The second edition of the Contemporary Native Art Biennial will be drawing to a close in Montreal. Luke Parnell's Fall of Man is part of this exhibition. Though it is drawing to a close there are whispers that the show may be travelling to another city for exhibition. We hope so as the show looks absolutely amazing! Here are some images and a excerpt from guest Curator Mike Patten. If you are in Montreal, you still have until the 21st to take in the show at Art Mur. Make sure you see it! http://artmur.com/en/exhibitions/storytelling/
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| Eagle, Meryl McMaster, 2010, Image courtesy of Art Mur |
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| Cloud Crash, Merritt Johnson, 2011, Image Courtesy of Art Mur |
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| Green Braids (sextet), 2006, Jude Morris, Image courtesy of Art Mur |
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| Luke Parnell, Fall of Man, 2011, Image Courtesy of Art Mur |
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| Cannupa Hanska Luger, Once Upon A Time There Were Human Beings, 2014 (detail), image courtesy of Art Mur |
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| Ambiguity, John Feodorov, 2009, Image courtesy of Art Mur |
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| Space Invaders, Leonard Getinthacar (Nicholas & Jerrod Galanin), 2013, Image Courtesy of Art Mur |
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| The Four Seasons, Wendy Red Star, 2006, Image Courtesy of Art Mur |
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| Beyond Redemption, Adrian Stimson, 2010, Image Courtesy of Art Mur |
While storytelling as a system of communication may be ancestral— in fact myths and legends have been the keystone of teaching in most cultures – it remains an incredibly effective tool for teaching even today. Annie Murphy Paul reports in an article in the New York Times that neuroscience research has determined that parts of the human brain are only activated by narrative-based knowledge.4 Information is often remembered more sharply and for a longer continued period of time when it is associated to a narrative, as opposed to when it is delivered in a dry bullet-point form. Nevertheless, storytelling is still generally neglected by conventional pedagogy. As pointed out by Sandra E. Sherwin-Shields, we live in a world dominated by the perspective that knowledge is rational, irrefutable, and objective.5 Storytelling opens the door to a different kind of knowledge, one used to organize and interpret collective and individual phenomena as to make sense of personal and shared experiences, one that connects us to our environment and to others, one that takes into consideration our subjectivities.
For the second edition of the Contemporary Native Art Biennial, I chose to invite contemporary native artists – many whom are also teachers in the post-secondary Canadian system- to share stories that are brutally contemporary and incredibly relevant to current times. Some of the stories are very personal, while many tell more prevalent stories, principally those of the ecological decline. Many of the most renowned intellectuals agree that Indigenous nations are leading the way in ecological awareness. Social movements such as Idle No More are inextricably linked to the environmental cause. Noam Chomsky, perhaps one of the most important minds of our era, is famous for underlining the importance of First Nations’ activism in terms of ecological policies. The artists included in this important exhibition do not merely ring the emergency bell for ecology, but through storytelling, they aim to teach us to respect and celebrate nature in its complexity and for its fascinating design. - Mike Patten
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