For Immediate Release: September 24, 2015 – Please add to your listings/announcements
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
Presenting Sponsor: Bell Media
Exhibition Premieres and Annual Art Crawl
Material Experiments • ARCTICNOISE • Urban Indigenous • voz-à-voz • For this Land
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is only twenty days away, but for those itching for art, the Festival is pleased to announce, in advance of their annual Art Crawl on October 16, the Exhibition Premiere of Material Experiments will open on September 25 at the historic 401 Richmond Building in Toronto.
The A Space Gallery will host the Exhibition Premiere of Material Experiments, featuring collective works by eight Aboriginal artists who challenged themselves by working with new materials and techniques. Through experimentation these artists have created innovative and thought-provoking works with textiles, plexiglass, embroidery, bone, circuit boards, pelts, and sound and video to demonstrate that Indigenous art is not static, but evolves and continues to adapt with its people. The exhibition is presented in partnership with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and is funded by the Ontario Arts Council and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.
Material Experiments will be the first stop on imagineNATIVE’s Annual Art Crawl on Friday, October 16, followed by ARCTICNOISE, Heather Rae: Urban Indigenous, voz-à-voz / voice-à-voice, and For this Land. Each stop on the Art Crawl will include Curator and Artist Talks to add insight about each presentation.
Geronimo Inutiq (AKA madeskimo), and co-curators Britt Gallpen and Yasmin Nurming-Por, will display their work ARCTICNOISE at Trinity Square Video. An immersive installation, ARCTICNOISE addresses both historical and contemporary stereotypes of the North, based on Glenn Gould’s experimental radio documentary from 1967. The artists aim to provoke dialogue about how identity-based constructions are disseminated and perpetrated.
The A Space Gallery will also display Heather Rae: Urban Indigenous, showcasing photographs by Cherokee filmmaker Heather Rae, taken with the intention to document and explore Native people living in American cities. Heather Rae is the subject of this year’s imagineNATIVE Artist Spotlight.
On display at the YYZ Artists’ Outlet will be eight inter-media art projects entitled voz-à-voz / voice-à-voice, that have been adapted for display online. In reference to the French expression vis-à-vis, meaning face-to-face or in relation to, voz-à-voz / voice-à-voice provides a space for the voices of Indigenous people and non-Indigenous racialized im/migrants across the political and geographical borders of North America.
Material Experiments, Heather Rae: Urban Indigenous, ARCTICNOISE and voz-à-voz will be open during the annual Nuit Blanche on October 3.
Exhibition Premiere, For this Land is a multimedia installation made by co-collaborators, Jackson 2bears and Janet Rogers. The exhibition drew inspiration from Sioux philosopher, Vine Deloria Jr. and from the Mohawk poet, Pauline Johnson, and the place she grew up on the Six Nations Indian Reserve. The exhibition is an interpretation of conversation that the artists had while visiting Six Nations.
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world’s largest Indigenous festival showcasing innovation in film, video, audio and digital media. The Festival presents the most compelling and distinctive works from Canada and around the globe, reflecting the diversity of the world’s Indigenous nations and illustrating the vitality and excellence of Native art and culture in contemporary media.
The 16th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will be held in Toronto October 14-18, 2015.
imagineNATIVE Art Crawl
Friday, October 16, 2015
5:00-8:30pm
401 Richmond Street West
Material Experiments
Exhibition Premiere
Artists + Curator Talk: Friday, October 16, 5:30pm
and
Heather Rae: Urban Indigenous
September 25 to October 31, 2015
A Space Gallery – Suite 110
Artist Talk: Friday, October 16, 6:15pm
ARCTICNOISE
Ontario Premiere as part of Nuit Blanche
October 3 to November 7, 2015
Trinity Square Video – Suite 376
Artist + Curator Talk: Friday, October 16, 6:30pm
For This Land
Exhibition Premiere
October 16 to November 19, 2015
Vtape/VMAC Gallery – Suite 452
Artists Talk: Friday, October 16, 7:00pm
voz-à-voz / voice-à-voice
Exhibition Premiere
September 18 – December 5, 2015
YYZ Artists’ Outlet – Suite 140
Artist + Curator Talk, and Online Publication Launch: Friday, October 16, 7:30pm
For more information please call 416.585.2333 or visit www.imagineNATIVE.org
facebook.com/imagineNATIVE / @imagineNATIVE
