0:05

thank you so much for joining us tonight uh for sewing resilience which is as all of you know a

0:10

conversation on breathe which is a fantastic project that has

0:15

been involving lots of makers um over the last year my name is shauna mccabe and i’m the director of the art

0:21

gallery of guelph and i’d like to welcome you all to this discussion um and offer welcome also

0:27

to our guests breathe founders natalie bertin bertay and lisa shepard as well as our

0:33

artist teresa burroughs don quan naomi smith and dalary mick

0:38

whose work is all part of the touring exhibition that will be on view at the art gallery of guelph as soon as we are able to open

0:45

which is we’re hoping uh july 21st to begin i’d like to offer a land acknowledgement on behalf of the

0:52

art gallery of guelph which is hosting this dialogue tonight this statement is crucial for cultural institutions um as

0:59

you know as a land acknowledgement confronts the ongoing effects of colonialism that underpins the history of of our institutions

1:09

not only have art galleries and museums utilize deeply colonial methods of representation historically but because

1:15

of their authority these narratives have been accepted as truth and forming policies as well as

1:20

practices guelph ontario is situated on treaty land that is steeped in rich indigenous

1:26

history and home to many first nations inuit and metis people today and as we

1:31

gather here this evening we would like to acknowledge that the art gallery of guelph resides on the ancestral lands

1:36

of the ayado wandering people and more recently the treaty lands and territory of the mississaugas of the credit

1:42

and we recognize the significance of the dish with one spoon covenant to this land and offer our respect for anishinabe

1:50

nashoni and metis neighbors as we strive to strengthen our relationships with them we express our gratitude and recognize

1:57

our responsibility for the stewardship of of the land on which we live work and create

2:03

and as we are all gathered virtually today connected and yet physically disbursed

2:08

in places across the country it is also a good moment to reflect on the

2:13

significance of place wherever we are and in doing so recognize the different traditional lands that we reside in and

2:20

move through on a daily basis we acknowledge the elders past present

2:25

and future of these lands with gratitude and respect a few details everyone has been muted

2:31

for this conversation and we would invite you to please use the chat area for questions for the participants as we go

2:38

along and we’ll return to the questions after the conversation so please feel free to use the chat

2:45

we’re also grateful for the support as always of the ontario arts council and canada council for the arts

2:51

for everything we do for all of our programs and exhibitions and finally i’d like to turn it over to

2:56

nicole neufeld who is the art gallery of guelph’s community engagement coordinator who will continue thank you

3:05

shauna um and i want to start by expressing my deep gratitude to the artists who are here to share

3:12

their insights into the making and meaning of their masks joining us this evening we have theresa

3:19

burrows dal remake don quan naomi smith natalie burton lisa shepard

3:27

these are just six of the 32 artists whose masks are represented in an exhibition

3:33

currently up at the art gallery of guelph and breathe is an exhibition of

3:38

handcrafted masks named after the community of artists that gathered online during the pandemic

3:45

um this community grew out of a question asked in the early days of the pandemic

3:50

by uh metis artists um natalie and lisa

3:55

why am i not sitting seeing beaded masks anywhere and so they launched a facebook group

4:04

and simply called this group breathe to invite artists to design beaded masks that reflect

4:11

their experiences as they navigated the changing coven 19 conditions

4:16

uh so the art gallery of guelph is showing uh the second touring exhibition uh

4:22

emerging from the breathe project uh one exhibition wasn’t enough because there are so many

4:28

beautiful masks that have come out of this project um and uh and and in this iteration

4:35

we have 44 masks that speak to both the cultural resilience and strength of

4:41

community in the face of the pandemic acknowledging this global impact of the

4:47

virus the initiative has encompassed mass designs of any artists

4:52

working with traditional beadwork techniques as well as many other materials and methods uh

4:59

creating space for both indigenous and non-indigenous artists so again i want to thank you all for being

5:06

here and spending your evening with us um first i’d like to i mean

5:13

i’m sure many of you have gone and visited uh the breathe uh facebook group

5:19

i hope you have if you haven’t run don’t walk and get there and see the amazing work

5:25

that is there um but uh i thought i’d ask um uh natalie and lisa to start by with a

5:32

little bit of an introduction uh as to what the how the project started yes but more

5:39

so what it has grown into be being and what it means uh for the community of

5:44

makers that have gathered there um so maybe natalie you can start with a little bit

5:50

a little bit of background but also from your perspective uh this meaning of the community

5:55

uh that has grown and and uh we’ll take a look at some of the maths that are included in the art gallery of guelph exhibition

6:02

well well you can well you speak to that sure thank you thank you for for inviting us uh for this panel it’s

6:08

amazing i’m always amazed every time i’m on a zoom conference that we’re able to do this i mean ten years ago we would not

6:15

have been able to do this so you know i know that we can’t hug each other and all that

6:20

physically but i think it’s amazing that we can still come together um i guess ultimately

6:28

when the pandemic first started for me it was the lack of artwork usually

6:34

during times that are difficult especially like a pandemic or political turmoil you start to see

6:43

artwork being made by artists there’s that expression that’s the best time to see incredible

6:49

art i wasn’t seeing any and so the question came to mind why is that

6:55

and so um you know it’s i posted the question lisa responded

7:01

pretty much immediately and um you know we’ve known each other for several years so it was easy to have

7:07

a conversation about you know what we were seeing what we weren’t seeing what we thought the

7:13

problem might be and so that’s from that’s where the idea started

7:18

what it grew into was something phenomenal um just you know we based the project on

7:25

our teachings but it’s not an indigenous project it’s a community project for

7:31

anyone who wants to participate and so um absolutely proud of that lisa please

7:38

jump in yeah no natalie you said that that very well um i think that for myself

7:44

when that when we were forced into isolation um i feel like myself and a lot of

7:51

artists are super feelers so you couldn’t ignore a pandemic you couldn’t ignore being put into isolation

7:57

and you know i think that working through and and creating was the way out it was the way to find community

8:05

to connect to other artists and to express what we were going through and it’s like just

8:10

unlocking putting it out there was enough to kind of get the creative juices going and be able to create again

8:16

so for myself that’s that’s the purpose that it served in the in the very beginning and it’s just

8:22

grown into something i feel like now you know in largely natalie and i have just like stepped out of the way because

8:28

it has a spirit of its own and it’s got this momentum and you know we’re just so so proud of

8:34

the work that all of these artists have done and the vulnerability that they’ve shown to be able to speak their truth through

8:40

such a difficult time um it is amazing to see uh such personal

8:47

responses to the question of uh making as it relates to a mask

8:55

as we look through all of the uh and i’m gonna turn to uh jenna who is helping us in the back

9:01

end thank you jenna maybe you can scroll through some of the next slides to show um to show our viewers just

9:09

the incredible array of masks that are part of this project this is just a selection not only that

9:16

are that have been shown in uh the exhibition at the art gallery of guelph but i think there’s

9:21

one open or just opened up the uh royal alberta museum is that right

9:28

next week opens next week so yes as we look through all of these masks uh we see that there

9:36

is an incredible amount of personal reflection um and uh and uh

9:44

and experience that and that goes into uh the making of these masks um they’re all

9:51

handcrafted all incredibly unique um and speaking to these personal uh

9:57

and cultural experiences with different intentions different aesthetics um so what i’d like to do is start by

10:04

inviting each of each of the artists who are here this evening to talk about uh talk about your own mask and what it

10:12

means your choices of materials and techniques uh and why it is important for you

10:18

to um work with those traditional practices or materials um

10:24

and what other uh specific materials uh kind of uniquely express this moment and this

10:30

experience that uh we are collectively having but that uh manifests itself so differently for

10:36

each individual um and so you know what experiences and intentions uh shaped your approach so uh we had the

10:44

privilege of having a sneak peek into what uh naomi is uh up to she was uh when we first jumped

10:52

on the call uh just as a group she was um still making still beating um so maybe um naomi

11:00

uh i’m gonna ask jenna to flip over to naomi’s mask um but maybe naomi you can speak to um

