The Polygon Podcast The Polygon Gallery

In this episode: a conversation between Response artists Caleb Ellison-Dysart and Jacqueline Morrisseau-Addison with filmmaker Jules Arita Koostachin that was inspired by the artists’ participation in Response: Soft Action.

Find out more about this episode here: https://thepolygon.ca/news/the-polygon-podcast-episode-20-featuring-featuring-caleb-ellison-dysart-and-jacqueline-morrisseau-addison-in-conversation-with-jules-arita-koostachin/

Caleb Ellison-Dysart (Nîhithaw Cree) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work seeks to depict the interconnection of all things. His family comes from O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation and Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory, and he is currently attending Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Jacqueline Morrisseau-Addison(Saulteaux, Treaty 7) is an emerging installation artist, facilitator, curator, and art historian whose work prioritises Indigenous sovereignty and explores how processes of decolonisation operate across arts institutions. She holds a BFA in Art History from Concordia University.

Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin, owner of VisJuelles Productions Inc., is Cree and a band member of Attawapiskat First Nation, located in what is now called northern Ontario. Jules completed her PhD with the Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia—her research focus was on Indigenous documentary. She carries extensive experience working in Indigenous communities in varying capacities. Jules is also known as a media artist who works to honour cultural protocols and build relationships within communities through her arts practice. Her artistic endeavours are informed by her experience living with her Cree grandparents, as well as her mother, a residential school warrior.

In this episode, Durban-based visual activist Zanele Muholi is in conversation with photography curator John Fleetwood and independent curator and writer Missla Libsekal.

Discover more about the episode here: https://bit.ly/3sPJc1K

Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, and in 2009 completed an MFA: Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Toronto. Muholi has won numerous awards including the ICP Infnity Award for Documentary and Photojournalism (2016); Africa’Sout! Courage and Creativity Award (2016); the Outstanding International Alumni Award from Ryerson University (2016); the Fine Prize for an emerging artist at the 2013 Carnegie International; and a Prince Claus Award (2013), among others. Muholi’s work has been exhibited at Documenta 13; the South African Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale; and the 29th São Paulo Biennale. Muholi was shortlisted for the 2015 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for their publication Faces and Phases 2006-14 (Steidl/The Walther Collection). They are an Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts/Hochschule für Künste Bremen.

John Fleetwood is a photography curator and educator and director of Photo. He was born and lives in Johannesburg. Fleetwood has curated numerous exhibitions including recently Intimacy and Resistance (part of the Photobook Week Aarhus, Denmark, 2020)’, Five Photographers: A tribute to David Goldblatt (Johannesburg, Maputo, Durban, Bamako et al.; 2018-2019); Of traps and tropes (Kerkennah, Tunisia; 2018); A Return to Elsewhere (Johannesburg, Brighton Photo Biennale; 2014); Transition (Johannesburg, Arles; 2012-2013). In 2017, he was guest editor for Aperture’s Platform Africa edition.

Missla Libsekal is an independent writer, curator and cultural producer. In 2010 and ahead of the curve, she founded Another Africa, a much-needed digital platform and safe space to give agency to African and Diasporic voices. Operating until 2016, it became a leading destination for this sector, publishing content from a myriad of contributors. With a view on publishing not merely as an act of documentation, but also as a means of inquiry in its own right, her practice developed from an exploration of the technical and artistic possibilities of storytelling made possible through a digital medium.

In this episode, the Gallery’s curator Justin Ramsey is in conversation with artists Dana Claxton and Skeena Reece about Interior Infinite, with a performance by poet Nadia Chaney. Interior Infinite is on now until September 5.

