In collaboration with the Musée Huron-Wendat, Manif d’art presents a temporary exhibition by Wendat artist Nicolas Renaud. All visual elements of the exhibition are attached to this email.
According to the Wendat worldview, relationships between human beings, the land and waters they inhabit, as well as with the rest of the natural world, must be grounded in principles of equality, respect, and reciprocity. This is what Wendat artist Nicolas Renaud explores through this exhibition. In the animated video Onyionhwentsïio’, we see one of his ancestors carrying a white man on his back, but we must also pay attention to the plants and animals surrounding them. These are rendered with the same care and detail as the members of his community crossing the portage trail. Further along, a mysterious little bird echoes a world in which communication exists with all living beings, through the web of relationships connecting sky, land, and water.
However, this relationship is sometimes hindered; agreements are forgotten. This is reflected in the artist’s memories of a struggle to have his fishing rights recognized. The quahog—shells traditionally used to make wampum, which often sealed agreements—carry this memory. Also objects of healing, wampum beads invite us, further along, to reflect inwardly on these relationships and ruptures, retracing the path between light and darkness—both within oneself and in the depths that gradually brighten as one rises toward the surface, toward the ice.
At a time when several governments are proposing legislation with significant repercussions for forests, waters, and their inhabitants—and consequently for Indigenous cultures—Renaud continues to anchor his practice in the body and its many extensions—wampum, storytelling, animation, activism, and more—which he conceives as a meeting place between past and present, and as a catalyst for the future.
Artist Biography
Nicolas Renaud is an artist and filmmaker of mixed Québécois and Indigenous heritage, and a member of the Wendat First Nation. His practice explores our relationships with nature, the mechanisms of language and perception, and the deconstruction of colonial ideologies. His works have been presented in Canada, the United States, France, Belgium, and Germany. For his film La Nouvelle Rupert, he received the award for Best Emerging Canadian Director at the Hot Docs Festival (2013).
