On view September 20 – October 19, 2019
Public Reception: Saturday, September 28th, 9:30-11pm
PAVED Arts Main Gallery space
Michael Farnan’s (Victoria Harbour, Ontario) new project, Canoe Fight, looks at the symbolic history of the canoe and how it has been used as a metaphor for the Canadian national identity. Working mainly through camp humour (and some simulated violence), Farnan’s project explores Canada’s settlement history and uses performance, video, and studio-based works to disrupt the idea that the canoe was somehow a freely given gift to early settlers who then used it as means to “discover” the Canadian landscape.
Michael Farnan is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher currently based in Victoria Harbour, Ontario. Informed by discourses of reconciliation and decolonization, Farnan’s work employs settler-based interventionist strategies aimed at challenging colonial legacies and representational practices that continue to privilege settler history.
Canoe Fight: From Reverence to Redress is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council.
Related Events:
Saturday, September 28th, 7–9pm
Once Were Pilgrims & Pilgrims of the Wild
Michael Farnan, Lori Blondeau, & Adrian Stimson
Screening and Performance at The Refinery, 609 Dufferin Ave
In partnership with Nuit Blanche Saskatoon 2019, presented by PAVED Arts.
Informed by discourses of reconciliation and decolonization, Michael Farnan’s work employs settler-based interventionist strategies aimed at challenging colonial legacies that continue to privilege settler history. For this event, the Pilgrims of the Wild screening and Once Were Pilgrims performance will feature Farnan’s collaborative work with internationally renowned artists Lori Blondeau and Adrian Stimson. The three collaborators have developed a provocative exchange that takes on the appearance of a panel discussion.
Pilgrims of the Wild is supported by PAVED Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
