Perception: Lethbridge project uses real Indigenous people to challenge stereotypes
By John Gibson, CBC News
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| http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/perceptions-lethbridge-indigenous-art-bias-racism-bias-stereotypes-1.3785904?cmp=abfb |
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/perceptions-lethbridge-indigenous-art-bias-racism-bias-stereotypes-1.3785904?cmp=abfb
CBC Calgary
"Dumb Indian." "Drug addict." "Welfare mom." These harsh slurs emblazoned over portraits of Indigenous people are part of an in-your-face art project meant to challenge racist attitudes in Lethbridge, Alta.
The side-by-side portraits of First Nations and Métis people appeared on buses, transit shelters and billboards through the month of September, as well as at CASA, the city's new multidisciplinary arts centre.
On the left, each person scowls at the camera under words with negative stereotypes.
On the right, the same people are shown smiling with their actual names and biographical information: "teacher," "baker," "university graduate," "great-grandmother," "Blackfoot instructor," "all-star basketball player," "Canadian quarter-horse champion." Read More Here
See ARTIST'S WEBSITE
KC Adams
http://www.kcadams.net/art/arttotal.html
Click through to see them all.
About the artist
http://www.kcadams.net/PLabout.html
http://www.kcadams.net/AboutKCAdams.html
IINNII, a
Lethbridge-based artist-run-centre, proudly presents its inaugural
exhibition Perception: Lethbridge featuring the work of contemporary
Winnipeg multi-media artist KC Adams.
Perception:
Lethbridge is a series of photographic diptychs portraying individuals
of First Nations or Metis ancestry from our community. Consisting of
seventeen large format photographs, displayed on commercial billboards,
public transit, in bus shelters and on CASA’s outdoor digital display
throughout the month of September 2016.
Artist Statement
I am a social practice artist, interested in social and economic issues faced by North America’s consumerist culture. My focus has been the investigation of the dynamic relationship between nature (the living) and technology (progress). I create aestheticized work that questions our present and future, I encourage my audience to think about how they can take action, in their own way, to affect social and environmental change. I create work that represents the human struggle to control our environment as well as the relationship we have over our excessive habit of consumption and conformity. Raised in a culture that emphasizes the wonders of technology yet still romanticizes nature and the natural world; I make sense of our present and future through my engaging work. I start with an idea and then choose a medium that best represents that idea. In the past I have worked in video, installation, drawing, painting, photography, ceramics, printmaking and kinetic art.
Read More Here. http://www.kcadams.net/AboutKCAdams.html
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