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Museum exhibit explores culture of India in Nelson past and present

Exhibit entitled Within This Earthen Vessel was created by student curator Lucy Carver-Brennan

When Lucy Carver-Brennan moved back to Nelson for a summer job as a student curator at the museum, little did she know that she would end up immersed in the culture of India.

After growing up in Nelson, the 25-year-old is now studying fine arts at Concordia University with a focus on sculpture and fabric art. 

Arriving at the Nelson Museum Archives and Gallery, under the supervision of curator Arin Fay, she was offered the opportunity to curate an exhibit in Gallery B to accompany a travelling show in Gallery A about Indian culture.

Carver-Brennan dove into the little-known and hard-to-find history of Indian people in Nelson, and into the present-day Indian community here. The result is her exhibit entitled Within This Earthen Vessel: Stories of India and Community, which opened last week.

"My eyes have been opened," Carver-Brennan says, "to  just how much is really happening in this town, from religious celebrations to family traditions and the interconnectedness of the South Asian community in the Kootenays."

Her exhibit is a multi-media display of photographs both historical and modern, video, artifacts, Indian spices, and a colourful hanging centrepiece.

Not only did Carver-Brennan curate the pieces in the gallery, but most were actually created for the exhibit. The catalyst for this was Surya Sameera Gonella of Nelson who helped Carver-Brennan with many aspects of the exhibit and created some of the exhibits herself.

"She was a burst of excitement and ideas and potential sources," says Carver-Brennan.

Gonella, who has a masters degree in biochemistry, works as an early childhood educator in Nelson and is also a painter. 

"Since my childhood, that was my favourite pastime," she said.  "I've been working on a project of doing (paintings from) all the tribal art forms of India. So I did six art forms, and I showed them to Lucy, and she said, 'Okay, how about we use three of them?'"

Gonella and Carver-Brennan also created a display of the word "community" written in each of the Indian languages represented in Nelson's population. Gonella asked around and discovered ten North and South Indian languages spoken here, and included each in the exhibit in what Carver-Brennan calls a "word art piece."

The two also collaborated on the creation of a colourful hanging centrepiece.

"I didn't want it to be like just a Hindu thing or a Muslim thing or a Christianity thing," said Gonella. "It's beautiful. It's colourful. My daughter, after she saw this, she said, 'Looks like there is a part of India here.' So I was really happy when she said that."

The exhibit also includes a display about Indian spices, with dozens of small spice samples in tiny containers provided to Carver-Brennan by KTK Masala Shop in Nelson. 

She said accessibility to food may be a factor in determining whether immigrants decide to stay in a community.

"Having a store where you can buy Indian food and Indian spices is just so important if you're talking about the longevity of a community in a certain place."

The exhibit also contains a 1908 photo of an Indian man at a Kootenay railway station, alongside a dramatic 2024 re-take of the photo. In the updated version, Navjot Singh Brar of Nelson stands at the current restored rail station in Nelson. 

Other artists featured in the exhibit are Albin Vettath Jose, dancer Alika Jaya Jacob, and videographer Amith Joy.

"Their work has deep ties to their birthplaces all the while infusing the local landscape with a different sense of home," says Carver-Brennan.

Curating the exhibit has had a deep impact on Carver-Brennan, not just from the things she learned and the people she met, but for the unique employment opportunity it offered.

"It was the best job I've ever had," she says, "It really felt like, 'Wow, I get to come to work and do this every day.'" 

Within This Earthen Vessel runs in Gallery B at the Nelson Museum Archives and Gallery until Feb. 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Bill Metcalfe

About the Author: Bill Metcalfe

I have lived in Nelson since 1994 and worked as a reporter at the Nelson Star since 2015.
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