Tania Willard, Secwépemc Nation and settler heritage, works within a land-based context, wherein Indigenous land rights and pedagogies are entwined within decolonial praxis. Willard's ongoing collaborative project BUSH gallery, is a conceptual land-based gallery on an Indian reserve grounded in Indigenous knowledges and relational art practices. Exhibiting nationally as well as with public art commissions her work intersects with curatorial practice and her curatorial work was awarded in 2016 by the Hanatyshn Foundation. Willard is an Assistant Professor at UBCO in Syilx territories (Kelowna, BC) and her current research intersects with Indigenous resurgence and land-based art practices.
Completed Projects
BUSH Gallery: Artistic Method Inquiry - October 2019
BUSH Gallery is an Indigenous-led, land-based, experimental, and conceptual gallery that creates a radically inclusive space of art and action.
Image Credit: Berries and Toes, 2016 BUSH Gallery harvest,
Image courtesy BUSH Gallery. |
A community-based artistic project developed for the Toronto Biennale in collaboration with Peter Morin (Ontario College of Art and Design), Lisa Meyers (York University), Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill (Emily Carr), an Indigenous-led collaborative artist network that centres Indigenous territoriality, and explores the possibilities of creating cultural currency for Indigenous foods and systems of valuing integrated wellness, cultural practice and aesthetic inquiry.
The public were invited to gather around a beach fire and engage in the methodologies of exchange embedded in gift economies and philosophies. This participatory program examined the circulation of materials within and outside of the art system and Indigenous communities. Over the course of the evening, we played Indian Bingo, shared food, ideas, gifts, and watched an outdoor screening (curated by imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival), as we gathered around the fire on a brisk fall evening. |
Image credits: BUSH Beach(fire) Blanket Bingo Biennial, (Oct. 19 2020), Ward’s Island Toronto ON
Images courtesy Toronto Art Biennial, Photo credit Yula Benivoloski
Images courtesy Toronto Art Biennial, Photo credit Yula Benivoloski
This event was co-presented in partnership with Graduate Studies OCAD University, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, and the University of British Columbia Eminence Fund.
Upcoming Projects
Contingencies of Care
Contingencies of Care is a virtual residency co-hosted by Graduate Studies at OCAD University,
Toronto Biennial of Art, and the Bush Gallery with support of UBC Okanagan.
What precedents do we want to set for our collective futures as creative thinkers working inside art, design, health, technology, and other cultural sectors?
It is a common refrain of late to talk of being in ‘unprecedented times,’ which leads to the key question of this residency.
As the response to the pandemic matures, governments and industries begin the intensive task of returning to a ‘new normal,’ and our residency will address how this can happen in ways that speak to critical issues regarding mental and social well-being, how creativity and artistic projections contribute to creating a healthy society, and reaching out to those who have been disproportionately affected and likely to continue feeling the reverberations physically, emotionally, and socioeconomically both from COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns. During this residency, we will explore how care plays a distinct role in our creative processes and the well-being of our communities, and will engage with these issues.
How do we create expressions of emotional and social intimacy while working in isolation?
How can traditional notions of land and indigeneity guide us in moving between virtual and physical realities?
What best practices in health care can be deployed to shape and be shaped by creative explorations?
Apart from offering a viable means of thinking through care in creative frameworks for graduate students who are pursuing degrees that have been altered by the current health advisories, our team is intent on developing strategies that will be useful and productive beyond our residency. A significant focus will be directed toward health and well-being as our communities exit the first phase of the pandemic response.
Toronto Biennial of Art, and the Bush Gallery with support of UBC Okanagan.
What precedents do we want to set for our collective futures as creative thinkers working inside art, design, health, technology, and other cultural sectors?
It is a common refrain of late to talk of being in ‘unprecedented times,’ which leads to the key question of this residency.
As the response to the pandemic matures, governments and industries begin the intensive task of returning to a ‘new normal,’ and our residency will address how this can happen in ways that speak to critical issues regarding mental and social well-being, how creativity and artistic projections contribute to creating a healthy society, and reaching out to those who have been disproportionately affected and likely to continue feeling the reverberations physically, emotionally, and socioeconomically both from COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns. During this residency, we will explore how care plays a distinct role in our creative processes and the well-being of our communities, and will engage with these issues.
How do we create expressions of emotional and social intimacy while working in isolation?
How can traditional notions of land and indigeneity guide us in moving between virtual and physical realities?
What best practices in health care can be deployed to shape and be shaped by creative explorations?
Apart from offering a viable means of thinking through care in creative frameworks for graduate students who are pursuing degrees that have been altered by the current health advisories, our team is intent on developing strategies that will be useful and productive beyond our residency. A significant focus will be directed toward health and well-being as our communities exit the first phase of the pandemic response.
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Meet our organizing team:Tania Willard (BUSH Gallery and UBCO), Steve Lam (Emily Carr University), Myung-Sun Kim and Candice Hopkins (Toronto Bienniale of Art), Lisa Meyers (York University), and Ashok Mathur, Andrea Fatona, Peter Morin (Ontario College of Art and Design University)
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