Words as weapons
Artist presents exhibit based on the idea of ‘language wounds’
Stacey Abramson

A mix of smart poetics and biting reality characterizes Urban Shaman’s current exhibition of work by Nadia Myre and Dana Claxton.

Want Ads and Other Scars is a continuation of Myre’s exploration into the stories and lives behind events that shake us to our core. The Montreal-based artist — who once organized a collaborative beading of the entire text of the Indian Act — has been working with the concept of scars as a physical indication of “language wounds.” She considers herself to be a “visual activist” because her work confronts viewers.

Myre’s ‘want ads’ are scattered over the walls of the gallery like graffiti. Stencilled in crude lettering with layered tones, the slogans and ads illustrate the effects situations can have on a person, and they read like literary and mental scars.

For example, “Spread eagle looking for good wolf on a full moon,” humorously touches on the desire and lust that characterizes these rough-and-ready ads in real life.

Various sizes and colours of stitched-up and scarred canvases (right) cover the majority of the gallery, though the larger pieces are the best of the scar series. The embossed lettering, blood-stained gauze, interesting textures and threaded openings that fill these works all speak Myre’s message of impression and memory.

The poetics that come through the text-based pieces are delicate and airy, and Myre’s video piece illustrates her awareness of the fragility of words such as “true” and “love.” On video the artist swirls and dances with a man, and their images seep into one another while they literally eat her words. It’s a dreamy dedication to love.

Dana Claxton’s video The Patient Storm is featured in the Marvin Francis Memorial Gallery as part of the Storm Spirits series produced by Urban Shaman and Virtual Museum of Canada. Curated by the late Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew, the series delves into the changing relationship aboriginal artists have with new media and how it relates to aboriginal art history.

Claxton’s video is a flowing snippet of a conversation between two earthly elements, storm and lightning, waiting to go to a sun dance. The dialogue flows like a hip hop beat from one character, while the other has a stoic grace. The juxtaposition between the two makes for a remarkable work. The rhyme-speak used by the two carries the video as if it were a poem. Claxton has given not only new life to a traditional story but also put her own contemporary spin on it.

Myre’s relationship with language is a loving one, and she devotes much thought to the placement and structure of the text-based works. She has a way of being poetically honest with viewers though her work. Her pictures really do speak a thousand words.