Bracken Corlett is an interdisciplinary artist who works in continuum with the iconography of his ancestors, the Wuikinuxv and Klahoose People. His exhibition Wuulhu explored a digital fusion of traditional mediums and icons, featuring new works in painting, drawing, and sculpture and also introducing sound, video and live performance work. The featured work was a remix. It was a readaptation and rediscovery of culture, spirit and language that covered generations. Threatened by colonialism, there are only a handful of Wuikila speakers around today. Wuulhu, a Wuikila word, directly translated into English means “to fuse together”. This word is a key component to Corlett’s multimedia arts practice, and was, as well, a key component of the exhibition. Wuulhu consisted of several paintings, sculptures, and videos.

Sculptures consisted of a handcrafted traditional mask, as well as a non-traditional mask made for a live DJ performance, which included various regalia from that same concert. His video work melded performative west-coast dance and painting with found footage and electronic music that he produced. Corlett’s paintings varied in size and content, including imagery of frogs, constellations, and thunderbirds, combining some with pop-cultural images of the queen. Northwest Coast Native artist, Corlett has been working in traditional mediums such as red and yellow cedar and has also painted with natural pigments and carved with traditional tools. On the other end of the spectrum is his digital practice, which involves work in sound, video, photography and graphic design. In his work Corlett has often chosen to keep the digital and the traditional separate, sometimes causing a fracture in the artist’s workflow. In Wuulhu, Corlett’s work aimed to bridge the traditional and the contemporary, unwinding in the place between, while considering the relationship and side effects of technical experimentation and tradition.

Bracken Hanuse Corlett is an Northwest Coast multi-media artist hailing from the Wuikinuxv and Klahoose Nations. He works with video, sound, painting, carving/sculpture, writing and performance. His work deals with themes of cultural reclamation and survival, identity politics, hybridity, and decolonization. Much of his work is relevant to his Northwest Coast Indigenous roots and he is spending much of his time these days exploring the stories, language, songs, and art of his people. He is also inspired by art movements like agit-pop, manga, the dadas and other diverse forms of expression.

To see more of Bracken’s works, you can check out his Instagram @wuulhu