Professor Kathleen Rittter and “Beat Nation: Art, Hop Hop and Aboriginal Culture.”
On Wednesday, April 10th, our Global Perspectives on Design History class welcomed Kathleen Ritter to discuss her work with the Beat Nation: Art, Hop Hop and Aboriginal Culture exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
While going into details about artists who’s work was shown like Nicholas Galanin and Kent Monkman, Ritter also provided statements towards their nations, and explained common terms needed when discussing Indigenous and Aboriginal culture in Canada, beginning her entire lecture with an acknowledge statement towards the land in which the Vancouver Art Gallery is situated.
To proceed, Ritter explained the name, stating it came out of years of research on the links between a beat, which here is something both old and traditional with Nation drumming and the present day music beats, along with its intersections with art and hip hop culture.Â
The entire exhibit takes artists who used urban youth culture with aboriginal identity to create and innovate unexpected cultural hybrids and juxtaposes them against one another.
The exhibit is divided into themes, from The Beat, to The Streets and The Tag and allowed for members of the community to embed themselves in a new culture.