Joi T Arcand Review in Canadian Art
Canadian Art
REVIEWS / AUGUST 13, 2019
Joi T. Arcand
College Art Gallery 2, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, May 24 to August 17, 2019
Joi T. Arcand, ēkawiya nēwēpisi (Don’t be shy), 2017. Neon channel sign. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Carey Shaw Photography.
by Tak Pham (exerpts from the article reposted from Canadian Art)
I feel an overwhelming sense of empathy while experiencing Joi T. Arcand’s solo exhibition “she used to want to be a ballerina.” It’s not that I ever deamed of being a ballerina. This empathy is, rather, because of an intimate, indescribable resonance I feel through Arcand’s sensitive typographic and photographic storytelling.
In this exhibition, Arcand, known for working with the Plains Cree syllabics, shares her childhood dreams and heroes. The first section introduces the exhibition in the manner of a prologue. Two neon texts ēkawiya nēwëpisi — (Don’t be shy) (2017) and ē-kī-nōtē-itakot opwātisimowiskwēw (she used to want to be a fancy dancer) (2019) occupy the adjacent walls bracketing the entrance. Their attractive pink and blue glow floods the gallery, suggesting a sense of melancholy ahead.
Returning to her childhood dream of becoming a ballerina, Arcand suggests a way to exist and dream in that re-imagined world, while never letting us forget her indigeneity. There is regalia with ribbons sewn on by her grandmother, there is music from Buffy Saint Marie, and there is a tribute to Maria Tallchief. As with Arcand’s neon works, there is a restlessness in these tributes—a constant search for balance between Indigenous and Western elements. This oeuvre doesn’t seem to comfortably stay within any particular set of expectations.
Joi T. Arcand, she used to want to be a ballerina (for grandma Vivian), 2019. Three photolight boxes. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Carey Shaw Photography.
The melancholy of a linguistic distance here reminds me of another work of Arcand’s from 10 years ago. Here on Future Earth: Northern Pawn, South Vietnam (2009) is a photograph depicting a streetscape in North Battleford. Two storefronts have had their English signage replaced with Plains Cree syllabics.
By translating all the English words into Plains Cree, Arcand presents snapshots of an imagined world where Cree culture, untainted by colonialism, thrives.
Joi T. Arcand, ē-kī-nōhtē-itakot opwātisimowiskwēw (she used to want to be a fancy dancer), 2019. Neon. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Carey Shaw Photography.
I find refuge in Arcand’s Plains Cree. Our languages share similar historical paths in their developments; they both exist in this third space of culture. While Plains Cree is still slowly reclaiming its sovereignty in communities, modern Vietnamese has fully gained its agency over the usage of the language with the creation of numerous regional and generational dialects.
This traversing creates disruptions, ruptures and overlaps of languages, beliefs and ideas, out of which emerges a gap of productive imagining. “she used to want to be a ballerina” actualizes that gap and makes it physical. Using the marginal modal verb “used to,” Arcand makes sure that gap stays open, unfulfilled, physical and felt.
Writing in 2018 about Arcand’s work, John G. Hampton observed that “languages travel too,” suggesting that the “foreignness” in Arcand’s work is a product of colonial monolingualism. In that sense, Arcand is dismantling the colonial hierarchy of languages, providing agency and responsibility to the many languages that co-exist in so-called Canada.
Read full article by Tak Pham here
Tak Pham is Assistant Curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. He holds a BA (Hons.) in History and Theory of Architecture from Carleton University and a MFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practice from OCAD University.