11:08

to your mask your practice uh and and what what experiences and

11:14

intentions shaped your approach um thank you and thank you to uh natalie

11:21

and lisa and the art gallery of guelph for again hosting our work

11:26

um usually when i’m creating something i just draw upon my experiences

11:33

um they can be like from when i was young um they can be

11:40

experienced and um it was actually lisa nelly that kind of nudged me into

11:46

the first breathe experience where i made a more typical looking uh piece and at the time i was trying to

11:55

explain to them this was when we were in our first lockdown i said oh i said i don’t really feel like beating

12:00

which is a foreign experience for me because i bead all the time and i love beading

12:06

and i’ll bead whenever i can if you know it’s just going to stitch in here and there and so it was that first experience

12:13

where it kind of i guess brought me out of what i was experiencing from the

12:19

the pandemic and and lisa summarized it perfectly by talking about that feeling of isolation

12:26

and i and i was trying to say to lisa i said like you know i said i just i’ve never had that feeling where i just

12:31

didn’t want to do anything i didn’t want to do anything creative because normally all of my experiences

12:38

are defined um through the the process of creating art pieces um and i’ve been beating

12:45

since i was seven so i’ve been doing this for a fairly long time at least i think so um and so

12:52

i decided this time around again when i got a little nudge from the the breathe crew to participate

12:59

and again i was like yeah oh like okay it’s like you know sometimes i i just i need a

13:05

little bit of coaxing to to put a piece together but i’d already been thinking about it i’ve already been

13:11

thinking about how my dragonfly designs sort of lent themselves

13:16

um to the mask shape and everything and sometimes i

13:23

don’t even call myself a bead artist i say oh yeah i know i’m just a bead architect

13:29

because you sort of have to put everything together and what was particularly interesting about this piece is that um

13:35

i’ve combined so many techniques pretty much anything i’ve ever known about beading

13:41

has been incorporated into this piece and the subject matter itself the

13:46

dragonfly um tells the story of my relationship with the natural world with dragonflies

13:53

in particular um every summer they always come out and if i’m out in the yard they’ll like land

13:59

on my shoulder and they would do that even when i was a little girl and i always remember i was

14:04

never afraid of that like sometimes you know we see a spider and we kind of jump

14:09

and we’re look caught off guard by that but i was never afraid of these dragonflies so

14:15

in my mind i always felt that i had that connection there and so dragonflies are reflected quite often in

14:23

the pieces that i make and the mask itself is titled oh let me be free

14:29

and so it was a perfect um way to sort of express how i was feeling

14:35

with you know the second lockdown and not being able to go out and just being

14:42

at home all the time and so i was just like oh it’s like just let me be free and then i

14:47

thought perfect title for my piece because you know dragonflies themselves

14:52

um you know they spend the first six years of their life kind of in a nymph stage in water and they’re

14:59

you know they’re contained and then one day they mature and they become

15:04

these beautiful winged beings and then they can fly everywhere and so i was thinking about that process as

15:11

well and so as it evolved i i kept adding elements to it and then i thought you

15:17

know what i’m just gonna do everything that i possibly can imagine in terms of the beading technique

15:24

uh materials i’ve used antique materials in there i’ve used 24 karat gold i’ve used um

15:33

antique cat’s eye so i used all kinds of different things that i had kicking around that i

15:39

was so i’m always looking at stuff and going i should use that sometime so it

15:45

factored into my work and this was a perfect opportunity to do that and so um yeah this is a piece that’s

15:52

over the top and i’m always explaining to people i go it’s an art piece you know um even

15:58

though it’s it’s it’s uh presented under the guise of being a mask per se so so yeah yeah that was that was

16:06

sort of the background story um to my uh my creative experience

16:11

in in sewing this mask to make witch thank you naomi

16:18

and maybe i can ask just a really quick question what was it about this project

16:24

or um coming through the experienced stomach that made you want to do this

16:29

over the top uh you know pull out all the stops use every technique every

16:34

precious material that you um like there’s a lot of preciousness to uh this mask as well um that

16:42

we sort of think of often as you know in terms of you know i know you said this is an art

16:47

piece but the masks that we wear day to day have a disposable uh sort of

16:53

clinical kind of feel but this is anything but so just what was it that that drove you to do

16:59

that over the top well i think as artists um and

17:05

i’m pretty sure everyone that’s joined us tonight my fellow artists let them feel honored to be here with um

17:13

we’re always trying to push our art form we’re always trying to learn something we’re always trying to

17:20

apply a technique that we know in a different way and that’s how you develop that’s how

17:28

your your art pieces become what they are and you’re always you’re always moving

17:33

forward and i’m very committed to that and so that’s i had like a lot of things

17:39

to think about when i was putting this piece together like this is the first time i’ve done a little

17:44

uh raised section in the middle where i’ve encased the dragonfly button and and then

17:51

figuring out the the gusset system all of those sorts of things um you know but i was like i was

17:59

up for the challenge because i knew that i was going to be uh pressing forward with my my my

18:05

artistic experience and and in fact you know learning things and learning for me as a a big catalyst in

18:14

creating something that i wouldn’t typically wouldn’t typically do

18:21

it’s a growth thing well i think i mean it’s certainly um

18:28

we’ll touch on this a little bit later perhaps because i do want to give everybody a chance to speak um but it certainly uh offers up uh

18:36

that sense of growth and and moving forward and uh there’s a there’s a certain um

18:42

there’s a certain uh quality to this work that that gives us hope in many ways

18:50

um so thank you for that um with this idea of drawing on the natural world you uh

18:57

naomi you talked about how uh dragonflies um were something that

19:02

uh that you know they it was a part of the natural world that you never feared um and they kind of give you that sort

19:09

of strength and so i’d like to actually um uh offer up an opportunity to teresa

19:15

theresa i’m hoping you’re still on with us um because uh wolves have featured so

19:21

prominently in your work um and and of course uh take center stage in your mask so

19:29

maybe you can feel free to start wherever but uh if you can tell us about your mask and your

19:34

practice teresa

19:41

teresa are you there still hear me i can hear you now yes

19:47

okay all right okay little wolf powell from uh uh treaty five land i live up in

19:55

northern manitoba on on the lake it’s paint lake which is a um uh excellent little piece of

20:01

paradise uh thompson very close to me is uh somehow a place that thinks it’s the

20:09

wolf capital of canada so uh i guess that had a little bit to do with it

20:15

um i have worked as a professional craft artist probably doing beating for about 15 plus years i started in

20:22

paints and photography and other stuff again my thanks to natalie and lisa

20:31

and all of the art galleries that are are involved with uh putting these to these tour of these

20:38

masks together because it’s been such an excellent opportunity to showcase

20:44

beadwork and the many ways people incorporate glass beads with other materials

20:52

this particular mask i have to say i was so inspired by the

20:59

other stories and narratives of artists that were putting things up on breathe

21:04

and each time i would see them it would sort of send this little jealous

21:09

you know you know how they say you have two worlds well the little jealous wolf would be saying oh my come on and you always want to step

21:17

it up when you see some of the other wonderful things people are doing

21:22

i really enjoyed putting together my first mask for the brief first wave and i thought

21:28

okay i need to do something um so the pandemic has been about

21:36

sacrifices and loss of people and and for me people always have to have

21:43

faces um and a lot of my bead work does focus on on doing portrait of

21:51

people but a number of years ago i was doing other kinds of math sort of almost more

21:57

masquerade type masks and they were paper masks and i was doing them with students and we were doing a lot of wolves and i

22:05

had started beating a wolf mask at that time and i said well why not

22:12

take this because i had abandoned it take this see what i can do to make it into something else

22:18

and it had originated as a exploration of sort of celtic ideas of

22:27

she who swallows the dead and so it evolved from that into

22:33

the concept of sacrifice and the fact that not all of the pact arrives along the journey to

22:41

the place they’re going and certainly with a pandemic we’ve seen that and so that takes a considerable amount

