Miya Turnbull- Visual Artist
Self-Portrait Masks made by Miya Turnbull
Miya (pronounced Mee-yah) Turnbull is an artist based in K'jipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada).
I work in many mediums including mask-making, photography, animation, video, performance, painting and textiles. This website will focus in on my current body of work with Self-Portrait Masks, Photography, Performance and Video.
Just a note about my online shop (thatcat.ca) which I have closed down since it was expensive to maintain and I'm focusing more on my mask work right now- I still have textile work and paintings in stock. If you saw something you wanted to purchase, just get in touch.
About my masks:
"My masks are three-dimensional self-portraits- a combination of photography, sculpture and collage. They are photo-realistic but often altered- for example, I might change the placement or even erase select facial features, or cut up and re-attach masks together in unusual combinations. I use photo elements within my work to create an uncanny resemblance within my masks, in addition to capturing images of myself wearing these facades.
I am drawing from the traditional uses of masks worn for disguise, transformation and protection, and as symbols for persona, self-image and identity. Ironically, I am placing my face on the front of the mask at the same time concealing my 'self' behind it. I can then manipulate how you see me. By keeping my image a constant, I am able to experiment with multiple iterations and further explore my heritage, experiences, perceptions and inner world, making these visible, tangible and wearable."
Visual Arts News, Volume 44, Number 2, Fall 2022
So honoured to have my artwork on the cover of the latest issue of Visual Arts News, a magazine that explores contemporary art practices in Atlantic Canada, on the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, Inuit, Innu, and the Southern Inuit of NunatuKavut.
A beautiful article written by Clare Goulet, a local writer, poet and educator, is published on pages 21-25. You can read the article here and the magazine is now available for purchase.
Miya Turnbull: Inward, Outwards
Solo Exhibition
Acadia University Art Gallery
Wolfville, NS
Nov 12th - Feb 7th
(closed over university break Dec 10th-Jan 9th)
Curated by Dr. Laurie Dalton
Gallery hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 12pm -4pm
Wednesday: 12pm -7pm
Thursday- Sunday: 12pm -4pm
Halifax Photoshoot: Self-Portrait Masks
Miya would like to acknowledge the support of Arts Nova Scotia. A huge thank you to Tanya Canam for her beautiful photography and help with this ambitious project (and this awesome gif!!) Thank you to Branislav Zvada for capturing the magic through video and amazing editing skills (and also some of the photos above are still frames from his video work). Thank you to all the participants who came to Point Pleasant Park- both for my 'trial run' and the big photoshoot!
Yume. Digital Dreams
Feb-May, 2022
14 artists were selected from the Japanese Canadian Artist's Directory, ranging in ages, mediums and locations: Baco Ohama + Jon Sasaki, Kayla Isomura + Dawn Obokata, Linda Uyehara Hoffman + Kunji Ikeda, Michael Fukushima + Lillian Blakey, Teiya Kasahara + Noriko K. Kobayashi, Shion Skye Carter + Miya Turnbull, Will Shintani + Hitoshi Sugiyama.
We have been collaborating in pairs this past Spring, creating new digital pieces, presented and organized by Tashme Productions (Matt Miwa and Julie Tamiko Manning) and supported financially by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Our online Vernissage showing the results of our collaborations was showcased May 16th, 2022 with a short Q&A with the artists afterwards and is now archived: YouTube and on the website: Yume. Digital Dreams.
Also screened at:
46th Annual Powell Street Festival in Vancouver, B.C
Firehall Arts Centre, July 31st, 2022, 4:30-5:30pm PDT
and online at GEI: Japanese Canadian Artists Symposium held Sept 16-18th in Victoria, B.C.
Read about the project in The Bulletin/Geppo (Feb 2022) and Discover Nikkei (April 2022) with interviews by Matt Miwa and Julie Tamiko Manning who made all this happen.
A huge thanks to everyone working on this project, I was so proud to be included with all these amazing artists. I was so honoured to work alongside Shion. Here is our video: "Omote (面)"
"Omote (面)" is an art/dance film conjured through the collaborative process between two Japanese Canadian artists:
Vancouver-based dance artist Shion Skye Carter, and Halifax-based mask artist Miya Turnbull.
The kanji symbol 面 can be translated as "Omote"- face, surface and also as "Men"- mask.
Hand-crafted papier-mâché masks, coming in myriad shapes and facial expressions, become extensions of the body in this work. The masks' distorted imagery borders on the grotesque, challenging traditional ideas of beauty, while gesture and tableaus articulate the concept of honne (本音) and tatemae (建前): when a person’s true feelings and desires (honne) contrasts from the behavior and opinions they share in public (tatemae). The masks also serve as tools to reflect on self identity, affected in part by the artists' shared mixed race Nikkei heritage. How do cultural expectations, and one’s ancestral history, influence the parts of ourselves that we express to the world, and the parts that we keep hidden away?
Co-created and performed by Miya Turnbull and Shion Skye Carter
Masks by Miya Turnbull
Music: Stefan Nazarevich (Vancouver, B.C.)
