Wasauksing artist Maria Hupfield presents public talk March 2, 2016
Maria Hupfield’s public talk, If You Want to Be Included You Have to Participate, is about rising above through the act of doing and through embodied knowledge. Topics include the politics of recognition, cultural revitalization, native feminism, social activism, the act of refusal, and positioning reconciliation in a post Idle No More society.
Brooklyn-based artist Maria Hupfield is a member of the Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario. Recently, she received national recognition in the United States from the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation for her hand-sewn industrial felt sculptures. She also received a long-term grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to make work in New York. Her nine-foot birchbark canoe made of industrial felt was assembled and performed in Venice, Italy, for the premiere of Jiimaan, which coincided with the Venice Biennale.
Hupfield’s upcoming projects include #callresponse, a multifaceted performance-art-based project that is part of the Canada Council for the Arts {Re}Conciliation Initiative. #callresponse presents the work of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women as artists central to the strength and healing of their communities. Other forthcoming projects include Free Play at Trestle Gallery in New York (with Jason Lujan) and much wider than a line,the title of this year’s SITElines biennale in Santa Fe.
Hupfield is an advocate of native community arts and activism; the founder of 7th Generation Image Makers, a native youth arts and mural outreach program in downtown Toronto, through Native Child and Family Services of Toronto; and co-owner of Native Art Department International. She was Assistant Professor in Visual Art and Material Practice at Emily Carr University of Art and Design from 2007 to 2011.
