Blueprints for a long walk

works by Lisa Myers
Urban Shaman Gallery, Winnipeg
curated by Suzanne Morrissette
May 30-June 29, 2013

In August of 2009 artist Lisa Myers, her cousin, and her cousin’s son set out walking from Sault Ste. Marie to Espanola in Ontario. Their walk retraced the path taken by Myers’s grandfather many years before when he ran away from Shingwauk Residential School and survived by eating blueberries from plants along the train tracks.

Myers’s solo exhibition Blueprints for a long walk draws both from her grandfather’s story and reflects on the ways that her own experiences have been affected by her family history. Works included in the exhibition marry imagery from topographic maps obtained in preparation for her walk with sound and video documents gathered while present in those same places between Sault Ste. Marie and Espanola. Blueberries reoccur throughout the exhibition both in direct reference to the fruit and less overtly as the base tint for Myers’s printmaking inks. Together these works speak to the ways that memories can be tied to, and later triggered by, direct and metaphorical references to particular places and to food.

images courtesy of Lisa Myers