Freight Trains and Transcontinental Surveys /  by Caitlin Chaisson

“nations are narrations”
— Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism

On May 7th, Musquodoboit Harbour-based artist Andrew Maize boarded a train bound for Prince George as part of his process-based contribution to the exhibition, Disturbances in the Field. The experimental artwork involves research, travel and collaboration, a multi-disciplinary endeavour that brings the artist to the communities speckled along the railway from one coast to the other. Maize has titled this project nations are narrations, after a line from Edward Said's seminal text Culture and Imperialism (1983) which addresses the role narrative plays in the consolidation of empire.

Maize's project for this exhibition encompasses, in part, a 17-day train journey. The artist is looking to the way the railway historically worked as a tool to unite the disparate regions of Canada and purport a unified national vision. The artist's research into the legacy of the railway has led him to query the way that visual culture was instrumentalized to promote, advertise and entice settlers to this continent. Print paraphernalia and photo essays pictured a sublime, majestic and a strategically uninhabited landscape- which worked to displace, marginalize and alienate existing Indigenous nations. As Maize notes, "The arts played a big role in the colonization of this land, and it is the responsibility of this generation of artists to help see its undoing." 

The socially-engaged component of the artwork, which includes the conversations and relationships the artist is developing with both residents living along the railway and fellow train passengers, is complemented by a number of visual materials Maize is producing in the spirit of re-making the narratives that define this place. Through nations are narrations, Maize asks, "how do we [re]approach the stories, myths and untold realities that are rooted at the core of our “Canadian identities?” Addressing the overlapping and intwined histories that define this country, nations are narrations fractures dominant and hegemonic narratives, in favour of those that are multi-vocal, polyphonic, and perhaps even noisy.  

Images Above:

Andrew Maize. 2017. Untitled. Panoramic photo taken with an iPhone in New Brunswick on Sunday, May 7 at 5:20 PM. Photo courtesy of the artist. 

Andrew Maize. 2017. Trainspotting. Panoramic photo. Photo courtesy of the artist. 

Andrew Maize. 2017. Untitled. Digital collage using Preview. Photo courtesy of the artist. 

Andrew Maize. 2017. Untitled. Oil on card. Photo courtesy of the artist.  

Andrew Maize. 2017. Untitled. Four workers clearing the railroad in Musquodoboit Harbour. Early 1900's lettraset on inkjet print from the archives of the Musquodoboit Harbour Railway Museum. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The Potential Impacts of Micro-Solidarity: Mini-Stakes in the Peace /  by Caitlin Chaisson

Artist Bill Horne's Stakes in the Peace (2017) is a 15-inch by 48-inch terracotta replica of the field of solidarity in the Peace Valley that is raising money to support the Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations' legal challenges against the Site C dam. 

Artist Bill Horne rolling out the terracotta soil for his work Stakes in the Peace (2017). May 2017. Photo by Denis Gutiérrez-Ogrinc.

Artist Bill Horne rolling out the terracotta soil for his work Stakes in the Peace (2017). May 2017. Photo by Denis Gutiérrez-Ogrinc.

As the installation of Horne's artwork for the exhibition Disturbances in the Field progressed, the artist decided to open up the piece to the public in a new way, by allowing visitors to engage with the installation and the resistance campaign directly. Horne silkscreened over six hundred miniature wooden stakes that have stakeinthepeace.com on one side, and anti-Site C hastags on the other. With a five dollar donation, you can plant a one of these yellow stakes in the clay of Bill Horne’s artwork, or you can purchase a stake to take home and plant in your own garden bed. For every $100.00 raised through this artwork, a stake will be purchased through the official Yellow Stake Campaign (www.stakeinthepeace.com) on behalf of Northern British Columbia Artists.

Bill Horne's Stakes in the Peace transforming over the course of the exhibition opening, as donations were made and stakes were added to the terracotta base. May 2017. Photo by Denis Gutiérrez-Ogrinc. 

Bill Horne's Stakes in the Peace transforming over the course of the exhibition opening, as donations were made and stakes were added to the terracotta base. May 2017. Photo by Denis Gutiérrez-Ogrinc. 

Since the opening of the exhibition $300.00 has been raised, which is already enough for the purchase of three stakes. This donation campaign will continue through to the end of the exhibition on May 27th, 2017. Donations can be made while visiting the gallery at Omineca Arts Centre, or online via Bill Horne's website. 

More information can be found at: https://bill-horne.net.

Bill Horne. Stakes in the Peace. 2017. Silkscreened wood, terracotta, reclaimed fir. 

Bill Horne. Stakes in the Peace. 2017. Silkscreened wood, terracotta, reclaimed fir. 

To read more about the impacts on the Site C Dam:

Amnesty International has published The Point of No Return, which illuminates the Human Rights violations this project entails. "The harm caused by the Site C dam would deny Indigenous peoples the ability to exercise fundamental human rights protected under both Canadian and international law." Read more here.

In his article, "Canada's $7 Billion Dam Tests the Limits of State Power", Dan Levin of the New York Times writes, "Despite the welter of opposition, provincial officials exempted the project from independent regulatory scrutiny, allowing work to begin last year [2015] — and turning the project into a major point of contention in the provincial election in May." Read more here.