BUSH Gallery, a variable-geometry collective of Indigenous artists and thinkers founded in 2013, adopts different forms and approaches depending on the space in which it takes place. Its projects materialize on the land, in the gallery, and in print through site-specific works, zines, residencies in nature, and community gatherings. Rooted in a practice of decolonization, the collective crystallizes through collaborative engagement and radical inclusivity: the projects take shape through the participation of humans and non-humans from near and far \u2014 artists, children, birds, bears, rivers, shooting stars, campfires. Indigenous traditions, knowledge, and land use are brought to the fore in works that incorporate diverse materials and techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Diffracting. Of Light and of Land <\/em>project,<\/em>BUSH Gallery brought together artists Tania Willard, Gabrielle L\u2019Hirondelle Hill, and Peter Morin on Secw\u00e9pemc nation territory during a summer residency marked by record heat waves. The works produced there attest not only to the high temperatures and their effects \u2014 devastating forest fires \u2014 but also to the comfort that the land provides and to its active role in the art creation. Using the cyanotype process, the artists realized several works by sun-printing various organic forms on tipi canvas. Some prints suggest the silhouette of a branch or leaf, while others define the contours of a word, as though the land were expressing itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyanotype has appeared in several other projects by BUSH Gallery, with solar prints problematizing the disciplines of photography and archiving, and more specifically their extractivist and colonial logic. The resulting images become a sensitive and vibrant trace of the moments shared on the land, a visual and evanescent memory of the relationships forged there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the French by Louise Ashcroft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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