The Centre of Indigenous Initiatives at Carleton recently unveiled a number of Indigenous art installations in the Ojigkwanong Centre.
The art pieces are by Indigenous artists Jaime Koebel, Heather Campbell, and Carleton faculty and students.
The goal behind the work was “to help create a welcoming space for students,” according to the Carleton Newsroom.
Koebel, Campbell, and Simon Brascoupé managed the art instillation.
Koebel said she was commissioned to create works that would help students “feel comfortable in the space by being able to ‘read’ aspects of its imagery from their communities.”
One of the pieces of art was a collaborative large-scale triptych painting on canvas co-created by Koebel, Campbell, and Brascoupé.
The background was made by using the large canvas as a water colour surface and mops as giant paintbrushes. The background color was chosen with the guidance of Karen Hodge-Russell.
“Russell gave advice on how to make acrylic look like a water colour painting which was what I had envisioned being a part of the centre through Heather Campbell’s artistic style,” Koebel said.
For Koebel, there is an important theme of family and resilience in the work.
“There is a familiar aerial perspective throughout the three panels which includes a feeling of the sky with stars and in parts of the panel, the stars bleed into snowfall where a story of a moose family drudges through the hardship of a blizzard together as a resilient and strong family,” Koebel said.
The triptych piece also uses floral images to “illustrate the perseverance of peering through the snow after a long winter,” which is meant to symbolize surviving an entire semester.
“Coastal line, prairies, woodlands, mountain and Canadian shield topography connect through physical space across to join lands and communities together into one intimate landscape,” Kobel said.
Koebel shared how the background was made using the large canvas as a water colour surface and using mops as giant paintbrushes. They then allowed the wind to help dry the painting, creating what she calls a “celestial atmosphere.”
Koebel also said she hoped the work would be a source of inspiration for students.
“Our intention for the painting was to bring to life the wishes of the students during the consultation process in a way that would provide a source for imagination to transpire and inspire an interconnected way of life during their time on campus,” she said.
Photo by Reina Cowan
