Michelle Sound is a Cree and Métis artist, educator, and mother. She is a member of Wapsewsipi Swan River First Nation in Northern Alberta. Her mother is Cree from Kinuso, Alberta, Treaty 8 territory and her father’s family is Métis from the Buffalo Lake Métis settlement in central Alberta. Sound was born and raised on the unceded and ancestral home territories of the xwmƏƟkwƏýƏm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and SƏĺílwƏtaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations where she currently resides and works. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, School for the Contemporary Arts, and a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University Art + Design.
Michelle’s mixed-media works feature monochromatic photo reproductions from the artist’s personal archive; pictures of her and her kin, her home territory, and scans from the dictionary from where she learned the Cree language. Each of the images have been torn and damaged at first, but then found repair through traditional ways of art-making; beading, quillwork, stitching, and caribou hair tufting are all at play through-out the works, serving as a visual representation of how the artist has co-existed and continues to co-exist with the effects of colonization.
Sound’s work has most recently been placed in the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, Ontario), McMichael Collection (Kleinburg, Ontario) as well as the Forge Project in Hudson (New York). Exhibitions include a solo presentation at Art Toronto 2023, Art Gallery of St. Albert (Neutral Ground ARC in Regina) , Daphne Art Centre (Montréal), and The Polygon Gallery (North Vancouver) . Public art pieces include street banners in New Westminster, a painted mural exhibition nākateyimisowin/Taking Care of Oneself in Ottawa, Ontario, and most recently a panel photo installation at the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France.
