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Thursday 5 May 2022 at 1:30 pm

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Artist Talk: Holly Schmidt and kQwa’st’not (Charlene George)

  • kQwa'st'not (Charlene George)

    Artist

    kQwa’st’not (Charlene George) is a member of the T’Sou-ke Nation, a cultural guide for Sierra Club BC, active in her local cultural community and has recently completed her MA, from which Seeing Through Watcher’s Eyes was conceived. kQwa’st’not observes, “Change or transformation is not easy or comfortable for most. However, this work is imperative to our collective ability to survive and thrive. After all, we are all in one canoe and together we will journey well or capsize. NONU WEL,WEL TI,Á NE TȺ,EȻEȽ — our canoe is really tippy as we try to journey together, so we must strive to better balance our relationship with each other, Western and Indigenous knowledge systems, and ways of knowing. This is a process that can be difficult and requires hard work, an open mind, humility and willingness to change.”

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  • Holly Schmidt

    Artist

    Holly Schmidt (Canadian, b. 1976) is an artist, curator and educator engaging in embodied research, collaboration and informal pedagogy. She creates site-specific public projects that lead to experiments with materials in her studio. As the core of her work, Schmidt explores the multiplicity of human relations with the natural world. During her residency with the Belkin’s Outdoor Art Program, Schmidt has utilized spaces between campus buildings through a process of collective knowledge production. These artistic and ecological interventions foster relationships with plants in a manner that is both distinct from the formal, university landscape design as well as from standard notions of gallery space. Schmidt has been involved in exhibitions, projects and residencies at the Belkin Outdoor Art Program; the Burrard Arts Foundation, Vancouver; AKA Gallery, Saskatoon; Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver; the Santa Fe Art Institute; Burnaby Art Gallery; and Other Sights for Artists’ Projects, Vancouver.

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Join kQwa’st’not (Charlene George) – artist and cultural guide with Sierra Club BC – and Holly Schmidt – Outdoor Art artist in residence – in conversation about their work that engages with land, story and planting seeds of change. Due to rain, the conversation will now take place at the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), located at 2260 West Mall. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited; to register, email us at belkin.rsvp@ubc.ca.

This afternoon artist conversation follows Re-storying our Relations with the Natural World, a morning forest walk in Pacific Spirit Park led by kQwa’st’not (Charlene George). For details and to join the forest walk, visit UBC Sustainability Hub.

kQwa’st’not will discuss her online interactive project Seeing Through Watcher’s Eyes – Between Two Worlds, a publicly shareable, culturally rich Indigenous learning tool that supports community learners of all ages and backgrounds to see through another’s eyes.

Schmidt will talk about her work Fireweed Fields, which will transform the Belkin’s lawns into a fireweed meadow, encouraging increased biodiversity through gradual succession as a metaphor for the resurgence of life after a crisis. This installation acknowledges the global climate emergency: tearing through the fabric of maintained lawns and colonial ideals, it plants the initial seeds for change and catalyzes dialogue, creative experimentation, and new biodiversity research and learning opportunities.

This event is a collaboration between Sierra Club BC and UBC’s Sustainability Hub, Centre for Law and the Environment and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.

Photo (above): Barbara Cole

 

  • kQwa'st'not (Charlene George)

    Artist

    kQwa’st’not (Charlene George) is a member of the T’Sou-ke Nation, a cultural guide for Sierra Club BC, active in her local cultural community and has recently completed her MA, from which Seeing Through Watcher’s Eyes was conceived. kQwa’st’not observes, “Change or transformation is not easy or comfortable for most. However, this work is imperative to our collective ability to survive and thrive. After all, we are all in one canoe and together we will journey well or capsize. NONU WEL,WEL TI,Á NE TȺ,EȻEȽ — our canoe is really tippy as we try to journey together, so we must strive to better balance our relationship with each other, Western and Indigenous knowledge systems, and ways of knowing. This is a process that can be difficult and requires hard work, an open mind, humility and willingness to change.”

    Read More

  • Holly Schmidt

    Artist

    Holly Schmidt (Canadian, b. 1976) is an artist, curator and educator engaging in embodied research, collaboration and informal pedagogy. She creates site-specific public projects that lead to experiments with materials in her studio. As the core of her work, Schmidt explores the multiplicity of human relations with the natural world. During her residency with the Belkin’s Outdoor Art Program, Schmidt has utilized spaces between campus buildings through a process of collective knowledge production. These artistic and ecological interventions foster relationships with plants in a manner that is both distinct from the formal, university landscape design as well as from standard notions of gallery space. Schmidt has been involved in exhibitions, projects and residencies at the Belkin Outdoor Art Program; the Burrard Arts Foundation, Vancouver; AKA Gallery, Saskatoon; Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver; the Santa Fe Art Institute; Burnaby Art Gallery; and Other Sights for Artists’ Projects, Vancouver.

    Read More

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