the future is in the land

Julie Nagam

A Space Main Gallery

March 15 – April 20, 2018

Essay by: Cheryl L'Hirondelle

---

"the future is in the land is a multisensory solo exhibition of revelations about the extraordinary and life-affirming relationships we have for too long taken for granted. The title seems apparent, self-explanatory, suggesting a rational given, though an ominous haunting and paradox materializes therein. “Future” suggests a promising forward gaze, and yet Julie sets the tone as if in a dream. This is not a static environment but is inhabited by animated forest creatures that appear periodically within the room. Aiming to draw attention to the destructive and complex relationship we have to the environment, she connects viewers to stories of the land through this experience." – Cheryl L’Hirondelle

 

“Our survival and our continuation as a people are tied to Indigenous knowledge of the land and a return or an extension of these land-based practices is what will bring us into the future." – Julie Nagam

Biographies

Julie Nagam is a faculty member at OCAD University in the Aboriginal Visual Culture and Liberal Studies and a PhD Candidate in Social and Political Thought at York University. Her research interests are a (re)mapping of a colonial state through creative interventions and currently her artistic practices are focused on an oral sound project of a site-specific area of the city of Toronto. She has conducted research on site-specific locations on the Indigenous history of Toronto, for the Visible Cities Project + Archive in Toronto, Inuit artists in Pangnirtung Nunavut; on rural and northern women artists in Manitoba for Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art; and women’s issues for the Icelandic Center for Feminist Research.

Cheryl L’Hirondelle is an award winning mixed blood (Metis/Cree/German) multi and interdisciplinary artist, singer/songwriter and curator. Her work investigates the junction of a Cree worldview in contemporary time and space. www.cheryllhirondelle.com