22:48

of strength to acknowledge that we’re losing people we care about and

22:54

so this past time um just before the pandemics i lost my mom

23:01

and uh i didn’t beat for three months and then during the pandemic

23:08

my sort of northern mother sister uh elder heather york from nori house

23:14

also died and so it was one of those things where you start thinking about well who are

23:21

part of your pack how have they contributed to um your strengths and the strength of

23:28

those around us and so sometimes wearing a mask for me was about um saying not today virus

23:36

this is this is my way of saying i have strength to get through this um

23:45

so howell sort of originated out of the idea that um

23:51

that the people have been important in this pandemic the sacrifice and loss

23:57

is is something that we continue to deal with and that

24:02

we can use our creativity and we can explore our feelings and

24:09

showcase the strengths that we have um in whatever talents um

24:17

we have to give to making things better during difficult times how does that sound

24:25

that’s wonderful theresa and uh thank you uh for that sort of the the story of

24:31

your of your work um teresa you talked uh a little bit

24:36

uh about some of these amazing women uh in your life that have influenced

24:42

your practice and and your world and i’m wondering if you can um

24:47

uh comment on uh briefly why why the wolf for you uh is

24:54

is representative of those women in your life

25:00

well you’ll notice something about this wolf first of all she’s very blingy she’s she’s got lots

25:07

of sparkle to her and that’s not necessarily the way we always see the wolves but this

25:13

this is a wolf and both these women i think were very body conscious but they were body

25:19

conscious to the point where part of their strength was they didn’t want to be burdens to others so

25:26

so they’re always trying to make you comfortable um and make you feel like they were

25:31

doing okay um there the the wolf at times seems a little bit

25:39

pudgy and and she was and she is and so anybody who sees her only sees

25:45

the outside of her and caesar maybe at face value but tucked inside and actually tucked inside

25:52

this particular mask are the ashes of my mother who was an artist she was my model for years and certainly

26:00

an inspiration for that and i she would have loved to have been going to art galleries something i really miss

26:08

having been trapped in the north and actually after i don’t think the last time i got

26:14

out was in august i’m actually heading out tomorrow so it’s been a lot of isolation

26:23

and so tucked inside is is a little piece of my mother um

26:30

to travel around with all this art um so it’s these two women

26:36

um are something to howl about

26:42

well uh the strength of these figures in your life uh certainly comes through in the resolve of the the eyes

26:49

uh of this wolf so um uh and it’s it’s uh wonderful to have

26:56

uh it’s it’s powerful to have uh that expression coming through this mask

27:02

uh touring around um so thank you theresa for for sharing your story

27:08

um i’m going to turn it over to dal remick uh who whose mask is called the bounty of

27:14

our land um so so much imagery here uh and uh i’ll i’ll let you you speak to

27:22

this

27:30

hello my name is dollar i am inubialuk and i’m from taktyaktuk the

27:37

from the universe settlement region in the northwest territories um so i created this piece in response

27:45

to the call out from the breathe page i was so inspired

27:50

seeing everyone’s masks and i was fortunate to have had my seal skin masks chosen for the

27:58

first round of breathe and then i just i had a vision of this mask something i

28:04

wanted to do that really represents my hometown and everything in evaluate so

28:10

i began the process of putting my vision onto this piece of mousse height in the

28:16

form of beadwork and my the main thing i wanted to convey

28:22

was the landscape of my home community so historically the land provided

28:29

everything that we needed to survive the land and the water you know animals plants fish berries whale everything

28:37

and just thinking about all this teaching my children you know where they come from our history

28:43

um trying to ease their worries that we hadn’t been able to see my family or make a

28:49

visit home in such a long time so i started telling them well you know we’ll be okay we descend

28:57

from strong and evaluate every in a valid alive today descends from

29:02

survivors of disease so approximately a hundred years ago the innovative population was decimated

29:09

to near extinction because of previously unknown disease brought in with the fur trade with whalers with

29:16

colonization and during those times my grandparents

29:22

were young children and they witnessed a lot of death they fetched water from the river to help

29:28

people who were sick and dying then later on in the 1950s my jeju my

29:34

gwich and grandmother and my anonymous my invalid grandmother both were hospitalized with tuberculosis

29:41

they were isolated and hospitalized they had to leave behind their young families including their babies who were

29:48

my mom and dad um and so many families have gone through these circumstances

29:54

you know many families in my community in the broader inuit community many indigenous families across canada

30:00

have experienced these things so just telling my children you know a bit

30:06

about our family history in evaluate history just helps us to

30:11

have hope that okay we come from survivors you know we’ve been through this this is going to be okay we’re living in modern

30:18

times we have more comforts you know we have the internet ipads you know things to keep

30:24

us busy so even though that isolating was difficult there was still hope and

30:32

i just tried to convey all that in this mask and representing all the animals that we

30:38

used to survive so some of the most obvious ones were the seal skin walrus tusks

30:45

the walrus was a very important animal and we represented the walrus tusks on

30:52

our clothing um you can see so it’s a very distinguishing feature of

30:59

invalid clothing and i wanted to put that on the mask so if you look back to really old times

31:05

um some of our dancers would wear masks with walrus tusks to just dance in a more dramatic fashion

31:12

to convey the stories that were being passed on and just the use of seal skin also gives

31:19

an opportunity to educate about the importance of seal that people often have an issue with

31:25

that and i just tried to use as many natural materials as i could including reindeer

31:31

antler fish vertebrae there is wolverine for polar bear fur so all of these were so important for

31:38

our survival um yeah and i just wanted to mention

31:45

that i’m um i live on quickly today traditional territory which is prince

31:51

george bc and that’s where i’m calling in from today thank you um

31:59

it sounds as though uh this mask well it sort of represents a story for your family

32:06

um and and the conversations that you’re having uh at home with your kids um it also has

32:14

uh very much there are elements uh with within the materiality

32:20

that speak to a political discourse um or and some uh some

32:29

work that’s happening uh within that context was uh was this a work that you made

32:36

um as a point of education for the public was it more made for your

32:41

family can you sort of both can you talk about to that a little bit yes so i would say a little of both

32:48

so not only you know i want to preserve some of the stories and the history of innova within this

32:55

art piece but it also gives an opportunity to talk about the importance of the animals that we

33:02

harvest sustainably respectfully and a lot of times as indigenous artists

33:09

you know we experience um we get you know trouble or negativity for using

33:17

natural materials like you know seal skin or hides or bones things like that if

33:23

you know if you’re not familiar with it it can seem a bit scary or if you don’t understand it it

33:30

seems gross in a way just from some of the comments that i’ve personally had so just using these materials in this

33:37

way on this piece just lends an opportunity to educate about

33:42

you know why we use these materials why are they important and especially with the seal skin many

33:49

inuits still use many of the same materials and practice the same traditions that we

33:56

have since time immemorial and one of those is using seal skin

34:01

so people many canadians have an issue with it because they think of seals as cute and cuddly

34:07

and all the anti-sealing propaganda i want to say

34:14

but the fact is that you know inuit hunt sustainably respectfully um using

34:22

most or all parts of the animal so just being able to use the seal skin in this

34:27

way just lends an opportunity the opportunity to share and to explain

34:32

from our point of view why it’s important and uh and it is uh thank you for

34:39

sharing these that perspective with us um and also uh sharing this work so that we can have

34:46

some of these conversations here at the art gallery but also um as we sort of as this exhibition tours and we have

34:53

these kinds of dialogues around uh your work

34:58

um yes queen eine i just wanted to say thank you for this opportunity i really appreciate it just

35:04

to be included among this caliber of artists and not only for me personally but just to have

35:10

an evaluate representation on this level i’m so thankful queen i need

35:17

uh natalie i might uh i’m gonna turn it to you to talk about um some of the stories

35:22

that have shaped have shaped your work okay um well i’ll talk about the one on the

35:30

right first um that one’s called finding the acorns um so i

35:38

i hunt actually every fall and every spring uh and gather and uh we do a lot of

35:43

harvesting of natural foods and so it was during one of these periods when i was hunting

