Amy Malbeuf: Portals

Part of Material Girls, curated by Blair Fornwald, Jennifer Matotek, and Wendy Peart. Saturday, January 31, 3:00 pm at RPL Central, Corner of 12th Avenue and Smith Street.

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Artist Talk: Saturday, January 31, 3:30 pm
RPL Film Theatre

Part of an ongoing performative installation series performed by Métis artist Amy Malbeuf since 2009, Portals is an offsite component of the large-scale group exhibition, Material Girls. Dressed in a shiny and colourful full-body concealing costume, Malbeuf uses a seed spreader to disperse stained salt in a circular pattern over the snow. An intervention both open-ended and specific, subtle and irreparable, it is reclamation of Indigenous space that will exist temporarily as an image, and much longer as a reality. “The portal of salt,” Malbeuf explains “embodies the fine line between poison and medicine, as salt is necessary to sustain life but is toxic in large quantities.” Though the salt will never fully dissipate, it is possible in time, for the site to regenerate, a salient metaphor for the potential for healing and recovery by individuals, communities, and cultures that have experienced trauma.

Amy Malbeuf was born in Edmonton and lives and works in Kelowna. Malbeuf is working towards a MFA from University of British Columbia Okanagan and has obtained a Native Cultural Arts Certificate from Portage College and a BFA from Alberta College of Art and Design. Malbeuf has exhibited throughout Canada and in Melbourne, Australia, and has participated in residencies including at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Labrador Research Institute, and The Banff Centre.

Amy Malbeuf, Portals, 2015. Photo by Eagleclaw Thom.