Shown at:
Fashion for Bank Robbers exhibit in Munich, Germany
Aug 3rd- Oct 16th, 2022
FIN (Atlantic International Film Festival), in-person and streamed online
Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane, Theatre 8
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Sept 18th, 2022, 3:30 pm ADT
Currently showing:
International Portrait Film Festival, based in Bulgaria
"For the peculiar-eyed Selection"
Available online Nov 20th- 30th, 2022 through Festhome TV
and at Acadia University Art Gallery, Wolfville, NS as part of
Inward, Outwards exhibit
Behind the Mask: Miya Turnbull
Mini-doc showcasing my artwork, 3 min 37 sec.
Presented by Instagram's Fashion For Bank Robbers, January 2021.
The first of a series of videos about mask-makers from around the world, entitled: Behind the Mask, launched on their new YouTube Channel.
"Behind the Mask: Miya Turnbull" was an Official Documentary Selection, featured at the Mixed Asian Media Festival, September 15th-19th, 2021.
"In-Between" was screened at Photophobia- Contemporary Moving Images Festival, Aug 2020 co-presented by Hamilton Artists Inc and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. It was also an Official New Media Selection, featured at the Mixed Asian Media Festival, September 15th-19th, 2021.
This video has been shown in several exhibits alongside my masks: at the Craig Gallery in Dartmouth, NS as part of a group exhibit entitled, "I am What I am" curated by Brandt Eisner, September 2020, and in July 2021 at a group exhibit with the same name, at the Ice House Gallery in Tatamagouche, NS. It was also on display at Gallery 101 in Ottawa, Ontario for an exhibit called "Behind Between Beyond", running from July-Aug 2021, and Eltuek Arts Centre (Sydney, NS) as part of my solo exhibit July-Sept 2022.
4 of my masks travelled to France to be used in the short film: Nô Feminist
Directed by: Aïssa Maïga
Co-written by Aïssa Maïga and Boulomsouk Svadphaiphane
Produced by: Talents Adami Cinéma 2022 and De l’Autre Côté du Périph’
Premiered at the 75th International Cannes Film Festival, May 24th, 2022 and on France TV (2)
Viewable through Talents Adami Cinéma website (use password adami2022)
It was filmed in the theatre within the Familistère de Guise landmark, in France
Cast includes: Aksel Carrez, Coline Rage, Selena Diouf and Yoshi Oida
Beautiful costumes designed by Liputa Swagga
Summary:
"Gloria, Lili and Amir only have a few days to master a Noh play. The troupe of actors must juggle between sexist remonstrances, text changes and strange noises that echo on the stage. But revelations about the famous director and author of the play will further upset the rehearsals."
An article and feature on Vogue Thailand's website
Article written by Nattanam Waiyahong, Nov 11th, 2021
Read the article here- translated to English through Google Translate.
Read the original article written in Thai here.
I am the cover and featured artist in MASKS Literary Magazine, Issue #2 (Fall 2021) which is an independent, non-profit literary magazine, published in partnership with the Columbia College Chicago Library and the Aesthetics of Research Program.
Read the online version of the magazine here
Read my full interview here
Print copies available soon
The Making of Nocturne 2021: LIMINAL
Video made by: Only Issue a full-service independent film house based on the east coast of Canada,
with additional footage provided by filmmakers from Atlantic Film Cooperative.
Halifax's Nocturne: Art at Night Festival featured the work of over 100 artists, curated by Liliona Quarmyne.
I had masks, photos and projections on display at the MacPhee Centre for Learning in Dartmouth, NS, for a Beacon Project and I also had a series of Inside Out masks on display at the Halifax Central Library as a Community Project.
3 channel video projection onto masks: "Self-Portrait" was on display October 2021 at Halifax's Nocturne: Art at Night Festival, among many other masks and photos.
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I often get asked how I got into mask making:
"I began making these "Photo-Masks", which is what I call this technique, during my Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, in the late '90's. I was taking several different classes in printmaking, photography, sculpture and painting and I was also taking anthropology, biology and psychology. At one point the drama department was offering a mask making class, which is where I learned how to make a plaster cast of my face and make lightweight papier-mâché masks. In my 3rd or 4th year, I had an independent open studio to work on my own and all these things came together and I made my first Photo-Mask.
I started focusing in on a series working specifically with Self-Portrait Masks, starting in 2005, thanks to a Creation Grant from Arts Nova Scotia. There was a 10 year gap in my practise while focussing on my family but I have returned full time again for the past couple of years, thanks to an invitation to show my masks at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Gallery in Toronto, Ontario in 2019, which got me back into the studio. I now have over 100 masks in my collection and continue to develop and expand this work."
ARTWORK
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I was one of 3 mask makers interviewed by Dr. Nataliya Tchermalykh (@amstramgram), a Social Anthropologist, from the University of Geneva. She recently presented her research about our work to the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) Conference in Visual Anthropology that is part of the RAI Film Festival, normally held in Bristol (UK) but was online this year due to Covid. The Film Festival ran from March 19-28th, 2021 and included a Panel Discussion on March 25th, 2021.
I am so honoured to be included in her research. Other mask makers that were interviewed were Mammu Rauhala (@mammu) from Finland and Liuba Malikova (@dis_order_dress and @luba_of_dis_order) from Ukraine.
Her paper is called “A Mask of One’s Own” and in Dr. Tchermalykh’s words, "This paper uses an anthropological lens to make sense of the expanding artistic creativity, related to hygienic masks and other face-covering devices in the times of Covid-19 in relation to other social meanings attributed to these objects.”
