University of Winnipeg and downtown community newspaper
University of Winnipeg and downtown community newspaper
Katherine Boyer: Water Meets Body
February 28 – April 6, 2019
Opening reception: Thursday, February 28, 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Artist-led workshop: March 12, 11:30 am – 12:45 pm at the greenhouse artlab. For women/non-binary/2Spirit/Queer people. Pre-registration required by contacting Gallery 1C03.
Artist talk: March 19 at 10:00 am
Artist-led bead ‘n talk: March 21, 6:30 – 8:30 pm at Gallery 1C03. Presented in partnership with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art Indigenous Art Night. For Indigenous women/non-binary/2Spirit/Queer people.
ASL can be provided for these events with two weeks’ notice by contacting Gallery 1C03.
Water Meets Body is a solo exhibition by Winnipeg-based Métis artist Katherine Boyer, featuring new video, sculptural and textile works.
Boyer’s art and research are rooted in Métis history, material culture and personal family narratives. Her installations – whether made of wood, textiles, beads, clay or video – reference her relations’ 200 year connection to the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers and their subsequent arrivals and departures which were often caused by division of land and/or disruption of access to it. Her own return to this geographic area has deeply impacted her artwork. She writes: “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.”
Water Meets Body metaphorically invites gallery visitors inside Boyer’s family home which is inextricably linked to land and water. The exhibition’s central sculptural installation, also titled Water Meets Body, evokes the river’s path and supports concepts of sustenance and kinship. Geometric kitchen tiles made of Red River clay recall the cracked river bed that reveals itself as the water recedes. They also subtly reference historical Métis river lots and the forced disassociation from the land that Métis experienced. Boyer’s double-channel video A Valley in twain grapples with the remnant site of family land that was submerged by construction of the Rafferty Dam in southern Saskatchewan. This mournful piece signifies broken promises to Métis communities as previous generations of the artist’s family were pressured or forced to leave settlement after settlement. A trio of textiles express the historical resistance of Métis women against the negative impacts of Catholicism through their creative production. Water connects these artworks, serving as a powerful force to explore ideological perceptions of home, body and moments of Métis cultural survivance.
Katherine Boyer received a BFA from the University of Regina in 2010 and completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Manitoba in 2018. Her recent exhibitions include The Prairie Rose Won’t Mourn Us, Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto; Li Salay, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; Crafting the Future, OCADU Canadian Craft Biennial; Out of Repetition, Difference, Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto; LandMarks 2017/ Repères 2017, Place and Placelessness, Winnipeg; BeadSpeak at Slate Fine Art Gallery Regina; and Anishnaabensag Biimskowebshkigewag (Native Kids Ride Bikes) Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina. Boyer’s art also toured nationally as part of the Dunlop Art Gallery’s Material Girls exhibition. She is an Assistant Professors at the School of Art, University of Manitoba.