Curated by Bill Jeffries

Vancouver based photographer Douglas Curran first met members of the Chewa people while working on a film in Zimbabwe in 1992. The Chewa he met were migrant workers from Malawi employed on plantations and in mines. Over a period of several years he gradually became integrated into this community in Malawi, photographing and filming their extraordinary rituals associated with a belief system known as Nyau. The Chewa rituals and their masks are part of a complex and spectacular set of beliefs that Curran has been encouraged by the Chewa to document. Curran, no longer an outsider to this culture, has created a stunning pictorial record that invites dialogue about recording the lives of others, and forces comparisons with contemporary performance art. The exhibition will consist of photographs, video and a sampling of masks.

Presentation House Gallery made a catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition. which includes text by Douglas Curran and Bill Jeffries.

Gallery Press Release

Events

Saturday January 8 at 3 pm | Artists' Talk

Saturday January 22 at 3 pm | Discussion with Douglas Curran and UBC Museum of Anthropology Director Anthony Shelton

Presentation House Gallery International Touring Exhibition

Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, AB - June 6 - Sept 3, 2006
Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam -  May 1 - Oct 5, 2007
Origin's Center, Johannesburg, SA - Oct. 2007 - Jan. 2008