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Item Name: Photograph
Title: Longing #2
Maker: Sonny Assu
Year: 2011
Country: Liǥwildaʼx̱w (We Wai Kai) of the Kwakwaka'wakw nations
Materials: Archival pigment prints
Measurements: 49 x 38 cm
ID Number: PC2016.7
Legal Status: PERMANENT COLLECTION


Extended Label Info: Sonny Assu’s photographs depict pieces of discarded wood off-cuts that look remarkably like pre-fabricated Northwest Coast masks. These logs were found at a log-home developer site in un-ceded territory near the community of We Wei Kai near Northeastern Vancouver Island. The cuts collected by Assu are generally considered worthless by the developer and the consumer. Assu found artistic value in photographing the sculptures from different angles, creating portraits that emphasize the faces which can be seen in the offcuts. “Each one has a face and story within—and therefore also an inherent wealth. The felling of the rainforest enables us to display wealth in the form of luxury vacation homes, but we often give little thought to the waste produced by such affluence.” (Sonny Assu, Projects, Longing, www.sonnyassu.com. Access June 26, 2018.) Sonny Assu is Liǥwildaʼx̱w (We Wai Kai) of the Kwakwaka'wakw nation. He received a BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and an MFA program from Concordia University in 2017. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art in 2011 and was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2012 and 2013. His work has been accepted into the National Gallery of Canada, the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Anthropology at UBC and in various other public and private collections across Canada and the United States.