âkwaskitinkewin: an embrace
Curated by Adrienne Larocque
January 8 – February 22, 2025
heather kiskihkoman, osâwâyisis, summer 2022, glass beads:15/0 charlotte, 13/0 charlotte, 24k matte gold 15/0 miyuki seed, 24k gold 11/0 miyuki delica, miyuki thread, white & green, hometanned moosehide, pendleton wool, môstôs robe belonging to artist's family.
Upcoming Events:
Artist Talk (pending details)
Closing Reception: February 21, 7 pm
FEATURED ARTISTS
heather kiskihkoman
Melody Markle
Michelle Sound
Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire
Curatorial Statement
Our dreams of being held, safe and protected by our culture are becoming a reality. To embrace, and be embraced by your culture means to be surrounded by warmth, beauty, comfort and style. Through playful joyousness, practicality, embracing our teachings, and acknowledging the ones that came before us, each of these textile-based works show the possibilities of being wrapped in the presence of your culture.
Michelle Sound, NDN Aunties ,Auntie Patch, Running Fox Beads - Skye Paul, Aunty Magic Pin, Mad Aunty - Joi Arcand, 2021, Mixed medium, upcycled fabrics hand drum frames
About the Artists
heather kiskihkoman (she/her) is a visual artist and educator who lives and works in maskwacîs alberta. her father is nehiyaw from maskwacîs & her mother is anishinaabe from aamjiwnaang ontario.
heather earned a BFA from The New School, Parsons Paris and a B.Ed in secondary arts education from University of Alberta. In 2019 she completed the Earthline Tattoo residency in regina where she learned both handpoke and skinstitch tattoo techniques.
heather blends each of these varied educational opportunities with the privileged experience of being raised in the culture surrounded by extended family in maskwacîs, as well as maintaining relationships with her anishinaabe family & culture in Ontario.
growing up in community has been the main influence on heather's artistic practice. her unique style of beadwork, which blends both her fine arts education with traditional beadwork styles that depict the natural world. her work uses the same natural materials that her ancestors would have used such as, traditionally tanned animal hides, porcupine quills, as well as recently introduced materials like beads and cloth material.
About the work
osâwâyisis, summer 2022, glass beads:15/0 charlotte, 13/0 charlotte, 24k matte gold 15/0 miyuki seed, 24k gold 11/0 miyuki delica, miyuki thread, white & green, hometanned moosehide, pendleton wool, môstôs robe belonging to artist's family.
In nêhiyawêwin (Cree), osâwâyisis translates to "little yellow one" or buffalo calf. Osâwâyisis is part of the artist's ceremonial name, given as a baby. This flat stitch beaded self portrait depicts a playful, joyous and dancing baby buffalo. A dreamlike quality is stitched into the swirling sky and blowing prairie grasses. Buffalo are seen as close relatives to plains Indigenous peoples, and our relationship has always been interconnected. Our Buffalo relatives, too, faced near extermination and displacement as a result of harmful trade, economic expansion and colonization.
A dreamlike quality is stitched into the swirling sky and blowing prairie grasses. Like osâwâyisis, our dreams of being wrapped, safe and protected by our culture are becoming a reality. In reacquainting ourselves with the Buffalo, we are also embracing ourselves with our art forms, traditional knowledge and ceremony. môstos robe is a site specific addition for this exhibition. The robe, borrowed from kiskihkoman’s father holds space for osâwâyisis to shine. Both the robe and beadwork echo the interconnectivity of Indigenous kinship, child & parent, history & modernity, tradition & innovation.
Note: This beaded piece is displayed on a môstos (buffalo), belonging to the artists family
Melody Markle, an Algonquin Anishinaabe artist from Long Point, Winneway First Nation, carries on a family tradition of artistic expression that spans generations. Her family has long shared their creative gifts through both traditional and contemporary forms, with a particular emphasis on Woodland style. One of the ways Markle connects to the land around her is through quilting, a deeply personal medium for her art. Her work weaves traditional designs into patterns rich with spiritual and historical significance in Anishinaabe culture. Through her star quilts, Markle infuses each stitch with prayers and stories, hoping that her creations will help hold space for future generations to thrive.
"The quilt symbolizes not just my healing journey," Markle explains, "but I also chose the star to represent the morning star, which holds deep meaning for Anishinaabe people. We see the stars as our elders who have passed, and the Milky Way is viewed as a path traveled by our ancestors, watching over us from above."
About the work
Unity Quilt, 2019, multi-layered textiles, fiber, decorative stitching
Blankets are a form of protection, they unify us with our stories and teachings. Markel's Unity Quilt symbolizes the artist's healing journey, grounded in Anishinaabe teachings. Blankets have many meanings across Indigenous cultures and are often seen as the modern version of the Buffalo robe. When Indigenous people no longer had access to animal furs as a result of the fur trade, they adopted textiles such as wool and stroud.
