Manuel Axel Strain: The Perpetual Runnings of the Intercessors

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Manuel Axel Strain, "The regalia my dad tried to pass on to me," 2021

Strain’s father’s old work overalls, safety vests and rope, found family photo of Strain’s father and uncles, tourniquets, dimensions variable

Manuel Axel Strain is a 2spirit interdisciplinary artist with xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Simpcw, and Inkumupulux heritage based in the sacred and ancestral homelands and waters of the Katzie and Kwantlen peoples. In their profoundly personal and political exhibition, The Perpetual Runnings of the Intercessors, Strain transforms the gallery through a series of large-scale mixed-media installations. Using video, sound, scale, and space, they transport and transform the viewer. 

Strain’s installations emphasize the governmentality of land and water and its ties to an ancestral spiritual substance. There are several intercessors in Strain’s exhibition; individuals and beings who intervene, intercede, or negotiate on behalf of another. The intercessors’ labour, activism, and knowledge take different forms of conflation and commonality in their approach in reducing harm. The work in this exhibition stands to witness the ways in which colonial capitalist modes of extraction are intertwined with Indigenous life forces and sovereignties. Themes of history, family, and gender are carried throughout Strain’s work. Living experiences as well as the knowledge they have gained from their mother, father, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, and ancestors inform and shape Strain's work, and this exhibition. 

Strain uses their art practice to confront and undermine the imposed realities of colonialism. Proposing a new space beyond its oppressive systems of power they work with painting, photography, sculpture, performance, and installation. They have contributed work to the Capture Photography Festival through Richmond Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, and more distant places across Turtle Island.

This exhibition was created in collaboration with Tracey Eustache, Condesa Strain, Quintasket Strain, Segwses Strain, Mary Point, Eric Van Stone, Kali Van Stone, Eric Strain, Cam Strain and Jesse Blanchard.