I Am YEG Arts: Becca Taylor

Becca Taylor is an artist and curator of Cree, Irish and Scottish descent. Her practice is dedicated to community building and is informed by her relationships in Treaty 1 and Treaty 6. Becca’s new site-specific artwork at the entrance plaza of TELUS World of Science – Edmonton (TWOSE) explores vessels as a means of communication and connection to her ancestors, and between the land and sky. In this week’s I Am YEG Arts story Becca tells us how her new public artwork is inspired by pottery shards found along the Red River in Manitoba, the accomplishments she is most proud of from her time at Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre, and what’s next for her as she leaves Ociciwan. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself. 

My father’s side of the family comes from Fisher River Cree Nation, Manitoba but he grew up in Selkirk, Manitoba. On my mother’s side we’re primarily Irish. That family’s been here for generations as settlers in the Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 area, and my mom was born and raised here in amiskwacîwâskahikan / Edmonton and I was as well. I love living in the city, but I also love being able to go back to Manitoba and split a lot of my time in that region. Much of my work is influenced by my relationships in Manitoba and here. 

Tell us about your new public artwork at TWOSE. What initially drew you to apply for this project? 

I’ve always been interested in public art and exploring that realm. At the time I applied for this, I was already working with a team on a public artwork [Dream] and it was something that I really wanted to explore more. I was drawn to this location because I grew up in the neighbourhood from the age of 13 onwards, just about three blocks north of [Coronation] Park. We spent a lot of time at the park and I still take my nieces and nephews there. My parents still live just a few blocks from there. 

We spent a lot of time hanging around the planetarium, even though it wasn’t open, just very curious about what it would be like inside. I think that led to my curiosity of the relationship between land and sky. Also, growing up in an Indigenous family and attending ceremonies, I’ve always been really interested in that relationship through those teachings. This site felt like a moment where all those things aligned for me. 

The work itself is inspired by our relationship to our ancestors, for myself, my relationship to our ancestors as a mixed Cree woman but also my relationship to my family and how knowledge transfers. There’s a lot of knowledge I’ll never receive from my family because they passed on without being able to transfer that knowledge. My cousin often says, ​“The ancestors will guide you, you’ve just got to be paying attention.” I’ve been thinking a lot about the communication line between myself and my ancestors and those teachings and how they’re transferred. 

The pieces — these pottery shards — are from the region my family comes from. Particularly near Lockport, you can find pottery shards from Indigenous people along the banks of the Red River. My cousin does a lot of revitalization around Indigenous pottery techniques and methods, and I’ve been working with her quite closely. I have a grant through the EAC to receive direct mentorship to do this harvesting and learn how they would use rocks like fire crackle to make these vessels that they could cook and make offerings in. 

I became interested in this idea of vessels, thinking of how growing up how many ceremonies I’ve been a part of continue to have many vessels in them. This element of vessels became for me this large stream of communication between myself, the ancestors, the elements that were around inside and outside of ceremony, and the teachings that are within it. They became like literal vessels of communication and exploration. 

It became about my relationship to my ancestors, family, to the land and these connections that I see between the earth, land, sky and all these things around us. And how we’re communicating, making offerings in reciprocal relationships with one another. 

Tell us about the significance of the sculptures’ smooth faces and their sparkle and lustre. 

The exterior of the artwork is meant to be a little bit more textured to imitate some of the pottery shards that we have found but more blown up with some of the textures you might be able to find. The interior was the most important part for me. Originally, I wanted the interior of these shards to be reflective. I wanted people to be able to stand in front of them and be able to see themselves in the sky and in the land. But after testing, we found we couldn’t get that reflective surface. I learned so much throughout this public art process and part of me had to let go of that reflective quality. After some consideration, I started thinking a lot about something sparkly that had a sort of reflective quality to it; something that glistened and made it more special. That also took a lot of testing to find something that would work, and we ended up landing on a glittery finish. You won’t be able to see a full reflection but I’m hoping you’ll at least be able to see shadows. Part of this process is a lot of letting go of expectations and being able to move through them and adapt ideas. 

Tell us about the community engagement work you did for this project. 

It came in multiple phases. I talked with some of the community partners who were more attached to this project. I met with one of the Knowledge Keepers at the TELUS World of Science and we talked a little about some of the things I was thinking through. But most of the engagement came from my ongoing work with different communities through this process. By extension, a lot of that work came from being in ceremony and relationship in Treaty 1, 3, 5, and 6. I spend a lot of time there in ceremony and working with different Water Keepers and Knowledge Keepers. A lot of those conversations ended up influencing this. As well as the ongoing work I’m doing with my cousin and my own relationship of walking through the land discovering shards. My family’s not from this [Treaty 6] region, my father is the first one from our family to be out here, so I think there’s always that element of that I’m a guest on this territory. I’m bringing in my relationships here while doing also my best to honour that I am a guest and to honour these ongoing conversations I’m having with different Indigenous communities here as well. 

Community engagement is ongoing and extends past specific projects or at least in the relationship-centered ways I like to work. I think it’ll go on past this project being installed, there’ll be responses and conversations. Maybe there will be successes and failures that need to be talked about, which I’m always open to engaging in because it’s such a great learning opportunity. 

Tell us about your experience creating this artwork on your own versus working with a group of artists to create Dream at Stadium Station. 

We started Dream first, and that was well on its way through this process. I love working collaboratively. I think my favourite thing about arts practices is being in conversation. It’s what I value the most, I really love the generosity brought into collaborative processes. It shifted a lot about what I was thinking through about public art and access. We had many big questions, ideas and thoughts that we couldn’t put into one artwork, and I don’t think we would have ever been able to do that. But for me, the success of the project is wrapped up in those conversations. I am proud of the work that has come out of it. 

