Marianne Nicolson

April 21 - May 3, 2009, 7pm

view all dates & times:

• Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Friday, April 24, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Monday, April 27, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Friday, May 1, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule
• Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 7pm
  Add to My Schedule

Government Conference Centre

2 Rideau Street, Ottawa

Marianne Nicolson, a member of the Dzawada’enuxw Tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation, first came to prominence in 1998 when she scaled a vertical rock face in Kingcome Inlet to paint a 28 x 38-foot pictograph – the first in the inlet for over sixty years – to mark the continued vitality of her ancestral village of Gwa’yi.

In a similarly monumental gesture, Nicolson’s site-specific project imaginatively transforms the West façade of the Government Conference Centre into a Northwest Coast ceremonial house. Using high-powered lighting, Nicolson will project the vision of a house front and totem poles on the Government Conference Centre façade from dusk to 11:00 pm every night.

By altering the façade in this way, the building itself becomes a site of cultural exchange emphasizing its importance as a transformative space while wryly commenting on its historic role as the site for the failed First Ministers Conferences on Aboriginal Self Government held in the 1980’s. Nicolson sees this work as a positive and symbolic reassertion of a culture that was once outlawed by the Canadian government. It is a gesture that speaks to the vibrancy of Aboriginal cultures and their relationship to the landscape as well as the struggle for their sustainability.

First commissioned and presented by the Vancouver Art Gallery, 2008.

Presented in collaboration with the National Capital Commission

Other events you might like:

Pedal to the Meddle
April 21

Canadian Museum of Civilization – B.C. Collection
April 21