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[Music]

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this work here

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is about my family lineage throughout

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alberta so

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this is my mother’s house where i’m

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actually currently living she passed

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away

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on christmas eve so i moved into there

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very brief uh very recently

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and so this is her house and then in

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edmonton so we live

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by the western mall and then this is

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the um for

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this is for mcmurray where my

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great-grandmother lived this is her

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where she lived this is the sny where

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they used to swim

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all the time and so my great-grandmother

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my grandmother and my mother were all

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born in this place so it’s really about

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recollecting places that we occupy

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and her land that they all lived on

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together is actually still

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undeveloped and the raspberry bushes

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that they

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collected from on the land are still

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there it was meant to be developed

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as part of that large boom at fort

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mcmurray about 15

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20 years ago and so it’s just now still

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sitting empty so it’s kind of nice to go

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visit that space

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and most of my practice

1:13

is an intersection between art and

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architecture

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the ways that this work is translated

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more delves into my architectural

1:23

practice this stems a bit more from my

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thesis research when i was in los

1:28

angeles where i was looking at different

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ways of layering information

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so this work essentially takes images

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from google maps they take i make them

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black and white

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and i run them through a series of

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processes through

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photoshop through rhino which is a 3d

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modeling program

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illustrator then i bring them back into

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rhino

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i do a series of section cuts like

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you’re cutting an apple

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and then i place them and flatten them

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and then i create different

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drawings from them this is the

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illustrator process and technique

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then when i get the layering methods

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that i see for highs and lows for high

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points and low points kind of like when

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you’re looking at a plan

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or topography you’re seeing high points

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and low points i then move it into

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a process where i can mill it out of a

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machine

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and i developed this work at the banff

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center when i was there

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in an indigenous residency

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the thing then that i do is i

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unflatten the layers create space

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between them

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and then i take different pieces of wood

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i laminate them and then i

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mill into them so this is like a walnut

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there’s a cherry

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there’s a plywood um

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then this is such a long process but the

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reason why i’m explaining it is because

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this is part of my process it’s like a

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way of reducting the information

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over and over again so that i barely

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recognize the true

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form of the google maps image so then i

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take

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a bit so c and c is a piece

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it’s like a router a large router that

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gets attached

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to a machine and then it essentially

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carves out the wood some people aren’t

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sure what a cnc is so i’m

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not to hope that you this was good

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information for you

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i’m not trying to mansplain something

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which often happens

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as a female in a wood shot and so i try

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to make the bit

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that drills the holes or or cuts out of

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the wood larger than what

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it would usually be usually when you use

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a cnc

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you’re looking for refinement but in

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this process i was looking to

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further degrade the image so that i

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still further reduce

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what it was and in that way i’m playing

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with

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technology and often i work

3:47

collaboratively

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i’m a part of the curatorial collective

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and we work collaboratively

3:53

i’m an architect so it’s not usually my

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idea but then people just think it is

3:58

because i have the big a

3:59

architect in my name and when i’m doing

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my own artwork

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i like there’s nowhere for me to hide so

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in this way i just like

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hide and say i’m working with technology

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and

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in this way i’m it’s kind of like

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christmas where i’m surprising myself

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about what the process is

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and so then it doesn’t necessarily

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become about the end product

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it’s more about the process of

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collaboration which is where

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the nexus of my work exists and so

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that’s why

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we wanted to show both works was just to

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really discuss the process

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of the artwork which is how i also feel

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about my architectural practice

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we really work in a within

4:40

an idea of gathering people together

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where we’re more of the pen

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and the people’s ideas or what we try to

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bring forward

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and so that it’s not just like one

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individual’s approach

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one thing that is interesting i find

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about this work is that

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it can fit into the lexicon of other

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indigenous works where it talks about

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past present future

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and a lot of my work will try to think

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about those layers

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intentionally and unintentionally where

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i’m thinking back to my family’s past

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but then i’m very insistent on using

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modern techniques or contemporary

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techniques to render them

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often people will call me and ask me if

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i

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would be a part of something that they

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want and i can tell that they’re asking

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me

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because they know that i’m indigenous

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and so then i get very nervous

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because the way that i exhibit work

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doesn’t look the way people think it

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usually looks and so i’m just very

