Joi T. Arcand: Through That Which is Scene

Additional Information

Opening Reception and Artist Talk: Saturday, August 17 at 1:00 pm

Comprised of work produced over nearly a decade, Through That Which is Scene brings together select projects by Joi T. Arcand. In this work, Arcand reframes photographs of herself, her family, and her home community of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, poignantly addressing the potency of images and their influence on one's memory and conception of self. The earliest work, Postcard Series, features images of Arcand, her father, and her home on postcards inscribed on the reverse with anecdotes that reflect her experience as a mixed-race Cree/Métis woman. In her later work, Arcand inserts her present-day self into childhood-era photographs through performative restaging and digital image manipulation. In her current work, the titular Through That Which is Scene, Arcand combines cutout figures from childhood family photos with miniatures, toys, and other ephemera to construct dioramic narrative tableaux that address identity, memory, and the interstices between.

Joi T. Arcand is a photo-based artist who was raised in her home community of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan and currently resides in Saskatoon. Drawing from her family narratives, Arcand's photo work connects memory and landscape with humour and nostalgia. Her work has been published in BlackFlash Magazine and exhibited at Gallery 101 in Ottawa, the York Quay Gallery in Toronto, the Mendel Art Gallery and Paved Arts in Saskatoon, and grunt gallery in Vancouver. Arcand received her BFA with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan in 2005. She was the co-founder of the Red Shift Gallery, a contemporary Aboriginal art gallery in Saskatoon and is the founder and editor of kimiwan, a quarterly publication that showcases words and art from emerging and established Indigenous, First Nations, Métis and Inuit writers and artists.

Joi T. Arcand, Through That Which is Scene, 2013.