Joi T. Arcand
Through That Which Is Scene is a series of ViewMaster reels, prints and diorama installations constructed from miniature cardboard cutouts and found objects by Harbourfront Centre’s Artist-In-Residence Joi T. Arcand. The artist mines her family’s photographic archive to reconstruct memories that explore identity, family history and place through the lens of nostalgia and popular culture.
Through That Which Is Scene anihi ViewMaster masinipayihowinisa, masinipayihowina, ēkwa osihcikēwinisa ē-osihtāt ōhci ē-manisahk ōhci kā-maskwāk masinahikanēkin ēkwa kīkwaya kā-miskahk awa Harbourfront Centre’s Visual Artist-In-Residence, Joi T. Arcand. pēyakwan tāpiskōc kayās kīkwaya māna kā-wapahtamihk ōhi kā-pihtikwēhk, otācimowin wiya ēkwa wītisāna ēkwa owahkōmākana otācimowiniwāwa, pihtikwēpitēwa ōhi kā-kanawāpahtahkik ēkwa namōya tāpiskōc pīkiskwēwak ē-mōsci-kanawāpahtahkik otatoskēwin.
Creative Response with Harbourfront Centre School Visits
Inspired by the work of Joi T. Arcand, artists of all ages can make their very own diorama – a minuture model of a space they do (or wish) they called home. Leave your diorama behind and see our community grow over the week, or talk your mini-home with you!
Joi T. Arcand is an artist from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 Territory, currently residing in Ottawa, Ontario. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan in 2005. In 2018, Arcand was shortlisted for the prestigious Sobey Art Award. Her practice includes photography, digital collage, and graphic design and is characterized by a visionary and subversive reclamation and indigenization of public spaces through the use of Cree language and syllabics. In addition to exhibiting her art widely, she co-founded the Red Shift Gallery, a contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery in Saskatoon, founded and edited the Indigenous art magazine kimiwan, and has curated numerous art exhibits.
Arcand’s work explores the devastating and transformative effects of colonization on the Prairies through her family’s own lens. It tells the story of her family’s relationship to Treaty and First Nations involvement in agriculture as a result of the decimation of the buffalo and the building of the railway. Viewers are drawn into her family’s narrative and invited to experience them like a museum display, as silent observers.
