Jordan Bennett and Ursula Johnson: Mi’kmaq Word of The Day 2.0
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 25th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Closing Reception and Artist Talk, March 31st from 7:00 to 9:00 PM
A re-visitation of a previous project from 2010, where Bennett was in residence at Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg and he received Mi’kmaq language lessons via instant messaging from Johnson. This new work will be presented in the digital format of an audioscape and a daily drawing of text sent by the artists to Eastern Edge Gallery, the growth of this exhibition will echo the organic nature of the relationship between land, language and sustenance. The artists would like to invite the residents of St. John’s, Ktamkuk to witness the growth of the installation while learning the Mi’kmaw language, in exchange for a donation of a non-perishable food item to the exhibition for the St. John’s Native Friendship Centre.
Ursula Johnson is an emerging performance and installation artist of Mi’kmaw First Nation ancestry. She graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and has participated in over 30 group shows and 5 solo exhibitions. Her performances are often place-based and employ cooperative didactic intervention.
Jordan Bennett is a multi-disciplinary visual artist of Mi’kmaq ancestry from Stephenville Crossing Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Jordan holds a BFA from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College and a MFA from University of British Columbia Okanagan. He has shown extensively nationally and internationally, in venues such as The Museum of Art and Design, NYC; Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM; Campbelltown Art Centre, Campbelltown, AUS, and was one of two artists to represent Newfoundland and Labrador at the 2015 Venice Biennial at Galleria Ca’Rezzonico, Venice, Italy.
Jordan’s ongoing body of work utilizes various mediums to explore land, language, the act of visiting, familial histories and challenging colonial perceptions of indigenous histories, stereotypes and presence with a particular focus on exploring Mi’kmaq and Beothuk visual culture of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland).