Photo: Roman Mensing, artdoc.de
Krista Belle Stewart
Potato Gardens Band
February 27–April 18, 2022
The Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Canadian artist Krista Belle Stewart (*1979 Spaxomin, Syilx Territory, Canada), currently living in Berlin and Vienna.
Stewart works with contemporary documents, as well as the archive of her family, who are members of the indigenous Syilx Nation (Okanagan Nation). Ten years ago she was given a piece of land within the Spaxomin community, through her mother and grandmother, following the matriarchal tradition of the Syilx.
This exhibition considers the land and soil as one of the oldest archives. It deals with the relationships stored in the earth, which provide information about political, social, and intimate conditions, and their ruptures. The exhibition POTATO GARDENS BAND is comprised of a video work of the same name (2018), EYE EYE (2017-ongoing), and selections from A GUEST A HOST A GHOST (2019-ongoing).
The video work POTATO GARDENS BAND (2018) documents a performance that Stewart undertook on her land in 2018, and that was broadcast in Vancouver’s 221a Gallery. The work, which Stewart presented to her family, features a song performed by her great-grandmother Terese Kaimetko (1887-date of death unknown). From 1915 to 1918, Scottish anthropologist James Teit (1864-1922) used wax cylinders to record the songs of the Syilx/Okanagan Nation, including the voice of Kaimetko singing in the Syilx language. On her land, Stewart broadcast the recording using a system of walkie talkies, and speakers. Wind disturbs the audio, while the video through which the performance is documented is abstracted through pixelation and cropping. Stewart on the one hand offers a gesture of reconciliation, by allowing outsiders to participate in the return of the culture that was taken from her. On the other hand, she demonstrates the distance between her culture, which she has here re-appropriated, and the experience of the people who are descendants of those who stole, destroyed, researched, and documented it.
The mural EYE EYE (2022) is made of earth pigments derived from mortared tiles. In 2018 Stewart burned over 600 tiles made from the soil of her land. She circumvented the prohibition on crossing national borders with organic material, by firing the earth into tiles. EYE EYE includes twenty-five of these tiles, distributed in grid form on Kunstverein’s wall. This grid form refers to the formal vocabulary of Western art history (in particular minimalism) and re-appropriates formal languages, whose origins lie in indigenous art. The murals are reminiscent of color field painting and in their physical creation of action painting, while simultaneously honouring the rock drawings of the Syilx.
For the work A GUEST A HOST A GHOST (Delfin & Brauner Bär, 2019-continuing), Stewart collaborated with Neuenhaus based ceramicist Mark Fergus Mills, who created two clay capsules which now preserve soil from Grafschaft Bentheim.
This exhibition sets in motion a process, that interrogates transmissions between cultures and colonial pasts, offering visitors an aesthetic alternative to ethnological and colonialist cultural representations.
The programme of the exhibition:
Long Thursday on 17 March 2022, 7 pm
Artistic director and curator Muriel Meyer offers a joint exhibition tour.
Wednesday on 23 March 2022, 7 pm
For the second time Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim is hosting Kunsthalle Lingen's philosophical table ‚Wurzeltisch’. The focus is on the concept of "art." Together with Meike Behm (art historian and director of Kunsthalle Lingen) and Tammo Jansen (philosopher), everyone is invited to a table to discuss the origins of the concept of art.
Sunday on 27 March 2022, 5 pm
"I can't connect with art": Johanna Balderhaar gives an introduction to the exhibition POTATO GARDENS BAND (she is an art teacher at Lise Meitner Gymnasium and chairwoman of Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim). This format is intended for all people who have not had much contact with art and wonder what art actually means.
Tuesday on 29 March 2022, 7-9 pm
Drawing Workshop with artist Tuğba Şimşek: How can earth in its different forms be captured in drawings? The participants will take their inspiration from Krista Belle Stewart’s mural and tiles of the work EYE EYE (2022).
Sunday on 10 April 2022, 3 pm
"Through the exhibition with Meike Behm": the art historian and director of the Kunsthalle Lingen, Meike Behm, arrives as an uninformed expert to the exhibition POTATO GARDENS BAND by Krista Belle Stewart. As curator, artistic director Muriel Meyer, is available for dialogue. The audience is welcome to join the conversation afterwards.
Free entry to the exhibition and program. Current pandemic measures apply. Please register for events at info@kvgb.de or by phone (+49 5941 98019).
The exhibition and program are supported by the Stiftung Kunstfonds within the frame of NEUSTART KULTUR the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, Neustart Kultur, the city and joint municipality of Neuenhaus and TonArt-Studio Osnabrück.