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conscious of those

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methods and those layers that somehow

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push my work into more of a political

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space than i would have imagined

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so i think that’s something that i’m

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always trying to think about when i’m

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creating work is

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what materials am i using what materials

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have we used in the past and how can i

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continue them

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one thing i should say is that our

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family is metis and we come from the red

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river

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if you’re wondering and i was born in

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calgary and raised in edmonton

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so this is my home but i’m often

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thinking about

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what what makes the components of my

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family

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distinct from other families or

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different from

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other narratives and i think the places

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that we occupy are part of that

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so that’s why i did this work and

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hopefully i can kind of scale these up i

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see these

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as sort of a series that i have started

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and i continue to look forward to like

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making these bigger and bigger i’m

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always thinking about

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scale the material right now in this

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particular case the wood wasn’t

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particularly important more the contrast

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between the woods

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so i just wanted to see that dark light

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because cherry is not from here

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but there’s something about wood that i

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really

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like with the grains and i think that

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they almost look like a wood cut or a

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wood block

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in a way and i also think that the wood

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is a drawing tool as well like i think

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this is

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just several different ways of drawing

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and the wood is just to help me

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exasperate that

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i said that it comes from my

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architectural practice because

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when we would be rendering and spending

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all of our nights and getting no sleep

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just sort of spitting things out from

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our computers you could always tell what

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program people were using

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they’re like oh that’s from a maya

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program that’s from an autocad program

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that’s from rhino that’s from revit you

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could tell right away

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and so i began to ask myself are we

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actually designing or is the

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program designing for us and i’m sure

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you asked that yourself when you’re in

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certain

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programs you’re like is this my

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authentic voice or is this the program

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helping me derive to that like language

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gets chosen in google in gmail for

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example

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so like is that being crafted for me and

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so

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i’ve always been since that time i

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started to realize that

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we might sort of be pawns in that that

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dichotomy

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i’ve started to always make sure that my

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language is distinctly mine

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or something that i have felt like i

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created so that’s why i

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take a google map image and then just

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further degrade it so many different

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ways that you cannot tell how this was

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actually created

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so thank you for joining me on this walk

8:09

here i think this piece went

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that i proposed for it was in 2007 or

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2018.

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um the public art committee actually

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did not choose my work for this they

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chose someone else’s work

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it’s a really beautiful piece in those

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two boxes they haven’t been opened yet

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they’re the manifestation of the

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chinatown

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lion gates and there was a whole

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community approach to

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put items into the new lions

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as a way to manifest the memory of what

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they were

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which i think i think was really well

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received because it was a really

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upsetting motion when the gates were

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removed and relocated

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and those were just down that boulevard

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over there

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but they they called me

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maybe a month or two afterwards and

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asked me to be involved with the design

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team

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because when i was in the

9:06

interview i have this uh funny way of

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like interviewing people back

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to make sure that the job works for me

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rather than

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it me working for them which is usually

9:16

how i get hired

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for jobs actually um

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because i was really interested in what

9:23

the details were to make this look good

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the canopy in itself and the

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architecture team i think was interested

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in having a relationship

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to make sure that if they did choose

9:34

this work it could be integrated

9:35

together from a design standpoint

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when you’re hired as a public art artist

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you’re much

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separated from the design and you come

9:44

afterwards every after everything’s

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built and

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i think they understood that it was

9:48

integral if this piece was to

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be created that we worked together so i

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was so thrilled to go to the meetings

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and be very vocal even though

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most of the comments i really had no

9:59

place in making

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this is actually built by dialogue and

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um

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they also partner with isl i work for

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reimagine in my architecture practice

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but it was nice that i got to work with

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another office

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and so that was a really positive

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experience

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when i applied for the work i said that

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this should be

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um the original render showed a piece of

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the panel coming down to the ground

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and i felt that this flower pattern that

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i work with a lot in my artwork

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should touch the ground and then when

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they told me that

10:35

like from design costs they probably

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can’t do it like it was always like a

10:38

scaling back of cost that it probably

10:39

wouldn’t do it so then i

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was like well i don’t know if my work

10:42

should be here because i really think it

10:43

should touch the ground

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and so it was nice to be a part of a

