Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan (photo by Sonja Scharf)
Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan are this year's recipients of the Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction. The Manitoba Arts Council announced the $30,000 honour, its award for artistic excellence and longterm achievement.
Collaborators since 1989, the Winnipeg-based duo were catapulted into the national spotlight with the controversial (and now world-renowned) performance piece, We’re Talking Vulva.
Acclaimed by Border Crossings magazine as “one of the high-points" of contemporary Canadian artistic production, Dempsey and Millan have toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Japan.
Their film and video works have been screened in venues ranging from women's centres in Sri Lanka to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Highlights include an art installation titled Archaeology and You at the Royal Ontario Museum, and publications such as Lesbian National Parks & Services Field Guide to North America, published by Pedlar Press.
Roberta Christianson, chair of the Manitoba Arts Council, says the artists developed a significant body of work that has changed the landscape of the Manitoba arts community.
“This award is the Manitoba Arts Council’s way of acknowledging our artists and thanking them for the invaluable contribution they have made to the artistic culture of our province and beyond, and for the legacy they are creating,” says Christianson.
Nominator Alexis Kinloch says she appreciates the duo's "biting, insightful humour and risk-taking" and the "magic and wonder" of their art.
“I am thankful to these artists for devoting their life’s work to standing up for women, tirelessly pushing every boundary, and recontextualizing the politics of gender in and out of the gallery," says Kinloch. "They root us in reason, creating community, and guiding the way through their artwork towards a feminism defined by equality and justice for all.”
The award will be presented at the Polo Park Bowling Centre on June 20 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. All are welcome.
Source: Manitoba Arts Council