Art From Here Virtual Studio Visit | Laura Grier
Art From Here
Nàts'ǝtǝ Jìe, 2020
“I have been away from ‘home’ for some time now. Studying, making, printing, thinking, writing, learning. Right now, as I finish up this intense series of work for my master thesis in Tkaronto at the Ontario College of Art and Design, I feel like my mind is turning into a fuzzy ball of mush. I used it all up and with the world as it is now I feel like my mind has finally turned into a safe little empty light..thing. These past dark months was an exploration of everything I have been thinking and experiencing and putting them into action. Into print. My master thesis The Story of Indigenous Spirit PrintMaking and the Living Rock Spirit: Yǝ́dı́ı Kwǝ, was about how “as I come to terms with my own reality of fragmentation, loss, loss of land, loss of language, loss of body, and loss of Dene culture, I try to find new paths of an inherent Dene Spirituality that can exist within my creative practice of PrintMaking”. The final written work ended up being something different since I struggled to weave through the strange strict colonial academia. It was a push back. My thesis is a narrative story from the perspective of the stone that I work with in Stone Lithography, and it was our voices. Talking in fragments and poetry. The essence of these prints are of my lived experiences of love, depression, sexuality, lust/longing, and inherent Dene spirituality. Living in this now world and being a young Dene woman in this world is still hard. Yet, the years of racism and the years of heartbreak somehow get outlasted by split moments of inherent spirituality that lead to bits of clarity.Yǝ́dı́ı [meaning living spirit being] and Kwǝ [meaning rock] are alive words and knowledges from Sahtu Dene language and stories. The marks I make on Kwǝ is an ongoing conversation. I know some things aren’t set in stone, but as I live on I cannot ignore these memories of spirits and of the living things I see in this medium. The work and poetry has helped me in so many ways. The drive to push this work forward meant that I couldn’t just stay frozen in mind, horizontal, and just stare at my ceiling. I don’t know how I can start to give back, but for now, these prints are my way of giving back to these words and spirits.”
Laura Grier is a Délı̨nę First Nations artist and printmaker, born in Somba ké (Yellowknife), and based out of Alberta. Through the use of traditional print mediums, they instrumentalize the power of the handmade to reflect political sociology, Land, and Indigeneity. Responding to lived experiences of being an urban displaced Dene woman through Print, Laura’s work is inspired by the dynamism of Indigenous art practices and uses printmaking as a tool for resistance, refusal, and inherent Bets’ı̨nę́ (spirit). They hold a BFA from NSCADU (K'jipuktuk) and most recently exhibited at Harcourt House, DC3 Art Projects, SNAP Gallery, and ArtsPlace in Alberta. Laura received grants and awards for their work, including an Indigenous project grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and was the 2018 RISE Emerging Artist recipient. They are currently finishing their MFA at OCADU (Tkaronto).
