Spring/Summer Exhibitions at Esker Foundation

Marja Helander, Birds in the Earth, 2018. Video still. Courtesy of the artist.

Among All These Tundras
CHANNEL 51: IGLOOLIK – Celebrating 30 Years of Inuit Video Art
May G N: Occlusion Field
Kablusiak: Qiniqtuaq

Esker Foundation is proud to present our spring/summer exhibition season featuring the exhibitions Among All These Tundras and CHANNEL 51: IGLOOLIK – Celebrating 30 Years of Inuit Video Art; and new work by May G N, followed by Kablusiak, in the Project Space.

Among All These Tundras

asinnajaq, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Carola Grahn, Marja Helander, Kablusiak, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Joar Nango, Taqralik Partridge, Barry Pottle, Inuuteq Storch, Couzyn van Heuvelen, and Allison Akootchook Warden

Curated by Heather Igloliorte, Amy Prouty, and Charissa von Harringa

Among All These Tundras, a title taken from the poem ‘My Home is in My Heart’ by famed Sámi writer Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, features contemporary art by Indigenous artists from around the circumpolar world. Together, their works politically and poetically express current Arctic concerns towards land, language, sovereignty, and resurgence.

Artists from throughout the circumpolar north share kinship with each other and their ancestors, love for their homelands, and respect for the land and its inhabitants. Yet they also share histories of colonialism and experience its ongoing legacies and are united in their desire to protect northern ecologies, languages, peoples and knowledge from the nefarious effects of climate change, encroaching industry, and competition.

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Produced and circulated by the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery / Concordia University

Among All These Tundras is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage), and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures.

Isuma, on location filming Saputi. 1993. Courtesy of Isuma Distribution International.

CHANNEL 51: IGLOOLIK – Celebrating 30 Years of Inuit Video Art

Curated by asinnajaq

CHANNEL 51: IGLOOLIK, a project of Isuma in partnership with Vtape, Toronto, is the first large-scale tour of Igloolik Inuit video art from the Isuma and Arnait Women’s Video Collective. It celebrates a young cinematic tradition that has its own distinct voice and worldview, its own language, culture and traditions, history and stories, philosophy of education and knowledge sharing, relationship to land, conception of gender and social structures, relationship to space and time, and vision for the future.

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A project of Isuma in partnership with Vtape, Toronto.

In the Project Space:

May G N
Occlusion Field

6 May – 21 July
In partnership with Untitled Art Society

Occlusion Field is a singular moment in time and space made of the stuff of trans defense mechanism: tattoos, liquid gender concepts, and hormonally transforming surfaces that come together to speak to an idiosyncrasy, a gestalt, a whole that transcends its constitutive parts.

Kablusiak
Qiniqtuaq

29 July – 20 October

Qiniqtuaq (searching/looking) invites viewers to peer through a multi-eyed ghost sheet to witness a looping projection of a video collage screened in front of a piece of oil-stained cardboard. Qiniqtuaq is meant to evoke a dream-like state imaging a hypothetical place and time; a representation of what is felt but not known.

About Esker Foundation
Esker Foundation is a contemporary art gallery located in Calgary, Canada. The gallery connects the public to contemporary art through relevant, accessible, and educational exhibitions, programs, and publications. Esker reflects on current developments in local, regional, and international culture; creates opportunities for public dialogue; and supports the production of ground-breaking new work, ideas, and research. Founded in 2012 by Jim and Susan Hill, Esker Foundation is a new model for institutional relevance, curatorial focus, and audience engagement.

For a digital companion to the exhibitions, download the free Esker Foundation App at either App Store or Google Play.

Esker Foundation presents an extensive range of free programs for all ages. Developed in response to our exhibitions they are designed to increase accessibility and to encourage participation in contemporary art. Visit www.eskerfoundation.art/program/current to find out more and to register.

View and download the Spring/Summer Exhibitions
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Press Contact:
Jill Henderson, Marketing and Communications
Tel: 1 403 930 2499 / jhenderson@eskerfoundation.com
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Esker Foundation
4th floor, 1011 9th Avenue SE
Calgary, Alberta
Canada, T2G 0H7
Tel: 1 403 930 2490

Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm, Friday 11am–8pm
Admission: Free
Accessibility: Barrier-free

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