10:46

design team that was receptive to those

10:48

design cues so that’s why it’s been a

10:49

really positive working relationship

10:51

and we actually got it to do that you

10:54

have to really think about a lot of

10:55

things like scepted so

10:58

really making sure that people don’t

11:00

scale or climate or that people feel

11:02

safe

11:02

in these places so we tried to work

11:05

through a lot of different ways to make

11:06

sure that it worked within the september

11:08

rules that you typically use when you’re

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designing

11:12

so this flower artwork is actually my

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great grandmother’s moccasin making

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beating pattern

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there was the fort mcmurray fire that

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happened and we came

11:21

we came to clean up my great uncle’s

11:23

house who just passed away just before

11:25

the fire about a week after the town

11:26

opened

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and when so just to give you a bit of

11:30

time

11:31

when i was there i was there with like a

11:33

six month old thinking i was going to

11:34

help people

11:35

clean their house which did not happen

11:38

but i did bring my nieces and nephews

11:39

and they helped

11:40

but what happened was when i was there i

11:42

was able to take some of my belongings

11:44

with me

11:45

and like they lived next to the sny as

11:46

well so when you saw that map they lived

11:48

in that area as well

11:51

part of the packages that i brought home

11:53

some china some blankets

11:55

and there was a bunch of

11:58

patterns rolled up and i brought home a

12:00

bunch of hide

12:01

because my family has a trap line there

12:05

and we found these patterns and whenever

12:07

i was

12:09

and i’m not sure if you’ve been to

12:11

workshops but whenever i go to moccasin

12:12

making workshops

12:14

i’d always be struggling about which

12:15

pattern to use and so i’d like look up

12:18

metis beating patterns cree beading

12:19

patterns online and then i’d like trace

12:21

them but they never really felt like

12:22

they were mine to use

12:24

it kind of felt like plagiarism in a way

12:27

but when i found these patterns these

12:29

these

12:30

drawings on both sides of the hide

12:33

because you don’t waste anything

12:35

it really felt like i had something that

12:37

was mine that i could continue to move

12:39

on within my family

12:41

so i use this pattern quite a lot i use

12:43

it at the indigenous art park

12:46

at a smaller scale of course this is the

12:47

largest i’ve been able to do it so far

12:50

i have it at the floovog store if you

12:53

like their shoes

12:54

and i i’ve done it in other capacities

12:57

but i like we’ll laser cut it i’ll

12:59

waterjet cut it um

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and i’ll print it so there’s lots of

13:04

different ways to look at this but

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the reason why i wanted it here i’ve

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worked in this area for a long time

