The art of the First Nations of this coast has evolved: It has absorbed the advent of iron tools, then manufactured paints, and such new art forms as screen prints and sand-blasted glass. Through it all, the stories and traditions are carried forward, speaking to new audiences in appropriate ways.
This week I sat with Kwakwaka’wakw artist Gus Cook of Victoria and marvelled at the rings, bracelets and pendants he has created in silver by the technique of repoussé.
Cook is articulate in his words and works. Born in Alert Bay, he came to Victoria after high school to earn a degree in psychology from the University of Victoria. He then worked for six years in construction, leading crews of men making concrete driveways, and on his own time he focused on martial arts. When the recession hit, he joined the studio of his cousin, artist Rande Cook.
“Show up — I’ll put you to work,” he was told, though he admits: “I couldn’t even draw stick men.” With considerable intelligence and terrific application, he learned quickly. His mentor, who is a highly imaginative carver and painter, was learning the technique of repoussé. They began by making a copper moon, one man working on each side of the piece.
Repoussé, which means “to push,” is an honoured metalworking method used worldwide. Rande Cook and Coast Salish artist Luke Marston discovered it in Europe and then travelled to New York to study with Valentin Yotkov, a Bulgarian maestro. They returned to Victoria to teach what they had learned.
When Gus Cook caught on to it, he said he “just dove in,” poring over books and researching it intensely on the Internet. With his obsessive nature, his skill and knowledge soon surpassed those of his teacher.
Typically, native work in silver is engraved and cross-hatched on flat pieces, and then bent into rings or bracelets. Repoussé, for Cook, doesn’t involve engraving.
At first, his silver blank is set into a bowl of heated pitch and the design is hammered into it with tiny chisels. Then it is turned over and worked from the back with larger, rounded chisels until it slowly bows out, pushed into a domed shape. “You’re pushing the metal, doing it little by little,” said Cook. “When it’s smooth, and the metal is worked nice and flowy, then you won’t break through.”
Next, he flips over the shape and resets it in the pitch. He now works the front surface into clear and precise form, using smaller and finer tools to crisply shape lines and give it its finish. Working from the back is called “repoussé” and what he does from the front is called “chasing,” though all the work is done with a little hammer and chisels. Cook is developing a repertoire of textural finishes — some smooth and shiny, others that look like tiny adzed wooden surfaces for a “wavy” look. One thing he doesn’t do is cross-hatching.
“I don’t want it to be like everybody else’s,” he said.
Clearly, this takes a lot of time. In the beginning he made bold, simple designs, realizing how little he would be paid by the hour. But then he changed his attitude.
“Don’t worry,” he told himself. “It’s all about quality. So I, like, went to town.” He not only did the centre of his bracelets with repoussé but continued chasing along the sides as well. “I just spent as much time as I needed to finish the piece — and did as much work as I possibly can. And that’s when things started to look up for me. That’s when I started to love it.”
Cook began with copper, which is inexpensive and very soft. He moved to sterling silver, which has a tiny bit of copper in it to allow a nice shiny finish. Then he discovered argentium, which is pure silver with a bit of germanium and is resistant to tarnishing.
“It’s a more expensive metal,” Cook noted, “but it’s such a nice metal — all my work will be shifted to argentium.”
There was more technique to learn, in particular the repeated annealing, a heating process that keeps the metal workable. But none of that would be of any consequence if Cook’s design sense was not as outstanding as it is. Immediately, I was captivated by his octopus motif, in which the free-flowing tentacles in low relief evolved into a head marked out with graphic form line elements.
“I don’t have that background in the form line — I didn’t start as a painter,” Cook explained. His studies have taken him beyond typical West Coast styles. He particularly admires repoussé designs of the monks of Thailand and current metalwork from Europe. When he is creating his designs he refers not to other First Nations carvings, masks and prints, but goes back to the legends that inspired them. While the designs of his studio partner Rande Cook just seem to pour out of him, “I just sit there,” Cook told me. “Drawing is a whole a lot of work for me.”
Yet his results are truly beautiful. Already, he has made a full-sized silver rattle and silver masks, and has bigger plans. The current exhibition at Alcheringa is Cook’s first show, and this is also the first time he has ever seen more than two of his creations at a gallery at once. The demand for them means they are gone as soon as they are complete.
This might be your chance to catch a rising star. I predict that Gus Cook won’t be taking any of these works home after the show.
Under the Sea: A Christmas Exhibition, featuring Gus Cook, at Alcheringa Gallery, 665 Fort St., alcheringa-gallery.com, 250-383-8224, until Dec. 24.