Indian Act

November 8 – December 1, 2002
Exhibition

About the Program

In Nadia Myre's Indian Act, the horizontal line is used as a method of erasing and abstracting parts of Canada's Federal Legislation pertaining to its "Indians." Monumental in scale, it consists of sewing over each of the 56 pages of the annotated Indian Act with red and white glass trade beads. The white beads replace the words and the red beads, the space between them. The overall effect of the beaded page resembles a visual and tactile language, something akin to Morse code or Braille. However, beading the Act also speaks of a sociopolitical activity; each page is pierced by a needle and like a scar bears the stitch, a reminder of its path across the page, and generations of conditioned and controlled Indigenous lives.

Cheli Nighttraveler's My Mother's Smile performance was presented as the closing event for the exhibition.

Artist

Nadia Myre

Curator

Daina Warren

Identifier

2002.1108 IND

Collection

grunt gallery Programming Archive

Location

grunt gallery (second location)
116-350 E. 2nd Ave, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5T 4R8
Unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ/selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations

In copyright. For uses beyond Fair Dealing, research requests, corrections, takedown requests, or other inquiries, please contact grunt gallery: archives@grunt.ca