Sho Sho Esquiro hosts a curator tour of Pushing Boundaries 2023: Our Home on Native Land, October 14
At North Van Arts exhibition, Indigenous fashion designer’s works make powerful statements about Canada’s history of systemic flaws
Sho Sho Esquiro (left) and model Joleen Alicia Mitton. Photo by Tanya Goehring
North Van Arts presents Pushing Boundaries 2023: Our Home on Native Land until November 4 at CityScape Community ArtSpace, with a curator tour hosted by Sho Sho Esquiro on October 14 from 2 pm to 3:30 pm
AT NORTH VAN ARTS’S latest exhibition Pushing Boundaries 2023: Our Home on Native Land, Indigenous fashion designer Sho Sho Esquiro is curator.
Of Kaska Dena, Cree, and Scottish descent, Esquiro has made a significant impact in the fashion community with her statement pieces that blend modern style with traditional Indigenous details such as beadwork, porcupine quills, and moose-hair tufting.
Pushing Boundaries is a fitting platform for Esquiro’s expertise. Its biennial open-call format celebrates emerging First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists who meld historic practice with contemporary technique.
With this edition guided by the theme Our Home on Native Land, the artworks focus on issues that have threatened Indigenous sovereignty for decades, including enfranchisement, federal assimilation policies, and Aboriginal title extinguishment. In highlighting Canada’s systemic flaws, the artists create opportunities for the intergenerational passing of knowledge.
“Envisioned is a space of healing, learning, and honouring truths,” Esquiro says in her curatorial statement. “We as artists use our art form to capture the past, present, and future. We honour those ancestors whose strength and resilience guide us forward.”
They Stole the Children From the Land. Garment by Sho Sho Esquiro
At International Indigenous Fashion Week in 2019, models walked an Eiffel Tower runway wearing Esquiro’s No Apology Necessary collection—think pieces like a white fur-collared vest that reads “They stole the children from the land, now they steal the land from the children”. Many of the garments from that show went on to feature in the exhibition Sho Sho Esquiro: Doctrine of Discovery, which was on display at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art from September 2021 to June 2022.
Alongside Esquiro’s work, this edition of Pushing Boundaries features the creations of five other artists: Vashti Etzel, Salisha Old Bull, Krystile Silverfox, Teresa Vander Meer-Chasse, and Speplól Tanya Zilinski.
The exhibition is on display until November 4. More details are available at northvanarts.ca.
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