Artist Statement for “Exploring Indigeneity Through Craft and Textile”
I am a multidisciplinary artist whose practice focuses on printmaking, painting, and beading. I work around the theme of Indigeneity and pull from aspects of my culture. I am particularly interested in, but not limited to, Indigenous textiles and crafts, specifically ribbons and beads.
I created a series of five four-colour separation screenprints of fancy dancers and chicken dancers with ribbon additions. These photographs are from an Ontario based photographer, Ang Tek Gie, who focuses on sports and powwow themes. I chose to represent these types of powwow dancers because they typically have the most ribbons on their regalia and tend to have lots of movement in photographs. I wanted to display dancers as powwow is an important and sacred part of my Cree culture.
The next series I created is of three painted portraits of historical Indigenous figures with interpreted beaded elements. My intent with this series is to showcase and inform others of these influential Indigenous figures. The portraits are in black and white to represent a past time-period while keeping the coloured beading helps it stand out and gives contrast. The colour and texture of the background are inspired by a tanned rawhide.
I have two beaded paintings outside of my series, the one titled Jingle Dress showcases a jingle dancer because they are my favourite type of powwow dancer. I beaded a medicine wheel hair clip and a necklace. The medicine wheel symbolizes the four aspects of being, mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. The other beaded painting is titled Childhood Moccasins. It is a painting of my moccasins that were gifted to me by my grandmother when I was twelve. I beaded the part of the slipper that is typically beaded.
My last piece is a beaded stretched hide, it is made from wood poles, rope, canvas, and beads. I wanted it to represent a freshly fleshed moose hide. Indigenous cultures use all of the animal when killed and stretching, fleshing, and drying of the hide are common practices.
With these bodies of work, I want to shine light on Indigenous art while showcasing different elements of my Cree and Metis background. I am inspired by historical and contemporary Indigenous artists such as Christi Belcourt and Aleksi Ann. My art is a show of my respect for the knowledge and traditions of my people, and I am passionate about decolonizing the art practices that originate from my Indigenous ancestors.