35:50

that um you know i came to realize that you know i might be an odd duck because

35:56

i actually like being isolated it doesn’t bother me to be in the woods

36:01

by myself um and to watch the world and and if we do sit long enough we can

36:10

start seeing the connections and it came to i came to realize that

36:16

you know there was also a lot of connections with the way we are being asked to face covid in isolation

36:23

um you know we’re being asked to stay home to keep ourselves busy in other ways or

36:28

to do things and during that time there’s there’s enough a lot of time to think and there’s an awful lot of time to to

36:35

watch and observe and reflect um same with when you’re

36:42

waiting for your game to come by or when you’re going through long

36:48

you know walks and hikes in the woods as you’re harvesting it’s not just go here go go there go

36:55

there next stop it’s stop look around listen take your time what are you hearing what

37:02

what’s going on with the weather what’s going on with you know the animals

37:08

so a lot of these connections started coming through and it wasn’t

37:13

just about hunting um it was also about kovid and during this

37:18

time i’d also lost um an elder the elder who actually taught me

37:23

how to hunt um the past of cancer and um i call it the other big c now

37:31

because kovitz seems to have taken over but i lost this elder who had taught me everything about hunting so it was a very kind of

37:38

reflective hunting season for me at that time and one of the things that kept coming

37:43

back to me which also relates to kovid is when you can sit back

37:51

and take the time to reflect you know just look just observe find the

37:57

acorns and that’s where you’ll find your deer or your prey or whatever and so the same thing can be said about

38:04

you know whether you’re sitting at home and you’re bored or whatever

38:10

find the acorns find those those little you know things that make you happy the

38:15

things to be grateful about you know and that’s where you’ll find your hope

38:20

and your you know inspiration to to keep moving on or to do other things

38:26

so so that’s that mask um the other mask on the left is uh

38:34

she who brings the light december 21st the winter solstice is my absolute

38:39

favorite day of the year it is to me a day of hope it’s

38:45

maybe the darkest day of the year but it’s the day where i know the light will start coming back and one of the tales that i learned a

38:51

long time ago um was about how the matriarch caribou

38:56

grabbed the sun in her antlers and put it back into the sky and so that to me is like the symbol

39:05

of hope and it’s it’s you know a very powerful day for me um

39:11

spiritually um and so what i wanted to do with this mask was

39:16

was to share that that that feeling that you know it’s going to be okay the light’s coming back springs go

39:23

around the corner we’re going to be able to grow food again go outside you know we won’t be so locked in the house anymore

39:30

covida will eventually go away um and so that it was the hope i guess i

39:37

was trying to share not just for myself but um you know for

39:42

everybody else to be able to create a piece of art that would maybe hopefully uplift people

39:48

and give them that that feeling that you know we’re okay you know we’re gonna be okay you know

39:53

i’m the eternal optimist what can i tell you but uh um you know in terms of materials

40:00

um being uh metis mixed blood however you want to

40:06

say it politically whatever we’re not going to go there but

40:11

you know it depends on who you talk to i guess i’m either metis or mixed blood

40:18

basically the use of materials as a multi-disciplinary artist i like using different materials anyway i do

40:24

that in my paintings i’m not um as experienced a beater as some of uh

40:33

my colleagues here i’ve only been beating for a few years and

40:39

but even in my paintings i use i do more painting and visual arts like

40:44

you know drawing and stuff like that but even in those projects i always use a lot of

40:49

different materials and i like to mix and experiment and do different things to see how it’s going to come out it’s

40:56

all about the color it’s all about you know how things are going to pop and you know how i’m going to best whatever material

41:03

is needed to best express the idea that that i’m trying to get across so

41:09

the same thing goes with these masks and that i didn’t just bead them i also used quills

41:16

in some of them embroidery silk embroidery and other ones and that just basically expresses

41:24

you know the different parts of me that my different ancestors and the things that i learned from all these different ancestors

41:30

whether they were anishinaabe whether they’re french whether they’re whoever right metis it’s all kind to me it’s a

41:37

symbolic way to represent my ancestors in my work

41:43

so there natalie i have to say um i’m i’m trying to question myself why

41:50

i’m so taken with this but uh i find when i see the two work side by side i’m really

41:56

i really am uh drawn to the contrast between um the ties that uh you used for both of

42:03

these masks um on finding the acorns it seems uh fairly utilitarian uh in a material

42:11

for for that that part that is the tie that goes around your the back of your head whereas the other is is delicate is

42:19

uh has a richness to it has the texture feels like i want to

42:25

reach out and and touch it um can you maybe i’m out on a limb here but can you

42:31

speak to the your choice of materials for the ties and how it it sort of connects with the two masks

42:37

um that you made sure well for the for the uh orange one uh when you go hunting you have to be

42:43

prepared uh you have to have equipment that is strong and durable you

42:48

have to um be able to rely on your equipment because if you’re going off like for for

42:54

hours and hours into the bush you can’t just you know hop in the car

42:59

where we go hunting anyway it’s you’re walking for several hours before you get to anywhere um so i can’t just jump in the cars not

43:07

drive by camping and stuff it’s it’s actual hunting like for real so so you know i

43:14

have to have the tools that um i will need and they have to be durable

43:21

they have to be light and they have to be um the kind of

43:26

equipment that you would take to these these things so that’s you know that’s why that one probably looks more utilitarian

43:32

because it’s meant to um whereas the one on the left the ties are a lot lighter because i was

43:39

thinking of snow and you know you know the the air in the winter time

43:45

when it’s a crisp blue day and you’re out in the middle of a frozen

43:51

lake and you might have a few you know crystals or whatever floating through the air

43:58

that’s what i was feeling you know at that time and so i wanted to try to get a tie that would

44:03

also reflect it would be it would complete the mask more to reflect that kind of feeling it

44:10

certainly does uh once you describe that really crisp uh sparkly air that you see at only the

44:18

coldest and and sort of the shortest days of the year um it really does kind of

44:24

capture that uh that sense of the hope of the solstice of the turning of the seasons

44:30

of the the turning towards more light um so yeah i can see i see why the the

44:37

choice of toy ties does matter um uh i’m going to turn it over to uh dawn

44:44

um don you also have a really interesting uh choice of materials the ties uh as

44:51

well um but uh i’ll invite you to speak about your work yeah thanks for inviting me and uh it’s

44:57

so nice to actually see like other the faces and voices in here the voices of other

45:04

artists from the brief group uh yes so i am don quan i’m a um

45:11

third generation chinese canadian uh queer visual artist um i’m here born and

45:18

raised here in ottawa i have a studio outside of ottawa like north of uh

45:24

in the ottawa valley in the white water region area my artwork is informed by

45:32

like my experiences um i weave a lot of my cultural knowledge and um stories and histories

45:40

into my artwork uh often like my art is very autobiographic in nature

45:46

um so yeah like uh my family we own and operated have

45:52

operated the shanghai restaurant in ottawa in ottawa’s chinatown for over 50 years

45:59

it was opened in 1971 by my grandparents uncle and parents so i was basically

46:06

born and raised in chinatown and raised in the restaurant business

46:13

so march 13th when uh you know the government told people that

46:19

we had to lock down close our businesses uh that day we were hosting a um

46:26

we were hosting a drag queen uh bingo my brother is a drag queen performer uh

46:33

and his persona is china doll so that that evening we noticed like you

46:40

know you know people were calling to cancel their reservation anyways

46:46

we had a full house but people were you know slowly they had been listening to the news of

46:51

the lockdown and coveted spreading um

46:56

so march 13th was basically the last day of the restaurant so then the next day

47:04

like i was a complete wreck like you know i was just kind of like thinking of the business

47:11

and thinking of the community um and then and then i was

47:16

thinking of my art and the loss of inspiration um and also like just prior to covid

47:24

hitting uh i had lost both my parents um the previous year so i was kind of

47:31

mourning their passing as well um so i was morning

47:36

morning a lot like morning passing my parents uh morning closure of the restaurant um

47:43

mourning for people around the world like you know that were dying around the world um but then you know like kovid wasn’t

