Remote Access
Frank Shebageget, Greg Staats
A Space Main Gallery
October 30 – December 4, 2004
Curated by: Michael Belmore
This exhibition marks the curatorial debut of Ojibway artist Michael Belmore.
The exhibition will examine how external forces have influenced First Nations communities. Previous works of both Shebageget and Staats have illustrated through sculpture and photography both the means of this influence and the final outcome. Staats has documented the change of the family homestead on the Six Nations reserves, juxtaposing older family photographs alongside current related images. Recent installations that Staats has done further develops this narrative using the fallen branches and twigs from the old trees that mark the property.
Shebageget combines over 1700 models of the deHavilland Beaver float plane into a large hive-like installation. The Beaver is the aircraft which brought the effects of our global economies to the doorstep of the most remote regions of our country and Frank has constructed one model for each unit that was produced by the factories of deHavilland. Through the constructs of these previous installations Shebageget highlights the strength and the weaknesses of colonial influence.
Biographies
Frank Shebageget was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, in 1972. Currently living in Ottawa, he is of Ojibway heritage. He received his MFA from the University of Victoria. Shebageget’s installations incorporate wood, metal, cements, and hardware materials. He has had solo exhibitions, at Tribe, Inc.; Saskatoon, and Gallery 101, Ottawa. His group exhibitions include the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC, Bard College and the Ottawa Art Gallery. Shebageget’s work has been collected by the Canada Council Art Bank, Dorothy Hoover LIbrary, and the Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Toronto.
Greg Staats is the recipient of the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography. (1999) For more than ten years Staats has exhibited widely, and most recently at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto, Gallery TPW, Toronto, Galerie 101, Ottawa, and Galerie Sequence, Chicoutimi, Quebec. Staats lives and works in Toronto.