This year was Nocturne’s tenth edition. A milestone for the organization, marked by a partnership with the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, who helped select Raven Davis as Nocturne’s first Indigenous Curator. Davis, in turn, selected this Nocturne’s theme: Nomadic Reciprocity, a multilayered reflection on what is given and what is taken as we move through space, and as we move here in Halifax over unceded and unsurrendered Mi’kmaq territory.
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I’ve descended into a dark room with a large video projection of what looks like a tropical jungle. The camera moves slowly and deliberately through rich vegetation while the narrator— New Zealand artist Mark Harvey—gently talks to you about Schrödinger’s Cat. Mark explains how plants absorb energy from other nearby plants, and the research suggesting this applies to people too. He talks about quantum entanglement. The whole thing is quite hypnotic. And sitting on the floor in the far corner of the room, is a small video monitor showing the artist wrestling with a young tree, yanking and pulling, trying to rip it out of the ground with his hands.
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A free bus tour of K'jipuktuk/Halifax galleries featuring talks with indigenous artists and curators: Carrie Allison, Aiden Gillis, Tarah Hogue, Maria Hupfeld & Wanda Nanibush. Followed by the launch of the Fall issue of Visual Arts News: UNKOWN LANDS.
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CARRIE: Grass is so crazy! It’s like a sign of royalty—the fact that we still have it in our lives is very weird!
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Shannon Webb-Campbell is a mixed Indigenous (Mi’kmaq) settler poet, writer, and critic. Her forthcoming book, I Am A Body of Land (Book*hug, 2018) attempts to explore a relationship to poetic responsibility and accountability, and frame poetry as a form of revisioning. Still No Word (Breakwater 2015) was the recipient of Egale Canada’s Out In Print Award. She holds a MFA in Creative Writing from University of British Columbia, a BA from Dalhousie University, and is currently completing a MA in English Literature at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Shannon is a member of Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation, and currently lives in Montréal.
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“My response to the landscape is emotional,” says Meagan Musseau. “I observe and engage with the land and the social environment in which I live.”
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Billions are said to be in global circulation. In the United States alone, five hundred million are manufactured every year. They are everywhere, including inside and outside of our large retail shops. Their ubiquity and number, however, do not guarantee their visibility. Few of us look at, let alone think about the wooden shipping...
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*This article appeared in the Summer 2018 Visual Arts News’ Special 40th Anniversary Issue Emily Vey Duke—one half of the creative duo Duke + Battersby— exudes this refreshingly raw honesty that makes people feel like they know her. She’s a bit of a Halifax art world legend, and speaks candidly about her own experiences with...
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*This article appeared in the Summer 2018 Visual Arts News’ Special 40th Anniversary Issue Driving down the Bedford Highway in Halifax, you pass signs for China Town restaurant—a Nova Scotian behemoth dating back to the 70s, with that kitschy “Chinese-style” font in huge fire-engine red letters across faux panelling that you can’t miss. Artist JJ Lee’s...
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Cape Breton has existed as a Shangri-La of sorts for Americans for over half a century, firmly rooting itself in the imaginary of New York’s avant-garde circles, political radicals, draft dodgers, back-to-the-landers and, more recently, those simply looking for an affordable getaway.
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