ART GALLERY OF GUELPH
This piece, created by Adrian Stimson, is a painting of ancient indigenous stories on a bison hide. The paintings includes many Bisons and their skulls, as well as shapes, colours, and details. The painting on this piece is stunning, but the sheer scale of the bison hide is what truly caught my eye. As soon as I walked into the room, I was intrigued by the large hide painted with gorgeous colours that compliment and match with the wall of the gallery. I found myself constantly coming back to this piece and getting swallowed by its impact and scale.
“Conservation has often served this colonial agenda, justifying the displacement and dispossession of Indigenous communities by relying on an enduring fiction—that the places being protected exist empty, unmoving, and isolated from human presence or history. Reworldings unsettles this myth and the structures it supports, challenging the belief that environmental care requires human absence or top-down management.”
The bison is a symbol of power, and this is something that Adrian focuses on within his works. By telling the stories through the pelt of a bison, he is showing the strength of the stories. The purpose remains even though he doesn’t tell the audience the story. Elders are responsible for these intimate stories, and therefore the audience for this art is focused and intimate.
This is the other piece that I chose to highlight. Done by none other than Michelle Wilson, this piece highlights the surveillance issues within the indigenous community. This is a beaded route that mimics the map that police were asked to follow. They had told the residents of this community that they were following the trail of the bison to track, count, and be aware of their movements. However, according to reports that were sent back to the government, they were also surveilling the people who resided within that community. This piece places emphasis on that. Created by quilts that brought memories back into peoples minds, Michelle weaved different strands of strings into a piece of wool to create the maps. Perhaps the most grabbing part of the piece is the eyeball protruding out. This eyeball is from a skull of the bison, yet again connecting the piece back to the bison.
Overall, I am super grateful for the ability to see this show in the gallery. I love the fact that all of the artists chose to challenge the medium in which they worked in, often working with materials that would be found on the land or have significance to the land. In addition, as someone who has a deep family history with indigenous groups within Canada, I found this especially impactful.
“Reworldings speaks to living relationships with place and peoples, to the interdependence of species and systems, and to the urgent need to restore not only ecosystems, but also justice.”
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