#Artist Statement

[medranochav]

[piizunn]

“Knowing You Has Made Me a Better Settler Person”: Tokenizing the Métis Identity 

View my work: A Spectacle of Me for You 

By riel 

My name is riel, I am a Red River Métis artist descending maternally from the historic Métis families by the names of Berthelet, Caron, St. Germaine, Dubois, Dazé, and Larivière, who come from the communities of Pointe à Grouette, now St. Agathe, St. Norbert, and St. Vital, now modern-day Winnipeg, and the historic Batoche, Saskatchewan. My Berthelet ancestors, notably my third great grandfather Joseph Berthelet Sr. was a community leader of Pointe à Grouette, and my fifth-great uncle Jean Caron Sr fought at fifty-two years old in the battle of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan of the North-West Resistance of 1885. His house is now a historic site in Batoche. My mother is a Métis academic with a background in education and my father is a settler of British ancestry, and an archaeologist-turned-locksmith. I introduce myself in this way, in the traditional way of Métis authors, such as Chantal Fiola and Jean Teillet, to contextualize my knowledge and experiences, as well as my connection to this land.  

Earlier this year, 2022, as the winter semester wrapped up, and spring was beginning to rear its big green head, I finished building a Red River cart. It was four months of research and physical labour. I taught myself methods of wood joinery that my ancestors would have used, the hand tools they had access to pre-industrial revolution, as well as the power tools we as modern Métis have access to now. After the cart’s completion I installed it in the Ivan Gallery at school. That is when and where it happened. A classmate of settler colonial ancestry approached me. We had spent two semesters at odds. Her work focused on the climate crisis but came from a place of doomism and borderline eco-fascism. She regurgitated colonial narratives regarding our “doomed world” and the inherent violence of humans, and when she was corrected and shown the harm in her words she doubled down.  

She said to me “knowing you, has made me a better person.” I do not know this woman and she does not know me, but I believe I knew her in that moment. To her, I am an encyclopedia, a fountain of knowledge for her to drink from whenever she wants to feel a little less guilty. I realized what she meant. 

“Knowing you has made me a better settler person” 

What does it take to know a person? Who defines knowing? In that moment, I knew my classmate, but she could not have known me less. To her, and many others I have met in my life, my culture and I represented an outlet for settler guilt. I was the “real Indian” she took a photo with to prove her proximity and understanding of Indigeneity (James Luna). Because in settler minds, every Indian is every Indian, and every Indian is an encyclopedia to test knowledge against. I am a measuring stick for settlers to compare their thoughts and actions to. 

I began to really consider how settlers were tokenizing me; sexually, intellectually, culturally, spiritually, to settlers I am a fantasy Métis academic. I am an all knowing all sensing wise Indian who can track a man through all terrains, who can tell you your spirit name by just looking at you, who will save your life when you are caught unprepared on my land, and who will scalp an enemy with no mercy. That is what people want from me, not the stories of the Métis resistance leaders who tried to overtake your settler ancestors in the Northwest Resistance, who could spit bullets and toss gunpower directly into their guns all while on horseback. They do not want to hear about The Old Wolves who fought in the Northwest Resistance and years later met in St. Vital to lovingly and meticulously document our young nation’s history, who hated the word “rebellion” (Jean Teillet). 

A Spectacle of Me for You is an installation containing a series of sculptures, photographs, prints, and found objects arranged in a “spectacle” of the Métis identity. The work is the result of experimentation with materials and engagement with Métis theory on self-governance and our history. Being named after Louis Riel often feels like an invitation for settlers to give me their unsolicited opinion on whether my ethnic group should have rights, and if Louis Riel was a madman or not, with most of the conversations quickly becoming anti-Indigenous and/or ableist. To my people, however, it is an honour to be named after Riel, the man who, with Gabriel Dumont successfully won the Red River Resistance of 1869, and commanded my ancestors in the Northwest Resistance of 1885. In this work I employ Indigenous humour- our ability to make fun of ourselves, remaining in control of the joke in order to remove that power from settlers, who are suddenly uncomfortably aware of their perception of Indigenous peoples. I have been heavily influenced by artists like Jesse Ray Short who dressed as Louis Riel in a drag-esque performance, and James Luna’s performance Take A Picture with a Real Indian (2001) and Artifact Piece (1987), Dayna Danger’s Big ‘Uns series, specifically for their reclamation of explicit Indigenous sexuality, and their ways of incorporating Indigenous, specifically Métis and Salteaux material culture into representations of Indigenous sexuality. Finally, I also would like to reference Rebecca Belmore’s piece Artifact #671B from 1988, where Belmore implicates her own body as an artifact in similar ways that James Luna has.  

