Coming-to-Presence

Additional Information

Ruth Cuthand, Lori Blondeau, Jason Baerg and Darren Gowan

Other associated events: Artist talks: Saturday, September 20, 6:30 pm followed by an Opening reception.
The exhibition opening event coincides with the opening of the Bob Boyer retrospective at the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

You can change and save the world by changing yourself. And that begins with waking up to the power of life in the present, and finding there the presence of your Creator and all creation.
-Thom Hartmann, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

Saskatchewan's census suggests that the Aboriginal/Métis population will soon surpass the non-aboriginal majority, creating a new social and political landscape. We are in a time of reflection where looking to the past allows us to shape the present and the future. It is a time where we have the opportunity to transcend the injustices of the past and create a society that values diversity, inspires creativity and instills equal opportunity.

Coming-to-Presence is an exhibition of works by Saskatchewan contemporary Aboriginal and Métis artists Ruth Cuthand, Lori Blondeau, Jason Baerg and Darren Gowan. Their works explore disease, tradition, identity, humour and activism. Theirs is not a nostalgic look back or a future fantasy, but an opportunity to examine our present being or the process of coming-to-presence. This is an interpretation of indigenous language and philosophy; the concept that while we are physically present, our minds and spirits continuously move between the past, present and future. Our actions today speak to all times; we are both the sum of the past and that of what is yet to come.

Coming-to-Presence (Installation View), 2008.