carrie allison: wâhkôhtowin

The Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, presents:

carrie allison: wâhkôhtowin

7 June – 14 August 2019
Vernissage: 7 June 2019, 7:30 pm

Curated by Emily Falvey

wâhkôhtowin is the Cree word for “kinship” or “the way in which we relate to each other.” For artist Carrie Allison, this concept serves as an artistic methodology and guiding principle. Heart River (2018), a beaded map of the Heart River, which runs through the artist’s Cree and Métis family territory, underscores essential relationships between traditional beading, water, and the land. The companion installation Connect/Contact (2017), uses flora harvested from the banks of the river to create a gathering of paper discs whose movements invite visitors to listen for what Carmen Robertson calls “the sounds of the watery embodiment of place.” Finally, Beaded Botanicals(2018-2019) features beaded sketches of endangered flora found in Mi’kma’ki, the territory in which Allison currently resides, presented alongside botany specimens borrowed from the Herbarium of the Nova Scotia Museum.

Carrie Allison is an Indigenous, mixed-ancestry visual artist born and raised on unceded and unsurrendered Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver, BC), with roots in High Prairie, Alberta. Situated in K’jipuktuk since 2010, Allison’s practice responds to her maternal Cree and Métis ancestry, thinking through intergenerational cultural loss and acts of reclaiming, resilience, resistance, and activism, as well as notions of allyship, kinship, and visiting. Her work is rooted in research and pedagogical discourses and seeks to reclaim, remember, recreate, and celebrate her ancestry through visual discussions. She looks to Indigenous, mixed-race, antiracist, anti-oppressive, feminist, and environmental theorists to critically examine the world around her. Allison holds an MFA, a BFA, and a BA in Art History from NSCAD University.

The exhibition is accompanied by an Occasional Paper featuring an essay by Carmen Robertson, Canada Research Chair in North American Art and Material Culture at Carleton University.

Owens Art Gallery
Mount Allison University
61 York Street
Sackville, NB E4L 1E1

506 364 2574
owens@mta.ca
www.mta.ca/owens

Monday to Friday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Admission is Free

We would like to acknowledge, honour, and pay respect to the traditional owners and custodians (from all four directions) of the land on which we gather. It is upon the unceded, ancestral lands of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik Nations that Mount Allison University is built. While this area is known as Sackville, NB, it is part of the greater territory of Mi’kma’ki. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik first signed with the British Crown in 1725.

The Owens Art Gallery acknowledges the generous support of all its funders, including Mount Allison University, Canada Council for the Arts, the New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, the Town of Sackville New Brunswick, and the Friends of the Owens.

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The Owens is partially accessible. The stairs from the entrance nearest the University Chapel have a handrail. There is also ramp access at this entrance; however, the ramp is steep. The stairs to the entrance off York Street do not have a handrail. The main floor of the Owens is wheelchair accessible. Our second-floor gallery and cisgender bathrooms are located in the basement and are not accessible. Two flights of stairs lead to each of these floors. The Owens welcomes guide dogs and other service animals. Large print copies of wall labels are available on Kindles for use in the galleries. There are two, reserved, accessible parking spaces on the York Street side of the Gallery and one in the circular driveway adjacent to the Gallery.

Image: Carrie Allison, Beaded Botanical 3 (sabatia kennedyana fern.), 2018, toho beads on linen, courtesy of the artist. Photo: Séamus Gallagher.