February 18, 2023 – April 15, 2023

The exhibition, By Design: Fashionable Inspiration, celebrates the distinctive vision by six Indigenous artists and designers that explore the relationships between traditional form and contemporary materials, colonialism and nomenclature; reflective of self, community and environment. The authentic voice is grounded within material culture, language, history and a world view unique to the artist. Through the artistic practice of visual art and design, artists present key signature pieces from their fashion collection.

Informed by historical cultural references of objects, events and places the artists weave together the threads of resiliency, reclamation and resurgence as inspired by intergenerational and traditional knowledge and practice. The artists employ diverse materials, concepts and ideas that acknowledges community, beauty, spirituality, socio-political and environmental issues. Traditional practice and natural material such as beading, hide tanning, quill work become fused with technology, material and science that provides a better understanding of the effects of marginalization, exclusion and misrepresented histories of Canada’s landscape upon Indigenous communities.

Artist are aware of their inherent position of being born in a highly political situation and continue to negotiate and navigate the space they occupy. By making the invisible visible or the intangible tangible, they provide a point of departure to address inclusion, sustainability, ethical practice with works that influence the global perspective. The artists relate through their own impactful and insightful perspectives, memories and experience that relate the interconnectedness to one another and to the universe. The roles of individual and community members contribute to a sense of well-being and define a balance as seen in their creations.