Traces brings together the work of Dënesųłinë́ artist Catherine Blackburn, and Vuntut Gwich'in artist Jeneen Frei Njootli. Through photographic works each artist captures the absence of a subject rather than the subject itself. Lingering traces of family histories and cultural knowledges remain on the flesh and in the concealment of it.

The body is obscured through incision and adornment. These reductions and impressions are made with the intention of providing protection to the subject through limiting the viewer's access. Acting in direct opposition to colonial efforts of removal rooted in the intention to destroy, Blackburn and Njootli ask how these actions shift meaning when we trust the one who is authoring the cut.

With reference to beadwork — a laborious and careful process that is made for and by bodies — these stitches that surround the silhouettes and leave their indentations on the skin honour and serve as physical memory of that which is unseen.

About the artists
Catherine Blackburn, a member of the English River First Nation (Dënesųłinë́), is a multidisciplinary artist and jeweller, whose common themes address Canada’s colonial past and are often prompted by personal narratives. Her work grounds itself in the Indigenous feminine and is bound by the ancestral love that stitching suggests. Through stitchwork, she explores Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization, and representation. Blackburn’s work has been showcased in the Santa Fe Haute Couture Fashion Show and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week. Group exhibitions include Radical Stitch at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in 2022 and Àbadakone at the National Gallery of Canada in 2019-2020. She has received numerous awards for her work, including an Eitlejorg Fellowship in 2021 and a Forge Residency Fellowship in 2022. She was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2023.

Jeneen Frei Njootli lives and works in their Vuntut Gwitchin homelands, outside of Old Crow, Yukon. There is an industrial- and photo-adjacent lean in their practice, through which they work with culturally intimate materials that manifest in sculpture, regalia, performance, and sound. They have worked with many mentors and knowledge holders over the years, in addition to holding an MFA from the University of British Columbia and a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Frei Njootli’s work has been presented internationally at KADIST (San Francisco), Fonds régional d’art contemporain (France), CCS BARD Hessel Museum (New York), New Museum Triennial (New York), Kunstverein Braunschweig (Germany), Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Opening Celebration on Thursday, September 24

The exhibition will be closed October 30 – November 2. 

Curated by Serena Steel

Banner Image: Catherine Blackburn, Scooped (detail), 2017. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.