Image: Ottawa Art Gallery
A new public-art installation by Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, titled ‘Feminist Sedna’, is now on view on York Street in Ottawa’s ByWard Market. Presented as part of the Ottawa Art Gallery’s Arts Corridor, the wallhanging offers a contemporary feminist reinterpretation of the Inuit legend of Sedna, the Sea Goddess.
According to the Ottawa Art Gallery announcement, Kabloona’s work revisits Sedna’s story through a “feminized context,” portraying the heroine as self-sufficient, empowered and free from patriarchal violence. The installation is located outdoors on York Street rather than inside the gallery, placing the work within the daily movement of the ByWard Market.
The Arts Corridor is an Ottawa Art Gallery initiative developing public-art installations in downtown Ottawa’s ACE District. The project is part of a broader effort to activate the city centre through works encountered in public space. The corridor’s installations are being presented alongside other bicentennial-related projects across Ottawa, including a Bytown Museum installation in the former Hudson’s Bay windows on Rideau Street.
Kabloona’s approach, as described in the gallery’s bilingual newsletter, draws on the art of her ancestors and frequently incorporates Inuit narratives through a modern and feminist perspective. The work is also described as offering an intimate view of contemporary Inuk life. ‘Feminist Sedna’ therefore places an established Inuit legend in dialogue with questions of agency, gender and freedom from violence.
The Sedna story has long circulated as a foundational Inuit narrative concerning the sea and its creatures. The Ottawa Art Gallery’s announcement does not provide further details about the specific materials, dimensions or production date of Kabloona’s wallhanging, nor does it list an end date for the installation.
‘Feminist Sedna’ is currently visible on York Street in the ByWard Market. The Ottawa Art Gallery’s main building is at 50 Mackenzie King Bridge, while the Arts Corridor extends the gallery’s public-art activity into downtown Ottawa.
