Skawennati

Skawennati is a Mohawk multimedia artist, best known for her online works as well as Machinima that explore contemporary Indigenous cultures, and what Indigenous life might look like in futures inspired by science fiction.[1][2] She served as the 2019 Indigenous Knowledge Holder at McGill University.[3] In 2011, she was awarded an Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship which recognized her as one of "the best and most relevant native artists."[4]

Skawennati
EducationConcordia University
Known forNew Media artist
AwardsimagineNATIVE Best New Media (2009) Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow (2011)
Websitewww.skawennati.com

Skawennati is the co-founder of Nation to Nation and Co-Director with Jason Edward Lewis of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace, AbTeC, a research network of artists and academics who investigate and create Indigenous virtual environments.[5] AbTeC, whose goal is to ensure Indigenous presence in the web pages, online environments, video games and virtual worlds that comprise cyberspace, is based at the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.[5][6][7]

She is one of the co-founders of daphne, the first Indigenous artist-run centre in Québec, along with Caroline Monnet, Hannah Claus, and Nadia Myre.[8]

Early life and education

Skawennati, Skawennati Tricia Fragnito, was born in Kahnawake Mohawk reserve in Quebec, home to a sizeable concentration of Mohawk artists and curators.[9] She grew up in the suburb of Châteauguay. In 1992, she earned a BFA in Design Arts and in 1995, a Graduate Diploma of Institutional Administration (Arts Specialization) at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.[10] Her first position after graduation was with OBORO Artist-Run Centre in Montreal.[11]

Work

Through New Media forms, Skawennati addresses history, the future, and change, particularly as they relate to First Nations and Indigenous cultures. In an interview for the exhibition Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3 at Museum of Arts and Design, New York,[12] Skawennati states "that there are plenty images of us in the past. Often in those images often we are silent, we are unnamed and I wanted to show something us else. I wanted us to be able to imagine ourselves in the future."[13]

Skawennati is one of the first recipients of the First People's Curatorial Residency grant, established in 1997 by the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2000, she created Imagining Indians in the 25th Century for I. Witness curated by Catherine Crowston at the Edmonton Art Gallery.[14]

CyberPowWow
Main article: CyberPowWow

Skawennati's first major online project was CyberPowWow,[15] an online gathering that occurred several times between 1997 and 2004. It was usually hosted through galleries such as the Walter Phillips Gallery and arts institutions such as the Banff Centre.[6] The central thrust of CyberPowerWow was to create an aboriginal territory in cyberspace.[11] CyberPowWow — a chat room functioning as an interactive digital art gallery, allowing people to form communities both online and in real life—provided "a means for indigenous artists and storytellers to secure footing in the digital urban."[16] Skawennati worked with Indigenous artists and writers who customized the space with images, scripts, and Indigenous avatars.[17]

In 2011, she was awarded an Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship which recognized her as one of "the best and most relevant native artists."[18]

TimeTraveller™

Her Machinima series TimeTraveller™ has episodes on the death of Mohawk saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the Dakota Sioux Uprising of 1862, the 1990 Oka Crisis, and other watershed events in Indigenous history. This multiplatform work "resist[s] pan-Indian and neo-luddite stereotypes of First Nations peoples."[19] Furthermore, it seeks to highlight the "misinterpretation and abuse of Indigenous art and people."[20]

She Falls for Ages

Part of the 2017 solo exhibition Tomorrow People, She Falls for Ages retells a Haudenosaunee creation story using sci-fi, the virtual world and a feminist lens. Her version included a futuristic aesthetic and bright colours, created using the Second Life program as a medium.[21][22]

Selected exhibitions
  • Storybook Story. Art Gallery of Calgary (2001)
  • Rashid & Rosetta. Co-presented by Oboro and Studio XX, Montreal (2009)[23]
  • Rashid & Rosetta 2. HTMlles Festival, Montreal (2010)
  • Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years. Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, MB (2011)[24]
  • We Are Here! Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York (2012)
  • Ghost Dance: Resistance. Activism. Art. Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto (2013)
  • TimeTraveller™. Niagara Artists Centre (2014)[25]
  • Avant Canada. Brock University (2014)[26]
  • Memories of the Future. SAW Gallery, Ottawa (2015)[27]
  • Now? Now!. Biennale of the Americas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Colorado (2015)
  • Tomorrow People. Oboro, Montreal (2017)[28]
  • Skawennati: For the Ages. V Tape, Toronto (2017)[29]
  • Teiakwanahstahsontéhrha’ | We Extend the Rafters. VOX, Centre de l'image contemporaine, Montreal (2017)[30]
  • Owerà:ke Non Aié:nahna | Filling in the Blank Spaces. Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal (2017)[31]
  • On Desire. B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt, Germany (2017)
  • From Skyworld to Cyberspace. McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario (2019)[32]
  • Game Changers: Video Games and Contemporary Art, MassArt Art Museum, Boston, Massachusetts (2020)[33]
  • Radical Stitch, MacKenzie Art Gallery (2022).[34]

