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An Edward Poitras Billboard Project “Don’t Speak”

This presentation is co-produced by TRIBE Inc., PAVED Arts and aka artist-run, and held in conjunction with the TRIBE Inc. 20th Anniversary Project: May 19- June 27, 2015.

An Edward Poitras Billboard Project
Don’t Speak

For the subject of his billboard project, Edward Poitras drew from archival photographs of young girls in the residential school system in Saskatchewan. In a deeply personal text entitled “Don’t Speak” the artist remarks, “Even now when I look at this image, I can’t help but wonder about what happened to these girls. I imagine they became mothers, grand mothers and great grand mothers. With children of their own, some or all taken from them and sent to residential school. Some would know or hear of others who would go missing, like not being there for a group photo. Some would lose their language and others would get it back.”

The work of Edward Poitras has been included in numerous important group and solo exhibitions over the last 20 years. In 1995, he represented Canada at the prestigious Venice Biennale, the first Aboriginal artist to do so. He has exhibited at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau; the National Museum of the American Indian, New York; and the Museum of Modern Art, Tampere, Finland. In 2002, he was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

The PAVED Arts/aka artist-run billboard space faces onto one of the busiest corridors in Saskatoon: 20th Street West, located in the burgeoning “Riversdale” district.

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The Ultimate Warriors
Bear Witness (Ottawa, ON.)

TRIBE Inc. 20th Anniversary Project
May 19 – June 27, 2015.
Opening Reception, Friday May 29 7PM

Multimedia artist Bear Witness mines our media environment for pop cultural images of First Nations people as depicted in film, television and through the internet. In his work he remixes such representations in a variety of ways, producing visual and sonic variations that on the one hand act as a political indictment of racial profiling and the stereotypes that circulate at large, and on the other hand express mesmerizing confabulations that situates his work as something new. While mainstream media images of First Nations often constitute a form of cultural appropriation, Bear Witness engages in an emotive counter-appropriation, taking possession of the images in order to break with the structures of such representations. In this sense Bear’s media artwork is consonant with his musical project as a member of the DJ crew A Tribe Called Red, a group that has been making a global impact on the electronic music scene with a truly unique sound.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday, Noon – 6 pm; Saturdays Noon – 4pm

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PAVED Arts acknowledges the support of our members, volunteers and partners, and of our principal funders: Canada Council for the Arts, Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskCulture, SaskLotteries, the City of Saskatoon and the National Film Board of Canada.

For media inquiries or more information, contact: David LaRiviere, Artistic Director
tel. (306) 652-5502 ext.1, [email protected]

PAVED Arts: 424 20th Street West Saskatoon SK. S7M 0X4
Free admission to the public with barrier-free accessibility.