Tsēmā Igharas: Black Gold

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Tsēmā Igharas, "Black Gold," 2019

Opening reception and performance Friday, April 5, 7 pm

Conversation with the artist and Jayne Wilkinson Saturday, April 6, 2pm

Black Gold is the seductive nature of bitumen.

Black Gold is the destructive potential of bitumen.

Black Gold is our dependence, willing and unwilling, on bitumen.

Black Gold is about the nature of bitumen.

About its energy.

About our energy.

Ore bodies.

Our bodies. 

Black Gold approaches mining practices and the indisputably thriving yet destructive extractive industries in the colonial states of British Columbia and Alberta, particularly within the context of Athabasca oil sands. This project takes for start the idea that mined substances are inherently connected to our bodies through a shared geological origin. The energy of a molecule is the energy of a person is the energy of a place is the energy of a moment. 

In summer 2018, artist Tsēmā Igharas investigated these tensions through site-specific research and a residency supported by Untitled Art Society, which allowed her to delve into how these issues are made manifest on Treaty 7 Territory and Treaty 8 Territory, in comparison to how mining industries exist culturally, politically and economically in the unceded lands of artist’s home territory, Tahltan First Nation in northwestern British Columbia. 

Tsēmā Igharas is an interdisciplinary artist and a member of the Tahltan First Nation. Potlatch methodology, teachings from her mentorship in Northwest Coast Formline Design at K’saan, studies in visual culture, and time spent in the mountains all inform her practice and ways of making. Her approach challenges colonial value systems in relation to the land, and promotes, through methods of care, strategies of resistance; her work connects materials to mine sites and bodies to the land. Igharas has a Bachelor's degree from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and graduated from the Interdisciplinary Master's in Art, Media and Design program at OCADu. She is a contributing member to and representative of ReMatriate Collective, a group working toward the improvement of the ways Indigenous women are portrayed in the media. In 2018, she won the Emily Award for outstanding ECUAD alumni. Igharas has shown and performed across Canada. Internationally, she has participated in events in Chiapas, Mexico, Asheville, USA and Santiago, Chile.