Connexion Artist-Run Centre is pleased to host a residency and with artists Gesig Isaac & Jamie Ross. The artists will work in collaboration from May 27 to June 2, 2019, followed by an exhibition at Connexion ARC’s main space.
Gesig Isaac + Jamie Ross: ROAM
This project aims to disseminate the true history of Sir William Cornelius Van Horne (1843-1915), president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Van Horne was a capitalist who amassed a fortune overseeing the expansion of the railway, one of the most violent motors that consolidated Canadian colonial power.
Conceived as the artists corresponded between Montreal and Fredericton in 2017 – Van Horne’s winter and summer homes – the project was developed as the artists worked in residency in Banff, site of that temple to Van Horne, the notorious luxury railway hotel Banff Springs. Both artists were concerned seeing the man responsible for its colonizing force honoured time and again.
Grounded in their own traditions, the artists will explore the regenerative and revolutionary use of plants. Van Horne’s summer estate on Ministers Island, NB will serve as a key location for exploring practices of truth-telling, framed in connection to the flora of Wolastoq and Mi’gmaq Territory. Isaac and Ross’ social practice and visual arts project will be presented at New Brunswick artist-run centres Connexion (May-June 2019) and Struts+Faucet (August-September 2019).
About the artists:
Gesig Isaac is a Mi’gmaq, multidisciplinary artist. Her practice explores themes of Indigenous language retention, ecology, and land-based knowledge. These themes take form within a material-based artistic practice centered around basket weaving, textiles and hide tanning.
Jamie Ross is a visual artist, preschool teacher and witch. His award-winning video works have screened on four continents. He works as a professional card-reading diviner, a consulting spellworker and as the first Pagan chaplain for men incarcerated in federal prisons in Quebec. In his practice, he aims to create space for contemplation, sensitivity and contact. Jamie lives in Montreal.
This project is part of our LAND/MARK programming series, which is made possible thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts. Connexion ARC would also like to thank the New Brunswick College of Craft & Design and the New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture for their continued support.
Accessibility notes:
Connexion ARC is located in room 133 of the Charlotte Street Arts Centre. We are fully accessible via elevator from the new ground floor entrance located on the right side of the building, approaching from Charlotte Street. There is an all-genders, wheelchair accessible washroom on the second floor, and two sets of gendered washrooms, each equipped with a wheelchair accessible stall, located on the first and second floors.
Please call (506) 478-4484 or email info@connexionarc.org if you require assistance or have any questions.