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<i><span style="font-family:'CMU Concrete Roman';">Sekwe</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">́w̓ (((I AM THE LAND)))</span></i><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">, </span><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-us" xml:lang="en-us"><span style="font-family:'CMU Concrete Roman';">from <em><span style="font-family:'CMU Concrete Roman';">Affirmations for Wildflowers: an Ethnobotany of Desire</span></em></span></span></span>
Tania Willard, Sekwéw̓ (((I AM THE LAND))) (detail), from Affirmations for Wildflowers: an Ethnobotony of Desire, 2020 (BG6290, installation view, SFU Galleries, 2020). Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
Artwork

Sekwéw̓ (((I AM THE LAND))), from Affirmations for Wildflowers: an Ethnobotany of Desire

Artist/Creator
Tania Willard (Artist)
Date
2020
ID #
BG6290

Physical Description

Medium
mirror
Support
–
Dimensions
192.4 cm 76.5 cm 3 cm (Object)
Object Description
Sekwéw̓ is the Secwempemtsin name for the wildflower Wild Rose.
laser etched mirrored acrylic, wood, satin ribbon, single bulb LED flashlight

Positioning audiences to consider their capacity for collective self-reflection, Tania Willard’s Affirmations for Wildflowers: An Ethnobotany of Desire (2020) is an installation work that uses representation of flora and political affirmations (“the revolution has come,” “the land is strong,” “the future is Indigenous”) to evoke shifting relations in this moment of change. Reflecting a desire for transformation, Willard’s work calls upon the qualities and lessons from wildflowers, current socio-political climates, longstanding Indigenous rights movements and the power of seasonal shifts on the land. As Willard states: “noting the order of the blooms of wildflowers in my territory and their attendant beauty, edibility and healing properties as well as the effects of their colours on the land and in an emotional landscape these works attempt to project affirmative value onto others. Invested in the blooming resistance within an equilibrium of health and relationality to lands, these works seek to reflect a complex time while projecting the affirmation of seasonal cycles of blooming wildflowers.”

History

Collection
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Permanent Collection
Credit Line
Purchased with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Morris and Helen Belkin Foundation, 2023
Related Exhibitions
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