Ruth Cuthand and Vanessa Hyggen, mîkisak ikwa asiniyak | Beads and Stone | Lii rasaad aykwa lii rosh (detail), 2019, Tyndall Stone, beads, resin. Photo by Chris Putnam.
School of Art Gallery presents Beads and Stone II: A participatory art project with Vanessa Hyggen
Join the School of Art Gallery for:
Beads and Stone II: A participatory art project with Vanessa Hyggen
Presented in partnership with Art City and MAWA: Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art
Tuesday, April 5 to Thursday, April 7th, 1:00-4:00 pm
University Centre (in front of the food court)
Friday, April 8, 3:30-7:30 pm
Art City, 616 Broadway Avenue
Saturday, April 9, 1:00-3:00 pm
MAWA, 611 Main Street
Join Saskatchewan-based artist Vanessa Hyggen to create beadwork for a new public artwork responding to the University of Manitoba campus environment. Hyggen’s project is based on her 2019 collaboration with Ruth Cuthand, mîkisak ikwa asiniyak | Beads and Stone | Lii rasaad aykwa lii rosh, which considered the colonial legacies and emergent processes of Indigenization at the University of Saskatchewan. Both universities are home to many Tyndall Stone buildings—a Manitoba building material that is used to signify institutional structures in this artwork. By fusing the pieces of a broken slab of Tyndall Stone together with beadwork suspended in resin, the artwork symbolizes decolonization and the need to make space for Indigenous traditions, languages, and systems of knowledge on campus.
All are welcome to join Vanessa Hyggen and assistant beader, Anishnaabe artist Cassandra Cochrane for drop-in beading sessions at the University of Manitoba, Art City, and MAWA. The final artwork will be included in the upcoming School of Art Gallery exhibition Moving Matter: Between rock and stone, taking place from August 11 through October 14, 2022.
Vanessa Hyggen is a Woodland Cree and Norwegian painter and bead artist from nemepith sipihk (Sucker River), in Northern Saskatchewan. Hyggen is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and she currently lives in Saskatoon. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan. In her practice she is interested in utilizing memory, tradition, and themes of nature in her work. The pandemic influenced Hyggen’s art and she beaded four hide masks, one of which is part of the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection, and another which is touring across Canada in Breath the second wave. Her painting titled Treaty Annuity (2018) was purchased to be included in the Indigenous Art Collection of the Government of Canada and she has been a part of two art collaborations at the University of Saskatchewan: mÎkisak ikwa asiniyak/ Beads and Stone / Lii rasaad aykway lii rosh (2019), and anoch kipasikônaw / we rise / niipawi (2020).
Drop-in. No registration is required.