Indigenous knowledge, a theme of care form basis of 12 short films in Response: Soft Action at the Polygon, to February 6
The video works are the culmination of a collaboration between the gallery and Cap U’s First Nations Student Services, Indigenous Digital Filmmaking Program
Caleb Ellison-Dysart, still from “Looking Through Glass”, 2021.
The Polygon Gallery and Capilano University’s First Nations Student Services and Indigenous Digital Filmmaking Program present Response: Soft Action at the Polygon Gallery until February 6.
WORKSHOPS LED BY Indigenous artists and knowledge holders have given rise to 12 new short films now on view at the Polygon Gallery.
A collaboration between the North Vancouver gallery and First Nations Student Services and the Indigenous Digital Filmmaking Program at Capilano University, Response: Soft Action was inspired by networks of care among arts communities that sprang up throughout the pandemic. Participants were asked to think about how care translates into action and how relationships shape our ways of being.
The video works explore the concept of holding space for yourself and others and touch on themes like belonging and compassion.
Artists include Diné filmmaker, documentarian, and fiction writer Arlene Bowman, who has an MFA in film from UCLA; Cree/Dene Tha’ Nation mixed-media artist Jordon Davis; Terreane Derrick, an interdisciplinary artist of Gitx’san and German ancestry and who focuses on personal governance; Emily Carr University student Caleb Ellison-Dysart, of Nîhithaw Cree ancestry; visual artist Xinyue Liu, who has an MFA in interdisciplinary studies from Simon Fraser University and holds a bachelor's degree in radio and television productions from China’s Jilin University; Jacqueline Morrisseau-Addison (Saulteaux, Treaty 7), an emerging installation artist, facilitator, curator, and art historian whose work prioritizes Indigenous sovereignty and who holds a BFA in art history from Concordia University; Nigerian filmmaker, storyteller and artist Ogheneofegor Goodness Obuwoma (Isoko/Okpe), who is pursuing a BFA in film production at SFU; emerging poet and filmmaker kat savard (Algonquin/Cree/Huron), who studied creative writing at Capilano University; Métis emerging queer photographer Lilian Rose Smith, who has a BFA in photography from Emily Carr University; Michelle Sound, a Métis/Cree Swan River First Nation multidisciplinary visual artist; installation artist Maura Tamez (Lipan Apache Band/Dene) who’s pursuing her BFA at UBC-Okanagan; and Vancouver-based Lebanese “anti-disciplinary” artist Ghinwa Yassine.
The themes from Response will be further developed for a series of forthcoming online public programs.
More information is at https://thepolygon.ca.
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