Special Events:

Opening Reception | Friday, October 4th from 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Artist Talk: Speaking to The Other Side | Sunday, October 6th at 2:00 pm

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shnu’a’th, ᐊᑳᒥᕽ akâmihk, the other side is an exhibition of new photo-based artworks by Michelle Sound and Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun. The title of this exhibition, set in Hul’qumi’num, Cree, and English, suggests both geographical proximity (the other side of the river) and spiritual proximity (the afterlife). Works in the exhibition consider relations with land, family, and ancestors through interventions in the medium of photography. 

In our daily scroll through digital images, it is easy to forget that pictures can be tangible objects with weight and texture. When we encounter printed snapshots, we can hold them and ask: Who is this person? Where are they standing? How are we related? Who took this photo? then flip them to look for handwritten notes on the other side. Photographs of all types can spark stories, but photographs as objects can carry unique traces of the people or places they represent. 

Sound and White-Hill begin with this understanding, and employ sculpture and installation to bring new life to photographic images. Through cyanotypes printed on elk hide drums, torn prints that have been repaired and adorned, drawings of spirits layered on top of archival images, and spindle whorl patterns cut out from historical landscape photographs, the artists work to enact care for their families, and communities, here and on the other side.

Exhibition Pamphlet

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shnu’a’th, ᐊᑳᒥᕽ akâmihk, the other side is the third exhibition through which Nanaimo Art Gallery asks the question: How can we work together?

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Biographies

Michelle Sound, (she/her), is a Cree and Métis artist and mother. She is a member of Wapsewsipi Swan River First Nation in Treaty 8 Territory, Northern Alberta where her mother is from. Her father’s family is from the Buffalo Lake and Kikino Métis settlements in central Alberta, Treaty 6 territory. She was born and raised on the unceded and ancestral home territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, School for the Contemporary Arts, and a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Michelle is currently an Indigenous Advisor at Douglas College. 

Michelle is a multidisciplinary visual artist and her art practice includes a variety of mediums including photo-based work, textiles, painting and Indigenous material practices. Her artwork explores her Cree and Métis identity from personal experience rooted in family, place and history. She works with traditional and contemporary materials and techniques to explore maternal labour, identity, cultural knowledge, and cultural inheritances.

 
Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun (he/they), is an artist and storyteller from the Snuneymuxw First Nation. His family has roots in Penelakut, in the Nuu Chah Nulth world in Hupacasath, and further up and down the Northwest Coast. His interdisciplinary art practice is rooted in honouring the stories and teachings that have been passed down by his family, community, and culture. He currently resides on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

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