The Indian Truckhouse of High Art was created in 2011 in Halifax NS as a site specific performance. Johnson set up a peddler's booth in the streets of Halifax on October 1st, Treaty Day: the day when the Mi'kmaq Nation and the Crown's representative annually resign the Treaty of Peach and Friendship from 1752. Johnson interacted with passerby speaking in Mi'kmaq, using only a few English words that referenced selling the objects presented as wares on the makeshift sidewalk display.  

In this exhibition Johnson recreated the idea of her "Truckhouse" to be an interactive sculptural installation with media components of video and sound to further showcase the spectacle of what we view as authentically indigenous. This work continues to explore the notions of appropriated indigenous iconography as it stands in the mass produced commodified market of Indigeneity, while looking at the selling of stereotypes as cultural symbols that is manifested in this day and age of a national identity crisis.

Ursula Johnson is a 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.

Johnson is the recipient of many awards including the 2017 Sobey Art Award, the 2019 Masterworks Arts Award and the 2016 Hnatyshyn Foundation Reveal Indigenous Art Award. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including at the National Gallery of Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Carleton University Art Gallery, and Landmarks2017.

Ursula Johnson cv