47:52

the only thing that i was facing at the time uh you know racism

47:58

you know unfortunately kind of reared its ugly head again um like i won’t say his name but the

48:04

past us president you know popularized kobit as like you know the china virus

48:10

um kung fu flu so there was a lot of like uh anti-asian kind of sentiments

48:17

kind of creeping into social media and politics and ironically the thing

48:25

is i kind of saw all that accumulating before the down

48:33

was really quiet the restaurant was you know on a saturday night there wouldn’t be as many people on a saturday night so

48:41

that kind of fear of going into chinatown before the lockdown was

48:46

already there um so then uh also like you know like

48:54

the fear of all the chinatowns across canada being like targeted uh with like hate crimes and vandalism

49:02

and violence and hearing about all the increased violence towards like seniors and stuff

49:10

so that weekend of march 13th you know i was trying to

49:16

like gather up strength um and i kind of reminded myself of like what is

49:23

what is resilience um and then i thought about that and i

49:28

thought it’s uh you know reminded me of several things like um

49:35

uh my parents because like the strength and the power that like my parents and my ancestors before

49:42

me like what they faced with like racism and uh my grandfather

49:49

all the way back like three generations he paid the head attacks lived through all those like

49:55

exclusionary laws and then thinking about my parents and what they went through and the hardships

50:01

they went through um and then i and then myself as a queer

50:06

artist i was reminded about you know all the resilience and advocacy of all the

50:12

heroes uh like in the queer community like the lgbtq

50:17

community plus community that kind of like you know survived through the stigma of the aids

50:23

crisis through like advocacy uh through

50:28

stonewall uh through like pink triangle movements so all those all those kind of like i

50:36

was channeling all those spirits and all the power from my parents my ancestors

50:42

and thinking you know what kovit isn’t that bad uh all of a sudden like

50:49

i kept thinking you know i could like i have so much working for me i could i could easily

50:55

work through this uh this weekend and end up really thinking about that

51:00

thinking about my ancestors and the people before me really helped me um move forward and push

51:07

myself forward so then uh like

51:14

prior to uh coven 19 i was working on a

51:20

series called invisible identities it’s a series of

51:28

articles of clothing that mimic like uniforms that a waiter or servers in a chinese

51:35

canadian restaurant where and it was all made like uh

51:41

inkjet prints photographs of my family the chinese community like historic

51:48

pictures um and as well as like a variety of different like chinese

51:55

takeout menus that i had collected like uh from different chinese canadian

52:01

restaurants uh within 150 kilometer radius of ottawa and gatineau

52:08

so i was looking that weekend i was looking around my studio because we were all in lockdown and i was thinking you know

52:14

like what what do i have to work with um

52:19

so i’m working on that series so then i i think it was march 15th i had made my

52:26

first pandemic mask which is that one sitting on the plinth and then um march 17th i

52:34

posted it online um because i saw all my friends

52:41

including myself like we were all kind of like lost and languishing and no one had inspiration so i posted

52:49

i decided to post it online thinking you know like what’s the feedback i’m gonna get

52:56

and to my surprise like everyone was really supportive uh all my fellow artists like

53:04

we kind of you know something clicked in our brains and and it kind of initiated

53:12

the first you know steps of inspiration you know like we have time like artists

53:17

were used to isolating um we’re used to being alone we’re used to being introverted and

53:24

introspective so this is kind of like a blessing it’s like a good good time to

53:29

make hurt like we can kind of like spend a lot of time to reflect um yeah so then

53:38

uh so then the second mask uh like i said you know my family’s

53:45

restaurant um the shanghai restaurant is pretty old they’re

53:50

we’re 50 years old uh so i have boxes of old menus like iterations of different kind of menus

53:57

over the history and the uh it’s all paper ephemera and the one on

54:04

the right hand side with the tassels um kind of mixed mixed up uh materials

54:12

i like to the message the material is the message in my works mostly

54:19

um and i like to imbue things with my stories and my histories so

54:27

these were kind of objects that kind of held memory

54:34

and history for me and it helped me connect to my ancestors

54:39

uh which i who i drew strength from but it also was like a way to kind of

54:45

like reverse the gaze of of the hatred that was

54:50

happening in the world against asians um so it was kind of a way for me to transform

54:57

that hate into like strength and power and resilience um

55:04

and also also to like document this time in history um

55:11

because it’s pretty unprecedented um i i looked back at uh

55:18

previous like um what was it sars i think sars the the uh like severe acute

55:26

respiratory syndrome so something that helped me get through

55:31

this period is that i’ve kind of gone through these periods of you know isolation and and hate towards

55:39

asians already so going through it i kind of going through

55:45

sars and the aids crisis is like growing up through the aids crisis like those kind of gave me tools somehow

55:52

to kind of like overcome the obstacles and kind of like rise above it

56:01

yeah sorry so once i um so once i posted the initial mask on the left online

56:09

uh later on a friend of mine uh suzanne heath thieves she is a

56:16

document filmed documentary artist i think her tagline is she films

56:23

um she’s my facebook friend and then later on that month or something like that she uh

56:31

she contacted me and she invited me to be part of a group which was the brief group and i thought

56:38

you know like you know i have nothing to do i’m languishing like i’ll all

56:43

i’d love to connect with other artists like through this time so then that’s kind of how it started uh

56:50

they accepted me and it was so nice to like be able to

56:55

you know see other people’s creativity and we kind of all worked together

57:02

the group has been really transformative for me don there’s so much that you have uh

57:09

brought to the table here um i mean it’s fascinating the way that uh these archival materials are uh

57:16

speaking not only to the the cycles of history of racism that you and your family have experienced

57:22

but uh taking this into the current moment in the way that you’ve used this material um this connection with the breathe

57:29

group i do want to get to have a chance to talk about that a bit more um with you and your fellow artists we

57:37

haven’t heard from lisa though yet and there is this connection with um

57:42

the stories that uh come to have come to the fore during the pandemic that lisa has talked

57:48

about with her her ancestors as well so uh i’ll give her a moment and then we can

57:54

um open it up to the group in the meantime if anybody who is has joined the call has some uh

58:00

questions please do drop them into the chat um and uh if as as

58:05

you as artists have if you have questions for each other we let’s let’s get to those too but uh i don’t i

58:12

i do want to hear from lisa first hi thank you so um tanji dashikashan lisa shepard

58:19

um

58:25

first nations shared territory so i’m originally from edmonton and i now live on the west coast bc casey and

58:31

quatman shared territory um this is just fantastic being able to get together as a group like this and

58:37

talk um the mask that i did for this um collection the second wave collection

58:43

is called ligame familiarity and what that means is family ties a

58:50

world apart so for me as a metis artist

58:56

what i do is help bring metis people visibility it’s always a celebration of identity

59:02

and exploration of identity during covert though it felt like the world got very small

59:08

you know like i feel like we go through our day-to-day you know looking to the right looking to the left you know our world is our our

59:16

family and our community but it’s all quite close by and when the pandemic happened it it

59:22

really felt like we just got sucked back in space and the world became very small

59:27

and we started thinking about what was going on in other parts of the world and so by the time we came around to the

59:33

second wave one of the concerns that i had my my mom is italian i grew up our household

59:41

um was very metis and italian however the italian was really um

59:48

talked about and and celebrated every sunday was a big family gathering that my

59:55

grandma would cook all day and when you would get to grandma and grandpa’s house there was

1:00:00

nowhere to put your tush because every one of the couches and chairs were covered with a tea towel

1:00:06

and fettuccine was drying and so you know we had this big family celebration thanks to grandma and

1:00:12

grandpa you know pulling everybody together on the other side of the family the metis side of the family it was

1:00:17

never hidden that we were made to you know within our family it was something that we always knew about it was a way of life

1:00:24

um but it wasn’t something that we really talked about outside of the family and so by the second wave

1:00:33

one of the things that i started thinking about was my family in italy so my cousin luciano and marina

1:00:40

wondering how they were doing because at that point in the pandemic we were seeing that the numbers were

