Little black dress, meet traditional medicine
FNUniv student’s new art exhibition blends power icons
In a corner of the Fifth Parallel art gallery, there’s a little black dress covered with subtle white flowers, a chalk template for Sarah Timewell’s future beadwork.
A mannequin wears the threedimensional version of 12 images that hang on the gallery walls, each of which features a different medicinal plant.
There is high bush cranberry, yarrow, common dandelion and stinging nettle, all drawn in coloured pencils on black paper.
Timewell uses the little black dress, a pop-culture symbol of empowerment, as a backdrop to showcase a cultural symbol of empowerment.
“The florals have been important to Metis culture for quite some time,” said Timewell, whose second focus is drawing. “I wanted to find a way to wrap everything together.”
Timewell’s love of plants comes from her coastal upbringing in Vancouver. On a work-in-progress beaded hood, she is embroidering bog plants like salal, skunk cabbage and Labrador tea.
Her beadwork style is less abstract than the usual Indigenous beadwork, which Timewell attributes to two reasons.
One: She likes botanical illustrations, which combine art and science.
“I appreciate being able to represent the florals in an accurate manner, sort of like a field book,” she said.
Two: Raised by adoptive parents, Timewell only learned of her Metis heritage in 2012.
“I didn’t grow up in the culture, so I’m kind of coming at it in a different approach,” said Timewell.
Learning of her biological roots in Saskatchewan, Timewell gained a licence for a more in-depth exploration of an artistic area she admired.
“It was the kind of situation where I’ve always had a really strong appreciation for Indigenous arts, but I didn’t know that part of my heritage; I didn’t feel it was culturally appropriate for me to pursue it,” she said.
“That really opened the door for me to say, ‘I’ve always loved this and I’m going to go do this.’”
For Little Medicine Dress, Timewell’s graduating art exhibition after a four-year bachelor of fine arts program, she explored natural areas in and around Regina — Wascana Centre, White Butte Trails, Wascana Trails and Buffalo Pound Provincial Park — to learn about native plants.
She formulated the project’s premise with help from professors Lionel Peyachew and David Garneau.
Timewell’s little black dress is from Winners, purposely chosen for its accessibility — it’s not an unaffordable piece of clothing.
On it, she has drawn plants that correspond with specific body parts.
There are prairie roses on the chest, for example, because Vitamin C-rich rosehip tea is said to stave off chest colds.
There is wild mint on the dress’s mid-section, as mint can help with digestion.
“I don’t want someone to go home and pick a flower and then eat it and become unwell from that, because I’m not a doctor,” said Timewell.
“But I’m just trying to show relationships and how it relates to myself as well.”
Eventually, she will bead the flowers onto the dress.
Timewell loves beadwork for its beauty, but also its texture.
“It’s got this really great tactile nature and it’s got a weight to it. It’s kind of a crossover in my opinion between a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional,” said Timewell.
Little Medicine Dress is showing at Fifth Parallel, inside the University of Regina Riddell Centre, through Jan. 26.
A closing reception is scheduled for Jan. 25, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., where Timewell will serve tea representative of plants in the exhibit.