DYLAN MINER | MICHIF – MICHIN
[portfolio_slideshow]
August 14 – September 19, 2014
Opening Night: Thursday, August 14
Artist talk at 7:30PM in the KIAC Ballroom | Reception to follow
This new body of work will investigate Métis medicine. As the descendent of Métis from across the subarctic and boreal forests to the prairies and Great Lakes, I am intimately interested in the physical and spiritual capabilities of Indigenous medicines. Recent events, including the #idlenomore movements, the Daniels’ Decision (and Canada’s legal battle against this decision), and the land claim decision in favor of the Manitoba Métis Federation, have reinvigorated our
society’s desire to look at various healing practices. This projects does exactly that.
Since, my great-grandmother was known for her ability to make healing salves (as well as for her beadwork and oatmeal cookies), I have a familial relationship to Métis medicine and its ability to heal. Michin – Michif, as this project is called, uses traditional plants as its starting point. From this initial moment of creation, I think of healing in complex and multidimensional ways. The title of this project plays on the linguistic similarities between the Métis word for medicine (michif) and the word we use to describe our language and ourselves (Michif).
Accordingly, I will focus extensively on language and herbal remedies as the core to community healing.
The Elders Say We Don’t Visit Anymore, Tea and Conversation with Dylan Miner
Friday & Saturday, August 15 &16, 2:00 – 4:00 PM in the gallery
Ongoing Tea and Conversation
Tuesday – Friday 10am – 5pm & Saturdays 1 – 5pm in the gallery
DYLAN MINER (Métis) is Associate Professor at Michigan State University, where he coordinates a new Indigenous Contemporary Art Initiative. He holds a PhD from the University of New Mexico and has published more than fifty journal articles, book chapters, critical essays and encyclopedia entries. In 2010, he was awarded an Artist Leadership Fellowship from the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian Institution). Since 2010, he has been featured in thirteen solo exhibitions and been artist-in-residence at institutions such as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, École supérieure des beaux-arts in Nantes and Santa Fe Art Institute. His work has been the subject of articles in publications including ARTnews, Indian Country Today, First American Art Magazine, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian and Chicago Sun-Times. Miner is descended from the Miner-Brissette-L’Hirondelle-Kennedy families with ancestral ties to Indigenous communities in the Great Lakes, Prairies and subarctic regions.