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| RICK RIVET RCA Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |
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My work explores a Metis- Canadian sensibility with modernist concerns. I have an expressionist- primitivism
approach to painting with subject matter related to two aspects of my Native- Canadian reality and viewpoint. These
concerns are the shamanic tradition of native peoples and the problem of resolving this tradition with contemporary
artwork.
Influences in my work are varied and derive from shamanic imagery of ancient peoples the world over(e.g. Siberian,
North-American Indian, Ancient Norse, Oceanic). There are western and contemporary art influences (e.g. German
Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Antoni Tapies, J.M.W.Turner, Edvard Munch, Primitivism Art, Arte Povera,
Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, David Milne,Jean Fautrier, Paterson Ewen, Paul Klee) which have affected my
work to various degrees.
My artwork involves combining and reinterpreting the iconography of various aboriginal peoples in a contemporary
perspective. Intuition, sensuality, emotive content and creative thought are all combined in an individualistic
consideration of means and method. My intent is a kind of visually poetic content with meaning layered and built
through a process of chaos/control of medium and ideas.
The strong ethnological/anthropological influence in the art is derived from research into shamanistic beliefs, rituals
and traditions of aboriginal peoples, specifically Aleut, Inuit, Navajo,Dene, Cree, Hopi, Sammi,and Siberian peoples
such as the Chukchi, Goldi, Buryat, and Evenk among others. This background is a major factor in the development of
my art. These influences reflect concerns continued from my Master of Fine Arts program at the University of
Saskatchewan and previous work.
My painting explores the role of particular imagery, rituals and ceremonial objects (e.g. String games, masks,
drums, ceremonial garb, burial mounds, medicine wheels, totemic images, talismans, symbols, design, pictographs,
petroglyphs, etc.) as these relate to giving a ‘face and a voice’ to the mythological and ideological beliefs of native
cultures, both past and present.
In the past my work was mainly acrylic paint on canvas due to necessity. I plan to do more combining of
traditional/natural materials with modern/technological materials (e.g. bones, hides, string, sticks, wire, copper plate,
nails, computer chips,plastics, sand, etc.) I have done some work in this vein before though not extensively.
The artwork is eclectic in that I use elements from the symbolism, ideology and imagery of shamanic tradition,
transforming and integrating them into a contemporary poetic approach to painting. My expressionistic/primitivistic
treatment of material and imagery is based on a non-objective/semi-abstracted visual language using contemporary
ideas and techniques in handling the visual imagery and artist materials.
My concern with mark-making is seen in gestural scratches, broken lines, dots, rubbing, scraping, washes, scraffito,
over layered paint, drip marks, splashes and so on, which are evidence of process in the creative act. Physical clues
are left behind as to stages gone through. Matter is explored as itself and as part of process. Unexpected relationships
of materials, form and content are revealed during the development of the image. Figure/ground interaction is of
paramount importance in the work. I think that my painting has parallels to music forms such as free-form jazz.
In all my work there is a strong graphic element reflecting previous drawing and printmaking experience. Drawing is
particularly important in revealing the essence ofa physical or imaginary concept. It brings, without loss of subtlety, a
freshness, conciseness and primitive directness to the creative process.
The viewer and artist use art as a language in communicating a relationship between themselves and their world
experience. Subject and object are incorporated into the being of the work itself. The visual elements relate to graffiti,
archeology, the human figure, landscape, animals, dreams, mythology, ritual, weather, phenomena of celestial origin,
history, life experiences. This visual language uses the visible universe as a metaphor for the invisible, a
communication between the world and the spirit, a mystical relationship.
Art is the result of a process; an intuitive, sensual and cognitive response to the creative handling of materials. I
either imagine a work and change the idea as I work toward it, or the process of working gives rise to ideas which are
carried out in stages of successive changes, until the visual flux becomes an unexpected actuality. There are no
finished works as such, only successive stages of process and productivity, states of being and becoming, a gradual
revelation of the conscious/unconscious.
The painting paints itself in a sense as form and content arise from process. Poetic knowledge is the result of
metaphysical metamorphosis, the artist being the catalyst to the mystery of creative action. The creative act therefore,
is the result of a process of integration and actualization of conscious and unconscious experience- a trans formative
process which gives form to artistic vision.
My interest in shamanic/aboriginal art became particularly strong after I finished my four year Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree at the University of Victoria in 1980. Previous to this my training involved mainly the study of Western art history
and art. There was virtually no mention of Native and Shamanic art history or art. I felt the need, being Metis, to look
into the Native side of my heritage in conjunction with the European elements. I find that the artist has to examine ‘roots’
if there is to be development artistically. The first step on the artistic journey comes with knowledge of the artist’s
earliest experiences linked to larger world experience. Memory, both conscious and unconscious, is a key to unlocking
the past.
The art that I do is directly connected with the shamanic/spiritual tradition which is derived from the belief systems of
an ancient human past. This artistic perspective involves beliefs centred in myths and dreams, both individual and
collective, in a culture which has as its central figure, the shaman. It is a ‘nature-oriented’ belief system and ideology, a
holistic world-view. ‘Shamanism’ promoted the viewpoint of living in harmony with the earth, as opposed to the Judeo-
Christian-Islamist idea of mankind’s dominion over the earth and all its creatures.
My contemporary art approach is also derived from Western and International art traditions, past and present.
These traditions were influenced to a great extent by shamanic based art of great sophistication (e.g. art forms from
North/South America, Oceania and Africa). Artists from the Western and International art scenes took a great deal from
these sources; as for instance the work of Gauguin, Van Gogh, Joseph Beuys, Picasso, Paul Klee, the Abstract and
German Expressionists et cetera. These artists incorporated the art forms, thereby creating a prism through which they
could discover themselves.
My role as an artist is not to represent ‘Indigenous’, ‘Native’, or ‘First Nations’ art, as the current labelling or pigeon
holing goes. My work is, in this Post Modernist time, tending toward a more comprehensive portrayal of my interests as
an artist. I feel that my themes and the character of the work reflect a more universal interest which cannot be
constricted within the narrow confines of terms such as ‘Western’, ‘Native’, ‘Hybrid’, ‘Canadian’ or what have you. My art
represents aspects of my own culture and history personally, and in the wider archetypal sense, includes all common
human experience.
The ancient tradition of shamanic based art offers huge potential in the development of new national and
international art forms. My work aspires to the spiritual, to the recovery of the main tradition of creativity. The encounter
with shamanic ideology and culture compels the modern artist to admit to the binding ties of a common spiritual
heritage. Through the creative experience and its profound link to the unconscious, artists confront the on-going history
of the human spirit. The search requires not imitation, but the revelation and expression of those intangibles which can
only be conveyed through poetic meaning. Art is a journey of the human spirit through the matter/space/time continuum.
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