The viewer enters the room to find a table at the back of the room, seemingly an in-use workspace, with a sewing mannequin dressed in brown pants, a red and black flannel, a Louis Riel shirt, and a beaded leather strap on placed over the pants. There is also a half-deflated mask of Louis Riel placed on the table. On the table there are postcards- free for the viewer to take with two different designs to choose from. On one side of the room a log has been placed on the ground and another rests a few feet away, seemingly more haphazardly than the carefully placed log.  

A Spectacle of Me for You is a staged representation of what a beader’s workspace might look like. A series of props that vaguely reference the Métis but does not actually represent the workspace of the artist. It is a highly curated idea of the Métis identity, playing on well-known stereotypes. Among the workspace set-up there are two stacks of postcards, one with a shot of the artist posing with two logs they personally harvested in January of 2022, left over from building a Red River cart, one of the logs positioned suggestively between the legs of the artist. They are dressed in stereotypical lumberjack clothes as well as a t-shirt with Louis Riel’s face and a slogan that reads “keepin’ it Riel”. The artist also wears a latex mask of Louis Riel, tying the fantasy together.   

Otipemisiwak Voyageur Fantasy Husband is a series of postcards as well as a costume worn by the artist to comment on different aspects of tokenization. The leather strap on harness worn over their clothes is an overt reference to the fetishization of Indigenous people, specifically Indigiqueer and Two Spirit community members, and a comparison of Indigenous and settler masculinity. The harness is paired with a lumberjack style flannel and a shirt with an image of Louis Riel that reads “keepin it real”, and a latex mask of Riel, worn on the artist’s head, obscuring their face. The postcards and the mask are a reference to modern Métis material culture and our infatuation with objects with Louis Riel’s face. The mass-production of these items has both caused a massive inflation of Louis Riel-kitsch, but also a larger awareness of our presence as Métis people, and what Riel means to us. Akin to the presidents' masks used by the Ex-Presidents gang in the 1991 film Point Break, the artist uses their Riel mask to draw attention to the way real historical figures, particularly politicians become caricatures of their actual selves in the eyes of the public, allowing them to be immortalized in popular culture. On a smaller scale, something similar has happened to Louis Riel where many settlers deem him a violent mad-man, and reduce him to a caricature of himself, while the Métis have reclaimed this treatment, and have found ways to honour him in our material culture. 

References/Works Cited 

BELMORE, REBECCA. ARTIFACT #671B, 1988. 

BIGELOW, KATHRYN. POINT BREAK. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX, 1991.  

BURNS, CLARISSA. VOYAGEUR GAMES DEMONSTRATION. https://metisgathering.ca/classroom-resources/classroom-voyageur-games/. MÉTIS GATHERING. 2022.  

LUNA, JAMES. TAKE A PICTURE WITH A REAL INDIAN, 2000.  

LUNA, JAMES. ARTEFACT PIECE, 1987. 

   RIEL, LOUIS. FINAL TRIAL STATEMENT. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/riel/rieltrialstatement.html. JULY 31ST 1885.  

SHORT, JESSIE RAY. WAKE UP!, 2015. 

  TEILLET, JEAN. THE NORTH-WEST IS OUR MOTHER : THE STORY OF LOUIS RIEL’S PEOPLE, THE METIS NATION. PATRICK CREAN EDITIONS, AN IMPRINT OF HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD., 2013. 

[noosphe-re]

Artist Statement, Antony Gormley

Things already exist

Sculpture already exists

The job is to transform what exists in the outer world

by uniting it with the world of

sensation, imagination and faith.

Action can be confused with life.

Much of human life is hidden.

Sculpture, in stillness, can transmit what may not be seen.

My work is to make bodies into vessels

that both contain and occupy space.

Space exists outside the door and inside the head.

My work is to make human space in space.

Each work is a place between form and formlessness,

a time between origin and becoming.

A house is the form of vulnerability,

darkness is revealed by light.

My work is to make a place, free from knowledge,

free from history, free from nationality to be experienced freely.

In art there is no progress, only art.

Art is always for the future.

