WHESS HARMAN, DEAN HUNT, CREE SEWAP AND JENNIE WILLIAMS Ghost Stories
Exhibition Run: September 16 - November 25, 2023
Closing Reception: November 25, 2023
Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre 10124 96 St Edmonton, AB
Ghost stories are an integral part of the rich and diverse oral traditions of Indigenous cultures around the world. These stories often serve as a way to provide teachings, preserve knowledge, and explain natural phenomena. While these stories' specific details and themes vary greatly depending on the indigenous group and region, they all share a deep connection to the land, nature, and the spiritual world.
Ghost Stories explores frightening tales, ghostly experiences, and their impact on individual lived experiences. Experiences that shift cultural understanding and provide a connection to ourselves, our ancestors, and the land. While these stories are meant to provide caution for their audience, they also remind us that it is fun to be scared at times. There is also an oppourtunity to be comforted by ghosts and/or spirits that guide and protect us.
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Exhibition run: September 16 to November 25, 2023
Gallery Hours: 12pm-5pm, Wednesday to Saturday
Closing Reception: November 25, 2023
Accessibility notes: Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre is barrier-free and is equipped with a lift to reach upper floors and lower floor gallery. Single stall and wide stall washrooms available on every floor. Children are welcome! Change tables available in select washrooms.
ETS stops at 96 Street and Jasper (routes 2, 5, 88, 120, 308, 309), 97 Street and Jasper Avenue (3, 14, 100, 109, 161, 162). Paid city street parking and paid Impark lots available.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Edmonton Arts Council.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Whess Harman is a member of the Carrier Wit’at Nation, a nation amalgamated by the federal government under the Lake Babine Nation. He doesn’t like cops and believes in land sovereignty for Indigenous peoples all across the globe. In his arts practice he works primarily in drawing, text and textiles. As the curator at grunt gallery and occasional editor for a mish-mash of publications, he prioritizes emerging queer and BIPOC cultural workers and artists. Whess looks to the arts as one of many tools in fighting oppressive forces and can be a little fucking rude about it, when the occasion calls. He is currently residing on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.
Dean Hunt is a Visual Artist, Traditional Tattoo Practitioner & Music Producer from the Eagle Clan of the Heiltsuk Nation, Waglisla (Bella Bella). Dean under went a formal 5 year apprenticeship with his father Bradley Hunt and Older brother Shawn Hunt, where he learned the skills of Heiltsuk carving and design. He uses the tools his ancestors fought to hold onto through times of hardship and oppression, not only in his more traditional art practices, but also in his contemporary use of sound. Dean studied Studio Engineering and Music Production at Columbia Academy in Vancouver, and has applied his skills as a music producer and DJ with the audio-visual collectives Skookum Sound System & See Monsters. Dean also completed a four week artist intensive at Earthline Tattoo Residency in Kelowna with teacher Dion Kazsas (Nlaka'pamux Nation), where he learned traditional hand poke and skin stitch tattoo techniques.
Cree Sewap is an emerging artist from the Northern Community of Pelicans Narrows on Treaty 6 territory and part of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. Has loved photography ever since a trip her family took to the Mountains and her grandpa asked her to take pictures along the way. Since then that love of capturing images grew. It became more than just seeing an image it turned into seeing life, landscapes, and people in different perspectives. It turned into a creative outlet to explore herself and her emotions. To be able to tell stories she couldn’t tell. Sally Mann once said “It’s always been my philosophy to try to make art out of the everyday and ordinary… it never occurred to me to leave home to make art”. This was a quote Darylyn heard from school and has lived by ever since.
Jennie Williams is an Inuk visual artist and throat singer from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. As a professional photographer, she creates powerful images that convey the cultural landscape and lived experience of Inuit. Her stirring photography has received national acclaim, was included in the travelling exhibition SakKijâjuk, and is curated as part of the Future Possible series at The Rooms Provincial Gallery and the Bonavista Biennale (2021). Jennie’s captivating photos have also been featured in established magazines such as Inuit Art Quarterly and Canadian Art. Her work has been recognized through honours such as the Elbow Room Residency and the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s REVEAL Indigenous Art Award (2017). Her longest-running project is a 12-year photographic series on the Labrador tradition entitled Nalujuk Night.