Born into a Sikh family in the US I had an instant proclivity to the arts. I was doodling, sketching, panting in my free time. My first teenage year it was reasoned upon me to choose sciences, practicality, professional career and money over the passion for arts. In 1984 I survived a genocidal wave of killings in India that consumed thousands of innocent Sikh lives. Life went on and I moved back to the land of my birth to be an engineer then a doctor. Neither manifested into reality. Lost in a sea of humanity in college that looked so different from my turbaned and barely bearded looks, I took off my turban and chopped my unshorn hair to get lost in the crowd. Then I eased into atheism. Discovered Buddhism on the shelves of bookstores in Santa Barbara. Delved into Taoist meditations in Berkeley. Finally for the first time befriended the faith I was born into, Sikhism. A month before 9/11 with my hair long enough donned the Sikh turban. After 9/11 I was the target of ignorance and ensuing hate from fellow Americans who only saw my turban and beard.

The response of some American editorial cartoonists to 9/11 and subsequent events created the spark to embrace my long lost passion. I started cartooning about Sikhs armed with my laptop and right index finger. My evenings and weekends have since been consumed by capturing Sikh frustrations and aspirations around the globe. The inevitability of Change is my constant guide.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

http://www.sikhtoons.com

Watch Sikhtoons NYC Exhibit – When a Big Tree Falls

Regarded as a ‘ Vanguard’ for his piece in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s exhibit, How Soon Is Now?  Sonny Assu continues to push the boundaries of contemporary art by challenging the perception of Aboriginal art.

A multi-disciplinary artist, Assu merges Northwest Coast Aboriginal iconography with the aesthetics of popular culture to challenge social and historical values that we as a society face on a daily basis. His work is an exploration of his mixed ancestry and creates a discourse on we use items of consumer and popular culture to define our personal lineage.

His current body of work examines how we use everyday consumer items and icons of pop culture to define our personal lineage, discussing the use of branding, brand loyalty and technology in conjunction to the ideals of totemic representation and helps educate people on the issues that the First People of North America face.

Sonny grew up in North Delta, a suburb of of Canada’s third largest city and many kilometres away from his ancestral home of Campbell River/ Cape Mudge. It wasn’t until he was eight years old that he discovered his mixed heritage in a rather unique way. It was during a grade three history lesson about a particular group of BC ‘Indians’, the Kwakwaka’wakw. He ran home that day to tell his mom about the lesson, about how he was drawn to the culture and the art: she simply looked at him and said “Well, that is who you are”.

Assu’s work has been featured in several group exhibits over the past years, notably How Soon is Now? at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Comic Relief at the National Gallery of Canada, Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast at the McMichael’s Canadian Art Collection and Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation Part 2 at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. Sonny’s first solo exhibit, Sonny Assu: As Defined Within the Indian Act, was held at the Belkin Satellite Gallery in Vancouver, in April 2006. It garnered him considerable attention and landed him a partnership with the Equinox Gallery in the fall of 2006.

Breakfast Series Cereal boxes, Digitally Printed 12” x 7” x 3” each 2006

Assu’s work has been accepted into the National Gallery in Ottawa (Breakfast Series and the Death Blanket), the Seattle Art Museum (Breakfast Series), the Museum of Anthropology at UBC (Coke-Salish) and in various other public and private collections across Canada and the United States.  His successful art practice has netted exposure on a variety of media platforms and has received grants from various funding bodies in Canada. In 2007, Sonny was honoured with the Emily Award, an Alumni from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, for his devotion and success on his path as an artist.

His ideas, thoughts and processes are fluidic and ever changing. Ask Sonny what he’s working on and he may eloquently speak about his ideas or he might keep tight-lipped in hopes of creating the element of surprise. Either way, his work and personality will draw you in.  Sonny Assu is Laich-kwil-tach (Kwakwaka’wakw) of the Weka’yi  First Nation (Cape Mudge), the artist has lived in Vancouver since 1999.

CONCERNING CHANGE

Coke-Salish Duratrans and Light box 24” x 35” 2006

My current body of work examines how we use everyday consumer items and icons of pop culture to define our personal lineage. Regardless of race or culture, we use the notion of totemic representation to establish our relation to each other. This body of work juxtaposes two polarized cultures and theorizes how branding, brand loyalty, and items from  pop/technology culture are used to relate to the ideal of totemic representation. The work combines social, economical, and environmental issues with subtle humour to speak to the notion of conformity through consumerism.

Through the iDrum series, specifically the (Red)iscovery series, I was able to formulate a notion of change by how we are manipulated by marketing through media. The series, in general, uses the iconic iPod image, which has stylized to fit within the aesthetics of the First Nations culture from the West Coast of Canada. The work itself lacks the stereotypical narrative elements that you would normally associate with this cultural design style. I’ve removed all notion of traditional narrative to produce an abstracted, modernist approach to “Indian” art.

iDrum (Red)iscovery #3. Acrylic on Cow hide, wood. 20” 2008

The (Red)iscovery series talks about how we as a western society will go out of our way to buy products that pop-rock star Bono tells us to. These (Red) products have been marketed toward our notion of charity towards those less fortunate than ourselves: People who live in the third world, most notably third world African cultures. But what makes me what to challenge Bono’s notion of change through pop-charity, is that we have people living in our own countries that we are ignoring; who are malnourished and who are suffering from the same afflictions that are akin to the third world. Why do we do this? Why are we able to ignore those people who need our help in our own backyard? We walking past them, their hands out, ours filled with a Starbuck’s (Red) cup, “politely” ignoring them through our (Red) branded iPods. I’m not just talking about those who have slipped through the crack or those who “choose” to live on the streets, I’m also talking about the invisible minority of the Native Americans and the First Nations in Canada.

iDrum: Nude Acrylic on Cow hide, wood. 22” 2009

Next door to my grandmother, who lives on a reserve located on Vancouver Island, lays the remains of apathy. A black-mould-condemned double wide trailer sits empty: It’s occupants final left, not able to afford another, now rent off reserve. A stark contrast to her beautifully manicured garden that her nearly 80 year old hands have tended to herself. My family, fortunately, have had a hand in defining our own path of success and rising past the discrimination we still face to this day. We chose to not rely on the hand-out, treating it more like a hand-up. My great grandfather, to whom I see as a man of political and social change, set out to make sure our family would rise above discrimination. But with every door he opened, one shut. He laid a path, to which I travel; opening the closed doors to bring a wider understanding for the change we are seeking.

So in a country as affluent as Canada, we have people living in third would conditions, people who lack in things we take for granted; access to running water, sewage treatment and access to the universal health care we covet as a civilized society. What is happening in Canada, is happening in the USA, Australia, New Zealand: the colonized invisible cultures have been lost to memory in to a  cultural stereotype. We are apathetic to our own people, yet hypocritically help others far from us. It is this hypocrisy that I aim to change with the phrase “How can we help others, when we can’t even help ourselves?”

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST:

http://sonnyassu.com and SEE his latest work on Flickr

Photography by Chris Meier