Hughadēsłēł — give it all away gestures towards concepts of value within Tsēmā’s ongoing practice, which is concerned with land, embodiment, sustainability, and industrial extraction. Her preparation for this project ranged from harvesting and processing berries, teas, and salmon in her home Tāłtān territory to the development of sculpture with materials connected to mine sites.
Solo Exhibition, SFU Gallery, Burnaby, BC, Canada 2022
Text by artist mentor, Tanya Lukin Linklater
Photos: Rachel Topham Photography.
OCICIWAN
May 14, 2022
As part of Tsēmā’s ongoing project Black Gold, the performance and installation both reckon with mining practices and the indisputably thriving yet ruinous extractive industries in the colonial states of British Columbia and Alberta, particularly within the context of the Athabasca oil sands and the pipelines that run from Alberta to the west coast. In Oil We Trust is a critical examination of the traditions of flag-flying and how flags relate to colonial ceremony and nationhood, and in turn how these things intersect and conflict with Indigenous world-building. The performance will emulate a flag raising ceremony yet, rather than the typical territorial symbology, the flag here will be an image of bitumen: a proposal for a more realistic representation of Canada’s true interests and priorities. The durational installation is featured on a webcam live-feed of the raised flag, documenting its slow disintegration in the face of the elements and honoring the weather’s ability to ultimately dissolve the interests of colonial extraction.
In Oil We Trust is supported by the BC Arts Council, and the project was made possible with the help of research assistants Haley McLean and Britany Quinn. The live footage of the flag is available to view on the online exhibition of Black Gold: https://blkgold.ca
Presented by Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective, 2022. Performance photos by Conor McNally. Text by Natasha Cheykowski
Installed in an abandoned parking lot, is a shimmering, turquoise kidney-shaped pool in the engineering specs of a mining tailings pond. it is at the same time a crudely built swimming pool and a delicately built tailings pond. Intended as a pointedly ironic object, we are invited to think about human overindulgence and its environmental impacts.
Tailings Pool explores the crucial importance of water, how it is impacted by industrial activity and how it connects us all.
Tailings Pool was commissioned by plugin Gallery for Stages 2021, 87 Higgens Street, Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Tailings Pool II was installed at Nuit Blanche 2022 in Toronto, ON, Canada. Stages 2021 documentation by Karen Asher.
Black Gold approaches mining practices and the indisputably thriving, yet ruinous, extractive industries in the colonial states of British Columbia and Alberta, particularly within the context of the Athabasca oil sands and the pipelines that run from Alberta to the west coast. This project explores the idea that mined substances are inherently connected to our bodies through a shared geological origin. The energy of a molecule is the energy of a person, the energy of a place, the energy of a moment.
Text by Natasha Chaykowski for https://blkgold.ca
gruntgallery documentation by Dennis Ha
Great Bear Money Rock is part of a larger research project being conducted by Tsēmā and Erin Siddall exploring their shared interest in transmuting traumas of colonial extraction. In 2019, Tsēmā and Erin went to Délįnę in Sahtu Dene Territories to seek passage to Port Radium, an abandoned uranium mine on the other side of Great Bear Lake (the eighth largest freshwater reserve in the world). Led by their Dene guides, they traveled 265 kilometers by boat to the mine where they gathered materials and audiovisual elements that laid the groundwork for their response. The journey was pivotal for both artists, not only in the work to follow but in their spiritual connection to the power of the land and lake.
Co-commissioned by Momenta Biennale de l’image and the Toronto Biennial of Art. Made possible with generous support from Galerie de l’UQAM, the Women Leading Initiative and Age of Union Alliance.
The artists would like to thank all who helped make this project a reality, including the Dene guides, glass artist Ariel Hill, and Sean Arden. Documentation of the Toronto Biennial of Art by Toni Hafkenscheid and Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias
Commissioned by Momenta Biennale 2021
Edziza 2019
Documentation by Freya Podlasly.
Tāłtān for Reclamation 2 is a performance in Tahltan Territory, the summer after the forest fires. 2019. Performance documentation, digital film, 11 mins.
Black Gold is the seductive nature of bitumen.
Black Gold is the destructive potential of bitumen.
Black Gold is our dependence, willing and unwilling, on bitumen.
Black Gold is about the nature of bitumen.
About its energy.
About our energy.
Ore bodies.
Our bodies.
(Text by Natasha Chaykowski; photos by Katy Whitt.)
konts̱ets̱’i eł na’eneslus̱: An echo, I am sewing is a sound/sewing/time machine that, in performance resonates industrial sounds from the Canadian north, and as an installation, questions an everyday experience with materials mined from those territories. Printed on the fabric is photo patterns referencing Indigenous industries. In this version of the performance, it is a prize core sample from Tahltan Territory. In others, a bitumen pattern, a version from Goat Mountain obsidian quarry in Tahltan territory and lastly Atlantic salmon skin.
