This project has developed from a concept proposed by Vanessa Hyggen and Sandy Bonny (Office of the Vice Dean Indigenous, College of Arts & Science) and begins with reclaimed materials: 13 Cambrian slate stairs that were removed from the Thorvaldson Building, having been worn and reshaped by 100 years of student and faculty footsteps. 

Our 2020 Indigenous Artist in Residence, Lyndon Tootoosis has responded to the materials with a thematic of the lunar calendar that guides indigenous chronologies. The thirteen slate steps evoke the thirteen moons of the lunar calendar used by Indigenous peoples to guide their movement and life decisions.

The campus community is invited to collaborate in raising new stories from the steps, which will be refigured by hand-carving under the guidance of Tootoosis, Hyggen and Bonny over the Winter Term.

Ongoing:

• Along with anohc kipasikônaw/ we rise / niipawi (Cree, English, Michif), the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery will host a temporary installation of the painting, Poundmaker Intercedes, by Kent Monkman. Its exhibition is made possible through the generosity of the Chief Poundmaker Museum and Gallery, specifically though the kind assistance of curator, Floyd Favel and Milton Tootoosis.
• Historical Portraits plus: Beginning with Annie Maude “Nan” McKay (BA1915), we will present portraits of Indigenous graduates of USask to surround current students and members of the university community with their predecessors and make evident the long line of Indigenous presence and success within the institution and highlight the formative role Indigenous Knowledges have played in building the contemporary institution. This is an active building and an ongoing process, something we are doing now. To mark this becoming, we will have a portrait studio set up (in the Snelgrove Gallery) to photograph current students and participants in the process. 

Event Details

When:

February 03, 2020

Time:

10:00 AM - 02:00 PM

Repeat:

Daily until Feb, 07 2020 

Location:

Gordon Snelgrove Art Gallery

Contact

Vanessa Hyggen

•  vanessa.hyggen@usask.ca