Published in Antony Gormley: Five Works, Serpentine Gallery, London: Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1987 (source)

[mrvelocipede]

while I'm in a mood to be grouchily halftoning, might as well do this

[goldenfever]

peggy nolan : from juggling is easy

ARTIST STATEMENT

Got married raised seven kids lived in the projects stayed home cooked and cleaned dreamed of making art started photographing shoplifted film learned to print shot a lot of pictures stole more film moved out of the projects went back to college shot more film studied hard got a job shot more pictures got divorced got pierced up worked harder graduated from college stole more film got some grants got some attention not really enough shot more film made more and more pictures got a better job went back to college graduated from graduate school kids grew moved out of the house shot more film got more grants got more attention still not enough calmed down stopped stealing film slowed down some started thinking more shot better pictures calmed down slowed down still thinking still making pictures.

[burnsbothends]

The paintings I make start out as origami, either corrugations or abstract ideas. I have been doing origami for close to 30 years (much of it without great skill), and I've always loved how a flat plane can create such intricate shapes of high contrast and shadow, and I've never really been into representational origami. I started making more origami a couple years ago, as a fidget, and some friends got very excited and said they'd take anything I make (so I didn't have to throw it away). After several months of giving a full grocery bag of origami away every 2 weeks, and having seen several examples of painted origami that's focused on creating illusions of dimensionality on a flat surface (specifically Tola Navarro, I'm very grateful to him for posting videos of his process and his pieces), I decided to experiment with more complex origami concepts and CYMK as a color base, because I adore it when cymk prints are slightly misaligned and show the ways the layering works. I've learned a lot about riding the middle ground between visually uninteresting and visually cluttered and more about geometry and trigonometry with this project than I ever did in school.

I personally feel it is very important for me to share these pieces with people for free or pay what you want - I am making them as a creative outlet and a way to give gifts, not as a commercial pursuit. I've been mailing pieces to online friends and community members I've never met with standard envelopes, I've given lots to local friends, and if I get enough of a backlog again I will be mailing them to artists, authors, creatives, and activists who I like and have public mailing addresses. Each piece costs between $0.25 USD and $5.00 USD in materials, painting is very quick, and designing and folding the paper is something I'd be doing anyway, just with less I can do with the results.

Hopefully I can find a place that will take the ones that turn out Very Good on consignment. I am immunocompromised and multiply disabled, so vending in the community isn't an option. I am trying to keep my art practice as a personal hobby with intrinsic reward instead of another source of stress and obligation, so I'm not interested in making a web store and dealing with fulfillment and stuff that feels like work. However, I've been posting pictures of this in a variety of discords and direct messages, and realized I should probably put everything in a central location with very low barriers so everyone who wants to keep up with this is about to do so.

I have no formal training or experience in art or painting. I use kami paper, artist paper (Canson Mi-Tientes and Canson Black Drawing), kraft paper, a ruler, a compass, pencils, and Montana spray paint. I occasionally get cheap frames for some of the better pieces. If you want a piece or two, message me, I'll see what I can do!

[k00291991]

Portrait Brief, Twins - Statement

We were all given the brief of “Portrait” as the first project of the Painting Course. I decided to work on the theme of Portrait through the fact that I’m a twin and how even if our external portraits are very similar our internal portraits or our identities aren’t, and how the effects of being treated as one had strongly influenced the feelings showcased in this project.

I was given many opportunity during the course to explore different media’s and styles of painting. The life painting and drawing classes were extremely beneficial to work on compositions, shadows, colour theory and basic drawing and painting skills. The 3D printing workshop we had with Eoin and Louis sticks out greatly to me as it helped myself and my peers break out of any rigid ideas of painting. This workshop also helped me create a really large collaborative piece with my friends on the course and this process was incredibly fun for all of us and I look at that piece on the wall every day in college now and fondly remember how much I bonded with my friends that day. Another workshop that I really enjoyed was the reimagining painting workshop we did with Paul which truly stretched my creative muscles and I was so happy with the end result, it also helped me gain some photography knowledge which later on helped me do my own photography pieces for the project later.

I was so pleased with the theme I had chosen for my project, it was personal to me and it gave me so many avenues to explore throughout this project. I had access to a lot of primary sources throughout this project which made producing work and ideas for his project a joy. I did some basic portraits of myself and my twin to break into the project and to give a visual launching pad for the rest of the project. A lot of my work throughout this project delved into the internal differences between myself and my twin as the overall theme for me was to point out that even though our external portraits our similar our personalities aren’t and these pieces highlighted that. I examined the different common items we used, our music tastes, our friend groups, our interests and how we were often forced to enjoy the same thing and dress the same way in our childhood. I also created a large painting which I was very proud of which showed the emotion and how suffocating it can be to be tied together as one for our whole lives and how that can build resentment and make you often not recognise yourself, your identity or your portrait.

