Artist explores space where the rivers meet
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This article was published 25/02/2019 (2469 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
In her new solo show at Gallery 1C03, Métis artist Katherine Boyer explores her family’s connection to the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.
Water Meets Body opens at the University of Winnipeg’s on-campus gallery on Feb. 28 and runs until April 9.
The exhibit metaphorically invites gallery visitors inside Boyer’s family home, which is linked to land and water. It features wood, textile, bead, clay and video installations that reference her family’s history of arriving at and departing from the banks of the Winnipeg rivers over the last 200 years.
Boyer received a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Regina and completed a master of fine arts degree at the University of Manitoba, where she now works as an assistant professor. Her own return to Winnipeg has had a profound impact on her artwork.
“I feel a responsibility to project towards the future, with one hand greeting the past, to build new relationships to home, histories and recognizing our bodies inhabiting significant spaces,” Boyer wrote in a statement.
Gallery 1C03 curator Jennifer Gibson has been following Boyer’s career for a number of years and says the four installations featured in Water Meets Body have never been exhibited before, but come from a very personal place for the artist.
“She’s thinking a lot about issues around cultural and land displacement, but also about how the Métis are very resilient people,” Gibson said.
One of the largest pieces in the show is a 12-foot-long table that snakes through the middle of the gallery and represents concepts of sustenance and kinship.
“The particular bends of this river actually correlate to the section of land where her family settled along the river, so it’s very specific,” Gibson said.
Underneath the table are a series of tiles made from Red River clay that Boyer harvested and designed to look like vintage linoleum kitchen tiles — reminiscent of the river bed and the house she grew up in.
A video installation, titled A Valley in twain, grapples with the remnant site of family land that was submerged by construction of the Rafferty Dam in southern Saskatchewan. According to an artist statement, “this piece signifies broken promises to Métis communities as previous generations of the artist’s family were pressured or forced to leave settlement after settlement.”
And finally, a trio of beaded textile wall hangings represent the resistance from women in her family to the negative impacts of Catholicism through creativity.
Gibson says visitors will be impressed with Boyer’s multimedia approach to the exhibit.
“It’s really amazing that she pushes herself to create with so many different media,” she said.
An opening reception is scheduled for Thurs., Feb. 28, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Gallery 1C03.
An artist-led workshop takes place March 12 at the university’s greenhouse artlab. It is open to women, non-binary, 2Spirit and Queer people. Pre-registration required by contacting Gallery 1C03.
Boyer hosts a talk at the gallery on March 19 at 10:00 am
On March 21, she will lead a bead ‘n talk for Indigenous women, non-binary, 2Spirit and Queer people.
Visit uwinnipeg.ca/art-gallery for more information.