Art, power and social change talks come to Yellowknife

Two nights of talks about how art can be an instrument of social change will come to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre this week.

Contemporary artists Jaime Black and KC Adams will be in town tonight and Thursday night to speak about their work and how art can be a catalyst for social change.

Black is the creator of the REDdress project, which is a response to the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. The project collects red dresses by community donation and displays them in public spaces across the country as a visual reminder of their absence.

Adams is the creator of Perception, a portrait series that confronts stereotypes about Indigenous people by showing the subjects in two lights, one labelled as a stereotype and one with their reality.

The event titled Art, Power and Social Change is a joint project between Dene Nahjo and the Yellowknife Artist-Run Community Centre (YKARCC).

YKARCC board member Sarah Swan first met the artists in Winnipeg, which got her thinking about how to get them to Yellowknife.

Both cities have large Indigenous populations dealing with similar issues of racism, with Winnipeg being named Canada's most racist city by Maclean's magazine in 2015.

“But more than that, both Winnipeg and Yellowknife have a very exciting and dynamic group of Indigenous artists,” said Swan, adding this event is an opportunity for them to meet each other and share ideas.

“There’s just so many exciting things going on across this country in terms of Indigenous art,” said Swan.

“Yellowknife may be a little bit behind in terms of other kinds of contemporary art but it’s not behind in terms of Indigenous art. It’s par for the course, it’s right on track and maybe even a bit more forward thinking than some southern cities,” she said.

KC Adams work Perception was controversial when it first debuted in Winnipeg in 2015, and a smaller scale version of the project rolled out in Yellowknife on Sunday.

“ We’re anticipating a whole range of responses from super excited and supportive to some people feeling a little bit challenged or a little bit offended,” said Swan.

“And that’s okay, that’s what this project is supposed to do. It’s supposed to get people thinking and it’s supposed to be challenging. So we’re happy to receive all kinds of reactions.”

The name of the event, Art. Power and Social Change reflects the power of art as a means to effect change, in this case around issues of reconciliation and decolonization said Swan.

“Canada is in a learning phase,” she said.

“I'm not prepared to say how much we’ve learned but certainly there are a lot of people keen to learn and keen to grow in the areas of reconciliation and decolonization. Art is a fantastic vehicle for change,” said Swan, and both artists address these topics regularly in their lives and in their work.

Adams and Black will each give an artist's talk tonight starting 6:30 p.m.

Tomorrow evening at the same time they will join local artists Casey Koyczan, Tania Larsson, and Melaw Nakehk'o for a panel discussion about decolonization moderated by Dene Nahjo's program director Mandee McDonald.

“We want to invite Yellowknifers who may or may not be interested in art just to come and learn about how that might work, and how art could contribute to their personal growth in this area and how it can change the social climate of Canada, and the North specifically,” said Swan.

Neither Black nor Adams have been to the North before, and Yellowknife is often excluded from arts discourse because of its remote location, she said.

“So let’s change that, let’s have some discourse here.”