mâmawohkamâtowak: Judy Anderson and Katherine Boyer

September 19, 2024 – December 14, 2024

Exhibition Details

mâmawohkamâtowak

They do things together, they cooperate
They work (at it/him) together as a group
They assemble themselves to help one another

mâmawohkamâtowak reflects on the interconnection between the work, art, and lives of Judy Anderson and Katherine Boyer as they envision decolonial strategies through creative practice. Grounded in the deepening bonds of their twelve-year relationship, Judy and Katherine present a mix of existing and newly created works that explore their respective Indigenous identity, relationships, self-exploration, and the flatlands as an important site for these discussions to unfold. In keeping with the translation of the Cree-language title, the artists work together in numerous ways to help each other, and the viewers, think expansively about creative relationality as Indigenous artists.

Curated by Jessie Ray Short

Exhibition Brochure with curatorial essay by Jessie Ray Short NOW AVAILABLE!

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Judy Anderson is nêhiyaw from Gordon First Nation, SK, Treaty 4. Her practice includes beadwork, installation, three-dimensional pieces, painting, and collaborative projects, her work focuses on issues of spirituality, family, colonialism, and nêhiyaw ways of knowing and being. Her current work is created with the purpose of honouring people in her life and nêhiyaw intellectualizations of the world. Anderson’s work is currently included in the international touring exhibition, Radical Stitch and with Boyer and Carmen Robertson, she is an editor of the recently published Bead Talk. Anderson is Professor with the University of Calgary, Department of Art and Art History.

Katherine Boyer (Métis/Settler) is a multidisciplinary artist, whose work is focused on methods bound to textile arts and the handmade – primarily woodworking and beadwork. Boyer’s art and research encompasses personal family narratives, entwined with Métis history, material culture, architectural spaces (human made and natural). Her work often explores boundaries between two opposing things as an effort to better understand both sides of a perceived dichotomous identity. This manifests in long, slow, and considerate laborious processes that attempt to unravel and better understand history, environmental influences, and personal memories. Boyer’s work is currently included in the international touring exhibition, Radical Stitch and with Anderson and Carmen Robertson, she is an editor of the recently published Bead Talk. Boyer is Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba, School of Art.

Jessie Ray Short’s practice involves uncovering connections between the nuanced history of Michif communities to which she is connected across the Prairies by exploring diverse topics including space and time, Indigenous and settler histories, Michif visual culture, personal narratives, spiritual and scientific belief systems, parallel universes, electricity, aliens and non-human being(s). They use various mediums in their practice, including film and video, performance art, installation, finger weaving, sewing and writing. Jessie Ray has shown work nationally and internationally, including at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, La Chambre Blanche in Québec City, Art Mûr Berlin (a satellite exhibition of the Contemporary Native Art Biennial/BACA) in Germany, and at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival in New Zealand. Jessie Ray is deeply grateful to be based in oskana kâ-asastêki or Pile of Bones (also known as Regina) in Treaty 4 territory, which is between the Michif communities of Willow Bunch and Park Valley, where her ancestors lived.