Alex Antle’s Sple’tk is a watershed map of the Exploits River beaded onto a tan moose hide and hung from a scraped birch tree. The River is located in the central region of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) where Alex grew up. This work explores the importance of clean water and the many uses of the River. Both L’nu and settlers have utilized the water for labour and enjoyment.
Antoinette Karuna’s hooked rug wall hangings are part of an autobiographical series. Untitled 1 and Untitled 2 explore the spiritual aspects of erotic love, distanced from the male gaze and existing within the private sphere of the Treaty Relationship, as Karuna is settler and her partner is Mi’kmaq. Untitled 3 examines Karuna’s biracial identity, which is Sri Lankan Tamil (brown) and French Canadian (white), and how despite pressures from monoracial society to choose one racial identity over another, she experiences her biraciality as fluid and complex. Formally, her rugs draw on her background as a filmmaker, mixing the language of textiles with that of cinema––notably cinematographic and storytelling principles.
Clara Gough’s life sized figurative basket sculptures present different forms of labour: one a parent carrying a child and the other a depiction of the artist's father carrying tools. Gough reinvents the traditional basket weaving techniques passed down in her community to depict iterations of labour and the community itself.
Curtis Botham’s Pulp Mill, Abercrombie is a black and white, photo-realistic charcoal drawing as part of his 'Effluents' series of drawings that depict worker’s solidarity, economic justice and environmental impact of industry in rural Mi’kma’ki. Drawn from observational sketches, Curtis has illustrated the environmental devastation that can be caused from unsustainable, under-regulated pulp industries.
Secret Codes by Heather Cromwell is a vibrant series of picture quilts The Dance, Betty Hartley and Grandma’s Hands depicting Black Nova Scotian women, labour, love and stories from the community. This work came out of a project by the Black Artists’ Network of Nova Scotia and the Vale Quilters, where quiltmakers created from drawings made by Halifax artist-curator David Woods, and documented travels to African Nova Scotian communities across the province. Grandma's Hands will be on view as part of TOIL HERE.
Tilling and burying: Red Earth, Black Death by Kim Cain is a piece about dualities of life/death, growth/pruning, joy/sorrow. The red earth sets the background for the preparation of the land for planting, with cattle and farmers preparing the soil. Black death is actualized with the central sight of the pallbearers carrying a casket towards a waiting plot.
Michelle Roy’s Mi’kmaq regalia pieces include a toddler’s regalia, a prom dress, and a special jingle dress, in representation and honoring of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit and to celebrate the strength, labour and determination of Mi’kmaq mothers, sisters, aunties, wives, and daughters and the central role of women in struggles for Indigenous justice.
