Benesiinaabandan

Installation shots from my solo exhibition unSacred at G1C03, Winnipeg MB. January 20-February 21, 2011. Publication is due in May, 2011.

Operating on the fringe of traditional Anishinabe culture, the Windigokaan represents the opposite of accepted norms. Benesiinaabandan contends that, like clowns or misfits in other cultures, Windigokaan use their backwardness to teach others and that their contrary nature represents a powerful symbol that has received little attention to date, both within and outside of Anishinabe society. His landscape studies suggest the imagined physical space from which contrariness might originate and his depictions of material manifestations of the Windigokaan will open discussion about this sacred society and the importance of deviant cultural figures. unSacred is co-presented as a satellite exhibition of Plug In ICA’s Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years, a large-scale exhibition of contemporary Indigenous art from around the world that serves as the banner project for Winnipeg’s Cultural Capital of Canada 2010 Program (see http://www.artsforall.ca/ for more information).