NEWSLETTER 1—November 2024

Hello, welcome. 

Thanks for signing up to my little newsletter.

I’m headed to Calgary today for the opening at Norberg Hall, in Calgary (see below for more details). My family and I’s plans changed quickly with our youngest (7 months old) getting sick and not sleeping. We unfortunately had to cancel our trip to Vancouver, which we were supposed to continue on from Calgary. I am hoping to reschedule our family trip out west. This project is so special to me and I want to see it come to fruition. For now I’m traveling solo and trying to rest and sleep as much as I can while I can.

Current Studio Projects

I am working on a series of beaded plants in solidarity with Palestine. During the making of these pieces I am listening to podcasts and audiobooks that center Palestinian history, resistance, and critical discourse on the current violence in Palestine and now Lebanon.

In this image I am removing the tracing paper from the outlined beading, a task I love for its nitpicky tediousness.

I’m also working on some new grass pieces that imagine a world of wild abandon, where native and non-native grasses grow to extents of absurdity. I hope to have these completed for an upcoming beading exhibition in the new year.

Upcoming Exhibitions

This weekend I will be in Calgary for Sticks and Thorns, a duo exhibition at Norberg Hall with Haley Bassett. Super excited to be at the opening in person.

I look forward to showing new work in the group exhibition ASCENDING HORIZONS, opening at McMaster University Art Gallery in January 2025. Participating artists also include KC Adams, Judy Anderson, Hannah Claus, Elizabeth Doxtator, Charlene Vickers and Marie Watt.

The new works are part of a growing series exploring world-building through collaboration. The photo-based artists and I worked closely to develop each piece in the series. 

Our collaboration draws on Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s 2021 text A Short History of the Blockade, in which Simpson relates beaver dams to activist blockades as methods for disrupting capital and colonial state agendas. The use of beaver fur is inspired by this keystone relative who builds dams to build worlds and supports a multitude of life forms. The project honours traditional mark making (on the body and on/with the land) and celebrates seasons and cycles (body and land).

Thank you for reading,

Carrie