re: five years.

hello lovers,

well today is a special day. sort of. it is the 5th anniversary of Stephen Harper apologizing to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people of Canada for the residential school system, the racism and all that followed such a brutal method of integrating the First peoples of Canada into the public mainstream.

What has happened? Well, 2 years ago I mentored the youth from the Kelowna friendship centre on making their own film, telling their own story, little did we know when we first started it, that it would be the last project for that group. Why? It is because Stephen Harper cut $22 million from Federal funding to all the Friendship Centres in Canada across the board and invested instead, $27 million in new prison building. Kind of obvious isn't it?

That man must be stopped. Evicted. Sent out of Canada.

Anyways, I want to hear from you dear reader, lover, blog follower, stalkers, fans, foe and the like. Tell me what you know about the Apology and what does it mean to you? What should it mean to you?

Until next time,


Chris Bose.

http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=2146

re: art and lack of sleep.

hello friends, fans, foe, lovers, leavers, sinners and winners...

really enjoying making new art these days, stumbled onto a new genre to challenge my brain, and i love it. now, to make a new kick ass film. it's kind of funny, the stuff i was doing two years ago is finally catching on, the apology films, the residential school apology series of images, and the films i made in the last five years are still holding up quite well. i will repost them.

recently had an interesting revelation. people do not like to let you change. if you change and grow as a human being, people you knew previously will still only know you from the last time they saw you. they get weird and it's awkward trying to relate back to their world.

basically, i spend roughly 6 months of the year on the road. as well, i'm working and developing an aboriginal arts organization here in the interior of b.c. trying to get something happening. we do workshops in art, film, organized a music festival 2 years in a row, and we had 2 exhibitions last year as well we're working on a residency program. i've got pre-art friends and post-art friends and trying to cohabit in those worlds is very strange indeed.

i don't see my pre-art friends very often because they do their thing and are busy, and i am as well. my post-art friends or, artist friends are all roughly in the same level of so-called success, so we can hang out a bit more and develop projects, or ideas and such. it's interesting to watch when the two worlds collide. haha.

life is strange, awkward and funny, well, i hope life is good for you, all the best,


CB.

re: the apology.

hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

how are thing in your world? i hope moving along just fine. i need a few million dollars, a fast car and a plane ticket the hell out of here.

in the meantime, i'm curating a show here in kamloops all about Stephen Harper and his apology to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people of Canada.

this happened on June 11, 2008.

it's several artists creative response to the Apology, the show is called,"Official Denial: the Art of the Apology." featuring the art of Tania Willard, Adrian Stimson, Cease Wyss, and Bracken Hanuse Corlett.

the show will be at the Arnica Artist Run Centre, opening night is Friday, August 11, 2012. 6 - 9.

see you there,

cb

re: apology video.....

hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

so, here's the video i just finished, it's not really finished, but for this week, it's finished.....i'm certain i'll peck at it all week into the new year, tweaking it and trying to make sure it's as best as i can do.

it represent 3 years of my life creatively, and the last 3 decades dealing with the non-native people of canada.

if at times you twinge and feel shitty, about a joke you heard about native people and didn't have the guts, balls, or ovaries to say something, or you yourself said something stupid, colonial and ignorant, or you have that drunk uncle who's a racist prick, or in high school you bugged the native kid, or kids, or didn't stand up for someone indian when you had the chance.

i want you to suck it up. wallow in it. feel it. that post-colonial guilt. enjoy it. savour it. bake at 350 degree without rotating and stuff it in the deepest, darkest corners of your, uhm psyche.

this short film is dedicated to canada and all my relations,

the prime ministers words say enough in this video.

until next time lovers and i'm sure, haters,



cb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIObVkzzspU

re: the apology series.

greetings friends, fans, foe and lovers,

here are four new works based on the apology by stephen harper to the first nations, inuit and metis people of canada. they are 11 x 17 in diameter, and i'm making them available to institutions, educational facilities and organizations as a means furthering the education about the Residential schools and the importance and significance of the Apology. 