1:00:46

really climbing very quickly in italy and i was so worried about them but because of our ability to connect

1:00:53

over the internet i was actually able to visit with them a lot more than we normally do

1:00:58

and so for myself there was a really um an introspective um exploration

1:01:05

on who i am in a much bigger way and more in-depth way

1:01:10

i started thinking about wanting to do a mask that really showed my full identity

1:01:16

because again trying to always make me tea visible and then quite literally you know we’re

1:01:23

covering half our face and you know wanting to be able to have identity come through in a really

1:01:29

authentic way so i started thinking about combining the metis floral beadwork

1:01:35

with some of the colors that i remembered seeing around my grandma and grandpa’s home growing up so the the muted um

1:01:43

beige and pinks and blues that you see there i was thinking about the capo de monte

1:01:50

porcelain vases and that kind of thing that grandma and grandpa had around the home

1:01:55

and those were where the colors came through but then i really wanted to work with materials and designs that were very much metis

1:02:02

the idea of a venetian mask was really inspiring to me and with the venetian

1:02:08

mask the top half of the face was covered it was a way of disguising people would disguise themselves

1:02:15

so that when they got together for big events and parties um they were hidden used

1:02:21

as a way to protect them during these sexual exploits and um you know here we are in this

1:02:27

pandemic we’re covering the lower half of our face and i was wanting identity to come through so that was

1:02:33

that was kind of where this idea of this mask was coming from um it’s got the buckskin tail on it

1:02:40

um which is the first hide that i tanned was buckskin and so i wanted to

1:02:46

include that buckskin tail on there and yeah and just have identity shine through

1:02:53

again the textures uh that sort of the different ancestry that you carry

1:02:59

within you um certainly comes through in this mask lisa i’m i’m um sort of struck by this idea that

1:03:06

uh you were able to connect with your italian family um online during the pandemic in a new

1:03:12

way um and uh it’s sort of uh is reminiscent of one of these really

1:03:18

wonderful and really wonderful aspect of the uh brief project which has been the ability for

1:03:26

this um opportunity to make uh centered on a single

1:03:34

type of object a mask um but it brings everybody together with an ability for you all to share

1:03:40

your own stories that are so different um and you’re coming together uh online

1:03:45

as artists so uh you know during this time of distancing and separation you all

1:03:51

have in some way um talked about how uh it was a struggle uh in the early

1:03:58

days and not looking for inspiration and not sure not being sure where to go um and uh and then finding this group

1:04:06

this collective online that helped uh either propel your work forward and give you that

1:04:13

inspiration or or to support the work that was already happening for you in your practice um naomi i see you nodding and actually

1:04:20

it was you were one of the first to talk about this you know where to start during the pandemic with beating you didn’t

1:04:26

want to you mentioned that you didn’t want to bead and that was such a foreign experience for you so um maybe you can talk about your

1:04:33

experience of connecting with this group of artists and others uh on online um

1:04:42

well the the breathe project i facebook has always been a challenge

1:04:49

for me social media in general but um i kept

1:04:54

trying to join the breathe group officially um and i and i kept having issues with

1:05:00

it and i’m like oh like i really want to and i would always go and i would check out see what everybody was doing

1:05:05

and i kept saying to natalie i go i can’t join you know um but uh

1:05:12

it’s still it still inspired me and i still um made those connections with um fellow

1:05:18

artists and so you know that part of it that part of the journey was really

1:05:24

important because it really did um become the catalyst to get

1:05:31

back into some sense of normalcy for me that is always creating something always working

1:05:38

with my hands um and so when i was kind of on a hiatus

1:05:44

from that i was like kind of going this is like this is really not normal for me i could normally i would be doing

1:05:50

things um and so i had quite a few conversations with different

1:05:55

people about that lisa mentioned she felt similar um and so having that i guess

1:06:04

support um regardless of where we were and the ability to be able to follow each

1:06:10

other um online see what each other we’re doing it really for me um cemented

1:06:18

the the idea that no matter what we’re going through

1:06:24

i i have to stay true to myself and continue to create pieces even if i’m

1:06:32

in a situation that i’m not fully understanding or comfortable with and at the beginning of the pandemic

1:06:38

um that was the first time i’d ever walked into stores and literally saw empty shelves that’s i’ve never seen

1:06:46

that before and so all of these anomalies were had me

1:06:52

i i don’t know if it was almost like in a panic mode but it certainly was interfering with any kind of um

1:07:00

sense of peace that i would normally have and usually when i’m creating my work i always describe it when i’m talking to

1:07:07

people about it i go oh this is my happy place or this is a healing thing for me and

1:07:13

and i would use all of these these descriptives to sort of suggest that whenever i’m creating

1:07:19

something i’m always you know in a good space and so uh the brief connections that i

1:07:26

had helped with that it helped me re find that that space that i felt that i

1:07:34

had temporarily lost or that i didn’t feel inspired about and when i saw and read everybody’s

1:07:40

stories and there were stories of survival stories of triumphs stories of you know resilience i i really embraced

1:07:48

that and i and i really appreciate it like i said uh lisa and natalie were quite

1:07:53

instrumental in giving me the nudge that i needed to to be part of the group and

1:07:59

and really be inspired by what everybody was doing i really don i really appreciate your

1:08:05

stories too and those of you that have suffered losses i just also want to say

1:08:11

my condolences okay because i i’ve been listening

1:08:16

thank you mcwitch

1:08:24

lisa and natalie um thank you naomi first thank you for for sharing that

1:08:30

experience lisa and natalie um what has it been like to watch this community grow

1:08:37

over the last uh the last whatever it’s been almost a

1:08:42

year and a half for me it’s been nothing short of

1:08:47

amazing i’m you know at the beginning of the pandemic you know i had plans you know i’d like i

1:08:55

had you know i was gonna do like a series of paintings and i was gonna do this and i’m thinking to myself

1:09:01

okay the world isn’t quite coming to an end we have to sit still but now is the time

1:09:06

to make art i finally have time um but then when the group started to

1:09:12

grow and i started seeing the stories and i think i can connect with something

1:09:18

that each and every one of the artists in tonight’s panel has said at some level you know i started to

1:09:25

realize early on that whatever i had planned was not nearly as important at what as

1:09:30

what was happening with breathe we have been it’s like don was saying we have been

1:09:37

creating artifacts that describe a specific moment in time not just

1:09:42

here in canada but around the world and we’ve never seen that before so

1:09:49

i think you know early on watching it not knowing where it was going to end up

1:09:55

i’m absolutely blown away at what it’s become the friendships i’ve

1:10:00

made um you know the the all the participants and the

1:10:06

support from outside organizations from the cbc from all the different galleries

1:10:11

and and and even people who are just you know what can i do to help what can i do to

1:10:16

help this project grow it brought so many people together in a new way

1:10:22

that we haven’t seen before and that to me has been the ultimate success

1:10:28

because it’s not based on some kind of system that’s already in

1:10:34

place it’s something very very new and it’s from the heart and so for that i am so incredibly

1:10:42

grateful yeah um i think

1:10:48

i’m so grateful that i had a collaborator with this that i was you know i had natalie by my

1:10:54

side though we’re quite a distance apart otherwise my friend

1:11:00

you know both of our families went through loss over this past year and um you know we very much were able

1:11:07

to pick up the ball for the other person to run with it when we needed to and you know i think that this pandemic

1:11:13

has proven to all of us how connected we are to each other um

1:11:18

you know how much we really need each other for myself i also felt how much i’m connected to land we

1:11:26

are i mean we all are but speaking from my own perspective how connected i am to land you know i

1:11:32

my mom and dad are in alberta i’m in bc i miss them i miss the land i really

1:11:37

wanted to just like touch alberta soil like be home for a little while and then you know the idea of you know

1:11:44

would i ever be able to return to italy and see family there or like is this it am i ever going

1:11:49

to see them again you know that again that that being on that land where i would feel

1:11:55

my grandma and my grandpa’s spirit and have that that place that feels like home so i think us

