In this work, replicas of my nipples are dispersed along shorelines with the other stones and debris. A bodily intervention into “Natural” spaces.
The assumption of a vacant wilderness is one that erases the historic presence and co-existence of Indigenous peoples on the land. Further, queers are often harmfully considered “unnatural.” And so I add these stone-like fragments of my queer, Métis body to the landscape – materials that can be safely broken down and disappear, that are and become part of the landscape, oddities beach combers may come across, and a temporary reminder that the landscape has never been vacant.
Began during the Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency in 2018, documentation of this work is included in the exhibition Kwaatanihtowwakiw – A Hard Birth curated by Cathy Mattes and Sherry Farrell Racette at the Winnipeg Art Gallery; and it has been exhibited along the shore of North Bay with accompanying postcard sized prints at the White Water Gallery for it’s a towardness, really: and it’s been places too, curated by Alexander Rondeau in 2019.
