Kiskisiwin (The Act Of Remembering) ᑭᐢᑭᓯᐃᐧᐣ
Morgan Possberg
Morgan Possberg: Kiskisiwin (The Act Of Remembering) ᑭᐢᑭᓯᐃᐧᐣ
Running August 4, 2023 to September 16, 2023
“Memory is thus one domain where affect becomes a noticeable pressure point” -Billy-Ray Belcourt.
In the course of empire building, visual semiotics became the cultural foundation for western knowledge production and memory. In comparison, Indigenous ways of knowing adopts a more experiential and sensorial approach towards the construction of memory that does not rely on visuality as the cornerstone of remembrance but a spectrum of human senses that contribute to a holistic understanding and sense of place and self.
In Morgan Possberg's "Kiskisiwin," the artist constructs conceptual parallelisms between paskwâw mostos (buffalo) and the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. The parallels drawn between the buffalos and Indigenous bodies move beyond the disappearance of the buffalo from the prairies as a convolution of ongoing colonization and exploitation of the land by settlers, and ties to the spoor, sound and blood of the buffalo, strongly linked to memories of the land and Indigenous blood knowledge.
Through an amalgamation of mediums and materials that include assemblage, plant taxidermy, olfactory composition and sonic experimentation, Possberg problematizes colonial romanticization and exploitation of the prairies and reclaims the steppes, the materials it produces and its flora and fauna as entities filled with life and agency.
By combining multiple sensory aspects, the visuals are deemphasized and the viewer of Possberg's work can refocus on embodied knowledge and Indigenous blood memory in relation to remembrance. According to Possberg, the act of remembering expands beyond the grief of lost skills, language and cultures and becomes a way to rebuild connections in a contemporary world, a sacred ritual in its own right. Through her abstraction of the prairies and the paskwâw mostos, centring sounds and scents, Possberg subverts the colonial notion of Veni, Vidi, Vici and poses the premise of Indigenous memory construction and place marking as one that takes into account the evidence of things unseen.
Olumoroti George
Artistic Director
About the Artist
Morgan Possberg Denne grew up in Calgary, Alberta and spent a large part of their childhood in Shediac, New Brunswick. They received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a focus in Textiles / Fashion from NSCAD University in Halifax in 2019, and subsequently attended the University of Calgary for a Master of Architecture Degree. Morgan has most recently attended the Banff centre for an Indigenous Haute Couture residency, taught traditional fish skin tanning classes in Prince Edward Island / Epekwitk, and is currently working on a commission for the Calgary Public Library. They are a millennial scoop and foster care survivor; with settler, Cree, Metis, and Chippewa familial connections. Morgan is both a writer and an artist with a focus in writing about the modern Two-spirit Indigenous experience in Canada, queerness, colonialism, institutional / systemic racism, and uplifting BIPOC / Indigenous artists. Through their work, Morgan explores alternate stories to fill gaps created by colonialism with a focus on capturing inner truth and alternate possibilities.
Through their visual artwork they create imaginative, illustrative objects which could be seen as pieces of possible narratives, different ways to connect with the past and potential futures through layers of abstraction with no right or wrong answer. They focus on creating objects which have agency and are a part of an Indigenous based worldview and oral history. What matters is not whether the objects accurately recreate the past, but rather to capture an inner truth and a possible alternative reality of the object through a modern interpretation. In a sense, creating new culture from a series of “what-ifs” and new stories / lore.
