University of Winnipeg and downtown community newspaper
University of Winnipeg and downtown community newspaper
Opening Reception: Friday, January 19, 2017 | 7 – 11pm
Friday, January 19, 7pm: Skeena Reece Performance: January 19 | 8pm
Saturday, January 20: Respondent Series: artist talk with Bracken Hanuse Corlett | 2pm
Reece is best-known for her critically penetrating and humourous performances, in which she portrays a range of personas that are often driven by the potential of a raw exchange with audiences. For Sweetgrass and Honey, she builds on her lexicon of characters at times ramping up the clichés and emboldening stereo-types while sincerely trying to unearth their origins and stonewall their continued perpetuation. From Stockholm Syndrome to Indian Princesses, Reece uses various subjects in building a new lens with which to examine her personal history within a rereading of the displacement and continued disregard of indigenous people in North America.
Sweetgrass and Honey is a concatenation of works from a photographic series to mass-produced posters. This exhibition will feature several newly commissioned works, including a specific installation that challenges the racist history of the Hudson’s Bay, which sits across the street from Plug In. As well she will create a mural that offers a psychological look at the relationship between captor and captive; and another artwork that visualizes the ghosts in our history - buried in the land we occupy. Many of the artworks presented in this solo exhibition were produced in collaboration with other artists who Reece ignites as producers and translators.
Skeena Reece is a Tsimshian/Gitksan and Cree artist based on the West Coast of British Columbia. She has garnered national and international attention most notably for Raven: On the Colonial Fleet (2010) her bold installation and performance work presented as part of the celebrated group exhibition Beat Nation. Her multidisciplinary practice includes performance art, spoken word, humor, “sacred clowning,” writing, singing, songwriting, video and visual art. She studied media arts at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and was the recipient of the British Columbia award for Excellence in the Arts (2012) and The Viva Award (2014). For her work on Savage (2010) in collaboration with Lisa Jackson, Reece won a Genie Award for Best Short Film, Golden Sheaf Award for Best Multicultural Film, ReelWorld Outstanding Canadian Short Film, Leo Awards for Best Actress and Best Editing. She participated in the 17th Sydney Biennale, Australia. Recent exhibitions include, The Sacred Clown & Other Strangers (2015) a solo exhibition of her performance costumes and documentation at Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Winnipeg and Moss at Oboro Gallery, Montreal (2017). An iteration of Sweet Grass and Honey will travel to the Comox Valley Art Gallery.
Parts of Sweet Grass and Honey were produced in collaboration with Oboro, Montreal and exhibited as part of the exhibition Moss.
Plug In ICA gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council. We extend gratitude to our Director’s Circle, valued members and dedicated volunteers.
