Mmaandaawaabi (See A Wondrous Sight), 2024

Digital and land-based work seem to inhabit separate domains, yet they are combined in Augmented Reality (AR), a form of mixed reality that overlays digital objects on physical space through the window of a phone or tablet. This presents exciting possibilities for Indigenous artists interested in decolonizing territories through immersive stories, and who wish to mobilize interactive and engaging land-based learning and language revitalization in their artwork. Mmaandaawaabi (See a Wondrous Sight) features the work of Preston Buffalo, Dallas Flett-Wapash, Quinn Hopkins, and Casey Koyczan, four Indigenous artists whose digital practice reflects upon and engages with Indigenous worldviews and epistemologies through new media and AR technology. Through their work, and your phone, the artists invite you into their sculpturally immersive worlds to view and engage with artworks reflecting an Indigenous perspective on land, language, cosmology and contemporary realities.

This exhibition and artist talk kicked off a week-long experimental Indigenous AR gathering.  Structured by principles of Anishinaabe pedagogy, the gathering centres on non-hierarchical interconnectivity and methods such as intergenerational mentorship, oral traditions, embodied knowing and land-based pedagogy. Upon completion of the gathering, works created by participating artists were added to this exhibition. The residence concluded with an artist talk that included all residence. There were 20 participating artists that stayed at the residence for one week and 5 visiting artists, guest lecturers, and/or technicians that came out for day visits.