Flow
Suzanne Morrissette, Pamela Palmater, Laura Ortman, Casey Koyczan, Tom McLeod, Marc Fussing Rosbach
A Space Main Gallery, A Space Windows
October 18 – November 12, 2022
Curated by: Jesse King and Melissa Johns
Art Crawl: Thursday October 20, 2022
FREE and open to the public!* Tickets are subject to availability. Details below.
Proudly presented by A Space Gallery and imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.
FLOW is a commissioning project featuring six durational audio works by Indigenous artists that connect distant listeners to site-specific bodies of water. Meditating on sites such as lakes, rivers, bays, glaciers, ponds, and seas, these original works explore intersections of water, Indigenous geographies, and bodies. Collectively, these methods instigate pathways towards the transformation of inherited oppression, shifting toward fully-rounded ancestral embodiment. Audiences are encouraged to engage with these works on the land, communing with water safely and socially distanced. FLOW seeks to provide opportunities for Indigenous artists to explore ancestral ontologies concerning water through sonic storytelling.
Art Crawl: Thursday October 20, 2022
Every year imagineNATIVE collaborates with local artist-run galleries in the Toronto area to present national and international exhibitions featuring Indigenous artists who continue to push the boundaries and expectations of what Indigenous storytelling is. The Art Crawl began unofficially in the early 2000s and has been a staple since 2012.
For this year’s Art Crawl, imagineNATIVE has put together a fantastic lineup featuring newly commissioned video works, audio works, installations, and walkthroughs! FREE and open to the public!*
*Tickets are subject to availability, even to package holders, so make sure you book your tickets early! Get tickets at https://imaginenative.org
Art Crawl Timetable
401 Commons | Bachir/Yerix
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM
401 Richmond St. W
A Space Gallery
6:40 PM – 7:10 PM
401 Richmond St. W
Trinity Square Video
7:20 PM – 7:50 PM
401 Richmond St. W
YYZ Artist Outlet Gallery
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM
401 Richmond St. W
Closing Reception
Onsite Gallery
8:45 PM – 10:00 PM
199 Richmond St. W
Biographies
Suzanne Morrissette (she/her) is an artist, curator, and scholar currently based out of Toronto. She is guided in this work by her roles as a daughter, partner, mama, sister, niece, aunt, granddaughter, friend, and colleague. Her father’s parents were Michif- and Cree-speaking Metis with family histories tied to the Interlake and Red River regions in the area now known as Manitoba. Her mother’s parents came from Canadian-born farming families descended from United Empire loyalists and Mennonites from Russia. Morrissette was born and raised in Winnipeg and is a citizen of the Manitoba Metis Federation.
Dr. Pamela Palmater is an award-winning public speaker, author, and digital media artist. She is a citizen of the Mi’kmaw Nation and a member of the Eel River Bar First Nation. Pam is also a lawyer, professor, and human rights advocate who has won many awards for her community-based work concerning Indigenous rights, human rights, social justice, and climate action. She is one of Canada’s Top 25 Mover’s and Shakers and the Top 100 Social Media Influencers in the Global Indigenous Community. Pam is an award-winning podcaster who produces and hosts the Warrior Life Podcast and the Warriors Kids Podcast.
A soloist musician, composer and vibrant collaborator, Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) create multiple platforms, including recorded albums, live performances, and filmic and artistic soundtracks. She has collaborated with artists such as Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Raven Chacon, Nanobah Becker, Okkyung Lee, Martin Bisi, Jeffrey Gibson, Caroline Monnet, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Martha Colburn, and In Defense of Memory. An inquisitive and exquisite violinist, Ortman is versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and amplified violin, often sings through a megaphone, and is a producer of capacious field recordings.
Casey Koyczan is a Tlicho Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, NT that uses various mediums to communicate how culture and technology can grow together for us to develop a better understanding of who we are, where we come from, and what we will be in the future. He creates with whatever tools necessary to bring an idea to fruition and works mostly in sculpture, installation, 3D modelling, VR/360, experimentation, filmmaking, and audio works such as music, soundscapes and film scores.
Tom Mcleod is an Inuvialuit Storyteller from Aklavik, Northwest Territories, in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. A former radio personality, Mcleod told stories of traditional Inuvialuit and Gwich’in activities such as hunting, trapping, fishing, and travelling his traditional lands across the NWT and Yukon. Mcleod is a Canadian best-selling and Silver Birch Express nominated author for the Book: The Delta is my Home. A children’s information book that focuses on life in the north. In addition, a former Television Producer for the Inuvialuit Communications Society, Magazine Editor at Inuktitut Magazine, and Filmmaker (Greed Story, 2019).
Born in 1995, Marc Fussing Rosbach is an award-winning Inuk filmmaker. He is the CEO and Founder of FUROS IMAGE. Marc is an indigenous filmmaker that does everything from start to finish: producing, directing, visual effects, composing, editing, and sound design. As an independent filmmaker, he has worked on feature films, short films, music videos, and trailers.
Jesse King is an emerging Aboriginal artist based in Toronto, Canada. He recently completed an undergraduate photography degree at OCAD University. His work frequently explores the many facets of identity, including discussions of queerness, gender, the importance of cultural representation and how artwork is so closely tied to the core of culture. Jesse’s work has been exhibited internationally in Berlin, Germany and Tampere, Finland. His work has been printed in several independent publications, including fashion magazines such as Wonderland Magazine.
Melissa Johns is a multimedia visual artist and educator from a mixed Mohawk (Turtle Clan) and French Canadian background, born and based in Tkaronto. Melissa’s visual practice manifests at the convergence of contemporary media, using interdisciplinary methods to collect, preserve, and transform fragments of the stories around her, specializing in virtual reality installations, digital painting, and video art, Melissa’s work centers on investigating the narrative potential of these emergent channels.