JENEEN FREI NJOOTLI, MEGHANN O'BRIEN, & SAGE PAUL
Indigenous Fashion & Wearable Art at WCFW Fall 2017
Global Collections Night at WCFW
September 16, 2017; Doors at 7pm & Show at 8pm
ATB Financial Arts Barns; 10330 84 Ave, Edmonton, AB
Tickets are on sale now online, in person, or phone at the Fringe Theatre Box Office and Tix on the Square
Photograph and design by Jeneen Frei Njootli
Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective in partnership with Western Canada Fashion Week (WCFW) is proud to present three Indigenous contemporary artist and designers at the Fall 2017 WCFW. The artist designers explore fashion and the body, using traditional material or traditional garment making techniques to inspire and inform contemporary fashions. Jeneen Frei Njootli, Meghan O’Brien, and Sage Paul work across and in-between various artistic disciplines merging the lines between fashion, performance, and visual art.
Each artist has created a fashion line that narrates histories and innovations of Indigenous people; creating a surface of insights on cultural complexity and diversity, that can be worn for special occasions or in daily life. Highlighting their cultural identity, these artists are creating works that are not confined to ideals or appropriation but are diverse, transformable, and changing the conceptions of Indigenous identity in fashion.
Accompanying the fashion show will be an online Earring Exhibition, September 15 - November 15, 2017, with featured works from Inuk 360, Joi T. Arcand, Angel Aubichon, Tashina Lee Emery, Tania Larsson, Amy Malbeuf and Savage Rose.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Jeneen Frei Njootli is a Vuntut Gwich’in artist and a founding member of the ReMatriate Collective. In her interdisciplinary practice she uses media such as performance, sound and textiles. Much of her work deconstructs the history of the materials she uses. She investigates their relationship to trade, ceremonial regalia, and the politics of First Nations art. In 2017, Njootli was longlisted as a nominee for the national Sobey Art Award and shortlisted for the Contemporary Art Society Vancouver Artist Prize.
Meghann O'Brien is a Haida and Kwakwaka’wakw artist, her work focuses on basketry, Ravenstail, and Chilkat weaving. O’Brien was previously a professional snowboarder who made a slow transition into learning the traditional weaving practices of her ancestors, using these techniques to create modern apparel. She is currently living in Price Rupert working on her art practice full-time.
Sage Paul is a Dene artist and fashion designer and a member of the English River First Nation. Her work has been shown across Canada, notably at the Royal Ontario Museum, Harbourfront Centre and Woodland Cultural Centre. She is the co-Artistic Director of Setsuné Indigenous Fashion Incubator and is working on two fashion-based projects: Giving Life and the Mint Sweater Project.
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This project was produced with the support of the Edmonton Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
