Take the time to revel in some of the unique and topical art pieces on display down at PAVED Arts this winter

PAVED Arts is a non-profit, artist-run gallery and art centre that has been helping local artists produce and exhibit their works for over 20 years. With a mission of supporting local, regional, and national talent, they’ve made it clear that PAVED Arts exists solely to support artists and help them achieve their goals. 

This winter, PAVED is showcasing two concurrent pieces: The Sounding by Jess Richter, Rania Alharthi, Kris Alvarez, and Terri Fidelak, and We Return by Wanda Nanibush and Mohammed Abu Laban. 

Both pieces are incredibly touching, revolving around sensitive topics like grief and colonization, and the pain that comes along with them. They utilize unique methods of expression that really resonate with their audiences, leaving them reeling in the aftermath, thinking about their own experiences and the context in which they exist. 

The Sounding is a collaborative project that highlights different mourning rituals. It’s a unique performance piece that works to protest against the strict structure of society and its silencing of grief. It’s a vocal representation of all the pain that grief carries, personally and communally. 

Embodied by the four prairie-based artists, The Sounding is a performance that relies upon the relationships between them. They create different improvised sound performances based on their locations and the sorrows they feel individually and collectively. After working together for several years, this group of artists has created a deep and dynamic relationship built upon mourning and its expression through sound and performance. To express themselves and their pain openly and honestly, both emotionally and spiritually, they adjust and tune the space as needed. 

This exhibition, and the mourning rituals as shown by the artists, will offer audience members the chance to explore pathways of grief and engage in personal and collective mourning in their own ways. The work exists not only as a service to themselves and their fellow collaborators but to serve their communities as well. They want to extend their hand to others and acknowledge grief, and everything that comes with it. In doing so, they present an intentional act of care for the places they go and the people they come across. As their voices come together, both in harmony and discord, they shift the energy of the space they occupy to get ready for whatever they encounter next. 

The Sounding is a work that focuses on one of the most complex and difficult experiences a human being can face in their life. Grief is something that has been struggled with since the dawn of humanity, and through this work, audience members will be able to see it in a new light. All four artists work together to give space to this incredibly immense emotion so that it can be witnessed and held by all present. 

This incredible and unique display of emotion will be on view until December 13th. 

In Wanda Nanibush and Mohammed Abu Laban’s We Return, they focus on the displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their lands, highlighting a connection between the experiences of the Palestinians, and the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.

Nanibush, a political activist and renowned artist, has built a career fighting against injustice, and expressing the woes faced by colonized peoples. As the child of a residential school survivor and a victim of systemic racism, she has taken a definitive stand against colonialism and its modern impacts and iterations. 

As someone who has travelled to Palestine, and has friends and colleagues from the region, Nanibush has expressed a connection to the land and its people, and she draws distinct parallels between her people’s experiences and theirs. 

We Return is raw and genuine. The main image that is displayed in the piece was taken by Nanibush during a visit she took to the village of Luffa, which is accompanied by Prose written by Abu Laban, who lives in the West Bank. 

In the exhibit, they use both Anishinaabe and Palestinian aesthetics and designs to express the common threads between the two groups. They display a tapestry of text and images that display both group’s values, and how their cultures value family, children, land, and unconditional love. They interweave different traditional patterns from both backgrounds to highlight the aesthetic similarities between them as well. 

The basis of the installation is connection and joint efforts to end the oppression of all peoples. It’s about resilience, resistance, and holding the importance of children and land close to your heart, despite the hardships you face. It’s about returning to your home, rejecting expulsion and cruelty, and giving back love to those who love you. 

We Return proposes a message to all audience members: Cherish your people, cherish your children, and cherish your land, regardless of its past or future. 

This billboard project will be on display until February 2025. 

If you have time to go downtown and check out some artworks that make you reflect on your connections to the world around you, make sure to check out these two exhibits at PAVED before they’re gone. Both exhibits are being shown at the PAVED Arts Production Centre, at 424 20th St. W. Saskatoon. Entry is free and open to the public.