The Calgary Public Library is celebrating the work of Indigenous Artist in Residence Morgan Black, who during her three month tenure engaged the public and shared the culture of the Ts’kw’aylaxw First Nation.
A series of her works are now on display at the Central Library, which combine her mixed materials practice along with gifted items from her family—one work in particular made with bingo cards used by her mother and grandmother.
“I’m one of those people that is just interested in learning all sorts of different processes and techniques. I just feel endlessly fascinated by all the different ways that you can, you know, visually express yourself through art,” said Black.
“There’s paintings on birch panels that I then carve back into the surface. There’s textile based works where I work with fiber reactive dyes or natural dyes that I’ve hand foraged myself from the land. I’m kind of experimenting with making pigment from plant foraging that I do as a byproduct of the dying process.”
The final showcase, available on the first floor at the Central Library, was a hope by Morgan to begin sharing storytelling that Calgarians may not be otherwise exposed to.
The Ts’kw’aylaxw First Nation is located in the Fraser Canyon region of B.C., where Black lived until she was 11-years-old before moving to Treaty 7.
Black was also the co-founder of the Crawlspace Gallery located in Inglewood.
“As an artist, just having any sort of attention on what you’re doing is just an immensely gratitude-evoking thing. So I hope that they see Indigenous art, Indigenous voices, as something deeply important to occupying this land, as we live in a colonial project that is this nation,” Black said.
“I didn’t grow up always seeing Indigenous voices represented, and so I’m just hoping that people who take the time to appreciate Indigenous art think about the deep histories of these lands. I appreciate honest discussions about that, because there’s this whole concept of authenticity. It’s just putting Indigenous people in a box that historicizes and limits what contemporary Indigenous people bring to the table.”
Exploring Indigenous identity
She said that as a member of the The Land Holds Us art collective, there has been an opportunity to present a distinct set of Indigenous voices from a multitude of art disciplines that differed from what might be viewed as authentic Indigenous art.
“You would be just doing a disservice to to artwork, period, if you pigeonhole Indigenous artists into looking a certain way or being ultra-traditional or ultra-authentic, whatever that means,” Black said.
“I think that it is a high compliment if someone is able to look at your artwork as a contemporary Indigenous artist and go, ‘I love this for what it is. I love your voice for what it is.'”
Black said her exhibition was really about showcasing that work that goes towards connecting her Indigenous identity and as a person of the land.
“The pieces represent the last couple years, of the different ways that I’ve been reconnecting to my ancestral cultures, reconnecting to the land, and exploring different motifs or visual designs that I feel can symbolize these sorts of ideas. There’s there’s concepts of matriarchy, there’s concepts of human impact on the land,” she said.
“One of the pieces, Bear Women, is my interpretation of one of our traditional stories. It’s actually the earliest known translation of a traditional story, Kayam, to English. I’m finding just so much of a layered richness to my culture that I am just so glad that I get the opportunity to dive into it.”