I believe I engaged well with the course and I think that reflects through my project, my artist research, my use of multiple media and the in detail I go into throughout my Tumblr posts. I loved the entire process of this project greatly and feel as though I learned a great deal throughout it.

[k00297901]

Disrupt

My “Disrupt” project focuses on the world of work and burnout. Within this dreamlike realm, I dismantle and distort defined symbols of work - arrows, computer keyboards, telephones - challenging their traditional meanings and rigidity. I wanted to convey the idea of falling asleep at your desk and the whole space around you beginning to shift and look a little bit off.

By disrupting these elements, I aim to make explore the fragility of corporate structures and the concept of success, urging the audience to question, reflect, and redefine connection with the corporate world and its impact on well-being. Is it worth being so exhausted and burnt out, spending this life working towards stability you may never see and a house you will *never* afford at this rate?

[erinbakerphotography]

Artist Statement

I have significantly improved in my photography over the last 4 months. My work in class and my volunteer work at a local shelter has allowed me to develop a passion for photography. In particular, I have grown to love shooting shelter animals.

I adore taking photos of shelter pets that capture their personality to help them find their fur-ever homes. Working with shelter animals, especially dogs lately, has grown my passion for animal advocacy and allowed me to refine a skill that helps these sweet animals find homes. My skills with shooting a subject who doesn't always listen to direction, those who are scared of the camera (or just everything in general) are blossoming and I can not wait to keep growing them. I want nothing more than for all the animals whose pictures I capture to find loving homes and humans to call their own.

[mxdnxghtraven]

Identity Behind Closed Doors, 2023

// Authors Note: The following artist statement and photos are from my final project of the semester for my photography course. I have chosen to not connect this to one of my ongoing stories, as this project is incredibly vulnerable, raw, and personal to me.

I intentionally chose to have eight photos that look as though they are from two different projects. Identity is both inward and outward facing, with the cool tone photos being inward and the warm tone photos being outward respectively. Over the last few years, I have experienced being told that I am not trans because I present in a gender non-conforming manner, that I don’t deserve to be trans, that I am just confused, that I am a white girl that wants to be different, the list goes on. The reality is that I am a man and always have been, even prior to having the words to describe what I have felt since childhood. 

The warm photos tell the story in a movie frame style that show the way societal responses and pressure affect how I view my own identity: damaged, broken, misunderstood. I have experienced microaggressions ever since I came out. The cool tone photos tell a story in the same movie frame style, but of my inward struggles with living in a body that does not correspond to the image I have of myself in my mind. In my mind, I do not have a feminine chest, I have a deeper and more masculine voice, and my frame is more masculine and muscular/toned (which I briefly achieved in high school). 

Simply put, at every stage of my transition, I am a man. I can be a man with a feminine chest. I can be a man with a feminine voice. I can be a man with a feminine figure. I can be a man in makeup. I can be a man in a dress. I can be a man in a suit. I use he/they pronouns, and I make it very clear. There is simply no excuse for misgendering me. I have more important things to do than adhering to outdated gender norms.

[ancientstarrydynamo]

Why so close? So beautiful I understand.. but why?

The simple answer to why I chose macrophotography is that I'm good at it. Even when working with a wider-angle lens, I've always had more success with closer, contained subjects. This is something my photography professor even commented on. At this point it almost feels slightly agoraphobic for me to work with wider subject matter. How can I possible encapsulate the entirety of a mountain range? or a sunset? It seems like pure hubris to even try.

In contrast, the delicate folds of a flower petal are controllable. I can turn them the way I want. I can examine every facet and know everything there is to know about them. I can also share all the secrets I've found with the rest of the world. Art to me is about showing something true to someone who hasn't noticed it before.

And regarding your other ask about possible connections to science. I consider myself very inspired by science photography, but I personally only have a degree in studio art. My father was both a scientist and a photographer who worked at a lab named after Doc Edgerton who was a pioneer in high-speed photography (he's rad, look him up).

[charleeadamsart]

✿ WTF Even is This?

I make (and share) art to connect people in this late stage capitalist hellscape.

