Contain That Force: 7 Solo Acts, Ottawa ON

studio rehearsal. objects arrive in all forms ranging from shipping boxes to delivered by hand.

For SAW Video Media Art Centre on May 24th 2013 at 7:30pm in Club SAW, 67 Nicolas Street, Ottawa, I will present Contain that Force: 7 Solo Acts; a new project comprising video projection and live performance. Contain that Force: 7 Solo Acts features objects solicited from seven artists to be utilized in this project, including: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Ann Beam, Laura Ortman, Waubgeshig Rice, Zachary Fabri, Sterlin Harjo and Andrea Geyer. Objects range from original work created specifically for this event to the symbolic. Activating these objects through performance, I attempt to form a new compendium of personal and historical narratives that intersect Native American performance art.

This performance is presented in association with the National Gallery of Canada’s International Indigenous project SAKAHAN, which will feature programming contributions from many galleries and artist-run-centres across the city in conjunction with the NGC’s main exhibition. 

The event is free admission.

For more info see link: http://www.sawvideo.com/

All is Moving, New York NY

Performing with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s painting “Turtle Island” at Accola Griefen Gallery, 2013. Photo credit: Rob van Erve.

“All Is Moving”, performance from March 28, 2013, in conjunction with the exhibit, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Water and War, ACCOLA GRIEFEN GALLERY, 547 W 27th Street, NY NY 10013. Video by Meredith Drum. See link to view performance:

http://vimeo.com/63378798

The titles of Jaune’s paintings I responded to, in order of appearance:
1.Sissy and the Plutocrats (a female Sisyphus pushes her shopping cart up a mountain, which is laden with elegant foodstuffs)
2.Imperialism
3.Black Ice
4.Shock and Awe
5.Turtle Island
6.Underwater

Images of Jaune’s paintings can be found here:
http://accolagriefen.com/artists/jaune-quick-to-see-smith/slideshow#image-1130

The Old Becomes The New, LES New York

Travel Bag, hand sewn industrial felt, 2013. Made during Open Studios Museum of Art and Design, spring 2012.

The Old Becomes the New: New York Contemporary Native American Art Movement and The New York School

Curated by David Bunn Martine

Opens April 3 – June 2, 2013
Reception April 4, 6-8pm
at Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba 219 East Second Street, New York NY 10009

All is Moving, Accola Griefen Gallery NY

Performing with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s painting Black Ice at Accola Griefen Gallery, 2013. Photo credit: Rob van Erve.

In the performance All is Moving, I respond to the paintings of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith using common items that speak to our times such as candy, a silver glove, emergency survival blankets and my signature wooden tokens.

Thursday, March 28th at 6:30pm at Accola Griefen Gallery 547 W 27th St 6th Floor, NY NY

For more info see link: http://accolagriefen.com/news

BxAA, Andrew Freedman Home 2013

Catch a glimpse of my latest and most ambitious project a life sized snowmobile suit with helmet! The suit continues my investigation into   objects we carry on the body through hand-sewn industrial felt. Created during the Wave Hill Winter Workspace 2013 this work is part of the group exhibition “We Are Still Here: Art IN the Bronx”. Presented as Bronx Day in conjunction with Armory Arts Week, South Bronx Arts/Cultural Express II, with artists from the Bronx Arts Alliance (BxAA) representing organizations at the Andrew Freedman Home.

The exhibition, organized by Jeanine Alfieri runs from March 6th-8th, 11am-8pm. The Andrew Freeman Home is located at 1125 Grand Concourse, 166th Street. Admission is free and open to the general public.

For more information see link: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/bronx-day-event-armory-show-2013-thursday-article-1.1279184

Artist Leadership Program, Smithsonian 2013

My participation in the Artist Leadership Program, Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC came to a conclusion this past February in Parry Sound Ontario Canada. The program provided me with the rare opportunity to connect historical material culture with cultural language preservation in an educational context. For the first segment of this program I spent two weeks in November documenting and gathering as much information from NMAI, NMNH, NAA, Library of Congress, and SI Folklife about the cultural material, photos, and music that comes from my people the Anishnaabe/Ojibway of Wasauksing First Nation and the surrounding region where I grew up in Ontario Canada. For the second part of this program I shared my current Brooklyn NY based art projects and historical research with students in the Ojibway Cultural Language class at my old high school taught by Johna Hupfield. Over 800 native and non-native students attend this school and five native communities are bused in from Wasauksing, Henvey Inlet, Moose Deer Point, Magnetawan and Shawanaga First Nation. Together we asked the question ‎”Aaniish enjii-mno-nokii?” (“What is the good work you do?”) and the students talked in Ojibway on what the NMAI collection images meant to them. To learn more about the Artist Leadership program, visit http://nmai.si.edu/connect/artist-leadership-program/

Photo by John Hupfield

Wave Hill Winter Workspace 2013

My time at the Wave Hill Winter Workspace 2013 has come to a close. Working in the sunroom and walking the 28-acre public garden and cultural center overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades in the Bronx each day made for a glorious and inviting winter retreat. During the six week residency I reconnected with my rural Canadian upbringing exploring human interaction with mediated spaces in the natural world working with industrial felt, creating a snowmobile suit, and  repurposing the honey jars (used for the onsite locally produced honey sold in the gift shop) into snowglobes. I look forward to sharing the new work in the near future. For more information on Wave Hill and the artist residency program please visit this link:

http://www.wavehill.org/arts/exhibits/winter-workspace-2013/