It had its own unique sets of challenges but it’s so nice being in conversation with such beautiful minds that are just so generous and thinking through similar but also different things and sharing those thoughts. Working with people who have a lot more experience with public art like Michelle [Campos Castillo] and Tiffany [Shaw] and learning about their processes, successes and struggles was helpful to keep in mind as I moved through my own independent project. Working with a team gave me a lot more confidence to approach this project independently. If I did this again, I hope it would be in a collaborative format again. I have relationships with each of those artists that are continuing in different formats, which is very exciting. 

Do you plan to continue taking on public art projects or take a new direction in your practice? 

I’ve always been really interested in space and how bodies move through space within my practice. Especially in my curatorial practice, I’ve always been interested in how space can be broken up and how the viewer is encouraged to move through space. I’ve always been fascinated with remnants of things that are left behind in space and especially public space and the marks that are left in these like urban and rural landscapes that are telling of histories and stories of what happened before. 

I helped influence Ociciwan’s space by working with architects and moving the conversation outside of this idea of four white walls and more into the possibilities of the way artwork can exist in these conversations and outside of the white cube. I think that started sparking my interest in public art, but also urban planning and how we design exterior spaces like public parks, and what teachings are embedded within these landscape designs or public art designs — because everybody’s going to interpret these things in their own way. How are we telling that story through the way bodies move through these spaces, that also honours the bodies in these spaces? This new piece is about that relationship to the land, that reflection of being able to see this larger picture in the landscape, not just what’s in front of you but those more reciprocal relationships around. My interest has naturally been shifting this way and I do see myself whether it be curatorial or as an artist, working in more exterior spaces versus the white cube. 

I’ve had the opportunity to consult on a few urban planning sessions, which has been extremely rewarding and eye opening about how we can be shifting these conversations outside of these cubes and how we could bring more visual representation to marginalized groups in urban settings. A lot of my research interests are naturally coming together within public art in some way. I’m excited to continue down this pathway. 

You’ve recently wound up your time as Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre’s Executive Director. Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of during your time there? 

Even before I stepped in as director six years ago, I was one of the core collective members so I had been around for almost 10 years and I got to see a lot of the shifts that happened. My largest take away right now is it was really exciting to shift this collective into an organization and get this building and do regular programming to support Indigenous contemporary art within the city. And to be in conversations nationally with different arts organizations and arts service organizations about these topics that are important to us as a collective and as an organization. It was beautiful to see that transition and be part of those conversations. I am proud of the space we built. But I’m also so excited for its future under new direction and the possibilities that are to come with it. 

I’m proud of all of our exterior work. The murals that we got to work on with Kenneth Lavallee and Michelle Sound are always going to hold a special place in my heart. And kamâmak nihtâwikihcikan, the garden based on the late Mike McDonald’s work and working with Finding Flowers Project and Lisa Myers (one of its members) to really bring those things to life. The garden space has always been one of my favourite things to work on at Ociciwan. 

It was exciting to build this gallery and bring work in, but work doesn’t only need to exist within those spaces. What I loved was us being able to take this idea and vision and be able to move it externally as well. We have this home that hosts these exhibitions and its external cladding is really reflective of the community around us and references water within the murals that each of the artists was so generous in offering to our building. Many of the ideas we’re thinking about within this space extend out into the street too. The Boyle Street Community is special to me, and the wonderful relationships we built challenged my ideas around access to art and this idea of the general public, which I think can be very exclusionary of so many different bodies. Working there really challenged a lot of my ideas and shifted a lot of my thoughts about access and this hierarchy that happens within the arts. How do we embed more of our Indigenous worldviews and methodologies of practice within these spaces to welcome folks into these conversations? I’m really proud of those moments, but also really thankful for those kinds of challenging conversations that I’ll take with me as I move forward in my practice. 

What’s next for you? Tell us about what you’re currently working on or planning to explore next. 

I’m going to be an assistant professor at MacEwen University in the Arts and Cultural Management department. I have been privileged to have received so much mentorship and education, and for all my travels throughout Canada and working on various projects. I’m excited to share what I’ve learned with up-and-coming emerging artists, curators, thinkers, and leaders in our communities. I’m also excited to lean more into my independent research and curatorial projects again and explore my own arts practice again with a little bit more energy. 

I’m working more with KC Adams, my cousin, to look at these pottery shards and explore them in a really contemporary way. I’m learning the process of building one completely from scratch from collecting and preparing the clay to building the vessel. It’s very much in the experimental phase right now, with a lot of learning from KC, and a lot of research and investigations. I’m excited to see what will come from it in the future; it’s something I’m fascinated with right now. 

About Becca Taylor

Becca Taylor is Cree/​Irish/​Scottish artist and curator. She is a registered member of Fisher River Cree Nation, MB and was born and raised in amiskwacîwâskahikan/​Edmonton, AB. Her practice involves investigations of kinship and the constellations of relationships that make up our communities, with a particular interest in food sovereignty, harvesting, and witnessing through, deep listening, conversation, and making. 

Notably, Becca co-curated the 4^th iteration of La Biennale d’art contemporain autochtone (BACA) with Niki Little, entitled níchiwamiskwém | nimidet | my sister | ma sœur (2018), co-led land-based residency, Common Opulence (2018), in Northern Alberta and curated Mothering Spaces (2019) at the Mitchell Art Gallery. Becca Taylor was the Director of Ociciwan Contemporary at Centre in amiskwacîwâskahikan, AB. A collective run art centre focused on supporting Indigenous Contemporary Art.