Concealed Geographies

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works by KC Adams, Jason Baerg, Merritt Johnson, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Justine McGrath, and Nigit’stil Norbert
co-curated by Suzanne Morrissette and Julie Nagam
ASpace Gallery with imagiNATIVE Film and Media Art Festival and the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, Toronto
September 22-October 27, 2011
 

The political ordering of space privileges certain forms of knowledge and, by virtue of this process, suppresses others. This has serious consequences for Indigenous relationships and connections that are formed with the land. These relations have been theorized by scholar Mishuana Goeman, who describes “land as place” where “Indigenous peoples make place by relating both personal and communal experiences and histories to certain locations and landscapes - maintaining these spatial relationships is one of the most important components of identity.” For many Indigenous artists, the gesture of “making place” through visual means can open up space for narratives which draw from these personal and communal experiences to show other forms of knowledge: the unearthing of concealed geographies. Media-based works by Indigenous artists KC Adams, Jason Baerg, Merritt Johnson, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Justine McGrath, and Nigit’stil Norbert, illustrate the ways in which their stories of place are both concealed and art a part of their identity, trauma, desire and worldviews.