This special productionbandana features Can I Get a Witness? by Jan Wade.It has been produced in support ofJan Wade’s first solo exhibition, Jan Wade: Soul Power andis available exclusively through the Gallery Store.

From Jan Wade:

I started making mail-art in my teens… I loved sending and receivingletters. Some say the art of letter writingis dead but I think-not. I still write letters. And in the era of email andtexting my family and friends still love getting them. Some of my nieces and nephews have never receivedmail and in some cases these letters are the first mail they have ever received. Some of my older friends still love getting letters… it takes them back to another era. I usually photocopy images that I feel will make avisual poem or story and put them together on the envelope and send. “Can I get a Witness”…”I Am”…”SOUL”….Your Mail-art Bandana has arrived.

• 100%Cotton
• 21 x 21inches
• Care: Machine wash cold gentle cycle. Do no bleach or use fabric softener. Tumble dry low
• Made inCanada
• 10% of proceeds from each bandanasale will be donated to the Hogan’s Alley Society

Jan Wade

Jan Wade was born in 1952 in Hamilton, Ontario, to a Black Canadian father with familial origins in the American South and a Canadian mother of European descent. Raised in a relatively segregated but close-knit Black community within the city, her formative years were heavily influenced by her local African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was also greatly influenced by Southern US Black culture and aesthetics from the perspectives of her paternal grandmother and great-grandmother. Wade studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design (197276). She moved to Vancouver in 1983 and became part of the underground art and music scene in the city, with its innovative performances, do-it-yourself art shows, anti-establishment ethos and spontaneous happenings. During this period Wade began her research into African diasporic spiritual practices and decided she wanted her art to reflect where she came from and who she is, commencing her unique artistic journey marked by self-sufficiency, empowerment, hope and radical joy. The artist produces a wide range of mixed-media works made entirely from found or readymade objects and recycled materials.