Art+Reconciliation

As part of an ongoing discussion regarding art+reconciliation, a number of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists, writers, curators, and researchers are gathering this week in Kamloops to investigate possibilities. Those attending include Jonathan Dewar, Peter Morin, Tania Willard, Richard Wagamese, Sophie McCall, Dave Gaertner, Ashok Mathur, Kevin Loring, Jaime Black, Jaimie Isaac, Alex Janvier, Gabe Archie, Gabe Hill, and a few others who will participate in various ways. This is functioning more as a think-tank than as a rehearsed public presentation, so the agenda is unfixed, other than to explore ways of looking at the intersections of the notions of art and reconciliation in their myriad identities. As part of this project, however, and in sync with the connectivity of art and research, there are several creative projects at play during the same time: Alex Janvier, renowned for his painting and founding member of the Aboriginal Group of Seven, will be converting the Thompson Rivers University art gallery into a studio for the next three weeks; Jaime Black is producing the site-specific REDdress project that acknowledges the 600 missing and murdered Aboriginal women; and curator Jaimie Isaac in conjunction with artist Leah Decter is hosting a two-day interactive work (at TRU and the Kamloops Art Gallery) "official denial" which uses Hudson's Bay blankets and the suturing/stitching of words to address a lack of awareness of colonization in Canada.

During this time, our collected group will be thinking through future possibilities for exhibition, publication, and activity/activism to both complicate and articulate the difficult intersections proposed. The ongoing thoughts and reflections will be posted and compiled as we determine the most useful ways to proceed.