[shooger-koht-ed] / ZiizibaakwadAgoke / Ésíwinikátéki
to
Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art 203 - 290 McDermot Ave, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0T2
Catherine Forest
English / Ojibwe / Cree EXHIBITION / WAABANDA’IWEM / NÓKOTÁWINA
[shooger-koht-ed] / ZiizibaakwadAgoke / Ésíwinikátéki
Main Gallery: Catherine Forest, Jessica Canard, Scott Benesiinaabandan
MFMG: Bret Parenteau
Opening Reception / Baakinigaadeg / Káwí páskiténikáték wíkokéwin: Friday June 7 2019 at 8 pm - 11:00 pm
Join Urban Shaman celebrate 2019 as the year of Indigenous Languages as we open as part of our Sacred Sounds: The Legacy of Anishinaabemowin project [shooger-koht-ed] / ZiizibaakwadAgoke / Ésíwinikátéki
Opening June 7, 2019. Sacred Sounds: The Legacy of Anishinaabemowin is a public awareness campaign promoting cultural literacy in Indigenous languages, tailored to Winnipeg and nearby reserve communities. Anishinaabemowin is a family of Indigenous languages in central Canada. Urban is in the process of having the majority of our promotions and web presence to reflect the importance of prairie Aboriginal languages in the everyday, to know that our language is accessible for future generations to learn.
Curatorial Statement / Niigaan Ikidowin / Okinawénicikéw opíkiskwéwin:
Out of the twenty thousand to one hundred thousand words the typical English speaking adult knows, the word sugarcoated is a go-to description used by different people in different situations to describe the rhetoric surrounding indigenous rights. Many agree. From works of four artists, our attention sways between the different thoughts and emotions that are felt when unpacking that sugar coated language. The selected artworks are only a few prototypes of basic level categories of indigenous cognition that are often omitted in consideration in interpretations of reality.
Throughout the exhibition, the viewer is given one key piece of information and is to then build on those word relationships producing many different possibilities of discourse. The works of Catherine Forest displays the human condition in three different ceramic projects. New works by Bret Parenteau draws from our semantic memory with different schemas through ensembles of auditory and visual imagery. Scott Benesiinaabandan’s phonetic approach brings to light the word sounds of nature vs. nurture. And new work from Jessica Canard’s mixed media practice, whole words beaded in syllabics on canvas offering hope for the future of indigenous language preservation despite its oppression.