Curatorial Work

Awards

She is a multiple award winner, particularly for her project TimeTraveller™, a nine episode Machinima series that used science fiction to examine First Nations histories.[36] In 2009, she was awarded Best New Media winner at ImagineNATIVE for TimeTraveller™.[37]

In 2011, Skawennati was a 2011 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow and in 2013 was again a Best New Media winner, this time with the AbTeC collective for Skahiòn:haiti – Rise of the Kanien’kenhá:ka Legends.[6]

In 2015 she represented Canada at the Biennial of the Americas.[38]

In 2020, she was awarded a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.[39]

References
  1. Network, Government of Canada, Canadian Heritage, Canadian Heritage Information. "Artists in Canada". app.pch.gc.ca. Retrieved October 27, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. "Skawennati". www.centrevox.ca. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
  3. "Indigenous Knowledge Holder Series 2019". Indigenous Studies Program. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  4. Leizens, Tish (May 26, 2012). "Must See: NMAI in New York's 'We Are Here! The Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship' Exhibit – Indian Country Media Network". indiancountrymedianetwork.com. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  5. "Skawennati: for the ages". imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  6. Garlow, Nahnda. "Artist Profile: Skawennati – Kahnawake Mohawk". tworowtimes.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  7. "Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace". Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  8. T'Cha, Dunlevy (November 19, 2020). "Introducing daphne, Montreal's first Indigenous artist-run centre". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  9. Simpson, Audra (2014). Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life across the Borders of Settler States. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  10. Taubman, Ellen; McFadden, David Revere, eds. (2012). Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3. New York: Museum of Art and Design. p. 168.
  11. "Skawennati takes aboriginal storytelling into cyberspace". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. August 24, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  12. MARZO, CINDI Di. "A Redefining Moment in the History of Native American Art, Studio International". Studio International – Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.
  13. McMichael Canadian Art Collection (April 16, 2013), Skawennati: Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3 – Museum of Arts and Design, New York, retrieved March 12, 2018
  14. "Skawennati — Imagining Indians in the 25th Century: Credits". Skawennati.com. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  15. "CyberPowWow".
  16. Gaertner, David (2015). ""Indigenous in Cyberspace: CyberPowWow, God's Lake Narrows, and the Contours of Online Indigenous Territory"". American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 39 (4): 56. doi:10.17953/aicrj.39.4.gaertner.
  17. Lewis, Jason (Summer 2005). ""Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace"". Cultural Survival Quarterly. 29 (2). Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  18. Leizens, Tish (May 26, 2012). "Must See: NMAI in New York's 'We Are Here! The Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship' Exhibit – Indian Country Media Network". indiancountrymedianetwork.com. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  19. LaPensee, Elizabeth (2013). Ng, Jenna (ed.). Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds. A&C Black. p. 207. ISBN 9781441149626.
  20. Mcnutt and Holland (2011). We Are Here: The Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship 2011. Washington: University of Washington. pp. backmatter. ISBN 9780295991795.
  21. Huard, Adrienne (2017). "Reviews". Canadian Art. p. 122.
  22. "Tomorrow People | OBORO". www.oboro.net. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  23. "Exhibition". www.oboro.net. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  24. "Exhibition". plugin.org. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
  25. "Exhibition". nac.org. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  26. "Canada's avant-garde set to storm Brock University next week". The Brock News, a news source for Brock University. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  27. "Exhibition". www.sawvideo.com. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  28. "Exhibition". www.oboro.net. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  29. "Exhibition". www.vtape.org. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  30. "exhibition". www.centrevox.ca. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  31. "Exhibition". ellengallery.concordia.ca. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  32. Lauder, Adam; Smith, Matthew Ryan; Cross, Wahsontiio; Longboat, Maize; Gregory, Helen (2019). Exhibition. Adam Lauder, Matthew Ryan Smith, Wahsontiio Cross, Maize Longboat, Helen Gregory. London, Ont.: McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario. ISBN 978-0-7714-3132-6.
  33. Reynolds, Pamela (July 28, 2020). "Exhibition". www.wbur.org. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  34. "Exhibitions". www.artgalleryofhamilton.com. AGH. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  35. "Indigenous digital art — past, present and future". www.concordia.ca. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  36. Ore, Jonathan. "Machinima art series revisits Oka Crisis, moments in native history". CBC News. CBC. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  37. "ImagineNATIVE". ImagineNATIVE. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  38. "2015 Biennial of the Americas". Biennial of the Americas. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  39. Dunlevy, T'Cha (September 3, 2020). "Montreal Mohawk artist Skawennati awarded Smithsonian fellowship". montrealgazette. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
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