Quelque show
Nico Williams
- From January 10th to February 23rd 2025
Opening: January 10th at 17h
Nico Williams, Cousins: San Andreas, 2024, Beads, machine woven fabric, Courtsey of Nico Williams Studio.
Pawnbrokers' stores are increasingly places to find ornaments such as regalias and medallions. Rich in spiritual, identity and economic terms – the items traded in return were once of great value – they now find themselves on sale for insignificant sums. How can these cultures be pawned in this way? How can the shift from a trading economy to a market economy so depreciate these precious objects? And what impact will this have on indigenous identities?
In return, craft stores can provide a showcase for indigenous artists and craftsmen, who bring in their creations for sale. When we visit a community, it's often an essential stop to pick up a souvenir of our stay and encounters.
In both the pawnshop and the craft shop, there's always a little something, un petit quelque chose... With his exhibition – or show – Nico Williams creates a space in the middle of the two types of business, a bridge between them. In the display case, vintage VHS and video game covers – objects of choice for pawning – are covered in beadwork. Each one refers to a stereotypical and erroneous representation of natives. The lamps, acquired by the artist from Lilian's Craft on Manitoulin Island, are adorned with beaded price tags. The artist appropriates each object with his beads. And it's with them that he proclaims his reappropriation: of his identity, of the Land.
Nico Williams is a member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation (Anishinaabe). He has a multidisciplinary, often collaborative practice that is centered around sculptural beadwork. Winner of the Sobey Art Price (2024), he was also awarded the prestigious Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art (2021). He has recently exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada (2024), the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2021), Young Elder, James Fuentes (2023), PHI Foundation (2023), and the recent group exhibition, Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969, at the Hessel Museum of Art (2023).
Quelque show, by Nico Williams is presented as part of the Mois Multi Festival international d’arts multidisciplinaires et électroniques.
