PROVENANCE
Collection de l’artiste

EXPOSITION
Central Art Garage, Ottawa, Material Matters – Materiality of Anishinaabeg-biimadiziwin, 19 novembre 2021 - 19 mars 2022

The complete medium consists of: motion sensor display monitor with movie, velvet fabric, cotton fabric, metal, coated wire, plastic, paper, coroplast, metal hardware, capacitors, resistors, light-emitting diodes, glass beads, vintage circuit boards, coated wire, glass beads, glass white heart beads, cotton thread, synthetic sinew, bronze screen and polyester edge bias.

This work is mounted on a blue wooden wall mount plinth which measures 84 x 25 1/4 inches.

The confluence of three rivers meet in the area of what is now known as Ottawa and Gatineau, two urban centres that face each other across a divide of water. The Kichi-Sìbì (Ottawa River), is the largest, flowing from its source at Lake Capimitchigama in Northern Québec, gaining a more intense flow as it moves through another lake, Timiskaming or Témiscamingue in French, a body of water politically split in half between the provinces of Ontario and Québec. Other tributaries flow into the Kichi-Sìbì as it moves eastward, joining the waters of the St. Lawrence River towards the moment where all the waters will greet the sea.

This confluence is now known as the National Capital Region (NCR) and encompasses the extended area around the municipalities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Québec. The local watershed includes marshes and extensive wetlands. Because of the fertile soil, farming plots, partitioned through centuries of European settlement, mark the landscape. From the North, on the provincial side of Quebec, the Tenàgàdino (Gatineau) flows into the Kichi, slipping into the river - zibi, sibi or sipi in the Algonquin dialect of Anishinaabemowin - quietly. Almost directly across, on the southern shoreline, the Pasapkedjinawong Zibi spills into the Kichi accompanied by the pounding sound of the Rideau Falls. As with all watersheds, everything is connected: what happens above the soil trickles into the groundwater; what is done downstream has implications upstream.

Embedded into the bandolier bag is a digital tablet that is activated by a hidden motion detector as the viewer approaches. Barry Ace uses the tablets to “articulate the concept of animism” and to convey that a bandolier is understood as an animate object in Anishinaabemowin and is in relationship with the viewer who activates it through their presence. The digital footage programmed in the tablet documents the force by which one river cascades into another at the Rideau Falls. Filmed by Ace in October 2019, the autumn sunshine provided no indication of the isolation that would descend in the winter of 2020. The bandolier is part of a series of works by Ace honouring water, including Bandolier for Gichi-ziibi (Big River), Ottawa River and Bandolier for Water and Plant Life along with bags for the Great Lakes: Bandolier for Aanikegamaa-gichigami: Lake Erie (Chain of Lakes), Bandolier for Gichi-aazhoogami-gichigami: Lake Huron (Great Crosswaters Sea), Bandolier for Gichi-zaaga’igan: Lake Ontario (Big Lake). The bandoliers were created in 2019 and with the exception of Bandolier for Pasapkedjinawong, are all in private collections in Canada and the United States.

The particular waterway it honours has been made even more poignant by the COVID-19 pandemic. During lockdowns, when places to publicly gather were limited, the site of the falls became a safe location to socially distance with loved ones. The view looks out towards the ancient hills gently rising from Gatineau Park. The sun slips below them making the Rideau Falls a preferred gathering spot to watch the setting sun. On any given night, many different languages can be heard spoken.

The colonial name of Canada’s capital city is derived from the Algonquin word for trade - adawe. Here on the unceded Anishinaabeg Algonquin aki (land), that the Algonquin have inhabited for thousands of years, the confluence of these waterways became a location for pluralistic cultural and resource exchange. First Nations from across Turtle Island passed through. Waterways were the superhighways before the advent of trains and automobiles, in which one tributary convened with another. They were places that became key for various transactions as well as for ceremony: to offer gratitude for safe arrival or prayers for a journey yet to come.

With the digital documentation of the Pasapkedijinawong the bandolier holds inside of it the spiritual traces of this site. The floral motifs reference the material culture of the Anishinaabeg, healing plants and flowers, some of which may grow at the water’s edge. As Odawa Anishinaabeg, in the practice of demonstrating respect, Ace has created a stunning tribute.

We thank Leah Snyder, digital designer and writer, The L. Project, for contributing the above essay. Snyder writes about culture, technology and contemporary art, and is a contributor to the National Gallery of Canada's Gallery magazine and other Canadian art publications.

All quotes attributed to

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