Morley students plug in to high-tech art with experimental audio project

Students at Morley Community School on the Morley Reserve are taking a creative leap into the world of sound- and video-based art. In partnership with the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre, the students are working with renowned Metis/Cree interdisciplinary artist Cheryl l’Hirondelle to create a piece called Echoes and Transmissions: Voices of the Land. It’s the first long-term artist project ever undertaken in the Morley community.

Developed by l’Hirondelle in conjunction with Walter Phillips Gallery curatorial resident Candice Hopkins, Toronto-based art educator Janna Graham, and the staff at Siktoge Ja CKMR 88.1 FM radio in Morley, the project will result in recorded sound portraits of the Nakoda First Nation community.

Art and media students from grades nine to 12 have been working with l’Hirondelle to build the series of experimental audio works and learn about art and technology, including digital video and still cameras, minidisk and analog cassette recorders and portable radio transmitters.

“This project introduces the students to different ideas about what art can be,” l’Hirondelle says. “They’re learning that art is not about making this polished, finished work and then making a million dollars off it.” She adds that though the students understood the technology quickly, the process forced them to stop and listen to the people they were interviewing, which has given them new insight into their own community.

The idea was sparked, in part, by Margaret and Terry Rider, founders of Siktoge Ja. In 2001 they attended an Aboriginal-focused workshop in audio streaming through the Aboriginal Arts Program at The Banff Centre.

Echoes and Transmissions: Voices of the Land will be broadcast on Siktoge Ja, and through a listening station at the Walter Phillips Gallery exhibition A Question of Place, which opens April 3 and runs through May 23. The exhibition will feature another piece by l’Hirondelle, as well as works by five other internationally recognized Aboriginal artists — Zacharias Kunuk, Truman Lowe, Jimmie Durham, Faye HeavyShield and Brian Jungen.

For more information about A Question of Place, visit the Walter Phillips Gallery website.

This project was made possible with the generous support of The Canada Council for the Arts.

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