Traces Opening Celebration
Join The Polygon on Thursday, September 24 at 7:00pm for the Catherine Blackburn + Jeneen Frei Njootli: Traces Opening Celebration.
Doors at 7:00pm
Remarks at 7:30pm
RSVPs are helpful
Catherine Blackburn + Jeneen Frei Njootli: Traces is on view in The Polygon's ground floor gallery from September 25 – March 14.
About the exhibition
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.
Curated by Serena Steel
Banner Image: Jeneen Frei Njootli, Joanne, 2017