Exhibition

Mi’kwite’tmn (Do You Remember) examines ideas of ancestry, identity and cultural practice. Johnson deconstructs and manipulates the function and image of Mi’kmaw basketry, using traditional techniques to build non-functional forms.

In Mi’kwite’tmn, Johnson creates three distinct spaces, A “Museological Grand Hall” displays empty plexiglass vitrines bearing sand-blasted diagrams of traditional Mi’kmaq baskets. An “Archive Room” is crowded with mutant basket-type objects from the series O’pltek (It is Not Right). In the “Performative Space”, the artist presents an endurance performance of shaving, pounding and splitting an ash-wood log to produce a mountain of splints, as traditionally employed in Mi’kmaw basket-making.

Johnson explores the impact of colonialism on aboriginal material and linguistic culture, and challenges the museological and ethnographic frame imposed upon it.