13:10

as a student as a student intern

13:15

when i was in between the summers of

13:17

school i came to work for atb

13:19

architecture which they’ve been absorbed

13:20

by stantec

13:22

but we worked at the community hall here

13:24

so they

13:25

took it down and then i helped work on

13:27

the design for that and then i helped

13:28

work on the

13:29

ymca housing and then they also had the

13:31

seniors metis housing so i just kind of

13:33

photographed this area quite a lot from

13:35

a younger age

13:37

and so i’ve done several things in this

13:40

area so that’s why i wanted to apply for

13:42

this artwork because

13:43

i knew the demographic that was here

13:45

where i wanted it to have

13:47

a safe place for everyone to belong

13:50

i also felt like the there’s this

13:54

thing in indigenous culture where you

13:57

can tell where people are from based on

13:58

the embroidery or the or the craft work

14:01

or the beading

14:02

and so people will recognize this as

14:04

like a cremating northern pattern

14:06

so i wanted people to feel welcome here

14:09

i knew that there are a lot of

14:12

indigenous people that recognize this

14:14

pattern that it will be in this area so

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i wanted them to feel safe

14:17

and i often always think about ways to

14:21

make a space

14:22

feel greater than yourself

14:26

so that’s what i sort of visualized here

14:28

and that’s why

14:29

i really saw this pattern sort of coming

14:31

in and out

14:32

they had described the canopy like a

14:34

thread that was their design

14:35

intervention where it kind of weaves in

14:37

and out of the surface

14:39

they called it canister which means we

14:41

three in cree

14:44

and i think they wanted to honor some of

14:46

the naming that happened in this area

14:47

prior

14:49

and they chose this red i think as a way

14:51

to acknowledge the chinese community

14:52

because there’s a long history

14:54

of well this was the original chinatown

14:56

location a long time ago

14:59

so i think that they saw um

15:02

i mean i i think that i’ve heard them

15:04

say that they saw

15:05

my pattern with the red color sort of a

15:07

way of combining all the strong cultures

15:10

in this area

15:12

but i think when i saw that they were

15:15

talking about it like a thread that

15:16

really resonated to me

15:17

because the pattern for me right now

15:19

works as a discussion around erasure

15:21

where the pattern comes in and

15:23

out at the indigenous art park i water

15:26

jet cut this pattern

15:27

along corten steel and um

15:31

i did that similarly like it was about

15:33

erasure but the resiliency of my family

15:36

continuing to thrive

15:38

and so that’s what this is trying to do

15:41

this is just phase one we’re actually in

15:42

phase two currently

15:44

and that will be over there it’s gonna

15:46

have a spray water component

15:48

it’s gonna have some swings and we

15:51

talked about

15:52

instead of putting the pattern up on the

15:53

canopy we’re going to put it on the

15:55

ground instead

15:56

and i think we’re able as a design team

15:59

to confirm that it will be granite but

16:00

we’ll see

16:02

i don’t know how the costs are coming in

16:04

but i think i’m really excited to put

16:05

the pattern out on the ground

16:08

to kind of continue the thread we talked

16:10

a lot about

16:11

this pattern touching the ground and

16:12

then being embroidered

16:14

on the surface level of the decks but it

16:17

seemed like kind of a complicated thing

16:18

so we didn’t do it there so that’s why

16:20

i’m glad that we get to do it on the

16:21

ground

16:22

over there and there was

16:25

three deaths here about two weeks ago

16:29

there was overdoses here at the park and

16:31

i think that it really just continues to

16:33

speak to the

16:34

neighborhood and the difficulties that

16:35

continue to thrive and persist

16:38

so i was really grateful to be a part of

16:40

this space

16:41

where i can endeavor to continue

16:42

creating beautiful spaces for people to

16:44

occupy

16:45

rather than ignoring the problem of what

16:48

exists

16:49

so i think when they put things like

16:50

swings in the canopy i’m excited because

16:53

it helps people understand that they can

16:54

be a part of

16:55

these places that is not for this visual

16:58

interest

16:58

solely so that’s why i think i’m really

17:02

proud to be a part of this

17:03

another thing that i think about is i

17:06

tried to make the pattern really big

17:07

because i think about super graphics

17:09

um i really started to fall in love with

17:11

this idea i was working on an exhibition

17:14

where deborah sussman was being featured

17:16

in los angeles

17:18

she was the she and her partner were

17:21

part of the

17:23

uh 79 olympics or 78 olympics the

17:26

olympics in the 70s i can’t believe i

17:28

forgot the

17:29

when they were part of the olympics in

17:30

the 70s but they had created large

17:32

graphics on sonotubes

17:34

and it was a very large bold graphics

17:37

that they had sort of painted all over

17:39

the cities for the olympics

17:40

and i’m sort of in love with that idea

17:43

of super graphics

17:44

they also do it on like ships like

17:45

razzle dazzle where they painted them

17:47

different colors to make you think that

17:48

they were going away

17:49

and they’re going forward it didn’t work

17:51

at all but i just always love that

17:53

theory so the pattern is actually

