It's Time to Wear Our Blankets

Artists: Mike MacDonald Art Wilson 'Wii Muk'wilixw

Date: September 14 to October 7, 1995 

Artist's Lecture: September 15 

Open Space presented contemporary video and paintings from Gitxsan Territory by Vancouver-based video artist Mike Macdonald and Gitxsan hereditary chief Art Wilson 'Wii Muk'wilixw'.

Both artists in It's Time to Wear Our Blankets were formally welcomed onto Songhees/ Lekwammen territory by representatives of the Songhees Nation. 

"All of my art work has ben inspired by my involvement withe the Gitxsan fight for justice," said 'Wii Muk'wilixw'. "Much of it is political in nature, which reflects events in aboriginal politics." His paintings and text were complemented by MAcDonald's teo video installations: Seven Sisters which consisted of seven televisions that played seven videotapes which sculpturally represented the eponymous mountain range on Gitxsan Terrirtory. A screen displayed images of a helicopter trip up the Seena River from Terrace with sounds of Gitxsan elder Mary Johnson's traditional songs. Images of traditional medicinal and food plants in Seven Sisters were explored further in MacDonald's second work in the exhibition, the 1993, Secret Flowers 16-screen video installation. 

Gitxsan Nation cheif negotiator Don Ryan Mas Gal extended the impact of the exhibition by giving a public talk on the current status of Gitxsan Treaty Office negotiations with the federal an provincial governments on Friday September 15.