Artist Jay Odjick’s large digital drawing depicts a peaceful forest with a poem written in English and Algonquin. Odjick is from the Kitigan Zibi First Nation, which borders Outaouais, Quebec. Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG)’s art curator, Danielle Printup, describes his writing as “potent and declarative, urging us to conceptualize land through embodied, sensory experiences. In creating this work, Odjick makes visible the connections that have always been and will continue to be, the foundation of Anishinabe Aki.”
Photo: Melanie Mathieu.
In the same exhibit, artist Marigold Santos captures the asuang, a shape-shifting creature of Filipino folklore. Alice Ming Wai Jim, another CUAG curator, notes that “her beautiful drawings show the asuang figure as hybrid in state and status, negotiating strata and longing, becoming land. Marigold has said that the works reflect on, and speak of, the body, embodiment of experience, self-hood, empowerment, and diaspora.”
Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) recently opened its winter exhibit, Drawing on Our History, celebrating its 30th anniversary. Much like Odjick and Santos’ works, this exhibit showcases drawings on the themes of identity, connection to land, and storytelling. In addition to Odjick and Santos, it features artists Sharon Norwood, Kablusiak, Jagdeep Raina, Nalakwsis, Mélanie Myers, and Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona. Their art is displayed in conversation with around 50 pieces from the CUAG collection. While many of the artworks are drawings, some expand on that definition via digital drawings, large installations, video, and ceramics.
Photo: Melanie Mathieu.
Fiona Wright, CUAG’s student and public programs coordinator, says she especially enjoys the newly acquired knife drawing “Medusa” by Ed Pien. She refers to the words of CUAG art director Sandra Dyck when explaining her appreciation for his art: “Pien’s arresting work points to some of the ways that artists use drawing today: to anchor personal and cultural identities; to investigate ideas, techniques, genres and traditions; to recuperate erased histories; to tell stories; to mitigate loss; to declare positions.”
The winter exhibit was created using a polyvocal curatorial model focusing on collaboration and co-curation. “Each person on the curatorial team—five guest curators with whom CUAG has worked in the past and three CUAG staff members—invited a Canadian artist with a timely and compelling drawing practice,” Wright said in an email to Apt613. “The drawings and drawing-based works made by these eight artists open conversations with drawings selected from Carleton University’s art collection.”
In addition to Drawing on Our History, CUAG will continue to host artist and curator talks throughout winter, including a virtual walk-through of the exhibit on March 22.
Drawing on Our History is on display at the Carleton University Art gallery, from January 29 to May 7, at 1125 Colonel By Drive. More information on their events can be found on the CUAG website.
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