After traveling across the country the past few years giving lectures and talks about aboriginal art, and it's frightening how little impact it made in this country, so i figured creating a series of art might be able to help make people aware of it. i always say, born a native, born an activist. because, for the rest of your life, you have to justify your existence to the rest of canada.

the image above, is based on the photo of St. George's Residential school in Lytton, BC.

it burnt to the ground because of arson. my mother and father both went there and were

never the same. i think they never left in some ways.

in the meantime, keep you posted on new work coming soon, happy holidays,

cb

re: 600th blog post.....

hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

well, here we are, the 600th blog post. never thought i'd be here, never thought this far ahead before. what's going on in my life on this milestone? i'm listening to an album i bought 12 years ago and still digging it, blur's album "13" and just sort of rediscovered it quite recently. a lot of things have happened in that time, and i've stumbled, staggered, fell down and gotten back up many times.

i'm a survivor. i have to keep moving on, and certain albums, books, artwork, films and other cultural things weave in and out of my life for reasons often unknown. how this album came into my possession is kind of a mystery, i think i originally bought it at the future shop in aberdeen mall here in town, because i like the production william orbit did on it. that year, i also go pj harvey's "is this desire" and tom waits "beautiful maladies" a best of compilation from island records. don't remember much more than that from that era really. i went through a lot of hell for a couple years with women. lost it all. haven't really been the same since i think, haha!

a late bloomer for sure, i spent too many years fucking around, and i don't know if i'm paying for it, have paid for it, or what's coming down for sure.

anyways, here's something i worked on for a while, not sure if i like it entirely, but it felt good to work on, and i don't know if its done or not, but whatever, i've got stuff to do, hope you dig it, going to work on a NDN version of "paranormal activity" in the next couple weeks, should be hilarious. want to do some funny stuff in film for awhile. too serious, ain't fun.

in the meantime lovers,

all the best,


cb

"The treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history.

For more than a century, Indian Residential Schools separated over 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families and communities. In the 1870's, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligation to educate Aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools.  Two primary objectives of the Residential Schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.  These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, "to kill the Indian in the child".  Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country."

Stephen Harper, June 11, 2008.

re: the onondaga madonna.......

 

 

Duncan Campbell Scott (1862-1947)

The Onondaga Madonna

1898

She stands full-throated and with careless pose,
 This woman of a weird and waning race,
 The tragic savage lurking in her face,
 Where all her pagan passion burns and glows;
 Her blood is mingled with her ancient foes,
 And thrills with war and wildness in her veins;
 Her rebel lips are dabbled with the stains
 Of feuds and forays and her father's woes.
 
 And closer in the shawl about her breast,
 The latest promise of her nation's doom,
 Paler than she her baby clings and lies,
 The primal warrior gleaming from his eyes;
 He sulks, and burdened with his infant gloom,
 He draws his heavy brows and will not rest.

so, most people have no idea, who this guy is, 

i ask it all the time in universities, high schools 

and the like, across canada 

and i get blank faces staring at me.......

the same is for the "Apology" from Stephen Harper 

to us NDN's in Kanata

.......

what it demonstrates in some ways, 

is the cultural sensitivity or lack thereof, 

or the continual "Dumbing DOWN" of our society

what are your thoughts?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/11/pm-statement.html

i've been under the weather all week, 

and also currently do not have a working computer, 

so i'm not online or doing art....

i am playing lots of music though 

and writing a whole whack of new songs....

i'll be collaborating with my friend soon and we'll

hopefully be recording and writing more stuff soon!

exciting!

until next time peeps,

cb

re: the apology......

here's a couple examples of the apology and a favourite image of a coyote i took a couple years ago.......it was on T'kemlups Indian Reserve........the skelep wasn't even scared of me.........she just kept watching........

anyway, i'm thinking it's time to move on.....or put serious thought to getting out of here......each time i come home from the road, i begin the usual scramble for cash.........and wonder, is this it? is this as good as it's ever going to get? i feel tapped out here, that i've gone as far as i can go from a remote location, now i need input and collaboration and stimulation........

i mean, i've been struggling here for years, and though i'm at a level where i catch a lot of planes and collaborate more, unless something incredible happens, is this it? will it be scrimp, scrounge and save until i die? keep living cheque to cheque? should i give up? should i teach? i just don't know.......

i also watch other artists on the road, and wonder why we do it? a push to create something, art, music or writing, or are they just markings on the wall?

no offence to where i live, coz in many ways i love it here, but when i come home, i keep wondering why i'm here........

i don't really hang out with anyone, and really just count the minutes until i head out of town for the next gig, or until i can see my kids........

not much of a life really........

cb

kanata

this was the first thing i've done in a few days, i've been working on a couple film projects, so i've been preoccupied.......i don't really like this one, basically, the faces in the image are from the kamloops residential school....some archival photo i found online somewhere.....

i'm gonna do some more art now. and keep this baby rolling along........

we apologize...