Ursula Johnson - The Indian Truckhouse of High Art

March 2nd to April 30th, 2018

Vernissage March 2nd 7-10pm

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 the current 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. For this exhibition, Central Art Garage was transformed into the inaugural storefront of the ITHA Shopping Channel. As videos played excerpts from the ITHA shopping channel and a testimonal advertisement, ITHA Shopping Channel host and celebrity briefly appeared and signed autographs for the crowd.

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 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. She was the 2017 recipient of the Sobey Art Award.

Artist Statement:
I define my practice as Interdisciplinary. In my art I combine a multitude of elements in order to encourage dialogue between the viewers and the work, frequently challenging the viewers to explore with me ideas of identity, ancestry and cultural practice.

In the topics and themes I examine through performance, sculpture and or installation and sometimes all of the above; I aim at creating a space where the viewer is confronted with thought provoking visuals, sounds and scents. Often challenging the viewer to investigate their own Identity, as well as examining the relationship that their ancestry and cultural practices relates to that of mine.

Although my methodology is quite consistent, the materials that I consider with each project are crucial in determining the message that I intend to deliver. My work often juxtaposes aspects of traditional aboriginal art forms and contemporary work.