WATCH: ARTIST TALK | Faye HeavyShield on Yoko Ono’s WATER EVENT (1971/2020)
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Faye HeavyShield discusses her work aohkii/water, a water sculpture made in response to Yoko Ono’s invitation to produce a container that held water. The work is one of six water sculptures produced for Ono’s ongoing collaborative work, WATER EVENT (1971/ 2020), part of Ono’s exhibition GROWING FREEDOM at Contemporary Calgary.
Faye’s water sculpture comprises a glass bowl collaged on the outside with images of Oldman River, filled with river stones and water. It is a work that honours the rivers; especially the aptly named Old Man. Faye explains, “This is a reflection of our place .. meaning our responsibility. It is a reflection on the fragility and the strength of rivers (and of us)”.
Faye HeavyShield, aohkii/water, WATER EVENT, 2020.
About the Artist
Faye HeavyShield lives and works in Standoff in southern Alberta. HeavyShield is a member of the Kainai and a fluent speaker of the Blackfoot language. The artist acknowledges the influences of land, language, and community on her art. Of note are the old stories told to her in childhood by grandmother Sommitsikana/Kate Three Persons. These stories tell the truth of the rivers, the mountains and the prairies of Blackfoot territory.