1:12:02

coming together in like this global way in this community was just so important

1:12:08

it’s been incredible watching people support each other i’m so impressed by the vulnerability

1:12:14

that people were willing to share with the group and it always felt like the vulnera vulnerability was being shared

1:12:22

as much so that it would reach other people who were going through the same thing

1:12:27

as it was i’m going to share this vulnerability to help myself it was very much like i’m going to share this because i know others are going through

1:12:32

the same thing and it’s it’s just been incredible um it’s been humbling

1:12:38

i think that for myself it’s i’ve had moments of just feeling very very small that this group

1:12:44

has has taken on a life of its own and it’s been awe inspiring and i really believe that

1:12:49

if we can pull this off at a time when we didn’t know what to expect

1:12:54

as far as economy we didn’t have any kind of funding

1:13:00

for the museums the host venues the art galleries you you guys put together an exhibition

1:13:08

when will you open i don’t know will you open in person we don’t know

1:13:14

you know but doing it anyway i think we all just really learn to live in the moment and just be grateful for what we have

1:13:21

living in the moment and making the very most of it and you know there’s been so many teachings along the way it’s it’s been absolutely

1:13:27

awe-inspiring yeah i’m definitely going to this is going to live with me for the rest of my life for sure and all the friendships

1:13:34

and the teachings and the respect that that’s the one thing too that i can say

1:13:39

is online and even in the friendships that we’ve taken outside of you know the group the

1:13:45

respect that we have for each other is tremendous you know and and for that

1:13:50

as well i’m truly grateful you know

1:13:55

okay i’ll shut up now

1:14:04

i’m a changed person because of this group really it is a sense of gratitude it truly is i

1:14:11

just wanted to say that i love i loved uh seeing all the

1:14:18

different varieties of the different voices i mean artists have an ability to see the unseen

1:14:26

and i think this group because mostly it’s indigenous and metis and i like i’m thankful to be part of it

1:14:33

as a like a chinese canadian um like my content always yeah

1:14:38

my content is always different on the breathe group but i love seeing everyone’s reactions to it

1:14:44

but um also it’s like i think like beadwork is has been around for centuries but it hasn’t

1:14:52

it’s i love the fact that it’s been celebrated you know like that it’s it’s being represented

1:14:58

and being people are uh you know appreciating the craft

1:15:03

and seeing it applied in a contemporary like way i think the brief group has

1:15:10

really helped to like push those push the needle in in the beadwork community

1:15:20

you know i’ve been amazed at the amount of diverse talent that we have across this country

1:15:25

that we’ve never seen that we’ve never seen anywhere you know so to be able to see

1:15:31

all these different styles and all these different techniques and all these different mediums come together and what people

1:15:38

and artists are doing with these things has been just absolutely incredible we have so much amazing talent across this

1:15:45

country how many members in the brief group to

1:15:52

to date do you guys know i haven’t checked lately but it’s in the

1:15:58

thousands wow and checking while we do this

1:16:07

please check lisa let us know um the one thing that i i uh i’m really

1:16:13

struck by um is i mean you’ve all been so uh generous with your your stories your thoughts your your

1:16:20

making um and yet you’re expressing such a gratitude uh to each other for uh creating the sense

1:16:26

of community um there also seems to be a

1:16:32

great sense of catharsis or hope or uplift in these works um which is kind of incredible to see at

1:16:39

such a challenging time um uh dawn you said uh

1:16:44

you know one of the questions you explored was what is resilience and uh hearing your stories and looking

1:16:51

at these masks with the new lens uh hearing your words it’s sort of uh

1:16:57

it it seems to me that these masks express an incredible sense of resilience in the face of

1:17:04

everyday personal struggles and real challenges and loss and grief uh

1:17:12

deep deep grief and isolation um as well as some of these larger issues

1:17:19

like uh racism and the effects of colonial history in this country um

1:17:24

these are all uh um incredibly challenging uh things to explore um and yet

1:17:33

and yet it seems like there’s this this sense of hope and uplift that i that i that is is

1:17:40

present in in the materiality of your mask but also in the way that you talk

1:17:46

about the masks um how was the process of mask making

1:17:52

itself uh um how did that help you sort of reflect on some of these issues and and

1:17:59

these ideas that you wanted to pursue um

1:18:09

yes please jump in uh i i love um

1:18:16

i love using like like unconventional materials so i’m always like i said like i’m

1:18:22

always um the medium is sometimes the message and like i love i imbue like

1:18:29

something as simple as a lantern or a tassel or like a chinese take up menu and i

1:18:35

kind of create work that kind of expands and creates a broader

1:18:40

conversation so it’s kind of like a you know it’s like the key to the door that

1:18:45

opens just opens your mind to like or to us a bigger story and then i’m hoping that

1:18:51

story is about you know history and what identity

1:18:56

or belonging means um so i’m constantly asking like myself the questions like what what

1:19:03

is uh what is identity what is belong what does belonging look like what i think

1:19:10

artists we have the ability to kind of like uh shape shape the future so i’m always

1:19:16

asking like you know what does the future look like um so by doing these works for me it’s like

1:19:25

a way to kind of like uh push the envelope to make a better

1:19:30

world you know like because we all want we won’t all want to a better life and a

1:19:35

better world for us all it’s just how do you get your voice heard

1:19:41

um yeah that that’s struggle i guess

1:19:50

yeah working with material it’s like so delicate um it’s paper right so it’s very

1:19:58

um i i put well i put it through like a torturous kind of uh process to

1:20:05

um sometimes i put it through like under hot water and then sometimes i’ve like manhandled

1:20:12

the menu and the paper to shape it so i’ve learned a lot of different techniques

1:20:18

to kind of how to manipulate the piece to how i want it to look like um

1:20:26

my primary tool is that sewing machine back there i’m in my studio so you can see in the back i have like

1:20:32

all my work um so the mask is actually for me it’s something very simple to to make

1:20:39

because i’ve made more elaborate pieces like big large like six foot by four foot quilts um

1:20:47

you know i’m working on a my a dress for my mother right now all out of old uh

1:20:54

like inkjet prints of family photographs so i’ve learned to kind of like like the

1:20:59

mask making has act has taught me different skills to apply to my crafts

1:21:05

so it’s always so the year of during the pandemic i’ve learned so much um

1:21:11

in isolation was there something about the simplicity of making a mask compared

1:21:16

to the dress um that that process of making that that was able to

1:21:22

help you sort of bring ideas to the fore yeah sometimes like you know like

1:21:28

sometimes i’ll be inspired and i’ll make something in a day and then sometimes

1:21:34

i languish on a project and it’ll take me like three years like the dress for my mother

1:21:40

is actually taking me three years to make just because of the emotional process i mean

1:21:45

it’s it’s uh sometimes it’s emotional and it’s all those hurdles

1:21:51

that are involved um yeah but yeah the the the fact that um the paper menus are

1:22:00

you know i’ve got stacks of them and from the restaurant the restaurants on hold so i have like a boxes of old shang

1:22:07

menus that i can kind of like you know use and it’s very fr it’s a very forgiving

1:22:12

material um uh theresa i don’t know if you are still

1:22:19

there theresa um because unfortunately we can’t see you but if you are there um

1:22:24

oh you are wonderful uh i’m listening i’m just i’m sorry that i

1:22:30

can’t see everybody uh that’s why you’re not just sit here and nod my head and it’s probably good that

1:22:37

i’m actually not on because you know i’d be you know picking at something on my face or doing

1:22:42

some odd uh kind of uh facial expression because i am just sort

1:22:50

of smiling at the comments that people are making and kind of doing the little

1:22:55

me too you know um it’s being part of the uh

1:23:02

this this group is it always sort of hearkened back to i really enjoyed the experience of

1:23:09

uh being part of christy belcourt’s um vamp project walking uh the walking with

1:23:16

our sisters where people from across canada and the us made all sorts of vamps for missing and

