Indigenous art exhibition in Winnipeg aims to challenge the way we think about urban development

Zac Ironstand and Marco Muller are the artists behind Urban Shaman Gallery’s latest exhibit called Junxions. Curated by Justin Bear L’arrivee – he chose to work with street artists to convey our relationship with urban development and those displaced by it. “The issues that our communities go through were seen as ‘the Indian problem’ and that narrative hasn’t gone away – the way that the media approaches things like addictions, things like houselessness.” Says L’arrivee. While the general public disapproves the sight of broken bus shacks and abandoned shopping carts, Junxions puts them front and center, creating a space to reflect on the origin of that discomfort. “That’s what people don’t understand. With these people on the street – those are survivors. Those are human beings. And we have this horrible, horrible way of treating those people,” says Muller. The Manitoban artists – Ironstand; from Tootinaowaziibeeng and Muller; from Pukatawagan First Nation have a strong connection to the topic. Both have mothers who survived the residential school system. “These pieces to me really spoke for my mom who is a survivor and the fact that when I was painting these, no one really had a clue on what Indigenous people went through. “So the ghosts represent the children that were buried; the white sheet represents them being covered and disposed of; the orange bones represents the color of the residential school survivors” – Zac Ironstand shares the symbolism behind the aerosol ghost paintings throughout the exhibit. You can catch the exhibit until April 30 at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg. Continue Reading