Boarder X presents contemporary work by artists from Indigenous nations across Canada who surf, skate, and snowboard.
The exhibition reveals how these practices are vehicles to challenge conformity and status quo, as well as demonstrate knowledge and performed relationships with the land. Whether reading the urban terrain, making a cement jungle a playground, riding the natural contours of white immovable mountains, or shredding the ever-changing waves, it’s not about controlling land and water, but being humbled by their power.
Through painting, mixed media, carving, weaving, photography, performance, and video, the artists reflect cultural, political, environmental, and social perspectives, as well as critiques about the territories we occupy. The paintings present narratives and observations of traditions, movement, balance, and entanglements of space, place, and belonging. Mobilizing traditional histories, the artwork conceptually bridges the past and present with reinventions in carving, weaving, and performance. Video and photography capture the energy of boarding with unbridled motivation and physicality. The exhibition is an affirmation of cultural resilience and an acknowledgement of ongoing respect and reverence for the land.
LEARN MORE: BOARDER X IN WINNIPEG 2016
Artists
Jordan Bennett | Bracken Hanuse Corlett | Roger Crait | Steven Thomas Davies | Mark Igloliorte | Michael Langan/Colonialism Skateboards Collection with Kent Monkman | Mason Mashon | Meghann O’Brien | Les Ramsay | Amanda Strong
Reading the urban terrain, making a cement jungle a playground, riding the natural contours of white immovable mountains, or shredding the ever-changing waves: these are responses to the land. It’s not about controlling land and water, but being humbled by their power.
Beyond claiming space, the artwork recognizes human existence in relation to vast geographies and how we’ve thrived in those spaces. Surfing has a long history of Indigenous ways of being, originating from pre-contact Polynesian cultures. Skateboarding and snowboarding emerged in the 1960s and 80s respectively, and for a time were popular in subcultures resisting the mainstream.
Boarder X celebrates the intersection of art, culture, and boarding practices, reflecting perspectives and critiques related to the territories we occupy. Mobilizing traditional histories, the artwork conceptually bridges the past and present with reinventions in carving, weaving, and performance. Video and photography capture the energy of boarding with unbridled motivation and physicality. The exhibition that also includes painting, mixed media, and performance is an affirmation of cultural resilience and an acknowledgement of ongoing respect and reverence for the land.
To request an information package with details for interested hosts, please contact:
Jaimie Isaac
Curator & ArtistIn the News
- Museum association honours ‘inclusive’ WAG show
- CBC Nfld. & Labrador: St. John’s skaters ride The Rooms
- Edmonton Journal: Wildlife: Indigenous art in the most freewheeling of contexts at AGA’s Boarder X
- Border Crossings: Stoke Signals
- CBC q: Boarder X explores the intersections between Indigenous culture and boarding culture
- CBC: ‘Monumental’ exhibit brings a working halfpipe into the WAG
- Shaw TV: Boarder X and Vernon Ah Kee: New WAG exhibits
- Winnipeg Free Press: All systems go: Interconnected exhibits at the WAG highlight productive partnerships
- Canadian Art: On Board Culture and Rule Breaking
- Winnipeg Free Press: Knocking it out of the (skate) park
- Galleries West: Boarder Art Catches a Wave in Winnipeg