17:55

sheared off

17:55

on the sides like it’s made really big

17:57

it doesn’t like conclude nicely on the

18:00

long the edge it’s like it’s been cut

18:01

off and you can see it as well with the

18:04

pattern on the right hand side when it

18:05

touches the ground like it’s been

18:06

sheared on the edge so those are very

18:08

specific design moves

18:10

that i’m thinking about when i’m

18:12

creating the pattern

18:14

and so i’m trying not to just associate

18:17

with

18:18

indigenous people which is my prime mode

18:20

of operation but it’s also just to be

18:23

thought about in the contemporary sense

18:25

of of

18:26

artwork in general so that’s kind of

18:30

all of the things in my brain that i

18:33

could tell you about

18:34

the work this is a composite of three

18:37

different patterns

18:38

um so it’s not just one particular

18:40

pattern

18:42

and i also felt like if people didn’t

18:44

recognize that it was a cream at pattern

18:46

if that just wasn’t in your lexicon

18:48

that you would still think it was like a

18:50

beautiful place to occupy so

18:52

hopefully it was like a win for

18:53

everybody i guess i’ll talk a little bit

18:56

more about the materials because it is

18:57

interesting and i like talking about

18:58

materials so this is a

18:59

called a trespa panel this is something

19:01

you i

19:02

thought at first we were just going to

19:03

put a bunch of holes to make the pattern

19:06

i was trying to think about how to make

19:07

it successful because we have two layers

19:09

you have to think about freeze frost

19:11

that’s why you see all the seams

19:13

happening with these panels is so that

19:14

because they couldn’t get panels super

19:16

large to make it look like one whole

19:18

thing

19:19

so the panels are meant to be like a

19:20

field condition that’s a technical term

19:22

in architecture

19:23

to make it look like it expand is

19:26

expansive

19:27

and so similarly i couldn’t find a

19:30

material that could make it look all

19:31

like one thing so we tiled it in this

19:33

trespa

19:34

and we were originally thinking

19:38

to make it shiny just like the panels

19:40

above it

19:41

but we couldn’t make them an exact match

19:45

but it turned out that this was more of

19:46

a matte so we felt like you could see it

19:47

better

19:48

i was trying not to make the artwork be

19:51

read so clearly apart from the canopy

19:53

it’s meant to be integrated

19:55

rather than separated is again it’s that

19:57

ego thing i’m trying to kind of fit

19:58

within something rather than taking over

20:00

directly

20:02

but when the fabricator came

20:06

up with the trespa idea when you router

20:08

into it it creates the black line

20:11

so i thought that could be interesting i

20:12

accepted that

20:14

and when we had to go down to the ground

20:17

we couldn’t use the trespa because

20:18

it’s um it would have to have a lot of

20:21

structure built within it so these are

20:22

actually aluminum

20:24

pieces that touch the ground they’re

20:25

completely separate materials

20:27

and so we tried our very best to give it

20:29

similar characteristics to the

20:31

tr to the the to the panels

20:35

so that’s why you’ll see the black line

20:37

continuing a little bit

20:38

um but in this way i was able to create

20:41

holes more holes

20:43

and like it’s perforating it in a way

20:47

and hopefully it’s not super

20:50

cleanable it’s the goal

20:54

but people will do whatever they can do

20:55

to get up there where’s lighting is

20:57

there lighting in the evening

20:58

yes you can see um these white objects

21:01

are the lighting and

21:02

they just wanted an award actually for

21:03

lighting very recently and so we tried

21:05

to combine those together i don’t know

21:07

if

21:07

the white was supposed to be there but

21:10

maybe it was

21:11

but it looks quite nice at night it’s

21:12

like meant to create kind of like

21:14

columnar lighting as well

21:15

and keep it really safe and well lit

21:19

what’s also really amazing is right

21:20

beside rebecca belmore’s piece

21:22

and i mean she’s one of my favorite

21:26

all-time artists and uh

21:29

her piece is beautiful it’s it’s

21:31

basically about alberta this is like the

21:33

wild rose at the top

21:34

and this is like a large pole or a birch

21:37

kind of pull there’s some writing there

21:39

but it’s a casted aluminum on the top

21:43

and the bottom and the bottom piece

21:44

looks like

21:45

wood it’s very beautiful so i find it

21:48

really soulful to be beside her work

21:53

sometimes she knows who i am and

21:57

just across the street just down there

21:58

is a collector so i’m a part of one

22:00

contemporary art collective

22:02

and i’m just going to give a shout out

22:03

to that building because the we got a

22:05

building for

22:06

from the city very recently we opened up

22:08

in the pandemic

22:09

and we just opened we’re just opening up

22:11

a community oh well a community gardens

22:13

mike mcdonald’s garden

22:14

is partnered with the aga a really

22:16

beautiful group of women

22:18

in the group and we have

22:21

five core members in the project and

22:24

we originally established as a place to

22:26

talk about contemporary indigenous art

22:28

and then it started blossoming to

22:29

getting our own building so we’re just

22:30

now exploring what that means to be a

22:32

bit more broader in the community

22:42

[Music]

22:46

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