Aiyana Joe Wood | ᑯᐦᐸᑌᔨᒣᐤ | kohpâtêyimêw In Contempt

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"ᑯᐦᐸᑌᔨᒣᐤ | kohpâtêyimêw In Contempt"

Courtesy of the Gallery.

Opening Friday / October 21st / 6 pm - 9 pm. 

Trigger Warnings: SA, Abuse, References to Institutionalized Medical Settings,  Racism

Lead artist, Aiyana Joe Wood, invites you to reflect on her experiences of being held ‘in contempt’ in child welfare and mental health systems.  

Having been branded the “problem child” – after surviving sexual abuse in a foster home in rural Manitoba – Aiyana was moved away from her 8 siblings and home community, to Winnipeg, and eventually, on to Toronto. Each relocation held promise for Aiyana receiving “care,” but instead she was given interviews and medications – “more reasons to run away, than to stay.” 

Reports from agencies responsible for her “care,” during her first transition to living as a trans woman and two spirit person, form the core material of this multimedia project. Aiyana has redacted and responded to those reports, showing how these systems held her in contempt.

Much of the material in this exhibition may be activating, so Aiyana has created a place for audience members to pause.  As a child, Aiyana found calm and safety in trees that she climbed, and so she sculpted treetops out of balsa wood and paper, which have been digitized for this exhibition.  

Aiyana has sculpted “justice out of injustice”, conveying the “poetics” of her survivance as a member of South Indian Lake First Nation, as a Cree person reconnecting with customary ways of living, and as a two spirit person.