Tania Willard
(Secwépemc)
Kamloops BC, Secwepemcúl̓ecw
Currently based on Neskonlith Indian Reserve, Secwépemc Territory
Surrounded/Surrounding
2018
Wood burning fire ring, laser etched leather, wood, vinyl transfer
Collection of the Artist
PART ONE
A score and fire ring is displayed.
PART TWO
Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa performs the score.
PART THREE
New Orchestra Workshop Society Ensemble performs the score.
PART FOUR
A procession takes place between the Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, and the Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre. During the procession Jeneen Frei Njootli performs the score. The fire ring is gifted to the Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre. A fire is lit.
PART FIVE
A new fire ring is created. Students perform the score.
PART SIX
Alysha Brilla performs the score outside of the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery.
PART SEVEN
Melody Courage performs the score and is filmed at UBC School of Music for the exhibition at the Morris and Helen Belkin Galley (UBC).
PART EIGHT
Fire Ring is moved to BUSH Gallery on Neskonlith Indian Reserve. A fire is lit.
Tania Willard (Secwépemc Nation) works within the shifting ideas of contemporary and traditional as it relates to cultural arts and production. Often working with bodies of knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between Aboriginal and other cultures. Willard has worked as a curator in residence with grunt gallery and Kamloops Art Gallery. Willard’s curatorial work includes Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, a national touring exhibition first presented at Vancouver Art Gallery in 2011, Unceded Territories: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun at the Museum of Anthropology co-curated by Karen Duffek in 2016 and CUSTOM MADE at Kamloops Art Gallery. She has also been selected as one of five national curators for a national scope exhibition in collaboration with Partners in Art and National Parks. Willard’s personal curatorial projects include BUSH gallery, a conceptual space for land based art and action led by Indigenous artists. Willard’s current research constructs a land rights aesthetic through intuitive archival acts and land-based practices, focusing on Secwépemc aesthetics/language/land and interrelated Indigenous art practices.
MELODY COURAGE PERFORMING TANIA WILLARD’S SURROUNDED/SURROUNDING, RECORDED ON NOVEMBER 20, 2020.
5 MINUTES, 23 SECONDS
Presented by the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, 2020
On Monday, November 30 at 4:30 pm, Tania Willard hosted an Instagram Live event (@willardart) on the Secwépemc Territory, where she lit a fire and asked people to join her remotely as witnesses. The Belkin joined Willard on Instagram Live (@belkinartgallery) and shared their documentation of Melody Courage’s performance.
Alysha Brilla joined by Sammy Duke, Yasin Dewji, and Gerima Harvey Performing Surrounded/Surrounding by Tania Willard
10 minutes, 37 seconds
Presented by the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, 2020
Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa Performing Surrounded/Surrounding by Tania Willard
9 minutes, 15 seconds
Presented by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 2019
NOW Society Ensemble Performing Surrounded/Surrounding by Tania Willard
16 minutes, 2 seconds
Presented by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 2019
Max Lazarus, Eric Schwartz, Brian Sellers, Oliver VandenBerg, and Ross Feller Performing Surrounded/Surrounding by Tania Willard
20 minutes
Presented by the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, 2019
Resources for Further Research
Additional information and writings about Tania Willard, compiled by the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery team.
Read about Surrounded/Surrounding, Tania Willard’s piece in the exhibition
Read THE BUSH MANIFESTO, a writing about BUSH gallery, located on Tania Willard’s land
Read about Beat Nation, a website project begun in 2008 by Tania Willard and Skeena Reece
Suggested Further Reading
Martineau, Jarrett. “An interview with Tania Willard on Beat Nation, Indigenous curation and changing the world through art.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3, no. 1 (2014): 218-224.
Willard, Tania. “Casting Light to Fill Shadow: A Decolonial Aesthesis in Secwepemcúl’ecw.” Master’s thesis, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 2018.
Tania Willard, Surrounded/Surrounding, 2018, wood burning fire ring, laser etched leather, wood, vinyl transfer. Collection of the artist. Installed at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography.
