October 22, 2021 – January 09, 2022
Pawatamihk
Artist Audie Murray
Inquiry What is progress?
We are pleased to present Pawatamihk, a solo exhibition by Regina-based Michif artist Audie Murray. Pawatamihk means dream in Michif, and the exhibition features artworks made in the last two years that address the revolutionary potential of dreaming.
Image Credit:
Audie Murray
Spider in the Cosmos
Glass pony beads, copper
2021
Photo by Kyra Kordoski, courtesy of University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries
Read More on Pawatamihk
While Murray works in beading, quillwork, video, sculpture, painting, and photography, dreaming is a key element in her creative process. In contemporary society making time to dream rather than constantly produce is often frowned upon. Dreaming is dangerous for colonial worldviews as it allows a window of time and space to listen to the earth and to ancestors, to imagine the world differently, and to prepare to enact change. In Pawatamihk, Murray shares works that speak to the value of slowing down, taking care, and reflecting, considerations that resonate strongly in a year in which Nanaimo Art Gallery asks What is Progress?
Audie Murray is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with various materials including beadwork, quillwork, textiles, repurposed objects, drawing, and media. She is Michif, raised and working in Regina, Saskatchewan, treaty 4 territory. Much of her family and family histories are located in the Qu’Appelle and Meadow Lake regions of Saskatchewan. Audie holds a visual arts diploma from Camosun College, 2016; Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Regina, 2017; and is currently an MFA student at the University of Calgary. She has shown at various locations including the Art Gallery of Alberta, Vancouver Art Gallery, Glenbow Museum, and Anchorage Museum.
Audie’s art practice is informed by the process of making and visiting. Her practice explores themes of contemporary culture and how this relates to experiences of duality and connectivity. Working with specific material choices, she often uses found objects from daily life and transmutes them. This practice is a way to reclaim and work through subject matter, much of it relating to the body, space, and relationships with a focus on the intersection and expansion of time.