Documentation of yəhaw̓ Seatle performance by Jonathan Igharas
Documentation of BLACK GOLD, untitled art society (The Bows), Calgary by Katy Whitt
Documentation from UofA Augustina by Conor McNally
Performance for Tene Mehodihi land-based education program documented by Ocean Van Mirlo and Sophia Biedka. 2018, 2019.
Our Ancestors’ Trail artwork is a result of collaboration between Tahltan youth and artists and scientists, educators, cultural practitioners and Elders and Tahltan allies-- who act as conduits and enablers for students to learn and realize Tahltan ways of knowing. Artwork and archeological work happened on the Tene Mehodihi land-based education program 2018-2019. https://www.tenemehodihi.com/our-ancestors-trail-ubc
Co-curated by Sophia Beidka and Tsēmā Igharas.
future generations is an exhibition that considers the role of Indigenous futurity as a tool of survival and survivance. The work is rooted in artist Tsēmā Igharas’ understanding and embodiment of Tāłtān culture and tradition, alongside objects and materials firmly rooted in Western settler culture. Using Potlatch methodology - a ceremony of reciprocation and nation building, in which every performance of artmaking is a “ceremony that affirms and solidifies relationships to every thing and body” – Igharas challenges the colonial value systems and measurements of land and natural resources, and the impact these systems have on the cultural practices of Indigenous peoples and nations. future generations presents strategies and gestures of resistance to forms of neo-colonization – what the viewer may come to understand as acts of decolonization - and imagines possible future(s) for Indigenous peoples to exist within. Through the work in future generations Igharas encourages methods of care – for the land, and our bodies – that become modes of resistance for past/present/future generations.
Artspace Peterbourogh, Peterbourogh ON, Canada
2018
Photos by Mathew Hays
Curated by Jonathan Lockyer
Canadian pennies.
Ongoing project since 2015.
Shown in BLACK GOLD, 2019, Documentation by Katy Whitt. Shown in BLACK GOLD, 2020, Documentation by Dennis Ha.
Rubble. Blanket: Melton, Reflective Tape.
Sculpture Installation for future generations solo show, Artspace Peterbourogh, Peterbourogh ON, Canada
2018
Photos by Mathew Hays
Moose-horn, Spray-paint, Black-light
Sculpture Installation for future generations solo show, Artspace Peterbourogh, Peterbourogh ON, Canada
2018
Photos by Mathew Hays
“Braiding
weaving
sisterhood
flagging tape
Moccasins. Twindian. navigating the Bush, tangled hair, resource extraction. skip.
What does it mean to add these pieces into ourselves?
Red// orange// stripes //pink// blue //warning. Fluorescent hair wrapping northern bodies bound by landscape, immemorial roots- blood memory dissolves after long, almost silent Subtle Sounds of zips between finger tips is broken by laughter.
Hunting knife cuts and pulls knowledge through our bodies.
Collaborative performance with Jeneen Frei Njootli
Ore Body:
Emergence series
Backlit Prints
2016- current
Trail Head
Flagging Tape, Horse Hair, Dowel
2016
Ore Body Installation
Imaginative Film Festaval
Gallery 44, Toronto ON, Canada
October-December 2016
Photos by Jocelyn Reynolds
Riot Rock Rattles are replicates of Riot Rocks, which are rocks easily held in a hand and generally perceived of as threats. As rattles, RiotRock Rattles have the potential for riot or the potential for ceremony. They are activated by shaking copper, rawhide and ceramic rattles, materials that symbolize both cultural and industrial value being refined across ancient cultures. Furthermore, these materials connect those who come in contact with the Riot Rock Rattles with materials currently mined in Native territories. In making this connection, the rattles create material and mechanical relationships to link bodies to the LAND.
Edited by cheyanne turions
Riot Rock Rattles and Khohk’ātskets’mā performance
Wood Land School
Montreal, QU, Canada
2017
Photos: Paul Litherland & Jonathan Igharas
Ejideh: Push it! is a moose hide that interrupts space through Indigenous construction and reverberations. When installed and touched, it becomes a decolonial instrument for resonating the Land.
Sled Island Music Festival 2017, Documentation by Caitlind Brown and Jessica Wittman
INSERGENCE/RESEARGENCE, Winnipeg, 2018
LAND|MINE
Graduate Thesis Exhibition
April 3–7, 2016
Student Gallery, OCAD University
52 McCaul St, Toronto, ON, Canada
LAND | MINE ACTIVELY DECONSTRUCTS AND (RE)CONSTRUCTS LINKAGES TO THE LAND THAT CONNECTS CITY SPACES TO THE CONSTRUCTED WILD, MATERIALS TO MINE SITES, AND BODIES TO THE LAND
Photos by Jonathan Igharas and Marcus A. Gordon
Remixed ancestral Tahltan designs on drums. An ongoing experiment.
