Image: Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa
Arcand reclaims nēhiyawēwin, a language she has been working at learning her whole life, and asserts its intellectual, aesthetic and cultural sovereignty while manifesting its power to shape worlds. The exhibition advances her exploration of visibility, untranslatability, reclamation and revitalization, alongside research in linguistics, morphology and translation.
It develops ideas from Arcand’s 2009 photograph series Here on Future Earth, in which she used Plains Cree language to replace English on signs in Cree territories in Saskatchewan.
Two billboards on access routes to campus will feature new work created in collaboration with Peters, extending the exhibition beyond CUAG’s walls.
Arcand is a nēhiyaw artist from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan who has made Ottawa her home for the past decade; Cree syllabics have been central to her work in photography, installation, sculpture and design since 2009.