1:23:21

murder indigenous women and that going on tour and and i was

1:23:27

just sort of blown away by the diversity and the and the artistry of

1:23:32

so many different um artisans and so when i saw that breeze was doing this i

1:23:38

i i just it just it got that excitement going for me again because i

1:23:43

i’d like everyone else also felt what do i do now it just it was there

1:23:51

was there were grief issues i was dealing with there was you know struggling but i’m a person who has many projects

1:23:57

going simultaneously and like dawn said some of the pieces take up to two three

1:24:04

four years to do and the mask was a way to sort of focus myself to say

1:24:11

do something make something contribute and and just because

1:24:19

it doesn’t take a long time or it’s a smaller item doesn’t mean that it isn’t a powerful

1:24:26

little voice in a time when we need lots of powerful little voices to come together

1:24:32

and be shared as a group and a collective with with very similar narratives just

1:24:41

told in different ways

1:24:47

um i have actually lisa i see that you’ve added in a question maybe directly to me

1:24:55

thank you teresa i’m so glad you’re still there uh and that you’re listening and still

1:25:00

being part of this conversation and and i i mean i have to say i was i was struck by

1:25:06

um your uh the conversation you had around um uh

1:25:15

taking so much much time to make the mask and revisiting masks that you had been working on before

1:25:21

and and bringing it back and finishing them and contributing um uh

1:25:27

for those of us who uh like myself who get to see these masks

1:25:33

even though i’m not a contributor uh there’s so much that you you bring to um to

1:25:40

our experiences as well so yes like wonderful wonderful contributions um there’s a

1:25:46

question here for dal remix uh just wondering on this question of connectivity um in this online world uh

1:25:55

have you felt like the world is more dialed in um to knowing the north since uh we’re all

1:26:01

connecting more virtually um and and has has that distance that physical distance

1:26:07

shrunk her or does it sort of still feel um i feel like yeah i i think the

1:26:14

distance is shrinking because you know we’re all online and there’s so many um you know content creators and

1:26:22

just regular everyday people showing their lives and it’s more accessible to hear the stories find out the history

1:26:30

from our point of view whereas before you know we were the ones being studied we’d read about ourselves

1:26:36

from you know other people’s point of view outsiders point of view so all this online all these forums is

1:26:44

a really great opportunity to share who we are and like what we do how we live with the

1:26:49

world and um that’s part of what i’m doing with my artwork is being able to

1:26:55

tell our stories our history from our point of view from my point of view

1:27:00

and i just think that’s so important especially for all the younger generations young innovator to see that

1:27:07

it’s possible that they can you know have their voices heard they can share who they are our history

1:27:15

and yeah it’s just really it’s wonderful and i’ve been able to harness some of

1:27:21

this on other social media just sharing again our history and our stories and do you

1:27:28

feel that um you’re being heard in a different way perhaps now i mean i sort of

1:27:35

uh reflect on the fact that we’ve all talked about having a different sense of time um so perhaps we’re

1:27:42

connecting with each other in new ways and developing relationships in new ways

1:27:48

um yeah something i was telling my husband so in my university days every chance i got

1:27:55

i would do research papers presentations on inevit i just it was so important to me

1:28:00

and most of the time nobody cared you know no applause just crickets there’s times

1:28:06

where i’d be in tears after presentations nobody really cared but now i’m noticing

1:28:11

such a big difference like people notice they want to hear more you know i’m getting positive feedback they’re enjoying the

1:28:18

stories or the artwork or the you know the fashion that i’m sharing and it’s just really such a wonderful thing

1:28:26

to see this positive change you know like the things are opening up people

1:28:31

want to know more and they want to learn they want to hear our stories and they are being respectful

1:28:37

it’s it’s wonderful it’s i’m glad to hear that um

1:28:43

uh that feels like a two-way conversation um going both ways and uh and if you

1:28:49

haven’t already to all of the artists who are speaking tonight um i hope you pop up in the chat

1:28:55

um there’s much more in the way of gratitude to all of you for your contributions your stories

1:29:02

sharing your work sharing your uh your life uh sharing your thoughts with

1:29:08

us so take a quick look uh before um we say goodbye um

1:29:17

uh here at the art gallery uh i is there any parting thoughts i’m gonna

1:29:22

probably i feel i don’t want to but i do feel as though uh i should probably

1:29:28

um take this time to to say goodbyes if you have any parties i just wouldn’t

1:29:34

mind adding in one thing and that’s that i feel like i have learned so much about my brothers and sisters across the

1:29:41

nation than i ever knew before and i feel like that’s where we get rid

1:29:46

of racism that’s where we get rid of not understanding you can’t spend time with somebody and hear about their

1:29:51

family and see their struggles on a personal level and not feel compassion not feel empathy not

1:29:57

feel loved and so i feel like that’s that coming together that that is one thing the pandemic has actually given us

1:30:06

absolutely agreed um so here at the art gallery uh

1:30:13

this is the second uh exhibition that uh we’ll be touring um and we’re um

1:30:20

working on organizing that tour um but this is just an indication we think of a project that continues to

1:30:27

expand breathe is a living growing expanding experience that is connecting

1:30:34

uh to connecting artists and connecting audiences with artists um through digital and physical spaces

1:30:42

so uh certainly for the gallery i know that taking on um coordinating this project uh has been

1:30:49

about being responsive and uh being able to hear stories about uh experiences during the pandemic but

1:30:56

experience that also uh expand well beyond the pandemic uh histories ancestries um

1:31:02

and and the futures and the hope that you have for uh for what might be next um

1:31:09

so uh i also understand that there are another number of masks that are also being collected uh i’ve heard that

1:31:15

the new york public library the smithsonian other museums are contacting artists and i think

1:31:20

um not to put too much weight on the idea of collecting but it sort of is an indication of the

1:31:26

importance of these works of art as an archive of this current moment in time uh and all

1:31:33

that all that has sort of led up to this moment um in terms of your work your practice so

1:31:38

um uh again uh thank you all for being part of this really uh important uh project that is

1:31:45

happening at a pivotal moment for all of us um uh

1:31:51

i would like to uh just um mention that we are hosting breathe

1:31:57

we’re really honored here at the art gallery of guelph to host breathe uh we are hosting it uh

1:32:03

well into and uh through the summer and into the fall um we have it open until uh the

1:32:09

beginning of october so that uh anyone and everyone who is able to come

1:32:15

and uh see these masks i i encourage you to come see them in person because as we all know um with uh such

1:32:23

beautiful uh objects and and works of art that you have created seeing them in person is just uh uh just

1:32:31

so much there’s so much there that we gain uh that uh we don’t see online so please do

1:32:38

um visit the art gallery of guelph website and i hope you’ll plan your visits uh if

1:32:43

you’re able to i know some of you are coming are joining us from near and very far

1:32:49

um so i also want to thank you all for being part of our discussion tonight uh

1:32:55

to the six of you who are here but also all of the artists who are represented in the brief project both in

1:33:01

our exhibition and online um it’s been powerful and poignant work and and clearly shown that art can make

1:33:09

tangible uh social change and tangible community um

1:33:14

so uh a little uh just another mention of some other things happening

1:33:20

here at the gallery um we are if if handcrafted work is uh

1:33:26

part of the way that you experience and process um we’re hosting um a workshop

1:33:32

online so you can join us from anywhere it’s a two-part workshop on july 22nd and 29th

1:33:38

it’s about autobiographical uh embroidery and applique so um just

1:33:44

using this idea of exploring identity and self-expression through textiles so

1:33:50

visit our website at ca to find out more information

1:33:57

and this will be led by the textile museum of canada’s education coordinator yen namarovsky um and uh they’re

1:34:05

a wonderful textile artist that is going to help us all explore these ways of making

1:34:11

to as a form of um self-expression so uh again

1:34:19

we hope to be opening soon we hope to see you here uh in the meantime i want to say just a

1:34:25

heartfelt thank you to all of you for sharing uh so much of yourselves and for bringing us these wonderful

1:34:31

works and and organizing this incredible community of artists um so on that note

1:34:40

thank you be safe everyone thank you thank you much everyone

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