Potato Gardens Band
February 27–April 18, 2022
The Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Canadian artist Krista Belle Stewart (*1979 Spaxomin, Syilx Territory, Canada), currently living in Berlin and Vienna.
Stewart works with contemporary documents, as well as the archive of her family, who are members of the indigenous Syilx Nation (Okanagan Nation). Ten years ago she was given a piece of land within the Spaxomin community, through her mother and grandmother, following the matriarchal tradition of the Syilx.
This exhibition considers the land and soil as one of the oldest archives. It deals with the relationships stored in the earth, which provide information about political, social, and intimate conditions, and their ruptures. The exhibition POTATO GARDENS BAND is comprised of a video work of the same name (2018), EYE EYE (2017-ongoing), and selections from A GUEST A HOST A GHOST (2019-ongoing).
The video work POTATO GARDENS BAND (2018) documents a performance that Stewart undertook on her land in 2018, and that was broadcast in Vancouver’s 221a Gallery. The work, which Stewart presented to her family, features a song performed by her great-grandmother Terese Kaimetko (1887-date of death unknown). From 1915 to 1918, Scottish anthropologist James Teit (1864-1922) used wax cylinders to record the songs of the Syilx/Okanagan Nation, including the voice of Kaimetko singing in the Syilx language. On her land, Stewart broadcast the recording using a system of walkie talkies, and speakers. Wind disturbs the audio, while the video through which the performance is documented is abstracted through pixelation and cropping. Stewart on the one hand offers a gesture of reconciliation, by allowing outsiders to participate in the return of the culture that was taken from her. On the other hand, she demonstrates the distance between her culture, which she has here re-appropriated, and the experience of the people who are descendants of those who stole, destroyed, researched, and documented it.
The mural EYE EYE (2022) is made of earth pigments derived from mortared tiles. In 2018 Stewart burned over 600 tiles made from the soil of her land. She circumvented the prohibition on crossing national borders with organic material, by firing the earth into tiles. EYE EYE includes twenty-five of these tiles, distributed in grid form on Kunstverein’s wall. This grid form refers to the formal vocabulary of Western art history (in particular minimalism) and re-appropriates formal languages, whose origins lie in indigenous art. The murals are reminiscent of color field painting and in their physical creation of action painting, while simultaneously honouring the rock drawings of the Syilx.
For the work A GUEST A HOST A GHOST (Delfin & Brauner Bär, 2019-continuing), Stewart collaborated with Neuenhaus based ceramicist Mark Fergus Mills, who created two clay capsules which now preserve soil from Grafschaft Bentheim.
This exhibition sets in motion a process, that interrogates transmissions between cultures and colonial pasts, offering visitors an aesthetic alternative to ethnological and colonialist cultural representations.
The programme of the exhibition:
Long Thursday on 17 March 2022, 7 pm
Artistic director and curator Muriel Meyer offers a joint exhibition tour.
Wednesday on 23 March 2022, 7 pm
For the second time Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim is hosting Kunsthalle Lingen's philosophical table ‚Wurzeltisch’. The focus is on the concept of "art." Together with Meike Behm (art historian and director of Kunsthalle Lingen) and Tammo Jansen (philosopher), everyone is invited to a table to discuss the origins of the concept of art.
Sunday on 27 March 2022, 5 pm
"I can't connect with art": Johanna Balderhaar gives an introduction to the exhibition POTATO GARDENS BAND (she is an art teacher at Lise Meitner Gymnasium and chairwoman of Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim). This format is intended for all people who have not had much contact with art and wonder what art actually means.
Tuesday on 29 March 2022, 7-9 pm
Drawing Workshop with artist Tuğba Şimşek: How can earth in its different forms be captured in drawings? The participants will take their inspiration from Krista Belle Stewart’s mural and tiles of the work EYE EYE (2022).
Sunday on 10 April 2022, 3 pm
"Through the exhibition with Meike Behm": the art historian and director of the Kunsthalle Lingen, Meike Behm, arrives as an uninformed expert to the exhibition POTATO GARDENS BAND by Krista Belle Stewart. As curator, artistic director Muriel Meyer, is available for dialogue. The audience is welcome to join the conversation afterwards.
Free entry to the exhibition and program. Current pandemic measures apply. Please register for events at info@kvgb.de or by phone (+49 5941 98019).
The exhibition and program are supported by the Stiftung Kunstfonds within the frame of NEUSTART KULTUR the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, Neustart Kultur, the city and joint municipality of Neuenhaus and TonArt-Studio Osnabrück.
