HOCK E AYE VI Edgar Heap of Birds
Public art installation/billboards and public signage texts
The social inequalities that aboriginal populations continue to endure across North America
remains an embarrassment for both Canada and the USA on the international stage. Native
artists in both countries address in their work their peoples' continued struggles to lift
themselves out of poverty and from the margins of society into the modern world, on their own terms. One of these artists is Edgar Heap of Birds of the Cheyenne-Arapaho nation, whose artistic practice is distinguished by close analysis of language and appropriation of commercial public spaces. His site specific text works installed along Queen Street West reaffirm aboriginal aspirations and values.
"History and ownership to tell one's story is key for all of us to truly understand this world.
In the past, Indigenous peoples world wide have had limited privileges to make declarations
concerning their reality. In Nuit Blanche I seek to contribute to amending this absence of
Indigenous voices by researching Toronto's ancient and modern beginnings. From these
investigations a voice will be heard in billboard and public signage texts. These expressions will generate a new view of Toronto from a different cultural and historical vantage point and declare the strong will of resistance of the First Nations Brothers and Sisters."
HOCK E AYE VI Edgar Heap of Birds lives and works in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.
Photo credit: Edgar Heap of Birds
Map location 2
Queen Street West (at Dovercourt Road and at Gladstone Avenue)