I’m inspired by 90s counterculture, punk/DIY/zine aesthetics, queerness, neurospice + retinal burning colour. I make prints, zines, illustrations, posters + collages.

I want you to see my art + feel something (hopefully, ultimately, that you’re not alone).

So put on your peril sensitive sunglasses + join me.

Check out all my posts of my own work. You can also see all my finished pieces over at my Insta account. I mostly work with ink + digital drawing, analogue + digital collage, and lino. You'll find the materials, resources + references I used at the bottom of every Tumblr post.

If you make banging alternative/counterculture art, I'd love to share it! Hit me up if you have something you want me to share. If I don't feel it fits with the vibe of the page, I might not share it directly, but I'll periodically post a "punk art follows" list featuring the best accounts I didn't share. No submissions from under 16s plz.

Ah go on, Father. Ya will ya will ya will ya will. I do band/gig posters, album covers, punky-grungy graphic design, branding + (cheap, fast, accessible) websites. I occasionally do an art commission, too, if it's the right job. Talk to me.

Transphobia is not very punk rock of you. I won't tolerate that or any other bigoted bs, so expect to be blocked if you show up here with the hate. This is a safe space for everyone except dickheads. If I unwittingly share a post from a dickhead, let me know please!

[k00286654]

Project statement for 'MOVEMENT'

3rd/March/2023

My project began as a visual investigation into the Gothic Architectural and Literature movement. I began my primary research by looking at the ornamentation and structures of Gothic Churches and Stained-glass windows. I was interested in this theme as I am fascinated by the towering arches and decoration, and I am also a big fan of harry Clarke's work. This then led me to studying forms and people in a stylized way. 

I began with gesture drawings and then experimented with drawing on acetate to recreate the stained-glass window effect. I then continued this experiment into print through creating Lino stamps inspired by photos I had taken of Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg and printing onto acetate. 

Along with gothic architecture I studied Gothic Literature and illustrations. I enjoy and collect gothic poetry and literature and so took scans from my own book pages and sewed, tore, and applied them to show the decay and macabre of the genre of writing. I then created a Screenprint based on ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allen Poe. 

I then approached the fashion module by basing my pieces on architectural features and fragmented forms. This led to my crochet piece, where I employed the technique of free form crochet. My crochet piece then inspired me to return to printing onto acetate. I took fragments of my crochet and created ‘panels’ and then cut out a stencil. I continued this combining of textiles and print by printing my Lino pieces onto fabric 

Overall, I am not incredibly happy with the work I produced this semester and felt I could have pushed myself more and to be more experimentative. However, I enjoyed being in the studios of my chosen electives (painting, print & fashion), and this gave me focus and enthusiasm towards them.  

[k00281190]

Temporary project: artist statement

Exploring 'Temporary' through transformation and identity through mark making and tattoos

Exhibition space

-At the beginning of the project, I started to photograph and video tablets dissolving and I was interested in the performance aspect of it dissolving but quickly lost interest.

-I then started to look at how the skin aged, and how tattoos looked as the body aged. I experimented with melting sheets of plastic and manipulating its form to create a skin-like texture. I ventured into layering a temporary tattoo on top and seeing how its form changed along with the plastic.

-Tried to make my own temporary tattoos using camera obscura but I ultimately thought it was a failure and I didn't like the outcome.

-After the progress review they suggested that I should cast limbs and that became something to draw on. I cast my hand and eventually decorated it with scarification, wanted the project to become more personal to me, so I delved into mark-making and scarification in Africa and connected it by taking some photos of African paintings in my house and abstracting patterns.

- created a plaster cast of my arm, wanted an interactive piece included in my body of work and had students sign it.

- Gloves thought it was an interesting way of transferring a permanent piece of art, from one person to another.

- created collages from magazine cutouts, tracing the history of tattoos and identity also wanted to be sustainable so I used discarded magazines and fabric scraps.

- experimented with latex; layered on top of cling film to create a skin-like texture and painted it, again looking at how people go through pain to adorn their bodies and showcase their identity.

[sueclancy]

Figures Of Speech and writing artist statements

The exercise of writing an art statement for my upcomin art exhibit “Figures Of Speech” has me reaching for essays by Wendell Berry and thinking of the ways poetry can evoke many thoughts and feelings in a few lines. My upcoming art exhibit is titled Figures Of Speech and the title is itself a description of what my exhibit is about. I know exactly what inspired all of the individual artworks…

[derekgillespiefn]