ABSTRACT THINKING
Metis artist wants people to connect with his work
Thousands of kilometres removed from this place, Jason Baerg created artworks inspired and informed by his home province of Saskatchewan.
Sesesiw/yellow Legs is the result, and it’s on view now at Neutral Ground in Regina, in conjunction with the annual Sakewewak Storytellers Festival.
The multimedia exhibition began with hours-long conversations with friends Paulete and Marcella Poitras, who live in Saskatchewan.
“I think about site specificity. And I think about this place and I think about its story,” said Baerg, a Cree Metis artist who lives in Toronto and works at OCAD University, where he is the interim chair of Indigenous visual cultures.
“Between the three of us (in) telephone conversations, we would check in … about the local Indigenous politics. And then we go from local to across the continent, and the politics of being an Indigenous person today.
“The conversation for these works really was out of care for our local community, our local politics, politics for our First People across this land, as well as for Mother Earth.”
Baerg grew up in Prince Albert, with family ties to Big River and Moon Hills (near Muskeg Lake). He moved to Sarnia, Ont., when he was 15, to live with his dad.
He said he was an artist from early on, but developed his “keen investment in escapism” as a teenager in the mid-1980s.
“Growing up in Prince Albert, television gained and offered access to art, design, music, fashion,” said Baerg. “So, long winters (plus) wild streets equals escapism through media.”
His current exhibition — whose name means “bird” in Cree — is more about exploring a relationship to the land.
“It’s this time to now have us consider for our own mental health, especially the way we’ve been treated as Indigenous people in relationship to the land … Where are we going? What are we doing? How are we acting? How do we proceed forward? Are we expecting too much? Is that maybe not healthy?”
Baerg also meant for this project to relate to the annual storytellers festival.
“I really wanted to create this open space for story to germinate. Maybe even support a backdrop or maybe even insert some props for them to play with as storytellers,” said Baerg.
The colourful paintings, with varied shapes and textures, are displayed on the gallery’s white walls — simply, without information panels that are often included in an art exhibition.
This is purposely done, to allow people to relate to the abstract pieces. “Sometimes the work does trigger you very differently after you’re informed as to the context of the work,” said Baerg.
“I’m much more interested in — and committed to — working with the work to operate to do its job, so that those other things are just another supporting factor in community relationship to it.”
Abstract art can do this on another level, because “it encourages people to put down their cellphone and have an embodied relationship with that object in front of them,” said Baerg.
“So I hope people come in, see the work, see a few things ... ‘There are clouds there. Yeah, there’s pink rain. There is what could be a tree in the forest.’ You know what I mean? You start to see things; you start to open up.”
Sesesiw/yellow Legs is on display at Neutral Ground, 1835 Scarth St., until March 23. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
I think about site specificity. And I think about this place and I think about its story.