Starblankets are often gifted to honour milestones like the birth of a child, graduation, or other achievements. To be wrapped in a blanket signifies an important moment in life. To be wrapped in a blanket offers comfort. A symbol of healing and looking to the morning star for direction. There is hope for endless and expansive possibilities for the next generation to thrive.
Michelle Sound is a Cree and Métis artist and mother. She is a member of Wapsewsipi Swan River First Nation in Treaty 8 Territory, Northern Alberta where her mother is from, her father’s family is from the Buffalo Lake and Kikino Métis settlements in central Alberta, Treaty 6 territory. She was born and raised on the unceded and ancestral home territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, School for the Contemporary Arts, and a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University Art + Design.
Sound is a multidisciplinary visual artist and her art practice includes a variety of mediums including photo based work, textiles, painting and Indigenous material practices. Her artwork often explores her Cree and Métis identity from a personal experience rooted in family, place and history. She works with traditional and contemporary materials and techniques to explore maternal labour, identity, cultural knowledge, and cultural inheritances.
Public art pieces include a printed Transit mural (City of Edmonton),a painted mural at Ociciwan Art Centre (Edmonton) and a printed mural at the Canadian Embassy in Paris. She has completed artist residencies at the Burrard Arts Foundation(2022), the Indigenous Arts Intensive at UBC Okanagan(2023-24) and the Banff Centre for the Arts(2024). Her work is held in numerous private, corporate and institutional collections including the the Burnaby Art Gallery, Indigenous Art Centre (CIRNAC)., Forge Project NY, the McMichael Collection and the National Gallery of Canada.
She has had recent solo and two person exhibitions at Neutral Ground ARC (Regina), Daphne Art Centre (Montréal), Alternator (Kelowna), Gallery 101 (Ottawa), Burrard Arts Foundation, Nanaimo Art Gallery Grunt Gallery and Seymour Art Gallery (Vancouver). Recent group exhibitions include the Burnaby Art Gallery, Richmond Art Gallery, Audain Art Museum(Whistler) and BACA (Montreal). Upcoming exhibitions include Diana Gallery (New York City), Latitude 53 (Edmonton), and the Art Gallery of South Western Manitoba.
About the work
NDN Aunties, Auntie Patch, Running Fox Beads - Skye Paul, Aunty Magic Pin, Mad Aunty - Joi Arcand, 2021, Mixed medium, upcycled fabrics hand drum frames
These drums are meant to be held, yet they are tender, soft and tough enough to withstand. NDN Aunties is a celebration of our relationship with our little mothers or Aunties. Everyone has an Auntie who isn't afraid to stand out with their cool jacket of denim, leather or fringe. A form of protection from the elements that allowed them to live on the edge, pop culture icons in their own making.
Constructed on traditional hand drum frames, these NDN Auntie drums keep us grounded and connected to our culture. You don't need to hear the drums to hear their laugh, their presence and be enveloped in their embrace.
Zoe Cire is a visual artist born and raised on Treaty 6 territory of central Alberta, where her works talk with her culture that raise her kokom’s lineage of Beaver Lake Cree Nation and moshom’s Métis lineage. These conversations oscillate between the terrains of paint, beads and textiles, focusing on place and enlivening material associations. Here, relations speak about language and memory, where it can be found, and what it says when it reaches.
Cire completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts with a minor in Curatorial Studies from Emily Carr University. Cire graduated in 2024 from Yale University with a MFA in Painting and Printmaking where she won the Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize.
About the work
Over(us)alls 1,2,3 and Follow your Chest, 2023, Sculptural painted works, canvas, beaded embellishments, porcupine quills
An ode to "bush wear," overalls protect the wearer from the elements during physically demanding work. They are a Treaty 6 Classic, representing comfort and style. Cardinal Cire's works jump off of the canvas, inviting us to reconsider painting critically. Even with the absence of human forms, they are still filled with presence. They are worn by the modern Indigenous hide tanner, hunter and even the berry picker. The rest on the ground, the land, the floor.
Follow your Chest tells you to listen to your mitêh (heart) because your intuition will point you home. These garments are protectors, an extension of the heart. Just like the beaded rose on the inside of the bib, moments spent on the land are kept close to the heart.
CURATOR
Adrienne Larocque is a nêhiyaw beadwork artist, curator. She is a member of kisipatnahk (Louis Bull), one of the four nations collectively known as Maskwacis in Treaty 6 Territory. She grew up in her community, spending time in both Louis Bull where her father’s side of the family is from and the Samson Cree Nation, her maternal side. Adrienne holds a Master of Arts in Cultural Studies, Curatorial Practices from the University of Winnipeg and a Bachelor of Arts in Native Studies with Honours from the University of Alberta. Recently she joined the Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective as the Executive Director.Her work is grounded in nêhiyaw ways of knowing, combining traditional and contemporary practices in beadwork, textiles, and relationality. Adrienne is based in amiskwaciwâskahikan and spends as much time as she can with her nieces, nephews and her dog Willow.