We Are The Land – JAIME BLACK ARTIST RESIDENCY (March 16th – March 22nd, 2017)

Hosted by the Women & Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto

Co-convened by Karyn Recollet and Melissa Nesrallah

Winnipeg – based Métis multidisciplinary artist Jaime Black will be an artist in residency at the University of Toronto, hosted by the Women & Gender Studies Institute (WGSI). Jaime addresses the complexities of history, gender, place, identity, and resistance under settler colonialism through the artistic mediums of photography, sculpture, print, and installation.

Black’s 2010 installation piece, The REDress Project, can be described as an aesthetic response to the 12,000+ missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across Turtle Island. The installation comprises the public display of hundreds of red dresses, to create ‘encounters’ with the disappeared and to mark their absence, sparking visceral reactions to their loss. The work aims to create space for public discussion and dialogue around the intersections of racism, misogyny and colonialism that are responsible for the precarious and dangerous position of Indigenous women in Canadian society.

Exploring themes of memory, identity and resilience, Conversations with the Land (2016) activates elements of land art, performance and installation to attend to relationships between the land and the body.  Mobilizing several modalities of creation, Conversations centers remembering and valuing cultural ties to the land.  “In many ways, Conversations with the Land works in contrast to The REDress Project. I wanted to find the places where we are strong, to remember and honour the ties we have to the land. For me the land is where I remember my strength and find connection and healing” (Black, 2016).

WGSI is excited to announce that we will be hosting Jaime Black for an artist residency from March 16th – March 22nd. The residency will feature both The REDress Project and Conversations with the Land. In addition, there will be a number of exciting and important events taking place [PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS].

Not only is this Jaime’s initial showing for the Toronto community, but this residency will  mark the first time that these important pieces have been shown together as one fluid installation.

Contact Information:

Official Email: wearetheland2017@gmail.com

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter- be sure to check back regularly.

Official Twitter: @WeAreTheLandTO

Official Facebook page: @WeAreTheLand2017

Official hashtags: #WeAreTheLandTO #WeAreTheLand2017

Note: Please RSVP to the events on our Facebook event page!

 

We Are The Land – Official Program

Opening Gathering

March 17th from 5:00pm-8:00pm

Location:  William Doo Auditorium, New College, 45 Willcocks Street

*Opening Gathering  for Jaime Black’s Artist Residency: We Are The Land.

(Featuring: Artist Talk by Jaime Black moderated by Andrea Derbecker)

 

Film Screening: Lisa Jackson’s Highway of Tears (CBC), Suckerfish, Snare, Parkdale, The Visit, Pow. Wow. Wow, Savage.  

March 18th from 6:00pm-9:00pm

Location: University College, Room UC 179 Media Room, 15 King’s College Circle

*Screening of Lisa Jackson’s VR Highway of Tears.  To be followed by Jackson’s Shorts: Parkdale, Snare, The Visit, Pow.wow.wow, and Savage. Also features guest respondents Susan Blight and Jennifer Alicia Murrin.

“Mohawk Girls” Episode Screening + Q & A with Maika Harper

March 19th from 12:00pm-3:00pm

Location: WGSI Lounge, 40 Willcocks Street

*In the TV series “Mohawk Girls,” four twenty-something Mohawk women are trying to find their place in the world. And, of course, trying to find love. But in a small world where you or your friends have dated everyone on the rez, or the hot new guy turns out to be your cousin, it ain’t that simple. Torn between family pressure, tradition, obligation and the intoxicating freedom of the “outside world,” this fabulous foursome is on a mission to find happiness… and to find themselves. Join us for a free episode screening and Q & A session with cast member Maika Harper. Official TV Series Website: http://aptn.ca/mohawkgirls/

Artist Talk: Jaime Black on The REDress Project & Conversations with the Land

March 20th from 12:00pm-2:00pm

Location: University College, Room UC140 (Balcony Ampitheatre) 15 King’s College Circle

*Jaime Black is a Métis multidisciplinary artist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Through the mediums of photography, sculpture, print, and installation she addresses the complexities of history, gender, place, identity, and resistance under settler colonialism. In this artist talk she will be discussing the installations The REDress Project and Conversations with the Land followed by a Q & A. Moderated by Andrea Derbecker.

Panel Discussion: Indigenous Futurities – Land, Territories, and Belonging

March 20th from 3:00pm-5:00pm

Location: William Doo Auditorium, 45 Willcocks Street

This panel offers a discussion of cultural productions meaningful to the exercise of decolonial futures. We will collectively explore how artistic forms and processes activate land, territories and belonging on Turtle Island. What approaches are Indigenous peoples finding useful and exciting in not only thinking about, but actually activating futures that are rich, compelling and hopeful for Indigenous communities in urban spaces.  What does belonging mean in terms of negotiating forces that are intended for our disappearance and violent erasure?  And how are Indigenous artistic producers ‘reworlding’ and reimagining hopeful, rematriative, loveable and livable futures? Recollet will be introducing these questions as a set of provocations; artists are encouraged to ‘speak’ to these thoughts in their chosen mediums (poetry, visual imagery, etc.). Panelists: Monique Mojica, Nyla Innuksuk, Jaime Black, Susan Blight, Lisa Jackson, Elizabeth LaPensee

Moderator: Karyn Recollet

Teach-in & Migrant Dreams Screening @ OISE

March 20th from 6pm-9pm

Location: Nexus Lounge, 12th Floor OISE, 252 Bloor Street West

*Join us for a film screening of Migrant Dreams, a locally produced documentary that tells the untold story of migrant agricultural workers who are struggling under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.  Screening will be followed with a panel discussion to discuss the relationship between migration, labour, and Indigenous land.

We Are The Land – Guided Walking Tour

March 21st from 10am-12pm

Location: Meeting in front of Wilson Hall, New College, 40 Willcocks Street

*Guided walking tour of Jaime’s various activation site concluding at First Nations House, to experience Conversations with the Land.

Workshop: Glyphing Decolonial Love in Tkaronto

March 21st from 6:00pm-8:00pm

Location: Wilson Hall Lounge, New College, 40 Willcocks Street

*This workshop invites community members, activists, organizers, and those interested in the potentials of mapping- to turn our intentions towards the land and be generative about how we are in love with our futures. What does it mean, perhaps to map kinstillatory futures?

We Are The Land – Public Workshop/activation

March 22nd at 12:00pm

Location: Philosopher’s Walk, University of Toronto

*Jaime Black and Indigenous Decolonial Aesthetics WGSI 1025 will be hosting an outdoor public workshop/ activation.

Closing Gathering

March 22nd from 5:00pm-8:00pm

Location: William Doo Auditorium, 45 Willcocks Street

*Closing gathering for Jaime Black’s Artist Residency: We Are The Land.Featuring: provocations & responses to the past week’s events.

 

Note: All of the events listed above are family friendly! Children’s art tables will be offered & ASL services during some of the events. All of the venues are accessible spaces.