Liquid Beings by the Ecuadorian artist Esteban Perez is a sound and drawing installation informed by Indigenous Ways of Knowing from the Canadian Pacific Northwest. The pigments Perez uses in the drawings were a gift from Squamish artist Aaron Nelson-Moody aka Splash, and were made from a local cedar pigment. The works were made while the artist listened to a field recording of the Earth played from speakers hanging above him. The same recordings were also played during the initial exhibition of the drawings at the Polygon Gallery in Vancouver, allowing viewers and listeners to experience the frequencies and vibrancies that inspired their creation, unpacking layers of reality and sonic materiality.
Aaron Nelson-Moody, or "Splash", lives and works in the Capilano Village on the North Shore of Vancouver, British Columbia. These days he is working mainly on jewelry engraving and repousse, and still carves the larger houseposts and panels on commission. While Aaron is his English name, he also has his Squamish Nation name, Tawx'sin Yexwulla, which translates as: Splashing Eagle, so most people know him simply as "Splash". He also carries the name, Poolxtun, from his adopted father Gerry Oleman, which he tanslates as, ‘the spreading ripples from a splash of water’. He has worked with community groups and students in a number of schools in the Squamish and Vancouver areas since 1995, as well as sharing in Japan and Scotland. He has recently been carving a housepost at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and is currently working at Langara College teaching a Truth and Reconciliation based Aborignal carving cohort program.
Liquid Beings was created within the frame of a program called Response: Our Land Narrative organized by The Polygon, a gallery in Vancouver, where it was later presented.
