Gidamaji’igoomin maamikawiseyang gidoodaanaaminaan – Our spirit awakens when we remember our past

Working with local clay requires care, humility, and patience. Clay has the potential to be a teacher. – KC Adams

For more than two decades, Adams has been a student of clay. Her words remind us that crafted objects are, like the very materials they are made of, alive. Her work invites us to take a step away from the tendency to objectify or commodify craft and instead embrace our role as listeners and learners. What do ceramic vessels, rooted in earth and fire, have to say?

In Gidamaji’igoomin maamikawiseyang gidoodaanaaminaan, Adams brings together a unique hybrid of mediums, including ceramic vessels, to give water a voice — to, as curator Aimée Craft suggests, “recognize the agency of water.” From freshwater scarcity, contamination, and salination to rising sea-levels, drought, flooding, and extreme weather events — water is at the heart of the climate justice conversation. As beings who are more than half water ourselves, it’s at the heart of who we are. Adams’ work bids us listen and, having heard, become vessels that carry and share water’s story.
-Tammy Sutherland, Director, Manitoba Craft Council

KC Adams Bio

I am Anishinaabe, Inninew and British, living in Winnipeg, and my name is flying overhead in circles eagle woman also known as KC Adams. I am a relational maker, a creator whose work connects to an Indigenous worldview, recognizing my role as an educator, activist, community member and mentor. I create work exploring technology and its relationship to my Indigenous identity and knowledge systems. My process is to start with an idea and use a medium that embodies my conceptual intent. I work in adornment, clay, drawing, installation, painting, photography, printmaking, public art, video and welding.

Aimée Craft Bio

Aimée Craft is an Associate Professor at the Faculty Law, University of Ottawa and an Indigenous (Anishinaabe-Métis) lawyer from Manitoba. She holds a University Research Chair Nibi miinawaa aki inaakonigewin: Indigenous governance in relationship with land and water. Craft is an internationally recognized leader in the area of Indigenous laws, treaties and water. She prioritizes Indigenous-lead and interdisciplinary research, including visual arts and film, co-leads a series of major research grants on Decolonizing Water Governance and works with many Indigenous nations and communities on Indigenous relationships with and responsibilities to nibi (water). Treaty Words, her critically acclaimed children’s book, explains treaty philosophy and relationships. She plays an active role in international collaborations relating to transformative memory in colonial contexts and relating to the reclamation of Indigenous birthing practices as expressions of territorial sovereignty.

May 4 – June 25, 2022
Opening Reception and Performance: June 3, 2022

Regular Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, Noon-4 pm

Contacts:
MCC Programme Coordinator: Katrina Craig
204.615.3951
mccprogramming@c2centreforcraft.ca

This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and Winnipeg Arts Council.