Artist Talk with Jordan Bennett 

ADMISSION
Free

Zoom Webinar
Registration required
Book here
Please note the event time is in Pacific Standard Time.

For Capture’s 2021 Festival, Mi’kmaq visual artist Jordan Bennett was commissioned to create a site-specific work titled al’taqiaq: it spirals for the Dal Grauer Substation on Burrard Street in Vancouver. For al’taqiaq: it spirals Bennett took inspiration from a photograph of a Mi’kmaq porcupine quill basket created by ancestor Mi’kmaw artists, an artifact currently held in the collection of the Museum of Vancouver. The large-scale photograph features a moose skull brightly painted with patterns from the ancestral designs found on the porcupine basket, photographed on Mi’kma’ki (the traditional land of the Mi’kmaq). Through photography, Bennett reconnects the spirit of the displaced basket back to its origin and home territory. In this talk, Bennett will situate this work within his practice which utilizes painting, sculpture, textiles, video, installation, public art and sound to explore land, language, the act of visiting, familial histories and challenging colonial perceptions of Indigenous histories and presence with a focus on exploring Mi’kmaq and Beothuk visual culture of Ktaqamkuk. 

Presented in partnership with the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and Canadian Art, and generously supported by MLT Aikins, and the BC Arts Council and the Province of British Columbia.

 

Jordan Bennett is a Mi’kmaq visual artist from Stephenville Crossing, Ktaqamkuk (Newfoundland). He lives and works on his ancestral territory of Mi’kma’ki in Terence Bay, Nova Scotia with his partner in life and art Amy Malbeuf. Bennett’s practice utilizes painting, sculpture, textiles, video, installation, public art and sound to explore land, language, the act of visiting, familial histories and challenging colonial perceptions of Indigenous histories and presence with a focus on exploring Mi’kmaq and Beothuk visual culture of Ktaqamkuk. In the past 10 years Bennett has participated in over 90 group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally such as the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2019); The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (2018); Smithsonian-National Museum of the American Indian, NYC (2017); The Winnipeg Art Gallery (2017); MAC-VAL, Paris (2017); Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2015); Project Space Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne (2014); Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe (2013); The Power Plant, Toronto (2013); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2013); The Museum of Art and Design, New York (2012); and was one of two artists to represent Newfoundland and Labrador in the 2015 Venice Biennial at Galleria Ca’Rezzonico as part of the official Collateral Events. He has been the recipient of several awards and honours most notably the co-winner of the 2020 Sobey Art Award, a Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL award (2017) and presented with the 2014 Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Councils Artist of the Year.

 

Related Public Art

• 

  Add to Itinerary

  al’taqiaq: it spirals

  • Jordan Bennett
  • Apr 2 – Mar 1, 2022