Find out more about this episode here: https://bit.ly/3jPapO7

Dana Claxton is a critically acclaimed international exhibiting artist. She works in flm, video, photography, single- and multi-channel video installation, and performance art, investigating Indigenous beauty, the body, the socio-political and the spiritual. Her work has been shown globally in exhibitions and flm festivals, and she has received numerous awards including the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2020), the Scotiabank Photography Award (2020), the VIVA Award, the Eiteljorg Fellowship, the Hnatyshyn Award, and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award. In 2018, she had a solo survey exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Her new body of work premiered at the inaugural edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art, Toronto ON. Claxton is Head and a Professor in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory with the University of British Columbia. She is a member of Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations located in SW Saskatchewan and she resides in Vancouver, Canada.

Skeena Reece is a Tsimshian/ Gitksan and Cree artist based on the West Coast of British Columbia. She has garnered national and international attention most notably for Raven: On the Colonial Fleet (2010), her bold installation and performance work presented as part of the celebrated group exhibition Beat Nation. Her multidisciplinary practice includes performance art, spoken word, humor, “sacred clowning,” writing, singing, songwriting, video, and visual art. She studied media arts at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and was the recipient of the British Columbia award for Excellence in the Arts (2012) and the Viva Award (2014). For her work on Savage (2010) by Lisa Jackson, Reece won a Leo Award for Best Actress. Reece participated in the 17th Sydney Biennale, Australia, and recent exhibitions include Comox Valley Art Gallery (2018) and Oboro Gallery, Montréal (2017).

Nadia Chaney is a spoken word poet and community arts facilitator who has appeared on hundreds of stages. Her essays and poetry have recently appeared or will appear with Terrain.org, Locked Horn Press, Flycatcher Journal and the Chicago Quarterly Review. She is one of the first commissioned writers for House House Press. In 2018 she directed an interdisciplinary project (dance, music poetry, animation) based on a series of 300 automatic drawings. She is a first generation Indian-Canadian born in Saskatoon, grown up in Ottawa, matured in Vancouver currently in Montreal all of which she recognizes as the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples who are its rightful stewards.

A bonus episode to accompany Episode 17. In this episode, artist Derya Akay and educator Stephanie Bokenfohr lead a described tour of Meydan.

Derya Akay is a Vancouver artist working in sculpture, photography, installation and performance whose installation, Meydan, is on view at The Polygon until August 1. Stephanie Bokenfohr is an arts educator and independent producer focused on performance and access,and is the Public Programs Coordinator at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Find out more about this episode here: https://bit.ly/3jX27VT

In this episode, artist Derya Akay is in conversation with educator Stephanie Bokenfohr about Akay’s exhibition Meydan.

Derya Akay is a Vancouver artist working in sculpture, photography, installation and performance whose installation, Meydan, is on view at The Polygon until August 1. Stephanie Bokenfohr is an arts educator and independent producer focused on performance and access,and is the Public Programs Coordinator at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Find out more about this episode here: https://bit.ly/3jX27VT

In this episode: a conversation between artists Esteban Pérez and Aaron Nelson-Moody that was inspired by Pérez’s participation in Response: Our Land Narrative.

Find out more about this episode here: https://bit.ly/3vNcoGl

Esteban Pérez (b. 1992, Quito, Ecuador) has been part of exhibitions such as: ‘Triplete’ (No lugar, 2018), ‘dissipare’ (Khora, 2018), and Premio Brasil (Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, 2017). In 2020, he was the recipient of The Audain Travel Award in Vancouver. In the same year, he won the 2nd Place Award in RAW, an MFA online exhibition, organized by the University of Montana, USA. He was selected for the Premio Brasil–Arte Emergente (CAC), an award funded by the Brazilian embassy in Quito for the promotion of emerging contemporary artists. In 2019, he had his first solo show Transitory (Más Arte, 2019). Currently, he is pursuing an MFA degree at Emily Carr University of Arts + Design in Vancouver, BC.

Aaron Nelson-Moody / Tawx’sin Yexwulla (Squamish) is an educator who has worked to rekindle Coast Salish art and culture, and also share important traditions of intercultural connection in schools and through community projects. He currently works as an Instructor in the Department of Fine Arts at Langara College where he teaches Indigenous woodcarving, and maintains his own artistic practice.