(Re)Naturalize (No. 6 (Rubble), No. 1 (Brick) + No. 4 (Recoil))
2015-16
Photo Documentation by Jonathan Igharas
Land Masks
Paint, Paper and Computer Graphics.
Florence, Italy and Vancouver, BC, Canada
2015
In order of appearance, Land Masks v. 1, v.2. v.3
Small Practices of Deep Looking, FUSE
Performance in Response to Emily Carr Painting, Scorned as Timber, Beloved as Sky
Curated by Cheyanne Turians
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Canada
2017
Images by Scott Little
Year of The Rooster
Chicken Performance Art
Found local ceramic chicken feeders and guashe, with local chickens
A pattern and design study made at Elmo’s House Artist Residency, Batan, Phillipines
2017
(un)Natural Selection.
Porcelain mountain goat skulls, Acrylic spray paint
2011
Brass and Nickel hardware, Neon and Mirror Plexiglass
2014/2015
Tahltan Gold (Obsidian Sketches)
Watercolour, Gouache, Gold Foil on Cotton Paper
2014
Walking in the Moonlight
Watercolour, gouache and ink on hot pressed Arches cotton paper.
2014
"Ē esjāni denezā tsedze łūwe iht’īn." (The old man owned all of the fish.)
Watercolour, gouache and ink on hot pressed Arches cotton paper.
2014
From the Tāłtān language book, "Dūkuh jah' łūwe ahūjah," Soon to be published. 2014
Page 1 and 2 from the Tāłtān alphabet book project, soon to be published. 2015
Quick Fix
Ink and gouache on paper
2010
Cha des̱’an łu·we
Ink on Rice Paper and Arches Paper, Rice Glue.
2014
Edition/50
Untitled No. 4 (Concerning Land Politics, Cultural Paradigms and Scientific Negotiations)
2011
Porcelain, Acrylic Glass
Emily Carr Graduation Exhibition
Photo credit: Yuiry Rzhemovskiy
This Project was originally inspired by the Spatsizi Plateau’s rich landscape and were first cast in red as a literal translation for the Tahltan word Spatsizi, meaning “Land of the Red Goat”. The name refers to the changing of the local goats’ fur from their natural white to red as they lay on the rich iron oxide soil. Located 200 miles north of Smithers, British Columbia, the Spatsizi Plateau is one of B.C’s largest and most significant parks, and until 1929 the Tahltan First Nations were the only inhabitants of the region. For me the skulls reflect the paradigm shift occurring in the landscape, where Tahltans and non-natives alike fight for the mineral rich land (mining and gas) while attempting to preserve the immeasurable cultural value of the landscape.
Although I am open for multiple interpretations, Untitled No. 4 (Concerning Land Politics, Cultural Paradigms and Scientific Negotiations) is my critique of static views on Indigenous peoples and natural resources that is sometimes employed by colonial hegemony to extract resources or manipulate territorial boundaries. I am critical of fabricated hierarchies in industry and governments that would not consider the many perspectives on the land and/or natural resources present in a region. The skulls set in the split plexiglass box, on one hand denote death, dissections and altered perspectives. On the other hand they resonate types of value and cultural significance.
Fabrication
Porcelain Dentalium, Hemp, Wool Yarn, Leather
2010
Tāłtān for Reclaimation 1
Moose-hide paper, tarp, laser cut, spray paint
Made at Banff Residency, Winter 2017
I asked my language team- what is a word I can use for reclamation?
Reclamation, thinking about returning the land a “natural” state after a development; or in Indigenous practice, using a material to it’s full potential, even the parts that could be thrown away (tailings, parts of an animal ect.). The Tāłtān word that was given to me is “esghanānā,” which translates to, “give it back to me” in English. I imagined the land calling to industrial sites of trauma, saying “ESGHANĀNĀ!
Tāłtān language resources:
Flash cards made in collaboration with Jonathan Igharas and Louise Framst. Illustration credit, 2017
Dah Dẕāhge Es̱igits Tāłtān Alphabet Book , 2017: design and illustration credit.
http://tahltanlanguage.com/books/
Documentation by Jonathan Igharas.
Language app, 2020: illustration credits. Soon to be published, soon to have documentation.
All work created working for the Tahltan Central Government, Tāłtān Language Reclamation team. Mēduh for allowing to be a part of this important work.
Power Poles, series, 2010
The NTL: A Delegation of Power
Acrylic and oil on wood
2010
Power Poles: Bringing Light
Acrylic, Oil and Charcoal on Wood
8'x10'
2010
