Book Description

All Amazed celebrates the life and work of the late Roy Kiyooka (1926-1994), one of Canada's first multi-disciplinary artists whose work transcended categorical and cultural exclusivity. At various periods of his life, Kiyooka was a painter, sculptor, teacher, poet, musician, filmmaker, and photographer. When Kiyooka arrived in Vancouver in 1959, he was already one of Canada's most respected abstract painters. His modernist stance at the time inspired a generation of Vancouver painters to reach beyond regionalism. In the sixties and seventies, Kiyooka began to write and publish poetry and produce photographic works; the best known of these, StoneDGloves (1969-1970), is both a poetic and photographic project. In all of his projects, he saw the position of the artist as being in opposition to the institutions of art. The shape and scope of Kiyooka's work continues to be revealed, seven years after his death. Based on a major multidisciplinary conference at the University of British Columbia organized by such luminaries as Michael Ondaatje, Daphne Marlatt, Scott Watson, and John O'Brian, All Amazed pays tribute to a remarkable artist and poet who continues to amaze and astound us. Includes essays by Roy Miki, Henry Tsang, Sheryl Conkelton, and Scott Toguri McFarlane, as well as numerous black and white images of Kiyooka's artwork.