TANIA WILLARD
Intuition Archive for a Radical Future, 2020
acrylic mirror, satin ribbon, dyed buck tails, wood
207 Seymour Street
Tania Willard’s artistic practice and her community-engaged projects cultivated through BUSH Gallery on Secwépemc territory near Chase, BC, are invested in conversations about Indigenous knowledges, traditions, aesthetics, performance and land-use systems. Her work addresses land-based Indigenous contemporary art as a survival strategy for contemporary socio-political upheavals. This series of works made for Luminocity, installed in the window of the Kamloops Museum and Archives, builds on recent projects which address the current moment of transformative energy that has the potential to destabilize colonial institutions and realize de-colonial futures. This installation draws from Willard’s previous work with Secwépemc archival material from the Kamloops Museum and Archives and the American Museum of Natural History. As the title suggests, in response to the complexity of current social, political and economic issues, including community division over the Trans Mountain pipeline, Willard has re-positioned slogans as an archive for a radical future. Tied to intuition, Willard’s imaginings reflect the political present while projecting the potential of a transformed future.
Tania Willard, Secwépemc Nation and settler heritage, is an artist, curator and an Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) in Syilx territories (Kelowna, BC). Her practice works within shifting ideas around contemporary and traditional, often working with bodies of knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between Aboriginal and other cultures. She received a Masters in Fine Artsin Interdisciplinary Studies from UBCO in 2017 and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, in 1999. Willard’s curatorial work includes the touring exhibition, Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture (2012–14), organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and co-curated with Kathleen Ritter; Unceded Territories: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (2016), co-curated with Karen Duffek at the Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC; and LandMarks/Repéres2017 (2017), sited in national parks across Canada. She has had solo exhibitions at the Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, BC (2018); Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC(2018); Urban Shaman, Winnipeg, Manitoba (2012); and Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC (2009), public art projects in Edmonton, Alberta, and Vancouver, BC, and commissioned projects in Mississauga and Kingston, Ontario.
Her work has been included in group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands and New Zealand, including an event for the Toronto Art Biennial, Toronto, Ontario (2019) and the touring exhibitions #callresponse, organized by grunt gallery, Vancouver (2016–19); Hexsa'a̱m: To Be Here Always, organized by the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC (2019–); Soundings: An Exhibition in Five Parts, organized by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario (2019–); and. Willard's ongoing collaborative project BUSH gallery, is a conceptual land-based gallery grounded in Indigenous knowledges. In 2016 Willard received the Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art from the Hanatyshyn Foundation. She is the 2020 recipient of the VIVA Award for mid-career artists.
Tania Willard
Intuition Archive for a Radical Future, 2020
acrylic mirror, satin ribbon, dyed buck tails, wood
Photos: Frank Luca