Ursula Johnson Friday, November 29 at 6:00pm Concordia University, VA-114, 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W. Presented in collaboration with the TextilesTimeTrade symposium
This conversation is About Making Conversation.
In 2014, Ursula Johnson created a three component exhibition titled Mi’kwite’tmn: Do You Remember (Vous souvenez-vous)
The show's three components were:
The Museological Grand Hall
The Archive Room
Processing (a performative space)
This nationally touring trilingual exhibition was hosted with a number of partners from various Indigenous communities, universities and public galleries. The premise of the show was to create a discourse around the importance of language and the handmade as having integral roles in the survivance of culture while exploring our individual roles within that construct of community and what that means to be an active member while exercising our privilege of exploration.
At each venue, Johnson engaged in a 30-35 hour long physically intensive performance where she processed an ash log on-site.
When visitors interacted with Johnson and asked her what she was “making” she would reply - “conversation.”
Bio
Ursula Johnson is from Eskasoni First Nation and is an alumna of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally since graduating in 2006. Her interdisciplinary practice is based in performance and installation, stating she “changes mediums based on who I am talking to and the conversation I am inciting.”
Johnson has been shortlisted for the Salt Spring National Art Prize (2015) and the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award (2016). She was a recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Reveal Indigenous Art Award (2016), the Finalist for Sobey Art Award (2017) and Finalist for the NS Masterworks Award (2019) for her installation Moose Fence. This talk is presented in collaboration with the TextilesTradeTime symposium
Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website. concordia.ca/cica