This is an archived event from Culture Days 2022.
Images
As Immense as the Sky
In-person
Indigenous Sculpture & installation Visual artsDate and time
Location
National Arts Centre
1 Elgin St, Ottawa, ON K1P 5W1
Ottawa, ON
Access
Free.
Offered in English and French.
Wheelchair accessible and has gender-neutral washrooms.
About
Meryl McMaster’s As Immense as the Sky contemplates time and the countless cycles of life that recur around the ancient mistassini (monoliths), sputinas (buttes), wiyacahk (canyons), and ayeakow awacha (dunes) of Turtle Island.
With a world view shaped by growing up in the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures, and moving between awe and fearful apprehension about the natural world and our impact on it, McMaster sought wisdom in the places of ancestral life, coming to see these landscapes as immense time capsules of buried knowledge.
As Immense as the Sky is about walking these ancient paths, experiencing the diversity of panoramas, and learning about the ancestors’ wisdom. The resulting images blend and collapse into the present the stories of kayas (long ago) with the foreboding whispers of the future.In this series of performative self-portraits, Meryl McMaster examines the overlapping cultures and histories of both her Indigenous and European ancestors.
The pieces “Harbourage for a Song” and “Ordovician Tide I” from McMaster’s collection As Immense as the Sky will be on display at the NAC.
Organizer
National Arts Centre
The National Arts Centre (NAC) is Canada’s bilingual, multi-disciplinary home for the performing arts. The NAC presents, creates, produces, and co-produces performing arts programming in various streams—the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English Theatre, French Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, and Popular Music and Variety—and nurtures the next generation of audiences and artists from across Canada.
The NAC is located in the National Capital Region on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation.
This event is part of a hub:
National Arts Centre
National Arts Centre Ottawa, ONThe National Arts Centre (NAC) is Canada’s bilingual, multi-disciplinary home for the performing arts. The NAC presents, creates, produces, and co-produces performing arts programming in various streams—the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English The...