Xwalacktun, Osieum (A gesture of thanks), 2024. Old-growth Red Cedar, 90 cm (d)
Join us for the opening reception and tour of Future Worldings, curated by Lisa Baldissera, Usha Seejarim and Karen Tam, featuring Canadian artists Nura Ali, Sun Forest and Xwalacktun, and South African artists Lebogang Mogul Mabusela, Pebofatso Mokoena and Wezile Harmans. Future Worldings considers approaches of collective and collaborative “worldmaking” and follows a 2021 digital residency that took place online and remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The opening will feature an Artist Walkthrough at 6:30 PM
Common to South Africa and Canada are histories of colonial occupation, separatist policies that purposefully isolated and even eradicated Indigenous people, institutional racism and ongoing marginalization. Despite attempts at land restitution and the implementation of truth and reconciliation commissions in both countries, the scars of respective historical trauma surface in different ways.
Curated by Lisa Baldissera, Usha Seejarim and Karen Tam, Future Worldings brings Canadian artists Nura Ali (based in Calgary, on the lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Tsuut’ina, Îyâxe Nakoda Nations and Métis Nation Region 3), Sun Forest and Xwalacktun (both residing on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm [Musqueam], Skwxwú7mesh [Squamish] and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh [Tsleil-Waututh] Nations) together with Johannesburg-based South African artists Pebofatso Mokoena, Lebogang Mogul Mabusela and Wezile Harmans to consider approaches of collective and collaborative “worldmaking.” The project concerns itself with how it may be possible to “world” collectively while retaining the specificities of site, body, history, access and cultural understandings.
In 2024, the Future Worldings project continued when the artists and curators gathered in person for the first time, engaging in international cultural exchanges through three diverse residency programs in Canada and South Africa at NIROX (Krugersdorp, South Africa), Similkameen Artist Residency (SAR) (Keremeos, BC) and Griffin Art Projects.
During his five-week residency in South Africa, Xwalacktun visited key Johannesburg sites, including the Constitution Hill Prison and Courthouse, the Credo Mutuwa Cultural Village and the site of Latitudes Art Fair. He met with students from the printmaking centre Artist Proof Studio, with renowned sculptor and conceptual artist Willem Boschof and with eminent South African artist William Kentridge, among other local artists, curators, academics and gallerists. Facilitated by artist Collen Maswanganyi, Xwalacktun also toured the Limpopo region, where he met with Master Carvers Johannes Maswanganyi and Dr Noria Mabasa. At NIROX, Xwalacktun participated in a ten-day woodcarving workshop titled “Carving X Two” alongside artists Dada Khanyisa, Collen Maswanganyi, Johan Moolman, Simon Moshapo Junior, John Nkhoma, Usen Obot and Ben Tuge. This workshop culminated in the exhibition Relief, presented at the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture from June 29 to September 2, 2024. Relief was produced in partnership with the Kromdraai Impact Hub, NIROX and the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture.
At SAR and Griffin Art Projects, all six artists took part in a series of cultural exchanges and events, including a visit to En’owkin Centre; Cultural Protocols and Learning on the Land in the Similkameen with Anona Kampe; a visit to kł cp̓əlk̓ stim̓ Hatchery, a salmon restoration project led by the Syilx people; a Decolonization Tour at UBC; and curator-hosted visits to the Museum of Anthropology and the Museum of Vancouver, as well as engagements at other local organizations. Emily Carr University hosted Future Worldings artist visits, presentations and workshops.
These events culminate in the Future Worldings exhibition, which features new and recent works completed since the 2021 digital residency project and additional works from the artists’ studios and collections, including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and performance. The artists consider the questions stated in the curatorial thesis for the Future Worldings project: What are the conditions for creating the world? How do we imagine ways of creating a cosmology? What forms of language/terms/collection of understanding might this encompass? Connecting the works of all the artists is the centrality of the body as a site of cultural space and of knowing and receiving the world. The artists’ diversity of material practices include levels of performance, public acts of making with the body (marking/using the body), as well as exhibition-based demonstrations, ceremony and events that activate the work beyond visual perception. Works also include an invitation to participate within the space, where the viewer/participant is integral to the work.
The exhibition, along with the conference, digital and in-person public programs, workshops, residencies and performances, articulates the artists’ experiences and the work that has ensued over the past three years.
Future Worldings is generously supported by funding received from Canada Council for the Arts, the Freybe Foundation, Government of Canada, The Hamber Foundation, Metro Vancouver's Regional Cultural Project Grants program, the Michael and Inna O’Brian Family Foundation, North Vancouver Recreation & Culture, Peter and Betty Haworth Fund at the West Vancouver Foundation, and the Vancity Community Branch Grant.
Xwalacktun’s South African residencies were generously supported by funding received from BC Arts Council’s Professional Development grant.
Future Worldings is produced in partnership with Aboriginal Gathering Place, Bag Factory, the Jake Kerr Faculty of Graduate Studies at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, NIROX Foundation, and Similkameen Artist Residency.